Occupancy was up. So why was flow-through down?

A lot of hotel packages are still being produced on the previous edition’s layout, because nobody owned the conversion. It rarely announces itself. The statement still balances, the GOP line still calculates, and the problem only surfaces when a benchmark comparison stops lining up, a lender asks for a schedule that is not there, or a brand audit flags the presentation.

The substantive changes are not cosmetic. The Utilities schedule is replaced by an Energy, Water and Waste schedule that reports usage and emissions, not just cost — which is also where sustainability reporting now comes from. There is a new payroll full-time-equivalents schedule, so labor is reported as headcount alongside dollars. And there is a new annual mandatory brand and operator costs schedule, which for a franchised or managed property is often the first time an owner sees those charges totalled in one place rather than spread across departments.

Converting properly means mapping existing account balances to the new schedules, restating the prior-year comparative so variances still mean something, and checking that every figure referenced in a management agreement or loan covenant still calculates to the same number. Converted without a restated comparative, the first pack under the new edition produces variances that are presentation artifacts rather than performance — and those are expensive to explain to an owner.

We produce hotel reporting on the current edition and handle the conversion for properties still on the old layout. The sample reporting pack shows the format in full, including a breakdown of what the 12th revised edition changed.

Conversion starts at the ledger, not the statement. Our full sample hotel chart of accounts is published in its entirety — 187 numbered accounts grouped so departmental profit, gross operating profit and EBITDA each fall out of the ledger rather than being assembled by hand.