01Field guide
Guests
Upselling tours and transfers without being pushy
A sales pitch at check-in feels pushy. The same offer, sitting in a guide the guest opens on their own ten minutes after dropping their bags, does not.
The MangoHost field journal · Archive
Running a hotel in the Philippines
Page 2 of 2. Practical answers for the money, guests and working day behind a Philippine property.
02Field guide
Guests
Writing house rules guests actually read
A laminated sheet in a drawer is not a policy, it is a formality nobody reads until the moment it's violated. A shorter list, in the right place, actually gets read.
03Field guide
Guests
Turning one-time guests into returning ones
A five-star review is nice. A guest who books again without being asked is worth more — and the system's job is to make sure they get recognised the second time.
04Field guide
Guests
The questions guests ask most — and how to stop answering them
Wi-Fi password, checkout time, how the aircon works, where to eat. The same six questions, every day — and a laminated card is not actually the answer.
05Field guide
Guests
How to get more direct bookings
Most small Philippine properties don't need a booking engine to get more direct bookings. They need to answer Messenger faster and make a returning guest's second stay effortless.
06Field guide
Operations
What a shift report should contain
A paragraph of prose nobody reads is not a shift report. Five specific fields that make a report worth filing, approving, and rolling up over time.
07Field guide
Operations
Staff scheduling when half your team is part-time
A mixed roster of full-time and on-call staff breaks a paper rota fastest of all. A weekly grid, a coverage minimum, and a rule that no shift depends entirely on people who might not show.
08Field guide
Operations
A preventive maintenance schedule for a beach resort
Salt air, humidity and sand break things faster than a city property ever sees. A simple schedule by trade and frequency, and how it turns into work orders before a guest finds the fault first.
09Field guide
Operations
Clean, dirty, inspected: why a QC pass pays for itself
Most budget tools track two room states. The case for the third one — and the arithmetic that makes a few minutes of inspection cheaper than the alternative.
10Field guide
Operations
A housekeeping SOP that survives a busy weekend
A checklist works fine on a quiet Tuesday. The real test is nine departures at eleven and seven arrivals from two — here is a sequence that still holds on that day.
11Field guide
Money
How to read a hotel P&L (when your property has never had one)
Revenue, cost of sales, payroll, expenses, profit — a walkthrough of what a proper hotel profit and loss statement contains, department by department, using real Philippine numbers.
12Field guide
Money
Pricing for Holy Week and peak season, without guessing every year
Holy Week moves every year and most other peaks do not repeat on a fixed date either. A practical way to plan a rate calendar around a holiday that will not sit still.
13Field guide
Money
Why revenue is not profit, and how to actually find the difference
A record month on the booking sheet and a disappointing bank balance at the end of it are not a contradiction — they are the normal result of watching revenue and never getting as far as costs.
14Field guide
Money
ADR vs RevPAR vs occupancy: which one should you actually be watching?
Three numbers, three different questions. Which one deserves your attention changes depending on what is actually happening at your property this month — here is how to tell.
15Field guide
Money
How to set seasonal room rates (without a spreadsheet you forget to update)
One base rate for the year, then the months that are different — how seasonal pricing actually works, and the mistake that costs the most: leaving a rate unchanged past the season it was set for.
16Field guide
Philippines
What Philippine hotels need to go live: BIR, Mayor's permit, DOT
The paperwork to open an accommodation business in the Philippines, in the order it actually has to happen — and which parts are optional.
17Field guide
Operations
Running a hotel on spreadsheets: when it stops working
Spreadsheets are not the wrong tool for a small property. They are the wrong tool at a specific point — and there are four signs you have passed it.
18Field guide
Operations
The real cost of a double-booking — and how to stop it
The lost room-night is the smallest part of it. What a double-booking actually costs, why it happens to careful people, and the one structural fix.
19Field guide
Money
How to calculate RevPAR (with a Philippine example)
RevPAR in one formula, worked through with peso figures from a real-sized resort — and why occupancy on its own will mislead you.
20Field guide
Money
How much does hotel management software cost in the Philippines?
Most vendors will not tell you until you get on a call. Here is what the market actually looks like, what the pricing models do to your bill as you grow, and what to ask before you sign.
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