The Monday morning spreadsheet problem
Most small hotel groups run their weekly review the same way: each general manager exports a report from their PMS, someone pastes the files into a master spreadsheet, and by Tuesday afternoon there is a number everyone half trusts. The problem is not the effort. It is that every property counts things slightly differently, so the group total is an average of definitions, not of performance.
A consolidated report only works when every property sits on the same data model: same room statuses, same definition of a sold night, same treatment of complimentary stays and out-of-order rooms.
The five numbers a group actually needs
| KPI | Formula | What it tells the owner |
|---|---|---|
| Occupancy | rooms sold / rooms available | Is demand there at all? |
| ADR | room revenue / rooms sold | Are we selling at the right price? |
| RevPAR | room revenue / rooms available | The two above in one number |
| Pickup | rooms on the books now minus rooms on the books a week ago | Is the future filling up? |
| Open balances | unpaid folios and city ledger | Is the revenue becoming cash? |
Everything else is detail for the property. The group view should fit on one screen.
Group totals are weighted, never averaged
The most common error in group reporting is averaging percentages. If a 20-room property runs at 90% and a 200-room property runs at 50%, the group is not at 70%. It sold 18 + 100 = 118 of 220 rooms: 53.6%. The same applies to ADR and RevPAR: sum revenue and sum rooms first, divide last.
Rooms available is a decision, not a fact
Decide once, for the whole group, whether out-of-order rooms count as available. Revenue managers usually exclude them from availability; owners often want them included because an unsellable room is still a cost. Either is defensible. Mixing both across properties is not.
Compare properties to themselves first
A city hotel and a seasonal resort will never have the same occupancy curve. Rank properties on change against their own last year and against their budget, not against each other. The group view is for spotting the property that moved, not for crowning a winner.
What to automate
- ●Daily snapshot after the night audit, so every property closes the same business day before numbers are compared. See the night audit checklist.
- ●One login across properties, so area managers switch hotel without switching tool.
- ●Exports in one format, so finance receives one file, not one per PMS.
How FrontDesk handles it
In FrontDesk every property lives in the same account. A property switcher moves staff between hotels, and the group view shows occupancy, ADR and RevPAR for each property and for the group, computed with weighted totals. The multi-property guide walks through the setup, and pricing is per property with volume steps on the pricing page.
Simple hotel property management software for independent hotels, chains and groups. 14 days free, no card.