The hospitality industry has evolved over the years so have the aspects of business models and management. At the start, hotel inventory only referred to the number of rooms available for sale or distribution.
Today, this term encompasses so much more than available rooms. It includes every resource used in a hotel on a day-to-day basis. That means everything ranging from rooms and items used by housekeeping such as linen and laundry to restaurant items, various equipment, services, and ancillaries.
The hotel inventory is growing year after year at a staggering 60% across the world. With more items and services on the plate, it becomes increasingly harder to optimize and manage hotel inventory profit-wise. The fact that you need to know what is available at the moment and that you also need to dynamically price your rooms and services makes hotel inventory management even more challenging.
Hotel inventory management–from hotel restaurant management to the management of front-of-house staff and back-of-house staff –is a comprehensive process. A hotel and hospitality industry inventory management system has many moving parts. Those moving parts rely on each other for smooth business operations.
Types of Inventory in the Hotel Industry.
Inventory in the hotel industry can be divided into two categories – primary and secondary hotel inventory.
The first step is to collect the data on your current hotel inventory. You will need to catalog all rooms and every secondary inventory item available at your hotel. That includes everything ranging from food and drink to linen and cleaning products. The goal is to end up with the ultimate list of your hotel inventory so that you can streamline your next steps.
Cross-reference Your Inventory With Occupancy Rates
Primary hotel inventory management requires you to cross-reference your entire room offer with the room occupancy rates. To manage means to utilize your resources so that they generate more revenue. Look for rooms that are rarely occupied. These are usually deluxe suits that you can offer as affordable upgrades. The information will also help you optimize your distribution network.
Assess the Purchasing Behavior of Your Guests
When it comes to secondary hotel inventory, to efficiently manage it, you need to take a closer look at the purchasing behavior of your guests. Do you have items and services that you rarely manage to sell? Are some of your items constantly below the safety stock level? You will find answers to these questions only if you try to learn what your guests want and don’t want.
Identify Patterns
When you collect the data, you will be able to identify patterns. Patterns will help you stay on top of your management efforts. For instance, you will know when to expect occupancy rates to drop or spike and which items you need to regularly re-stock.
Use Data to Optimize Hotel Inventory Management.
Finally, with all this data at your disposal, you’ll be able to make informed decisions. The insights will enable you to optimize hotel inventory, maximize revenue, and make your guests happy.
Hotel Inventory Template
Since you need all the help you can get to take your hotel inventory management game to the next level, we’ve done some research and found the following hotel inventory templates you can use for free.
Stock Inventory Template – A comprehensive stock inventory template. Use it to create a complete list of items you keep in stock, reduce excess inventory, locate items in storage, and find out when you need to re-stock.
Linen Inventory Template – use this template to effectively manage your linen inventory and track the movement of linens between laundry and housekeeping.
Food Inventory Template – stay on top of your food stock. If you have a restaurant in your hotel, this template will help you organize and optimize your inventory based on categories (meat, vegetables, food, and desserts).
Equipment Inventory Template – This template allows you to track the location, condition, and value of your hotel equipment. You will be able to track various metrics, including depreciation and operating costs.
Tips To Do Hotel Inventory
Here are some additional tips for doing hotel inventory.
Estimate the Cost of Your Inventory
Take into account your ordering, shortage, and carrying costs to optimize your entire merchandising and stocking operation. You will be able to generate more revenue and prevent losing revenue due to running out of items.
User Relevant Software
Doing everything manually is daunting. After all, why would you do it when software can help you completely automate it? The latest property management system tool can help you track your entire hotel inventory, manage it on the go, and get valuable reports and insights.