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Hotel profit and loss format, with a free Excel template
The order a hotel’s monthly profit and loss should follow, a worked month for a 20-room Nigerian hotel, five mistakes to check for, and a free template.
by Mark Ezema ·
A profit and loss statement answers one question: after everything the month cost, what did the hotel make? Sales are easy to count. The costs are spread across receipts, transfers and memory.
Here is the order it should follow, a worked month, five mistakes to check for, and a free template that does the sums.
The order
- Revenue, by department: rooms, food and drink, and other income such as laundry or hall hire. Count what was earned in the month, for nights stayed and meals served, not what was paid in it.
- The costs of running the hotel: the food and drink you sold, staff, diesel and power, guest supplies and laundry, repairs, commissions and card charges, marketing, and the office. Count each in the month it was used, paid or not.
- Operating profit: revenue less those costs. This is the number the manager can change.
- Costs of owning the hotel: rent or lease, loan interest, and depreciation, which is the cost of big purchases spread over the years they serve.
- Profit before tax.
Keeping the owning costs below operating profit shows how the hotel is run, apart from how it was bought or financed.
A month, worked
A 20-room hotel, 65% occupancy at an average rate of ₦28,000, in a 31-day month. Every figure is an example; put yours in its place.
| Line | For the month | Share of revenue |
|---|---|---|
| Rooms | ₦11,284,000 | 75.8% |
| Food and drink | ₦3,200,000 | 21.5% |
| Other income | ₦400,000 | 2.7% |
| Revenue | ₦14,884,000 | 100% |
| Cost of food and drink sold | ₦1,280,000 | 8.6% |
| Staff | ₦1,900,000 | 12.8% |
| Diesel and power | ₦5,800,000 | 39.0% |
| Guest supplies and laundry | ₦1,007,500 | 6.8% |
| Repairs and maintenance | ₦450,000 | 3.0% |
| Commissions and card charges | ₦220,000 | 1.5% |
| Marketing | ₦150,000 | 1.0% |
| Office, internet and licences | ₦380,000 | 2.6% |
| Operating profit | ₦3,696,500 | 24.8% |
| Loan interest | ₦600,000 | 4.0% |
| Depreciation | ₦750,000 | 5.0% |
| Profit before tax | ₦2,346,500 | 15.8% |
Diesel is the biggest cost here, more than staff and food and drink together. Our 20-room profitability example shows how much it moves with the hours the generator runs.
Five mistakes to check for
- Taxes in revenue. VAT and consumption tax are collected for the government. Keep them out of revenue.
- A generator as a June expense. Ask of any big purchase: will the hotel still be using this next year? If so, spread its cost over the years it serves, as depreciation. A generator, inverters or air conditioners bought in June serve every month after it. The diesel is a running cost.
- Loan repayments as a cost. Only the interest is a cost. Repaying what you borrowed reduces the loan, not the profit.
- Owner’s drawings as a cost. Money the owner takes out for themselves is not a hotel cost. Keep it out of the profit and loss.
- Costs in the wrong month, or missing. Cash diesel, a plumber paid by transfer, kitchen gas: each belongs to the month it was used, with its receipt or invoice. For diesel, that is the litres burned: opening tank + litres bought − closing tank. Work done this month counts this month, even if you pay next month.
Compare it with yourself
The profit and loss template follows the order above. Fill in this month, last month and the same month last year. It works out the totals, operating profit, profit before tax and each line’s share of revenue. Then compare each line’s share across the three months; a cost whose share rises is the one to ask about.
Janus brings sales, expenses, payroll and asset costs together for a clearer financial picture of what the hotel made. To start without it, fill in the template’s first column for the month just ended. See how Janus works for hotels in Nigeria.
