emerit Hotel GM / CHGM cheat sheet

The standards organize GM competence into functional areas: strategic planning, commercial performance, people management, operations, guest experience, compliance, and asset stewardship.

Revenue performance is judged by RevPAR (total room revenue divided by available rooms), which combines occupancy and ADR; a RevPAR gain can occur with flat occupancy if ADR rises.

GOPPAR (gross operating profit divided by available rooms) is the standard ownership-facing profitability metric; it excludes fixed charges such as rent, interest, tax, depreciation, and amortization.

Departmental profit is departmental revenue minus departmental expenses; undistributed operating expenses are excluded from departmental profit and deducted only at the total operated level.

Cost ratios are expressed against revenue: labor cost percentage equals total labor cost divided by total revenue; a falling percentage with rising absolute cost signals revenue growing faster than payroll.

Flow-through measures how much incremental revenue converts to profit: profit change divided by revenue change; a flow-through above 50 percent indicates strong cost discipline on new business.

Budget variance is actual minus budget (favorable or unfavorable by line); flexing the budget to actual volume before judging cost performance prevents penalizing managers for volume-driven cost changes.

Compliance duties under the standards include licensing, fire and life safety, food safety, accessibility, employment law, data protection, and responsible service of alcohol; the GM holds accountable ownership even when tasks are delegated.

Strategic planning requires a documented position statement covering market segment mix, competitive set, pricing posture, and capital priorities, reviewed at least annually against demand forecasts.

Competitive benchmarking uses a competitive set index: RevPAR index equals hotel RevPAR divided by competitive-set RevPAR, multiplied by 100; above 100 means fair share or better is being captured.

Segmentation decisions rest on contribution margin per segment, not room rate alone; a high-rate segment with heavy commission, loyalty cost, or service load can yield less net contribution than a lower-rate segment.

Distribution cost is part of net revenue: direct bookings avoid third-party commission, so channel mix shifts change net RevPAR even when gross ADR is unchanged.

People management under the standards covers workforce planning, recruitment, induction, competence development, performance review, engagement measurement, and lawful handling of discipline and grievance.

Engagement and turnover are leading indicators of guest satisfaction; the GM is expected to set targets for both and act on survey results rather than only record them.

Guest experience management requires a defined service standard, a complaint-handling process with response times and escalation paths, and analysis of complaint categories to remove root causes.

Asset stewardship covers preventive maintenance schedules, capital reserve planning as a percentage of revenue, statutory inspection records, and lifecycle replacement planning for furniture, equipment, and systems.

Risk and crisis readiness includes business continuity for loss of utilities or systems, incident reporting, insurance liaison, media protocol, and named deputies for every critical function.

Performance review of the GM under the standards is evidence-based: budgets, variance reports, guest scores, audit results, staff metrics, and documented improvement actions form the assessment record.