Money In, Money Out
If a guest wants their room at 9:00 AM instead of 3:00 PM, the front desk can forecast extra revenue by charging this "convenience" fee.
What is an Early Check-In Fee
To avoid huge emergency repair costs, the POM forecast allocates funds for this "regularly scheduled" check-up on AC units and boilers in this account.
What is Electrical, Plumbing and HVAC
When your water bill is 20% higher than forecasted but occupancy is low, this is the first "troubleshooting" step for the POM team.
What is a Leak Audit (or checking for "running" toilets)
Managers use this specific metric to see if their forecasting "guesses" are getting better or worse over time.
What is Forecast Accuracy Percent
This is the total number of rooms and the total revenue already confirmed for a specific date in the future.
What is a On the Books Occupancy and Revenue
In a group contract, this clause protects the hotel's revenue forecast if a guest block cancels.
What is Attrition (or Cancellation)
This POM account forecasts the seasonal cost of flowers, mulch, and lawn care to ensure the hotel looks "bookable" from the street.
What is Grounds & Landscaping
If you forecasted 90% occupancy but a storm caused 40 cancellations, this is the "troubleshooting" action taken to save on labor costs immediately.
What is Sending Staff Home early (or "Flexing" the schedule)
This happens when your revenue is higher than forecasted, but your expenses grew even faster, meaning you actually made less profit.
What is Poor Flex
This segment is usually forecasted to stay Monday through Thursday and usually pays a pre-negotiated, fixed rate.
What is Negotiated (or Corporate) Business
This is the fee (often "Rack Rate") charged to a guest who shows up at the door without a reservation.
What is a Walk-In Rate
This is often the single most expensive "fixed" maintenance contract in a high-rise hotel, usually forecasted as a flat monthly fee plus emergency repair hours.
What is an Elevator Maintenance Contract
After seeing last month's high overtime costs, a manager "re-forecasts" by adding two part-time shifts to next month's schedule to avoid the "time-and-a-half" penalty.
What is Labor Optimization
This is the document a manager must fill in answers on to explain why the actual numbers didn't match the forecast.
What is a Variance Commentary
This acronym describes Social, Military, Educational, Religious, and Fraternal groups—a key segment for forecasting weekend event space.
What is SMERF Group
This is the 2.5% to 4% fee the hotel must forecast for every dollar spent by a guest using a Visa, Amex, or Mastercard.
What are Credit Card Processing Fees
This specific POM forecast covers the "preventative" fixing of equipment, grease traps and hood vents to prevent fires in the F&B department.
What is Kitchen Equipment Maintenance
Last month’s electric bill was $5,000 over budget due to a heatwave; you use this "actual" data to "re-forecast" a higher cost for the rest of the summer.
What is Trend-Based Forecasting
This is the theoretical amount of money a hotel loses when something like renovation causes them to turn away guests.
What is Displacement
This is a guaranteed block of rooms (like for airline crews) that makes forecasting easier because the occupancy is the same every night.
What is Contract Rooms
This fee is used by some properties to bundle items into a "Daily" package that can cover things like internet, pool access, beach chairs or even transportation.
What is a Resort Fee
The system POM managers use to track work orders and forecast how many lightbulbs or filters they need to buy next month.
What is Quore
If your Food Cost rose from 30% to 38% last month, before you use this new number as the "actual" number for all future months. You should make sure you have done this to your inventory sheets?
What is Updating the Unit Cost
This is when you expect 10% of a group to cancel and is planned for so you don't leave the hotel with a "hole" in the schedule that is too late to fill.
What is Group Wash
This segment is forecasted to book mostly via Qualified or OTAs (Expedia/Priceline) and could cancel their reservation if they find a rate $10 cheaper down the street.
What are Discount Guests