Front Office, 2nd Edition

Chapter 7

Sales

Introduction

Most of the expenses Involved in letting accommodation are fixed, so once sales have passed the break-even point additional receipts are virtually pure profit from the department's point of view. This means that effort put into generating additional room revenue is worth more than equivalent effort put into selling liquor or food, where there are important variable costs. Of course, better value for money in terms of food and drink can generate extra accommodation revenue, but the fact remains that in many hotels the bars and restaurants often do little more than break even and it is the rooms which generate the profits.

Raising room revenue is usually seen as a marketing problem. However, there are measures which ...