Following the global outpoor on International Women’s day last March 8 (2019), hoteliers around the world should take some time to look into a very important market segment, the solo female traveler. Tapping into and capitalizing on new and growing niches such as solo and experience-focused travel has become a major asset for hotel manager, but also to open up new revenue streams. “Female-friendly” is one such niche, which is now experiencing considerable growth in the hospitality industry.

Adapt and evolve: forget about practice

In his book Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell popularized what became known as the 10,000-hour rule, by documenting the lives of successful people such as Bill Gates, Mozart and the Beatles. "Ten thousand hours is the magic number of greatness", he wrote, inspired by the work of Daniel Levitin, the neurologist who scientifically proved that "10,000 hours of practice are required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world-class expert in anything".

The theory is fascinating, though, not always reliable, especially in our field of hotel revenue management and distribution, where adjectives such as disruptive are frequently (over)used and success is measured more on innovation rather than consolidation. A defining factor here is the ability to adapt and evolve!

Some of you might have noticed that the topics of our blog posts have been gradually changing over the last few years. From a pure revenue management focus we have strayed into areas of operations and finance. And even a few on concept and design. You might think we have fallen of course. But all to the contrary, we are exactly on the path we set-out when we launched Xotels back in 2006 ...

Over the last few years there has been much discussion in the the world of hotel revenue management on managing GOPPAR and NREVPAR over only REVPAR. Understanding the cost of distribution is vital to the financial success of every hotel. For this we would need our systems to support us in registering and calculating such costs. Unfortunately many hotel Property Management Systems (PMS) have not yet evolved sufficiently in this area.

Build an outstanding hostel experience

Do you dream of opening a successful hostel? Or perhaps you’re closer to making it a reality, having already scoped out locations and gathered the required investment. Wherever you are on your journey to opening your very own successful hostel, I can relate from my own first-hand experience with my hostel management company.

I’ve worked through all types of pain points and concerns with countless hostel owners to create a strong foundation built for success, maximize profits and alleviate stress triggers.

If when assessing your hostel idea you ask, “What am I missing?”or “How can I improve my opportunities for success and minimize potential problems?”, you are in good company. The best and most profitable hostels make sure to ask and address these types of questions from the beginning. In fact, doing so is a sign that you are priming yourself for a profitable hostel business.

As CEO of a hotel management company that has generated over €190 million in the last year, I can tell you how important it is to control every detail of your business’s finances, both on the revenue and cost side.

Hotel Management isn’t merely about strategy. There are many layers, each of which require your undivided attention. Human resources, operations, budgeting, and income and cost control are but a few areas which necessitate focus, as well as the requisite knowledge and skill. But how can you efficiently assess the business areas that generate maximized profits?

To accomplish this step and provide the best platform from which your hotel will succeed, the key is to prepare and execute a carefully structured profit and loss statement. In this article as we review a Hotel P&L sample based o the Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry (USAL), a rich resource that provides numerous key insights for hotel managers.