In the majority of independent hotels we've audited, procurement is managed by instinct. Orders go out when stock runs low, products are discarded when they expire, and no one really knows what the stock is worth at any given moment.
This approach has a cost — not a dramatic one, but a silent one that chips away at the margin every week. In a 40 to 60-room property, unstructured procurement typically represents 3 to 8% of annual revenue in avoidable losses.
1. Untracked perishables. Without FIFO rotation applied, fresh produce goes to waste. Over a month, the bill adds up.
2. Ghost stock. Products poorly received, stored in two different places, or "borrowed" with no trace. Actual stock is lower than theoretical stock — and no one knows it.
3. Non-optimised purchasing. Without consolidated volumes or supplier comparison, standard references often cost 10 to 20% more than necessary.
Three actions: a monthly valued inventory, a systematic purchase order with sign-off, and a loss tracking system by category. This is not complexity — it's method.
Multiple openings — from Geneva to Paris, from Toulouse to Switzerland. Different contexts, different budgets, different teams. But the same mistakes appear with remarkable consistency. It's not a competence problem. 80% of an opening's problems originate in the 6 weeks before day one.
1. Hiring too late. Bringing teams in 2 weeks before opening guarantees chaotic first weeks. A minimum of 6 to 8 weeks is needed to train and settle the team.
2. Undocumented processes. Without written and validated SOPs before opening, every employee improvises. The result: inconsistent guest experience from the very first stays.
3. Stock open without tracking. In the first weeks, the temptation is to order broadly. Without tracking, costs spiral and losses accumulate silently.
4. Insufficient training before day one. Theory alone is not enough. Teams need simulation and rehearsal on difficult situations.
5. No KPIs from month one. If you don't measure from the start, bad habits establish themselves and become very hard to correct.
Cornell University and ReviewPro have established a direct correlation between a hotel's average OTA rating and its RevPAR. An improvement of one point out of 10 is associated with a 10 to 15% revenue increase.
The mechanism is straightforward: a better rating allows rates to be raised without losing volume, and improves positioning in OTA search results. A hotel at 7.8/10 that moves to 8.8/10 can legitimately increase its rates by 8 to 12% without a negative impact on occupancy.
1. Standardise the guest journey. Inconsistency is the main enemy of the rating. A guest can accept an imperfect hotel — not an unpredictable one.
2. Systematise review requests. The best-rated hotels have a precise process for requesting feedback at the right moment.
3. Respond to all reviews. Positive and negative. Responses to negative reviews have a direct impact on how future guests perceive the property.
4. Track by sub-score. Monitoring the overall rating is not enough — identify the weakest sub-scores and address them first.
Data from MKG Hospitality, Deloitte, McKinsey, Cornell University, Banque de France, BCG, PwC, KPMG and EY. Benchmarks to position your property in its market.
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