Start with availability
Calculate available room nights for each month. Include renovations, seasonal closures and changes in room inventory. A plan for 100 rooms needs context if part of the property closes. Document how unavailable rooms are treated.
Separate volume and rate
Plan sold room nights and ADR by segment. Educational example: 3,000 available room nights × 70% occupancy × €110 ADR equals €231,000 in room revenue. This is not a HotelMatrix forecast. Overall ADR is total room revenue divided by sold room nights, not a simple average of rate cards.
Check the demand assumptions
Separate corporate contracts, groups, events and individual bookings. Identify the basis of each assumption: history, a confirmed agreement or an expectation. Do not count an unconfirmed group as guaranteed sales.
Build three scenarios
In base, cautious and strong cases, vary explicit inputs: occupancy, ADR, cancellations or segment mix. Then account for costs. Revenue is not profit; a budget should reveal the effect of weaker demand, not just a target number.
Keep the budget alongside the forecast
Retain the original budget separately from the current forecast. Explain monthly variances through volume, rate and sales mix. This helps distinguish an incorrect assumption from a change in market conditions.
Add HotelMatrix context
Where a competitive set is available, compare hotel and market performance. Separate broader demand recovery from an improvement in your position. Future published competitor rates can challenge pricing assumptions, but they do not show achieved competitor revenue.
Separate revenue, costs and cash
A room-revenue budget does not replace expense or cash-flow planning. Include payment timing, deposit refunds and investments separately. HotelMatrix can supply available market context; reconcile costs and payments in financial systems.
Build a table with month, availability, sales, ADR, revenue, assumption and review owner.