A Platform for All Seasons
By Grace Freeman, Percipient
As the festive season approaches, hotels will not only be decking the halls, but also rolling out the strategies and promotions which have been carefully planned throughout the previous 11 months.
Seasonality offers a significant opportunity to enhance profitability and counterbalance quieter trading periods. Yet as markets become harder to predict and incessant change continues to shape the sector, making the most of this opportunity remains a challenge for hotel CFOs.
Whether it’s the summer holiday rush, Valentine’s Day getaways, or the busy Christmas–New Year period, hotel CFOs need accurate data and agile financial insights to refine strategies and optimise performance when it matters most.
Modern Tools for Modern Demands
One thing is clear: consolidating intelligence across the many variables that influence hospitality peaks and troughs is almost impossible with legacy systems, spreadsheets or manual processes. And CFOs relying on outdated tools are exposing themselves to unnecessary risk, flying blind in the face of a perfect storm.
Whether you operate a single boutique hotel or a large multi-site group, a well-orchestrated seasonal strategy can unlock significant revenue uplift across multiple channels, including room types and themes, restaurants and bars, spa and leisure packages, and events. Managed well, it can represent a powerful lever for profitability.
Managed poorly, however, it can lead to cash leakage, missed opportunities and even reputational damage.
In Practice: McKeever Hotels
Northern Ireland–based group McKeever Hotels uses Sage Intacct to consolidate financials, and deliver new levels of insight into performance, particularly when it comes to trends and seasonality.
Easter is a great example of how it accounts for nuance in doing this. Because the holiday can fall in either March or April, comparing performance year on year using calendar months can be misleading and is broadly ineffective. Sage Intacct accommodates this variability, providing a meaningful like-for-like view on the holiday without the need for manual adjustments.
Sage Intacct also supports trend analysis, so McKeever’s team can examine typical food and beverage spend per occupied room and set tolerance ranges to identify when guest spending is above or below expectations, and the impact of seasonality on these numbers.
When it comes to tracking demand, if we know wedding bookings are lower than capacity or expectations, we can launch promotions on corporate hospitality packages to offset this. And in a world where change is ever more present, this capability represents a massive competitive advantage for us.
How Sage Intacct Helps Hotels Manage Seasonality
Real-Time Visibility in Key Hotel Metrics
Dashboards and reports highlight hospitality-specific KPIs such as RevPAR, labour-to-sales ratios and occupancy. These insights enable rapid decision-making, whether it pertains to staffing, pricing or cost structure adjustments.
Improved Forecasting and Budgeting
Sage Intacct and Sage Intacct Planning replace fragile spreadsheets with dynamic, data-rich forecasting tools. This supports more refined, granular and accurate planning to underpin seasonal peaks and troughs.
Multi-Entity Consolidation
Sage Intacct’s multi-entity architecture delivers a fast, accurate, group-level view of performance. Finance teams can identify underperforming sites, replicate successful strategies across properties, and maintain a consistent approach to seasonal planning.
Automation
Automated AP, reconciliations and inter-entity processes allow finance teams to focus on seasonal strategy and promotions rather than repetitive administration tasks.
Seamless Integrations Across Hotel Systems
Integrations with core third party systems such as property management, EPOS, payroll and CRM ensure real time visibility which is crucial in understanding seasonal patterns and P&L.
Standardised Hotel Accounting
A lodging-specific solution based on USALI supports consistent structures and reporting across properties and seasons.
Enhanced Visualisation
Simple dashboards and reports help bring the right insights to the right people, allowing teams to identify trends and communicate seasonal insights effectively.
Scalability for Growth
When hotel groups expand or bring new properties on board, Sage Intacct seamlessly incorporates new entities and locations. This ensures seasonal best practices can be replicated without rebuilding systems or reports.
Faster, More Efficient Month-End
Reduced close times deliver timelier data, enabling hotels to respond faster to seasonal shifts.
KPI Tracking
Measure success across seasonal campaigns, cross-selling opportunities and staffing strategies.
Make Seasonality a Strength, not a Challenge
Sage Intacct helps hotels understand seasonal trends, optimise costs, and boost revenue with real-time insights and forecasting.
Combining USALI frameworks with automated accounting gives hotels agility to maximise seasonal opportunities and build long-term competitive growth.
If you’d like to find out more, please get in touch, or call us on 01606 871332.