One goal of the new guidelines was to recognize the increasing globalization of the hotel industry, Temling said.
“Many of the changes are reflective of what’s happening in the world in our industry,” he said. “Chains based in the (United States) have generally adopted the guidelines; that’s not the problem. But we also hope chains domiciled outside this country will accept the changes outlined in the book.”
Some of the changes are small, but symbolic, Temling said. In previous editions of the book, accounting for some employee benefits reflected terminologies used by U.S. companies.
“Up through the 10th edition, we called it FICA or social security for employees’ benefits,” Temling said. “This time around we call it social benefit contribution, which is more universally acceptable.”
Large hotel companies might have more difficulty adopting the new guidelines than will smaller ones, said Michelle Russo, founder and CEO of Hotel Asset Value Enhancement, a hotel asset management and real estate advisory company. She is a member of the financial committee that created the latest edition.
“It’s actually harder for larger operators because they often have many divisions,” she said. Examples she cited affect reporting of telecommunications, labor and segmentation data.
“We created a new (information technology) department, and in a large company that is worldwide that operates on multiple accounting platforms, the mapping process is massive,” she said, adding that some companies have decided to defer adopting the new IT department guideline until 2016.
The new guidelines created more detail in labor cost reporting, which is important for ownership but a daunting task for management, Russo said.
“Previously, the rooms department (category) had one line called ‘Labor’ and 43 lines called other things, and that included printing, stationary, stamps and other stuff,” she said. “While labor is 60% of that department, previously there was no breakdown of housekeeping labor versus front office, etc.”
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