The Importance and Use of Financial Forecasting and Budgeting at the Departmental Level in the Hotel industry as Perceived by Hotel Controllers

Abstract

This study surveyed 393 lodging controllers on the use of forecasting and budgeting at the departmental level in hotels. A total of 140 questionnaires (35.62 percent response rate) were returned. The study found that controllers rated “staffing properly” as the main benefit (5.82/7.00) for preparing forecasts and “planning strategically” (5.93/7.00) for preparing budgets. While one may suspect that perceptions and practices on forecasting and budgeting are vastly different depending upon the size of a hotel, this study also showed that size, or the number of rooms in a hotel, did not significantly influence the perception of the usefulness or the practices of these two financial functions.