Dear WuBookers, among the burdens incumbent on hoteliers and property managers are several daily legal and bureaucratic tasks. These include, for example, the creation and sending of institutional reports, for statistical or control purposes, to the relevant local departments. Procedures that are in addition to routine activities, such as those related to sales strategy and revenue management.

Let’s find out together how WuBook’s Zak supports hoteliers in both producing internal statistical reports and generating official documents.

Statistics and trend data for internal use

Before getting into the thick of things, it is important to make a premise: institutional reports and internal reports are not the same thing. The former can be requested by authorities or local statistical offices-a practice in place in many but not all countries.

Internal reports, on the other hand, are those that gather the facility’s statistics related to reservations received, rates, revenues. In other words, they are the indicators and results that the revenue manager or those in charge need to assess the facility’s performance and take action where necessary. This is confidential data, useful regardless of the country to which the hotel belongs. That’s why Zak, WuBook’s all-in-one PMS, also integrates this function natively and returns a complete overview of the revenue generated from reservations. How? Through data that is always up-to-date and customizable by time period and related to:

• total revenue, including room sales, extras and meals;
• room production, i.e., revenue generated from room sales alone;
• meals revenue: revenue generated from all meals, both those included in the rate and additional meals;
• extras revenue: covering only extras from reservations;
• rooms revenue rate: percentage ratio between the output generated by rooms only and the total output;
• available rooms (available rooms);
• closed rooms (closed rooms);
• sold rooms (rooms sold);
• occupancy rate: percentage ratio of sold rooms to available rooms;
• RevPAR: output generated for each available room;
• ADR: average daily rate of rooms sold;
• TrevPAR: total production per available room;
• TrevPOR: total revenue per occupied room.

A very important dashboard, often overlooked by other PMSs, this area helps you optimize the management of the facility and its revenues.

The PII module for institutional file management

Zak’s PII module, WuBook’s hotel software, allows you to automatically configure and send institutional reports to the relevant authorities, thus easing staff operations and reducing the risk of errors or forgetfulness.

Thanks to its specific and default features, it can be used as is in different countries or adapted to the specific needs of each: let’s see its main features.

Countries and reports already included in the package

Zak’s PII is already prepared for the creation of files intended for the main bodies in charge of registering and monitoring tourist attendance of:

• Andorra (report ROAT)
• Chile (report INE)
• Colombia (report Sire)
• Greece (report Elstat)
• Italy (report Istat and Alloggiati)
• Portugal (report Sef)
• Spain (reports: Istac, Eustat, INE, Viajero)

This means that, after activating the package and entering your data, Zak allows you to produce the report with all the information required by each system and send it to the various institutional entities according to the timeframe and mode.

Sending modes: automatic, semi-automatic, manual.

Not all portals work the same way, and there can be differences even between one region and another within the same country. Therefore, Zak offers the opportunity to decide which mode to adopt between automatic, semi-automatic, and manual sending.

In the automatic sending, from a certain time onwards (which depends on local regulations), the PMS autonomously detects the presence of any check-ins and check-outs, records the report with guest data, and sends it to the relevant authority, without any further steps by the hotelier.

The semi-automatic mode is almost identical, but requires the operator’s authorization for the operation to be completed. In other words, before transmitting the report, you can check that everything is okay and confirm the submission.

In the manual version, on the other hand, you can take advantage of Zak to fill out the form, which must then be saved on your computer and submitted manually to the official portal.  

The generated reports are still accessible for a certain period of time, and can be downloaded whenever desired. In addition, if something goes wrong in the automatic or semi-automatic submission process, Zak sends an email notification to warn of errors or problems.

The generic template for all other needs

For all those countries for which a report is not already prepared within Zak, it is possible to configure the Generic PII report that includes check-in data.

In this case, the submission option is only manual, so – once the document is created – you need to download it to your computer and submit it through the reference portal.  

Timeshares

What if you own multiple properties? No problem: Zak also allows you to manage timeshares, both within the same country and in different countries.

In the first case, in fact, all you need to do is mark the rooms with custom labels, to distinguish which property they belong to (e.g., “sea” or “mountain”), and activate the “Multi Property” mode within PII, configuring the different properties. By doing so, configuration and file production will remain separate for each structure.

A similar procedure also applies in the case of chains with hotels located in different countries, so it is possible to log in separately according to ownership and freely decide in which PII to submit.

Institutional reports in detail

We have seen that Zak is programmed to know the timing, data and format required for each country (or, in the case of Italy, each region) needed to generate the relevant report.

To better understand how this translates in practice, let’s review the main features of each.

ROAT (Andorra)

Required by the Registre d’Ocupació d’Allotjaments Turístics in Andorra, includes the following details:

• check-ins (not check-outs);
• both domestic and foreign guests;
• guests who are at least 16 years old.

It’s provided for all three modes of submission (manual, semi-automatic and automatic) and each guest is sent only once.

INE (Chile)

In this case, submission is manual only and must be done on the portal of the Chilean National Institute of Statistics. Details included are:

• check-ins;
• check-outs;
• information on occupancy and prices;
• domestic guests;
• foreign guests.

Sire (Colombia)

It is also only manual to send the Sire report, which is required for the Colombian Department of Tourism, which includes:

• check-ins;
• check-outs;
• foreign guests only, so no Colombians.

Each guest is also sent only once.

Elstat (Greece)

The institutional report required by the Hellenic Statistical Authority, provides for the grouping of the facility’s guests by country of residence: this is therefore the only field required by the hotelier, who can produce the form monthly through Zak and upload it manually to the Institute’s portal.

Istat (Italy)

Two different types of reports with different purposes are required in Italy: Istat (Italian National Institute of Statistics), for statistical purposes, and Alloggiati, intended for the Italian State Police.

The Istat report includes:

• check-ins (check-outs depend on Region);
• employment information (depending on the Region);
• domestic guests;
• foreign guests.

In addition to manual, semi-automatic and automatic submission, there is also the option for some regions to reset the report and resend it in case of errors or last-minute changes to the reservation post submission.

Alloggiati (Italy)

Regarding the Alloggiati report or “schedules” Alloggiati, as they are called, Zak includes:

• only arrivals for the day;
• domestic guests;
• foreign guests.

Each guest is sent only once.

The timing of sending, which can be done in all modes, depends on the duration of stay: if the guest stays several days, the hotelier has 24 hours; while if they stay only one night, the submission should be made immediately after check-in.

It is also important to remember that it is mandatory to keep the receipts of the report submission in case of checks.

SEF (Portugal)

The SEF report is required by the Portuguese Police Department and can only be transmitted in manual mode with the following data:

• check-ins;
• check-outs;
• foreign guests only, so no Portuguese;
• each guest is sent only once.

Hoteliers have up to 3 days to make the submission.

ISTAC (Spain)

Manual export also for the report needed for the National Institute of Statistics of the Canary Islands. Information included are:

• check-ins;
• check-outs;
• occupancy and prices;
• domestic guests;
• foreign guests.

EUSTAT (Spain)

The Basque Institute of Statistics requests a report similar to that of ISTAC but valid only for the Basque Country. The country of residence and the City or ZIP code are also added to the guest information.

The report should be produced monthly and can be sent automatically.  

INE (Spain)

The INE report is directed to the Spanish National Institute of Statistics. It can be sent manually and must contain the following details:

• check-ins;
• check-outs;
• information on occupancy and prices;
• domestic guests;
• foreign guests.

Viajero (Spain)

Instead, the Spanish Police Department requires a dedicated report, with information on:

• check-ins (not check-outs);
• domestic guests with at least 16 years of age;
• foreign guests with the same registry criteria as domestic guests;

The hotelier has about 72h to make the submission and each guest has to be submitted only once.
Stringent criteria and different variables for each country make these procedures quite onerous if you are not supported by technology: Zak from WuBook does that too!