What is RevPOR? Revenue per occupied room and what it adds to ADR
RevPOR measures what a sold room actually earns, including extras. This guide explains the formula, common definition pitfalls, and how to use it with cost data.
Contents
Key takeaways
- RevPOR divides revenue by occupied rooms, so it answers what a sold room actually earned, not what it was listed at.
- ADR and RevPOR move apart when extras change: a lower rate with a strong breakfast and spa attach can leave RevPOR flat while ADR falls.
- Two definitions circulate, room revenue only and total revenue; pick one, print it on the report, and never compare two hotels that chose differently.
- In all-inclusive and half-board hotels, total-revenue RevPOR is unaffected by how the package price is split between room and board, while ADR and room-only RevPOR move with the split.
- RevPOR minus cost per occupied room gives contribution per occupied room, which is the number a rate decision should be tested against.
RevPOR (revenue per occupied room) is the revenue a hotel earns for each room it actually sells, calculated as revenue divided by occupied rooms. Unlike ADR, which counts only the room rate, RevPOR can include extras. Some hotels count room revenue only; choose one definition and write it down.
The month closes with the best ADR the hotel has posted all year, and the owner asks why the bank balance does not agree. The answer is usually sitting one line below ADR on the same report, in a number nobody read. This article gives you the RevPOR formula, the definitional choices behind it, a worked month where ADR rises while RevPOR falls, how the metric behaves in all-inclusive hotels, and how to pair it with cost per occupied room to see what a sold room actually contributes.
What is RevPOR and what does it measure?
RevPOR is revenue per occupied room: the money a hotel takes for each room it actually sells in a period. It moves the question from what a room was priced at to what the guest inside it was worth.
The numerator is revenue over a period; the denominator is the occupied rooms in that same period. Nothing else belongs in either place.
Two definitions are in circulation. Room-only RevPOR counts just the room revenue line, which gives a clean read on the room product. Total-revenue RevPOR adds food and beverage, spa, parking, minibar and other operated departments, which gives a read on the guest. Both are legitimate. What is not legitimate is switching between them mid-year, or comparing your total-revenue figure with a competitor's room-only figure.
Decide also whether the figure is gross or net of discounts, agency commissions and taxes collected on behalf of the state, and keep that choice for every period.
RevPOR is not RevPAR (that divides by rooms available), not spend per guest (that divides by people), and not revenue per stay (that divides by arrivals). The metric exists because ADR is blind to everything the guest buys after the room is sold.
Key pointThe formula in plain words
RevPOR = revenue for the period ÷ occupied rooms in the period. Write on the report header whether revenue means room revenue only or total operated revenue, and keep that definition for every period and every comparison.
How do you calculate RevPOR?
Divide the revenue you chose to count by the number of occupied rooms in the same period. Both numbers must come from the same date range and the same set of rooms, or the result means nothing.
Fix the period first: day, month or year to date. Revenue and occupied rooms must share the same cut-off, because a night audit that closes at different times on the two reports will produce a figure that never reconciles.
Count occupied rooms as rooms sold and stayed. Rooms blocked for maintenance, house use and rooms held but never occupied do not belong in the denominator. Decide how complimentary and staff rooms are treated, and apply the same rule every month: including them lowers RevPOR, excluding them raises it, and either is defensible if it is consistent.
Choose the revenue lines that match your definition. If you count total revenue, decide whether agency commissions are deducted, because a booking that pays a commission leaves less per occupied room than its rate suggests.
Then divide. For example, a hotel with 1,200 occupied room nights in a month, TRY 96,000 of room revenue and TRY 132,000 of total operated revenue reports a room-only RevPOR of 80 and a total-revenue RevPOR of 110. The figures are illustrative.
Watch the unit: one room occupied for three nights is three occupied room nights, not one. Dividing by arrivals gives revenue per stay, which is a different metric and should carry a different name. If counting nights and rooms correctly is the problem, see counting guests, rooms and nights in a hotel.
ChecklistBefore publishing the number, run these five checks
- Revenue and rooms cover the same period.
- Occupied rooms only: no blocked or house-use rooms.
- Comp and staff rooms treated by a written rule.
- Commission and tax treatment stated.
- Divided by occupied room nights, not by arrivals.
RevPOR vs ADR vs RevPAR vs TRevPAR: what is the difference?
They differ in what sits on top and what sits underneath. ADR and RevPAR count room revenue only; RevPOR counts revenue per room sold; TRevPAR counts total revenue per room available.
ADR is room revenue divided by rooms sold. It measures the price achieved on the room product and nothing else. RevPAR is room revenue divided by rooms available, or ADR multiplied by occupancy: it captures price and fill together, still on the room line only. RevPOR is revenue divided by rooms sold: it captures what the guest spent, and it is the only one of the four that can see the restaurant, the spa and the minibar. TRevPAR is total revenue divided by rooms available: it measures the earning power of the whole building per key, whether or not the key was sold.
The identity worth remembering: TRevPAR equals total-revenue RevPOR multiplied by the occupancy rate. If your three figures do not reconcile this way, one of them is built on a different base.
| Metric | Numerator | Denominator | What it tells you |
|---|---|---|---|
| ADR | Room revenue | Rooms sold | Price achieved on the room |
| RevPAR | Room revenue | Rooms available | Price and fill together |
| RevPOR, room only | Room revenue | Occupied rooms | Room product per sold room |
| RevPOR, total revenue | Total operated revenue | Occupied rooms | Value of a sold room |
| TRevPAR | Total revenue | Rooms available | Earning power per key |
Each one also misleads in its own way. ADR is blind to extras; RevPAR hides outlet performance; room-only RevPOR gives no view of guest spend; total-revenue RevPOR depends entirely on the definition chosen; and TRevPAR rises even when the cost of unsold rooms is ignored. Use ADR for pricing decisions, RevPAR for the room business, RevPOR for the guest, and TRevPAR for the asset. For the underlying formulas, see RevPAR, ADR and occupancy rate: formulas and common mistakes, and for the total-revenue side, TRevPAR explained and what to count in it.
Why can ADR rise while RevPOR falls?
Because ADR only sees the room rate, and RevPOR sees everything the guest did or did not buy. A rate move that changes guest behavior can lift one and lower the other.
Rate up, mix shifts. A higher rate can push the booking mix toward guests who take the room and little else, so the extras that used to arrive with the booking disappear. Bundling hides revenue too: when breakfast moves inside the room rate, ADR rises and the separate outlet revenue vanishes, while total revenue may be unchanged and the report looks stronger.
Channel mix matters if you count gross. A higher displayed rate sold through an agency that takes a commission can leave less per occupied room than a lower direct rate. Counting gross RevPOR conceals this; netting commissions reveals it. Length of stay changes guest value as well: a one-night stay has fewer opportunities to spend than a three-night stay at the same rate.
For example, month A has 1,000 occupied room nights, an ADR of 100, room revenue of 100,000 and food and beverage revenue of 25,000, so total-revenue RevPOR is 125. Month B has an ADR of 110, 950 occupied room nights, room revenue of 104,500 and food and beverage revenue of 12,000, so total-revenue RevPOR is about 122.6. ADR rose 10 percent and RevPOR fell. The figures are illustrative.
Watch outA rising ADR is not a result
Before calling the month a win, check RevPOR and cost per occupied room for the same period, and check whether the extras moved into the rate or out of the building.
How does RevPOR work in all-inclusive and half-board hotels?
In a packaged rate, RevPOR depends entirely on how you split the package price between room and board, so the split rule matters more than the arithmetic.
An all-inclusive rate sells room, meals, drinks and often more for one price. Unless the system splits it, it posts as a single room revenue line. Split everything to the room and ADR becomes the package price, which flatters the room product and leaves the restaurant reporting almost nothing. Split a portion to food and beverage and ADR reflects the room while the outlet reports show their own revenue.
The key point: total-revenue RevPOR does not move when you change the split, because the same money is being divided by the same occupied rooms. Room-only RevPOR and ADR move a great deal. That is why a half-board hotel's ADR is not comparable with a room-only hotel's ADR, and why total-revenue RevPOR, computed the same way on both sides, is the closer comparison.
Agree the allocation rule with finance and your accountant, keep it stable across periods, and note it on the report. How a package is split for tax purposes is a separate question for your accountant, not something to settle inside a revenue meeting. Whatever rule you choose, apply it to every board type you sell, and report board types separately rather than averaging them into one figure. For the room-rate side of this problem, see ADR in all-inclusive hotels and separating room and board revenue.
NoteThe split does not touch total-revenue RevPOR
Total-revenue RevPOR is unaffected by the package split; ADR and room-only RevPOR are. If your board types differ, compare like with like, or the comparison is between accounting choices, not between hotels.
How do you pair RevPOR with cost per occupied room?
Subtract cost per occupied room from RevPOR and you get contribution per occupied room: what one sold room leaves behind after the costs that move with it.
Cost per occupied room covers the costs that rise when a room is occupied: laundry, breakfast food cost, amenities, housekeeping labor, utilities per occupied room and agency commissions. Fixed costs such as rent, depreciation and salaried management belong below this line; loading them in turns a variable measure into a distorted one.
Contribution per occupied room equals RevPOR minus cost per occupied room. Multiply by occupied rooms for the period and you have the total the rooms business contributed. This is why a rate cut that fills the building can raise occupancy and RevPAR while lowering contribution: the extra guests bring revenue but also bring cost.
Keep the definitions aligned. If RevPOR counts total revenue, cost per occupied room must include the cost of those extras, or the contribution is overstated by exactly the amount you forgot. Read the pair over time rather than in a single month, because one busy week can hide a slow quarter. For the full breakdown, see cost per occupied room, line by line.
What should RevPOR change in your hotel?
It should change where you look for money: at the guest already in the building, not only at the next rate increase.
Upsell is the first lever. Offer upgrades and extras before arrival and during the stay, and measure attach per occupied room rather than total upsell revenue, so the number stays comparable across months. Outlets are the second: when ADR is healthy and RevPOR is not, the gap points at breakfast, the spa, parking or late checkout, not at pricing. That is a different team and a different fix.
Compare RevPOR by segment and channel, not only ADR. A high-rate segment that spends nothing may be worth less than a lower-rate segment that eats, drinks and returns. On the front office side, an offer only counts when the charge lands on the guest's bill before the account closes, so train the ask and the posting together.
Put RevPOR in the daily flash and the monthly review, always with the same definition and always next to ADR, RevPAR, TRevPAR and cost per occupied room. And skip benchmarks: there is no reliable published RevPOR figure you can safely hold your hotel against. Compare your hotel with its own history, under one written definition.
What to do next
Write your RevPOR definition on the report header today, then recompute last month under it and place the result next to ADR, RevPAR, TRevPAR and cost per occupied room. From that one page, pick a single decision, an offer to push, an outlet to fix or a segment to review, and test it against contribution per occupied room rather than against the rate alone.
Frequently asked questions
Is RevPOR the same as RevPAR?
No. RevPAR divides room revenue by rooms available, so empty rooms pull it down. RevPOR divides revenue by rooms sold, so it describes only the rooms that were actually occupied. A hotel can have a strong RevPOR and a weak RevPAR if occupancy is low.
Should RevPOR include food and beverage revenue?
It can, and both versions are used. Room-only RevPOR isolates the room product; total-revenue RevPOR describes the guest. The rule is to choose one, write it down and never compare figures built on different definitions, including across hotels.
Does a higher RevPOR always mean better performance?
No. RevPOR says nothing about what the room cost to service. Pair it with cost per occupied room to get contribution per occupied room. A rising RevPOR with a faster-rising cost per occupied room is worse, not better.
How do I use RevPOR in a budget?
Budget occupied rooms first, then apply a RevPOR assumption built on your own history under your written definition. Check the result against the TRevPAR and contribution targets, because a RevPOR assumption that ignores outlet cost will overstate what the year delivers.
Why is my RevPOR lower than another hotel's ADR?
They are different metrics on different bases, so the comparison means little. ADR counts only room revenue per room sold; RevPOR may spread total revenue across occupied rooms, and board type, package splitting and commission treatment all shift both figures. Compare your own hotel over time first.