How Can Operations Improve Hotel Performance

TL;DR/ Quick Summary: Hotels facing shrinking margins need more than cost-cutting; they need smarter operations. By automating workflows, forecasting staffing needs, optimizing guest journeys, and launching experience commerce strategies, hotels can unlock up to 12% more margin without compromising service.

How Can Operations Improve Hotel Performance? 

Smarter Strategies for Inflation-Era Hospitality

Burnout doesn't mean you're failing. It usually means your operating model no longer fits the reality you're working in.

You've already cut costs, reduced service hours, and scaled back your offerings. Yet the numbers aren't improving.

If you're managing hotel operations, this likely feels all too familiar. Despite all efforts, profit margins keep narrowing.

Why Margins Are Under Pressure

Most hospitality models were built in a different economic climate. They aren’t coping well with today's sustained inflation.

Since the pandemic, costs have climbed across the board. Energy bills are higher. Laundry services cost more. Wages have increased. Even when room revenue appears stable, the bottom line tells a different story.

This isn't just a pricing issue. It's a deeper problem with how margins are being squeezed.

You might see RevPAR holding steady, but other key metrics like GOPPAR, ARPAR, and EBITDA reveal a decline in profitability.

What This Blog Covers

This post isn’t about making more cuts. It’s about using operations more strategically.

We’ll walk through four ways hospitality teams are reshaping their operations to protect profit, deliver value, and stay resilient in a high-cost environment.

The Hidden Cost of Inefficiency

Manual processes. Rigid scheduling. Disconnected departments. These aren’t just operational headaches; they’re profit drains.

Inflation is squeezing every line on your P&L. Labour costs rose by 4.8%, and maintenance expenses (including utilities) increased 5.0% across U.S. hotels in 2024, according to CBRE. Meanwhile, linen inefficiencies add up fast. One analysis shows that a typical 150-room hotel can lose 20–30% of its linen inventory annually, with costs exceeding $50,000/year (HospitalityTech).

The result? Revenues may look stable, but profitability is slipping. While TRevPAR (Total Revenue per Available Room) rose 2.7%, Gross Operating Profit margins shrunk by 1.1 percentage points — meaning every extra pound earned cost more to service (Hotel News Resource).

Missed margin opportunity: Hotels running on manual processes and disjointed operations often forfeit 8–12% of potential profit, lost in unnecessary labour, utility overuse, and avoidable guest friction (PwC UK Hospitality Outlook).

Even with strong RevPAR, profit isn’t guaranteed. As revenue flows through operating layers, inefficiencies can quietly erode margin. This progression shows how performance KPIs compress when ops aren’t optimised.

4 Operational Levers That Grow Hotel Profitability

It’s time to think about operations as a performance toolkit. Here are four levers smart hoteliers are pulling:

1. Workflow Automation

If you're exploring how to reduce hotel operating costs without compromising service, automation is a high-leverage starting point.

Hotels that automate key workflows report efficiency gains of up to 30–40%. 

After switching to a cloud-based PMS, one UK hotel group saw a 37% improvement in operational efficiency and a 40% reduction in admin workload (HospitalityNet).

2. Smart Staffing & Forecasting

A lot of hotels still plan staff rotas based on what worked in past years. But things have changed. Guest demand is more unpredictable now, and those old patterns don’t hold up. That’s why many hotels are starting to build rotas around real-time demand instead. They’re using up-to-date booking data to plan shifts, so the right number of staff are on when guests actually need them.

Switch to smart staffing unlocks:

• Improved forecast accuracy by 35%
• Falling labor costs by 5-15% 
• Aligning staffing with real demand prevents burnout and boosts morale
• One hotel group reported a 17% drop in staff turnover and up to 40% better forecasting precision after adopting AI-powered scheduling tools. (Shyft) 

Building your labor model on live performance indicators, rather than relying on guesswork, leads to thriving teams and improved margins. This approach fosters a more effective and efficient work environment.

3. Revenue Protection via Experience Commerce

Experience-led revenue is resilient revenue, especially in uncertain markets. By offering pre-paid bundles, seasonal vouchers, and high-conversion upsell paths, hotels don’t just increase income, they safeguard it.

Selling curated experiences in advance, such as spa packages, romantic getaways, or chef-led tasting menus, boosts TRevPAR and ARPAR. It also helps to reduce no-shows and late cancellations. By monetizing guests before they arrive, you avoid relying on upgrades at checkout.

This pre-arrival spend model is fast becoming a revenue backbone. Guests buying into the experience early make them more committed, emotionally invested, and less likely to cancel.

4. Guest Journey Optimisation

Guests feel every moment of friction, whether it's a clunky check-in, slow service handoffs, or unclear payment flows. And in hospitality, every delay costs both loyalty and upsell potential.

Today’s leading hotels are eliminating these blind spots with real-time operational dashboards. By syncing teams across departments and reacting to guest signals in the moment, they deliver a smoother, more responsive experience, from check-in to spa to checkout.

The result is fewer delays and faster upsell windows. The guest journey feels intentionally choreographed, not reactive. This is how operations management enhances hotel performance in real-time. It unblocks service friction before it affects satisfaction.

The Strategic Ops Mindset

How profitable are hotels that embrace operational leverage? 

To survive in today’s climate, ops can’t just run the hotel, they have to grow it.

Enter the concept of Operational Margin Leverage. The strategic use of smarter processes and real-time data to increase profit per guest without adding cost.

This mindset means treating your operations team the way you treat your revenue team: a source of leverage, not just logistics. The same strategic thinking you apply to marketing. 

How Enjovia Powers Profit‑First Operations

Enjovia is more than a gift voucher platform. It’s an operations-driven growth engine, built to integrate seamlessly into your hotel’s existing tech stack. By enabling smarter monetisation, tighter fulfilment, and real-time reporting, it turns back-office workflows into front-line profit levers.

Integrated Experience Commerce

Offer guests curated, pre-paid experiences. From spa days to tasting menus, with built-in upsells at purchase points. Enjovia can integrate directly with your PMS and POS to trigger operational flows as soon as a booking is made.

Real-Time Revenue Reporting

Track 50+ data points per sale, sync directly with Google Analytics or your CRM, and monitor redemptions and guest spend in real-time, all without leaving your dashboard.

Operational Fulfilment Automation

Enjovia’s integrations enable task handoffs to departments automatically, based on what the guest purchased. QR redemption and POS syncing reduce admin load and improve delivery accuracy.

Flexible, Plug-and-Play Architecture

Enjovia is designed to connect easily with your PMS, POS, and CRM. No complex rebuilds, just smoother data flow and smarter operations.

When your sales engine talks to your ops engine, profitability stops leaking and starts scaling. Enjovia helps you get there, without disruption.

FAQs- How Can Operations Improve Hotel Performance

Conclusion: Own Your Ops, Protect Your Profit

How Can Operations Improve Hotel Performance?

Smart operations aren’t about spending more, they’re about spending wiser. From experience commerce to automation, the tools are already within reach, and Enjovia is purpose-built to help you activate them.

Profit isn’t just about bookings. It’s about building a business that works smarter, not harder.

Sign up with Enjovia today