Hotels + Public Money

This story is about how institutional work taught me that trust is built when reality and representation remain aligned.

Years later, I entered institutional advisory work.
It was a very different world from hotel operations.

Instead of guests, employees, and owners, I found myself working with international financial institutions, donor-funded development programmes, procurement frameworks, governance structures, and advisory assignments supporting hotels and tourism businesses across emerging markets.

Many readers may wonder what that actually means.

In this context, a donor is not a charity.
A donor is typically a national government, a group of governments, or an international organisation that allocates development funding to strengthen economic growth and stability in other countries.
Rather than providing money directly to businesses, these funds are often channelled through international financial institutions and development programmes.
Part of those resources finances technical advisory projects for small and medium-sized enterprises.

The purpose is not charity.
It is sustainable economic development.
The idea is simple: Strong businesses create employment, generate tax revenue, attract investment, and contribute to more resilient local economies.
For hotel, restaurant, and travel trade owners, this often means access to highly subsidised advisory support covering subjects such as commercial repositioning, operational improvement, governance, financial management, leadership development, or business planning.

The objective is not to take over the business.
The objective is to leave behind knowledge that remains valuable long after the advisory assignment has finished.
In other words, the objective is not to create dependency on advisors but to build capability within the business itself.

Donor-funded advisory often provides SMEs with the support they need once they begin experiencing growing pains.
Examples of such SMEs include family-owned hotels and restaurants and travel agencies, all of which are based in developing economies.
Many of these enterprises are not yet ready for private equity or institutional investment because they have not yet developed the governance, reporting, and management capabilities required to manage third-party capital.
Many aspire to reach that stage, each progressing at its own pace.

I found that idea inspiring.
My role was to help SMEs become stronger businesses by improving governance, commercial performance, financial planning, and management capability, thereby preparing them to access finance and use investment responsibly.
No two businesses were ever the same. The principles often were.

The work took me to countries, businesses, cultures, and ultimately, people.
Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Croatia, Egypt, Georgia, Greece, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyz Republic, Moldova, Mongolia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovakia, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Tatarstan, Tunisia, Uzbekistan, and Ukraine.

Much of the work was rewarding.
Some of it was frustrating.

What surprised me most, however, was how similar the underlying challenges were to those I had encountered years earlier in hotel operations.

• People remained people.
• Ambition remained ambition.
• Fear remained fear.
• And trust remained fragile.

The larger the system became, the easier it was for reality and representation to drift apart.

Reports could look better than facts.
Processes could appear stronger than their implementation.
Compliance could exist on paper while underlying problems remained unresolved.
Whenever reality and representation diverged, difficulties eventually emerged.

The larger the gap, the greater the consequences.
Over time, I realised that governance is often misunderstood.
Many people see governance as bureaucracy.
I came to see it differently.

Governance is simply the process of managing expectations.

• Who decides?
• Who is responsible?
• Who is accountable?
• Who knows what?
• What happens when something goes wrong?

Without clear answers, trust slowly erodes.
That observation reinforced something I had learned years earlier while managing hotels.

Integrity is not a slogan.
It is the alignment between what is said and what is done.

I remain grateful for the opportunity to have worked with international financial institutions, donors, local entrepreneurs, and hotel owners across many countries.
The experience convinced me that these programmes remain important where markets, public administration, or political systems alone cannot fully support private-sector development.

But they also confirmed something even more fundamental.
No institution, governance framework, or procurement process can substitute for personal integrity.
In the end, every system still depends on people choosing to do the right thing when nobody is watching.

Thank you for reading my story.

This story is part of a series—”The Banana Republic Hotel and What It Taught Me About Myself”—in which I share lessons learned throughout my professional and personal journey and how those experiences have shaped my thinking and led me to develop my own principles.

If you enjoyed reading the story and have the appetite to read another one, you are invited to visit G&A’s website, in particular its INSIGHTS page, where you can find all stories.
Alternatively, click here to be taken to the next story.

I hope it has provided some food for thought, encouraged curiosity, and inspired you to keep learning.

Curiosity, humility, and continuous learning remain among the most valuable tools we possess.

Terminology for non-hoteliers:

• SOP: Standard Operating Procedure – a documented process describing how a task should be performed to ensure consistency, quality, and compliance.
• KPIs: Key Performance Indicators – measurable indicators used to monitor performance and progress against objectives.
• ADR: Average Daily Rate – the average room rate paid by guests.
• RevPAR: Revenue per Available Room – a measure combining occupancy and room rate to assess hotel revenue performance.
• Occupancy: The percentage of available rooms that are occupied.
• DOF: Double Occupancy Factor – the average number of guests staying in each occupied room. A DOF of 1.0 means every occupied room has one guest; 2.0 means every occupied room has two guests.
• AGC: Average Guest Check – the average amount spent by each guest in a restaurant, bar, or other food and beverage outlet.
• CRS: Central Reservation System – the central booking system that manages a hotel’s room inventory, rates, and reservations across all sales channels.
• PMS: Property Management System – the software used to manage reservations, guest accounts, and hotel operations.
• OTA: Online Travel Agency – websites such as Booking.com or Expedia that sell hotel rooms on behalf of hotels.
• GDS: Global Distribution System – a worldwide booking network used by travel agents and corporate travel departments to reserve hotel rooms, flights, and other travel services.
• CRM: Customer Relationship Management – systems and processes used to manage guest relationships and marketing.
• F&B: Food & Beverage Department – all restaurant, bar, banquet, room service, and catering operations within a hotel.
• Half-Board: A hotel meal plan that includes breakfast and one additional meal each day, usually dinner. Drinks other than those specifically included are generally charged separately.
• MICE: Meetings, Incentives, Conferences and Events – the hotel business related to corporate meetings, conferences, exhibitions, and incentive travel.
• ERP: Enterprise Resource Planning – an integrated software system that connects key business functions such as finance, procurement, inventory, human resources, sales, and reporting into a single platform.
• USALI: Uniform System of Accounts for the Lodging Industry – the internationally recognised accounting standard used by hotels to measure and compare financial performance.
• GOP: Gross Operating Profit – the operating profit generated by the hotel before management fees, rent, financing costs, depreciation, taxes, and other non-operating expenses.
• EBITDA: Earnings Before Interest, Taxes, Depreciation and Amortisation – a widely used measure of an organisation’s operating profitability.
• COS: Cost of Sales – the direct cost of producing the goods sold, such as food, beverages, or merchandise, expressed as an amount or percentage of revenue.
• FTE: Full-Time Equivalent – a standard measure of staffing that converts part-time and seasonal employees into the equivalent number of full-time employees.

About the Author

Raoul Gransier is a Senior International Adviser and owner-focused hotelier with more than 30 years of operational and advisory experience in hospitality, tourism, governance, and performance improvement.

Website

https://gransier.com