Analyzing customer profitability in hotels using activity based costing

This paper investigates the use of customer profitability analysis (CPA) in four and five star hotels located in Algarve (Portugal). Traditional accounting systems have been criticized for focusing on product, service or department profitability, and not on customer profitability, thus failing t...

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Main Authors: Ana Rita Faria, Leonor Ferreira, Duarte Trigueiros
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: University of Algarve, ESGHT/CINTURS 2018-07-01
Series:Tourism & Management Studies
Subjects:
Online Access:https://tmstudies.net/index.php/ectms/article/view/1089/pdf_109
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author Ana Rita Faria
Leonor Ferreira
Duarte Trigueiros
author_facet Ana Rita Faria
Leonor Ferreira
Duarte Trigueiros
author_sort Ana Rita Faria
collection DOAJ
description This paper investigates the use of customer profitability analysis (CPA) in four and five star hotels located in Algarve (Portugal). Traditional accounting systems have been criticized for focusing on product, service or department profitability, and not on customer profitability, thus failing to provide effective information to marketing-related decisions. Results are reported by operating departments, whilst marketing activities focus on customer market segments. Recognizing the growing emphasis on customer value creation, and to overcome the mismatch between the provision and use of information in hotels, CPA techniques have been suggested. Notwithstanding their benefits, namely a strategic focus, hotels still apply traditional techniques. A structured questionnaire collected through personal interviews showed that CPA is far from widespread in hotel management; instead, hotels accumulate costs in profit centers and in cost centers. None of the surveyed hotels had adopted activity based costing, despite this technique being viewed as the most appropriate to calculate individual customer profitability.
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institution Kabale University
issn 2182-8466
language English
publishDate 2018-07-01
publisher University of Algarve, ESGHT/CINTURS
record_format Article
series Tourism & Management Studies
spelling doaj-art-54d8cc71a3a949e49e5da926db0a2ef12025-02-02T17:47:55ZengUniversity of Algarve, ESGHT/CINTURSTourism & Management Studies2182-84662018-07-01143657410.18089/tms.2018.14306Analyzing customer profitability in hotels using activity based costingAna Rita Faria0Leonor Ferreira 1Duarte Trigueiros2University of Algarve, ESGHT, Campus da Penha, 8005-139 Faro, PortugalNova School of Business and Economics, Campus de Carcavelos, Rua da Holanda, 1, 2775-405 Carcavelos, PortugalISTAR-IUL, University Institute of Lisbon, Av. Forças Armadas, 1694-026 Lisbon, PortugalThis paper investigates the use of customer profitability analysis (CPA) in four and five star hotels located in Algarve (Portugal). Traditional accounting systems have been criticized for focusing on product, service or department profitability, and not on customer profitability, thus failing to provide effective information to marketing-related decisions. Results are reported by operating departments, whilst marketing activities focus on customer market segments. Recognizing the growing emphasis on customer value creation, and to overcome the mismatch between the provision and use of information in hotels, CPA techniques have been suggested. Notwithstanding their benefits, namely a strategic focus, hotels still apply traditional techniques. A structured questionnaire collected through personal interviews showed that CPA is far from widespread in hotel management; instead, hotels accumulate costs in profit centers and in cost centers. None of the surveyed hotels had adopted activity based costing, despite this technique being viewed as the most appropriate to calculate individual customer profitability.https://tmstudies.net/index.php/ectms/article/view/1089/pdf_109customer profitability analysismarket segmentation profit analysisactivity based costinghotel sectoralgarve
spellingShingle Ana Rita Faria
Leonor Ferreira
Duarte Trigueiros
Analyzing customer profitability in hotels using activity based costing
Tourism & Management Studies
customer profitability analysis
market segmentation profit analysis
activity based costing
hotel sector
algarve
title Analyzing customer profitability in hotels using activity based costing
title_full Analyzing customer profitability in hotels using activity based costing
title_fullStr Analyzing customer profitability in hotels using activity based costing
title_full_unstemmed Analyzing customer profitability in hotels using activity based costing
title_short Analyzing customer profitability in hotels using activity based costing
title_sort analyzing customer profitability in hotels using activity based costing
topic customer profitability analysis
market segmentation profit analysis
activity based costing
hotel sector
algarve
url https://tmstudies.net/index.php/ectms/article/view/1089/pdf_109
work_keys_str_mv AT anaritafaria analyzingcustomerprofitabilityinhotelsusingactivitybasedcosting
AT leonorferreira analyzingcustomerprofitabilityinhotelsusingactivitybasedcosting
AT duartetrigueiros analyzingcustomerprofitabilityinhotelsusingactivitybasedcosting