Cash Flow Forecast Template for Hotels

Hotels and guesthouses have high fixed costs and revenue that swings with the seasons. Staff, the mortgage or lease, utilities and maintenance run all year, while occupancy and room rates rise and fall with holidays, events and weather. Online travel agencies add commission to many bookings. A cash flow forecast built from rooms, rate and occupancy shows how much of the high season has to be saved for the low one.

Why hotel cash flow is different

• Revenue depends on occupancy and rate. Rooms available times average daily rate times occupancy drives almost everything.
• Seasonality is strong. A resort or city hotel may run at 90 percent in peak months and half that off-season.
• OTA commission reduces cash. Booking platforms often take 15 to 20 percent of the room revenue they bring in.
• Deposits and events. Weddings and groups pay deposits months ahead, and cancellations can reverse them.
• High fixed costs. Housekeeping, front desk, utilities and property costs don’t fall much when the hotel is quiet.

A worked example

A 40-room hotel has an average daily rate of $145.

July brings in about $72,000 more room revenue than January, while payroll, the mortgage and utilities stay close to the same. If the owner spends July’s surplus on renovations, January and February will need an overdraft. The forecast turns the seasonal gap into a savings plan.

How to build a hotel cash forecast

1. Enter rooms available and average daily rate by month.
2. Forecast occupancy by month from history and forward bookings.
3. Separate direct bookings from OTA bookings, and apply commission.
4. Add food and beverage, events and deposits on their own lines.
5. Add payroll, including seasonal staff, utilities, linen, maintenance and the property management system.
6. Schedule the mortgage or lease, insurance and major refurbishments.

Common mistakes

Forecasting at peak-season occupancy all year. Forgetting OTA commission. Spending wedding deposits before the event. And not planning refurbishment spending around the quiet months.

What the template gives you

The Hotel & Hospitality template includes an Occupancy tab: enter rooms, average daily rate and occupancy by month, and it calculates room revenue using the real number of nights in each month, plus OTA commission. Change next summer’s occupancy and see January’s balance update.

Key assumptions built into the Hotel & Hospitality template

• The Occupancy tab calculates “Room revenue” as 40 rooms × average daily rate ($145) × occupancy × nights in the month, after a 100% collection rate, plus ota commissions at 7% of that revenue. The example occupancy runs from 52% in the quietest month to 92% at peak.
• 5 cash in lines and 7 cash out lines are already named for hotel & hospitality businesses, and every one can be renamed or extended.
• The example figures follow a typical hotel & hospitality year, busiest in July and June and quietest in January and February, so the tight months show up where they usually fall.

Every assumption sits in a yellow input cell, so you replace the example with your own numbers in minutes. The same figures flow through a 13-week weekly view, a 12-month monthly view and a 3-year outlook, and a dashboard shows your lowest balance, the weeks that fall below your minimum buffer and your cash runway.

Free or premium?

If you only need the basics, the free 12-month template or the free 13-week template will get you started today. The premium Hotel & Hospitality template saves the setup time and adds the tabs above, best and worst case scenarios, and an actual vs forecast tracker that shows where your forecast was wrong, so next month’s is better.

Hotel & Hospitality cash flow forecasting: questions

How do you calculate hotel room revenue?

Rooms available × average daily rate × number of nights × occupancy rate. Forty rooms at $145 and 70 percent occupancy for 30 nights is about $121,800.

How much do online travel agencies charge hotels?

Commonly 15 to 20 percent of the booking value. Some hotels pay less through negotiated or promotional programmes.

How should a hotel handle wedding deposits in cash flow?

Record them when received, but avoid spending them before the event, since cancellations may require refunds and the event itself has costs.