What is BudgeTools?

BudgeTools is a rooms forecasting application that is Excel-based.

At BudgeTools, we want to make rooms forecasting as easy and accurate as possible. We offer a platform that allows for and encourages:

  • A team approach to forecasting.

  • The ability to insert or delete information expeditiously, as often as needed.

  • Making changes without worrying you will lose all of your data or have to start over

  • Used by high-end luxury properties, airport hotels, resorts, roadside hotels and more….

  • Seamless upgrades every 2-3 weeks.

An important point to remember - BudgeTools does not predict the future or write the forecast for you. We provide a sophisticated, yet easy to use tool by which you insert your data and tweak as needed.

BudgeTools is best explained by watching our videos. We recommend watching them in the order they are displayed here, if this is your first time considering BudgeTools.

The BudgeTools application will make much more sense to you this way.

1. BudgeTools Introduction - A Rooms Forecasting Application

2. How BudgeTools Imports Data

3. How BudgeTools Month Builder Works

4. How BudgeTools Uses Month Builder With On The Books Data

5. How BudgeTools Initializes And Builds A Budget

6. How BudgeTools Year Builder Works

The Initialization Process

At BudgeTools, we believe the premise behind occupancy patterns is that they tend to remain the same, it is demand that changes. So, it makes sense that BudgeTools will initiate the next year’s budget with a copy of the current years actuals. But wait….there is a slight twist that most forecasters understand.

When the BudgeTools programs copies the current years actuals, and most recent forecast for non actualized days, to the next year’s budget; days of the week are shifted.

For example, the first Monday in September of the current year is used to build the first Monday in September of the budget year.

A simple concept, except this is done automatically with BudgeTools; no need to go in and manually adjust numbers.

Occupancy Patterns

Peak, shoulder and off season is a familiar concept to many hotels. Most hotels can apply that same concept to days of the week - Thursday and Friday may be busy for some hotels, while Monday and Tuesday are slow, depending on the type of hotel. Each market segment can have a distinct impact on peak, shoulder and off periods. All of these forces define the unique occupancy patterns of each hotel. BudgeTools accommodates these shifts.

The BudgeTools Rolldown

BudgeTools has a feature we call the Rolldown, which allows you to modify a subtotal.

Using total forecasted rooms on one day for example, the forecaster can make a change to that total. The Rolldown will adjust the forecasted rooms for each market segment on that day so they add up to the total rooms for the day entered by the forecaster.

Watch the video below for a quick example:

Forecast Accuracy Improves

The BudgeTools initialized budget incorporates the hotel’s occupancy patterns from the previous year. The BudgeTools Rolldown allows the forecaster to adjust the budget occupancy patterns and reflect expected changes in demand. It is an intuitive process. BudgeTools provides the ‘science’ by layering changes in demand into historical occupancy patterns. The hotel, with its vision, knowledge of property and demand, provides the ‘art’.

Thus our tagline, “We are the science behind the art of forecasting.”

Our Clients