Planning and reporting for hotel and restaurant management

The Steigenberger Hotel Group uses Mercur to manage over 80 separate hotel and restaurant businesses. Managers at every location can access Mercur to enter budget and forecast data and to follow up their performance.

A complete solution for performance management 

Mercur Business Control effectively provides Steigenberger with a fully integrated performance management system – a single solution covering every aspect of managing the business on all levels. From top management of the group to line managers at the individual hotels, Mercur is used daily to plan and monitor performance. 

Strategic plans, budgets, forecasts and reports are all generated, with common terms, definitions, models and user interfaces. This increases quality, saves time, limits training needs and ensures a low cost of ownership. 

Driver based budgeting

Budgets and forecasts are created by the business managers of all Steigenberger hotels at the cost centre level. “Room nights” are the key variable for planning hotel operations because they are the main drivers of revenue and expenses. Together with such secondary drivers as double booking factors and room rates, they determine the operating profit or loss.

A system recalculation is performed each time these drivers are entered or changed. The recalculation updates all associated budget lines such as breakfast revenue as well as all direct costs. Seasonal codes assist the users to enter data efficiently and correctly. The driver based planning ensures that calculations are performed with transparency throughout the group while taking into account local variations of the business conditions. 

After calculating the income from lodging, the food and beverage revenue is planned separately. This includes breakfast á la carte, mini bar, half or full board, restaurant á la carte, bars, conferences, and so forth. Seasonal codes, volumes and unit prices are used to calculate the food and beverage revenue more precisely. The system also provides forms for payroll planning and other expenses. 

After all the users have submitted their budgets, a consolidated budget for the hotel is instantly available for the hotel management as well as for the central group controlling department. They can analyse performance on any level. 

Integrated forecasting 

Forecasts are handled similar to the budget, but with the difference that the current budget or a previous forecast is normally copied as a starting point. Users can then change the relevant drivers and perform a new recalculation to update forecasted revenues and expenses and analyse the changes in forecast reports. 

This allows Steigenberger to performdetailed reforecasting in a very short time and with high accuracy levels. 

Comprehensive reporting

Mercur Business Control is updated with actuals from the ERP system on a monthly basis. Managers then undertake deviation analysis on actuals versus forecast or budget or last year’s actuals. Depending on the security settings, each user can drill down on organisational units, cost centres, accounts, categories of employees, etc. 

The automatic consolidation creates an instant view from group level down to individual cost centres as soon as new data is entered.

Operating statements according to USALI

Steigenberger, like all other large hotel groups around the world, creates its operating statements according to USALI, Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry. These statements have been completely implemented in Mercur Business Control.

Strategic planning and capital planning 

One of the latest developments of Steigenberger’s Business Control system is the addition of strategic planning functionality, which was previously handled in a separate system. 

The strategic planning functionality includes both data entry forms and reports, which are used to create and manage a high level three year budget and a capital expenditure plan.