You finally have a full-blown accounting policy manual in place. It has taken several months and a lot of work, but it is done. Something to be proud of indeed!
This is the third installment in a three-part series on the mega-merger between Switzerland’s two biggest banks: Credit Suisse and UBS. The repercussions of rising interest rates on the housing market and the broader economy are also discussed.
The classic model of competitive advantage is Michael Porter’s “Five Forces.” According to Porter, the existence of products outside of the realm of the common product boundaries increases the propensity of customers to switch to alternatives.
In search of a bank loan for your restaurant? Better treat your customers well! Restaurants with good online ratings tend to have more success in securing funding. This results in popular restaurants having more financial debt on their balance sheets. But what are the underlying reasons for this relationship?
With recession-focused concern at the forefront of industry conversation, hotel owners and operators are dusting off contingency plans and discussing how best to prepare and plan ahead for the economic impact. Historically, when the hospitality industry faces a downturn, properties search for cost reductions and often consider clustering regional operations. This approach can be adopted for a number of reasons – such as the benefit of minimizing operating costs across a group of hotels, while also retaining coverage and focus on necessary tasks.
The dreaded credit card reconciliation need not be such a big deal if we bite-size it. That is what this piece is all about: How and why you should balance your hotel credit cards daily. That is right – every day – and I mean you need to know the cards are balanced to three separate and connected points.
The COVID-19 pandemic and the recent invasion of Ukraine are two prime examples of unanticipated shocks that have placed intense strain on companies’ financials. These events generated uncertainty and highlighted the importance of managing risks and being flexible. Financial flexibility can be achieved through retaining adequate cash reserves to handle any unforeseen obligation or constraint, or adopting a cost structure that allows the firm to withstand a sudden decrease in revenues without incurring hefty accounting losses.
We are halfway through the second quarter of 2023 and see the hospitality industry looking forward to trends taking shape. While these trends have been on a gradual incline over the recent years, industry experts predict the rest of this year will witness a significant increase in renovation and conversion projects as well as new construction trends in relation to the procurement processes.
The COVID-19 pandemic has had a profound effect on the global economy, leading to widespread inflationary pressures. Governments around the world responded with unprecedented levels of fiscal and monetary support to stimulate their economies, the impact of which was felt months later as economies reopened and consumers once again began spending. This trend, along with supply chain issues, led to a noticeable increase in the cost of goods and services.In response to the inflationary pressures resulting from these factors, the United States Federal Reserve System (known as the Fed) has embarked on an interest rate-hike cycle in an effort to taper inflation. However, the rate increases have been the fastest in recent history, since the federal funds rate (FFR) reached a peak in 1980, as illustrated below by the sharper slope of the recent hike cycle.
The post-COVID era was expected to have been a story of strong recovery in the hotel investment market. However, the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, which fueled huge increases in energy and food prices, overall inflation and therefore interest rates, resulted in a mixed picture for hotel transactions for the year. Although still reaching €13.3 billion, total volume in 2022 fell short of 2021 by 18%, with 37 fewer transactions. Prices per room achieved higher levels on average than in 2021, led by significant price increases in portfolio transactions.
Automation in the hospitality industry continues to evolve and represents innovation at its finest. Automated processes promote hoteliers to build financial and operational success within hotels that are necessary to remain competitive in the market. Hoteliers can bring their focus back to guests by reducing tasks from their ever-growing to-do list by opting to use automated solutions.
Capital expenditure (Capex) deferments, impending property improvement plans (PIPs), higher interest rates, and budget constraints make the diligent allocation of capital more important than ever.
At BirchStreet Systems, we’re always striving for excellence in product delivery—and that starts with excelling as a team.
Over the past few decades, we have seen constant advancements in automation technology, particularly when it comes to the hospitality procurement process. Procedures like sourcing, tendering, auctioning, and ordering products have all been adopted into automated systems. And while these advancements have created unmatched levels of consistency, efficiency, and convenience, there’s one area in particular that often gets left out of this automation: payments.
In the wake of the 2008 bailout by the Swiss National Bank (SNB) and the Swiss taxpayer of the country’s largest systemic bank, Union des Banques Suisses (UBS), the authorities in Bern went straight to work to hammer out new financial legislation.
This is a thank you to the owners and investors of hotels and a pep speech for the rest of us in the industry to take care of our owners and investors.
Developing a hotel project in Africa can be highly profitable, but can also present a range of challenges.
On March 13, U.S. President Joe Biden reassured the depositors and employees of two large banks, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) and Signature Bank, that their deposits were safe and that wages would be paid. More generally, President Biden reassured investors that the U.S. banking system was solid and the government was taking action to secure deposits.
Following the introduction of Revenue Management (RM) in the airline industry in order to maximise the yield per available seat, made possible by the industry’s deregulation in the 1970s, RM eventually spread to the hospitality industry. Shortly afterwards, RevPAR (Rooms Revenue per Available Room) became the metric of choice for hotel asset managers, operators, investors, funders and analysts to gauge the success or lack thereof of a hotel’s room inventory management. RevPAR remains one of the most recognised and used performance measures in the hospitality industry, providing general market comparison trends and some useful revenue indications.
A recent Gartner report claims that by 2025, quite 50% of organizations around the world will have a cloud-based procure-to-pay suite. Tools like BirchStreet Pay are gaining traction as hotels learn more about the advantages and cost opportunities of using saving procurement solutions.