Hospitality BI Consulting: Property and Portfolio Reporting for Hotel Groups
The PMS knows the rooms, the channel manager knows the bookings, accounting knows the costs, and each property reports a little differently. Comparing three hotels, or knowing which guests come back, still means a spreadsheet.
Hospitality BI consulting from Lightray Solutions turns the data your properties already produce, from the property management system (PMS), channel manager, point of sale and accounting, into Power BI reporting that compares hotels on the same definitions. Owners and asset managers see occupancy, ADR, RevPAR and GOPPAR by property and channel, and which guests return across the portfolio.
To be clear about scope: this is business intelligence consulting applied to hotels, and Lightray is not a revenue management system vendor and doesn't set your rates. The reporting shows what happened and where; your revenue manager, or your revenue management system, decides what to do about it. Edward Pinela, MBA, builds each project himself, remotely.
Projects are quoted at a fixed price after discovery. Begin with a free 30-minute strategy call, requested through the form or by phone. Restaurants have their own page: restaurant business intelligence setup.
Which hotel KPIs belong in the reporting, and how are they defined?
Four carry most conversations. Occupancy is rooms sold divided by rooms available. ADR, average daily rate, is room revenue divided by rooms sold. RevPAR is room revenue divided by rooms available. GOPPAR, gross operating profit per available room, divides gross operating profit by rooms available, so costs count too.
Those are the definitions in the STR glossary published by CoStar, which also defines TRevPAR, total revenue per available room, for hotels with meaningful food, beverage or spa income. The model writes each formula once, the same discipline behind our KPI dashboard creation work, so every property's RevPAR is calculated the same way, including how out-of-order rooms and complimentary stays are treated, which is agreed with you first.
Gross operating profit needs departmental costs, which come from accounting rather than the PMS. That makes GOPPAR the KPI that depends most on clean accounting data, and a useful one when comparing properties of different sizes.
| KPI | Formula | Data source | What it tells the group |
|---|---|---|---|
| Occupancy | Rooms sold / rooms available | PMS daily statistics | How full each property runs, by night and season |
| ADR (average daily rate) | Room revenue / rooms sold | PMS | The average price achieved on sold rooms |
| RevPAR | Room revenue / rooms available | PMS | Rate and occupancy together; the usual comparison across hotels |
| TRevPAR | Total operating revenue / rooms available | PMS plus POS and accounting | Food, beverage, spa and other income per room |
| GOPPAR | Gross operating profit / rooms available | Departmental accounts plus PMS room counts | Profit per room after operating costs |
| Cost of acquisition | Channel commissions and fees / room nights from that channel | OTA invoices, accounting, PMS channel codes | What each channel costs per night sold |
| Guest lifetime value | Revenue or margin per matched guest across all stays and properties | Merged PMS profiles and folios | Which guests and segments are worth winning back |
How does PMS data get into Power BI?
Through the PMS vendor's API or its report exports, depending on the system and your contract. Oracle's OPERA Cloud exposes REST APIs through the Oracle Hospitality Integration Platform; Mews offers its Connector API for general data access; Cloudbeds publishes a REST API with webhooks. Discovery confirms which route your license allows before anything is quoted.
Oracle's OPERA Cloud API guide separates synchronous calls, such as fetching one reservation, from asynchronous bulk APIs aimed at revenue systems. Mews documents its APIs by use case, and Cloudbeds describes REST endpoints with real-time webhooks. API access may need approval from the vendor, so it is requested early.
Where an API isn't available, a scheduled export of the daily statistics and reservation reports is enough for the KPIs, though guest-level analysis needs reservation and profile detail.
How do channel mix and acquisition cost show up?
By tagging every reservation with its booking channel, direct web, phone, OTA (online travel agency), GDS (global distribution system) or group, and joining what each channel costs: OTA commissions, booking-engine fees, GDS charges and paid search. Net room revenue by channel, after acquisition cost, can rank channels differently from gross revenue.
Commissions rarely sit in the PMS. They arrive on OTA invoices or in accounting, so the model allocates them back to reservations, or to channel and month. The result is a cost of acquisition per room night by channel and property, the figure that tells a group whether a push for direct bookings is paying for itself.
Can you measure guest lifetime value across properties?
Yes, if guests can be matched across properties. Guest lifetime value here means the revenue, or better the margin, a guest generates over all their stays, at every property in the group. It depends on one guest identity: profiles merged across PMS instances by email, loyalty number or a matching rule you approve.
With that in place, the reporting shows repeat rates by property and segment, how many guests stay at a second property in the group, spend beyond the room, and which channels bring guests who return. Some OTA bookings arrive with an alias email address rather than the guest's own, which limits matching, so the reports state how many guests could not be matched instead of hiding them.
Guest data is personal data, so access follows role through Power BI row-level security: property managers see their own hotel's guests, the group sees aggregates, and only named staff see individual profiles.
What does hospitality BI cost, and how does it run?
It is quoted at a fixed price after discovery, scaled by the number of properties and systems and by whether guest-level matching is in scope. The work is remote: video sessions with your revenue, finance and operations leads, and the build inside your Microsoft tenant, property by property, with KPIs reconciled to each hotel's own reports.
Changes after launch, a new property or a new channel, can run on Power BI Flex Support, from $2,500 for 20 hours, with hours that never expire. The Power BI build carries Lightray's refund promise: within the first 4 hours, if working with us isn't to your liking, you get your money back.
Edward has 20+ years of experience across 200+ projects, and Lightray's Google reviews average 4.9, with an A+ rating at the BBB. For hotels and wineries on California's Central Coast, see Santa Barbara data analytics.
Further reading: Oracle Hospitality: Using the OPERA Cloud APIs.
Want every property measured the same way?
Book a free 30-minute call with Edward Pinela, MBA. You get an honest read on what to fix first — and if we are not the right fit, you will hear that on the call.
Frequently asked questions
We have one hotel. Is this worth it?
Possibly not as a full model. A single property often gets what it needs from the PMS's own reports plus a monthly P&L. The case grows with a second property, a separate restaurant or spa, or an owner who wants profit per room rather than revenue.
Do you replace our revenue management system?
No. Lightray doesn't sell or build a revenue management system and doesn't set rates. The reporting can place the system's forecasts beside actuals, so the revenue team can see how pricing decisions played out.
How long does a project take?
Discovery sets the timeline, which the written quote states. Approval of API access by the PMS vendor can be the longest wait, so it is requested early; properties on different PMS platforms add mapping work.
Does anyone need to come to the property?
No. All work is remote, over video and screen share. The data comes through vendor APIs or exports, and walkthroughs for general managers are recorded so each property can replay them.
What do you need from us?
Access to PMS reports or API credentials, the chart of accounts with its departmental mapping, OTA commission invoices or their accounting entries, and one person per property who can confirm room counts and how complimentary and out-of-order rooms are recorded.
You Won’t Get Handed Off to Junior Staff.
At most consulting firms, the senior person who sold you shows up for the kickoff — then you get handed to a team of juniors learning on your dime. That’s not how we work.
When you hire Lightray Solutions, you work directly with Edward Pinela, MBA — a principal consultant with 20+ years of experience across Power BI, web development, SEO, and CRM systems. Edward architects every engagement personally, stays involved through delivery, and answers his own phone.
Read Edward’s Full Bio“Mid-market companies deserve senior-level expertise without paying enterprise-agency prices. That’s the gap Lightray fills.”
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