Hotel groups · Hospitality
A comparable profit line for every hotel in the group
A hotel group is several businesses that each think they are reported correctly. We put every property on one chart of accounts and one reporting calendar. Occupancy, rate and operating profit can then be compared hotel against hotel, and fees paid to brands and operators checked against the contracts that set them.
In one paragraph
Groups running three or more hotels, whether owned, leased, franchised or under a management contract, usually turn over ₹30–500 crore. The numbers answer to a promoter, group CFO or finance controller. Each property can sit under a different brand, operator or legal entity. The group view therefore depends on a consolidation that is usually built by hand in a spreadsheet.
Promoter or group CFO, often with the owner's representative on operator-managed properties
The economics
How the money moves in this trade
A hotel sells rooms that perish every night, and the rate it achieves depends on channel. A booking can come from the hotel's own website, a corporate contract, a travel agent or an online travel agency that deducts commission before remitting. Food and beverage, banqueting and other departments then add revenue with their own cost structures. The measure that matters is operating profit per property after departmental costs, and it is only meaningful if every property calculates it the same way.
Where a brand or operator is involved, fees are charged on top: a base fee on revenue, an incentive fee on profit, plus reservation, loyalty and marketing charges. Each fee depends on a definition of revenue or profit in the contract, and those definitions rarely match the hotel's own accounts. Add inter-company loans between owning entities, central purchasing and shared head-office cost, and the group result becomes difficult to trust.
The problem
Where the numbers usually break down
Properties report in different formats
One hotel classifies banquet labour under food and beverage and another under rooms, so departmental margins cannot be compared across the group.
Operator fees are paid as invoiced
Base and incentive fees are calculated by the operator on its own reading of the contract, and the owner pays without recomputing them.
OTA receivables are recorded net
Online travel agency remittances are booked as a single receipt, so commission, tax deducted and unpaid bookings are never matched to the stay.
Head-office cost is not allocated
Central sales, revenue management and finance cost sits in the holding entity, so each property looks more profitable than it is.
Consolidation is rebuilt every quarter
Inter-company balances between owning entities do not agree, and the group figure depends on manual eliminations nobody else can follow.
What we do
The work, and the result each part produces
Common chart of accounts and departmental format
One account structure and one departmental reporting format across rooms, food and beverage, banqueting and other operated departments, applied at every property.
Every hotel's margin is calculated the same way.
Management and brand fee recomputation
Base, incentive, reservation and marketing fees recalculated each month from the contract definitions and the property's own accounts.
Fee overcharges are raised while they can still be recovered.
OTA and travel-agent settlement reconciliation
Each remittance matched to the booking and stay, with commission, tax deducted and unpaid bookings listed separately.
Room revenue agrees with the cash it should have produced.
Head-office cost allocation
Central costs allocated to properties on a stated basis, such as rooms, revenue or headcount, and applied consistently.
Property profit reflects the support each hotel consumes.
Group consolidation and inter-company control
Inter-company balances agreed monthly between entities, with a documented consolidation the auditors can follow.
The group result closes on a calendar, not in a scramble.
Capital expenditure tracking by property
Renovation and replacement spend recorded by property and project against the approved budget.
Owners see what each hotel costs to keep competitive.
Where we start
The first steps of an engagement
Night audits, ledgers and contracts
We ask for each property's trial balance, PMS night audit and revenue reports, OTA remittance statements, and the management, franchise and brand agreements that set the fees.
Map properties and recompute fees
Each property's ledger is mapped to one chart of accounts and departmental format, and recent base and incentive fees are recomputed from the contract definitions.
Month-end inter-company agreement
Balances between owning entities are agreed at every month end, with differences cleared before the group consolidation is prepared.
A property-by-property profit pack
Occupancy, average rate, departmental margin and operating profit for each hotel in one format, with fee differences against the contract listed separately.
How it is measured
The reports the work is judged on
Each is recorded as a baseline before the work starts, so later reports have an honest comparison.
- Occupancy, average rate and revenue per available room, by property
- Departmental margin in one format across the group
- Operating profit per property after head-office allocation
- Management and brand fees recomputed against the contract
- OTA receivables matched to stays, with unexplained differences listed
- Inter-company balances agreed at every month end
Who it suits
Written for, and not the right fit for
- You run a single hotel with one restaurant; the hub page on hospitality covers that.
- You want the management contract renegotiated or the operator replaced on your behalf; we recompute the fees and report, and the negotiation stays with you and your counsel.
- Hotel groups with three or more properties, owned, leased or under management contract.
- Hotel owners who pay a brand or operator and want the fees checked independently.
- Groups preparing for a refinancing, an investor or the addition of new properties.
Services
Services this work draws on
MIS and financial planning
Reporting built around the questions you actually need answered.
Explore service ↗Outsourced accounting
Your books kept current and reconciled, closed to a published calendar.
Explore service ↗Fractional CFO services
Senior financial leadership on the days you need it, not a full-time hire.
Explore service ↗Internal audit
Independent process review that closes findings rather than filing them.
Explore service ↗Every other service, also available in this trade
Common questions
Questions owners in this trade ask
Our operator already sends a monthly report. Why recompute the fees?
Because the operator prepares the report and also earns the fee. Recomputing it from the contract definitions is how an owner checks that revenue and profit have been defined the way the contract says, and it's routine for owners to do it.
Each property uses a different property-management system. Is that a problem?
Not for reporting. We map each system's output into one chart of accounts and one departmental format, so you don't need to replace systems to compare hotels.
Will the reporting support a lender's review of one property?
Yes. Once every hotel reports in the same format, a property-level profit and cash-flow pack for a lender is a by-product rather than a separate exercise.
Statutory audits and tax-audit reports of the owning and operating entities are signed by an independently engaged CA. FSSAI, excise and bar licences remain the hotel's own responsibility; 5th Quadrant tracks their renewal dates in the compliance calendar but does not hold or apply for them. Full detail is on our Professional Scope page.
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