Hotel General Manager; Financial Management in the Hospitality Industry in Turkey

Unfortunately, there are the limited numbers of GMs, who have knowledge about financial analyzing in Turkey.

It is not about accounting, it is Financial Analyzing which is fundamental that heads of departments are conversant with financial information in general and it is the role of the management team to train, explain and support heads of departments in the use of financial information.

This analyzing provides an application of financial and managerial concepts useful in analyzing hospitality operations and financial statement analysis, and use tools to analyze cash flows, results of operations and financial position. This also relates to the decision-making process within your organization. Additionally, GMs have to know techniques to make more strategic operational decisions about costs, volume, profit and pricing, as well as how to best manage operating and capital budgets

In my opinion, GMs without Financial knowledge will not able to understand cost-volume-profit analysis which is related to strategic operational decisions, cost approaches pricing, capacity management, pricing, any business model or financial planning.

Without analyzing your financial data, GMs are not able to have financial success include an annual budget, detailed financial tracking model, ongoing audits and reporting structure. As a GM at any hotel should hold monthly meetings with key departments to analyze profit and loss results and discuss short-term future operational and financial expectations. It is also important for the Revenue management which is one of the key pillars of our organization and vital to the success of the operation. In order to do this, the gathering of market information, historical information and having the right tools to analyze the business trends are all critical to help us adopt the right strategies and making the right decisions in maximizing revenues.

Like any other business, in order to be successful, there needs to be a solid structure and backbone to sustain the operation. Having excellent facilities not help without the know how to manage and maximize the use of these assets. As a GM you have to manage your profitability with financial planning, fiscal control, decision making-process, revenue optimization and yield management.