Quick answer
GOPPAR (Gross Operating Profit Per Available Room) is the gross operating profit per available room. You calculate it by dividing GOP (total revenue minus operating costs) by the number of available room-nights in the period. Unlike RevPAR, which measures revenue only, GOPPAR also factors in costs — which makes it the most honest indicator of a hotel's real profitability. If you take in a lot but spend nearly as much to fill the rooms, GOPPAR exposes it instantly.
What GOPPAR means
GOPPAR stands for Gross Operating Profit Per Available Room. The word that sets it apart from RevPAR is profit. We're no longer talking about how much you take in per room, but how much is left after covering the cost of running the place.
The denominator is the same as RevPAR — available rooms, empty ones included — but the numerator changes radically: not revenue, but GOP, what remains after paying for labour, energy, cleaning, marketing, OTA commissions and routine maintenance.
In one sentence: GOPPAR answers the question that really counts at month-end — how much operating profit does each room I own generate?
The GOPPAR formula
The formula is simple; the real work is calculating GOP correctly.
GOPPAR = Gross Operating Profit ÷ available rooms in the period
Where:
GOP = total revenue − total operating costs
Mind the denominator: available rooms in the period means rooms × nights. A 100-room hotel over a 30-day month has 100 × 30 = 3,000 available room-nights.
Worked example
100-room hotel, 30-day month (3,000 available room-nights).
| Item | Amount | |---|---| | Room revenue | 210,000 € | | F&B and extras | 60,000 € | | Total revenue | 270,000 € | | Operating costs (labour, energy, cleaning, OTA, marketing, maintenance) | 180,000 € | | GOP | 90,000 € |
GOPPAR = 90,000 € ÷ 3,000 = 30 €
Each available room, sold or not, generated 30 € of operating profit. To run this from your own revenue and costs — and also get GOP and operating margin — use the GOPPAR calculator.
What goes into GOP (and what doesn't)
GOP is an operating profit: it measures how well the current operation performs, before items tied to ownership and the financial structure.
| Inside GOP | Outside GOP | |---|---| | Room, F&B, spa, extra revenue | Property rent or mortgage | | Labour cost | Loan interest | | Energy, water, heating | Income taxes | | Cleaning, linen, amenities | Depreciation | | OTA commissions and marketing | Capital expenditure (CapEx) | | Routine maintenance | |
The logic is clear: GOP isolates what management actually controls day to day. Rent, interest and tax depend on ownership and fiscal choices, not on how well the hotel is run. That's why GOPPAR is the KPI used to assess management performance.
GOPPAR vs RevPAR: the difference that changes decisions
This is the heart of the matter. RevPAR and GOPPAR share a denominator but tell different stories.
| KPI | Numerator | What it measures | |---|---|---| | RevPAR | Room revenue | Revenue per available room | | GOPPAR | Gross Operating Profit | Profit per available room |
RevPAR is a sales indicator: it tells you whether you're filling rooms and at what price. GOPPAR is a profitability indicator: it tells you whether that fill leaves any margin.
When the two numbers contradict each other
Picture an aggressive promotion that fills the hotel at low rates.
- RevPAR: rises, because you sell more rooms.
- GOPPAR: can fall, because each extra room brings variable costs (cleaning, breakfast, linen, utilities) that eat into margin.
This is the classic mistake of immature revenue management: chasing RevPAR and celebrating high occupancy that, by month-end, left less money than before. GOPPAR unmasks those moves.
An example pitting the two KPIs against each other
Two scenarios for the same 100-room hotel on one night (100 available rooms).
Scenario A — full rates, average occupancy
- 65 rooms sold at 160 € → room revenue 10,400 €
- RevPAR = 10,400 ÷ 100 = 104 €
- Operating costs for the night: 4,500 € → GOP = 5,900 €
- GOPPAR = 5,900 ÷ 100 = 59 €
Scenario B — promotion, hotel full
- 95 rooms sold at 110 € → room revenue 10,450 €
- RevPAR = 10,450 ÷ 100 = 104.50 €
- Operating costs for the night: 6,200 € (more rooms = more cleaning, breakfasts, linen) → GOP = 4,250 €
- GOPPAR = 4,250 ÷ 100 = 42.50 €
On RevPAR the two scenarios look almost identical (104 € vs 104.50 €): a superficial revenue manager would judge them equivalent. But on GOPPAR, scenario A wins clearly (59 € vs 42.50 €), because it filled fewer rooms at a far higher margin.
The basis of all this reasoning is knowing what an occupied room truly costs: you work that out with the cost per occupied room calculator. And to break RevPAR into its two engines — ADR and occupancy — there's the RevPAR and ADR calculator.
What counts as a "good" GOPPAR
As with RevPAR, there's no magic number that works for everyone. A 5-star resort and a budget hotel have incompatible cost structures. GOPPAR is always judged relatively, never in the absolute:
- History — GOPPAR for the same period last year. Seasonality dominates: compare July with July.
- Budget — the target you set at the start of the year.
- Comp set — hotels comparable by category and market.
A useful extra figure is the GOP margin (GOP ÷ total revenue, as a percentage): it tells you how much of turnover becomes operating profit. Alongside GOPPAR, it gives the full picture — one in euros per room, the other as a percentage of revenue.
Levers to raise GOPPAR
Because GOPPAR = GOP ÷ available rooms, and the room count is fixed, the only route is to grow the GOP. You have two fronts.
Lift the right revenue
- Dynamic pricing on room rates to maximise revenue on high-demand nights.
- Push high-margin departments: F&B, spa and events often earn more than the bare room.
- Direct channel: every booking that avoids the OTA commission (15-25%) lands whole in GOP.
Keep costs in check
- Labour cost aligned to real occupancy: payroll is the heaviest line.
- Energy and utilities: consumption per occupied room is a concrete, measurable lever.
- Smart outsourcing of laundry and cleaning where it pays off.
The principle is single: every decision must be judged on its impact on GOP, not turnover.
Common mistakes
- Confusing GOPPAR and RevPAR. They're relatives, not twins: one measures revenue, the other profit. Setting rates and promotions on RevPAR alone leads to filling the hotel while losing margin.
- Forgetting OTA commissions in the cost calculation. A 150 € booking with an 18% commission really leaves 123 €: omit it and GOP is inflated.
- Using sold rooms instead of available ones. The GOPPAR denominator is always available rooms (rooms × nights), empty ones included. Get it wrong and the figure becomes incomparable.
- Putting rent and depreciation inside GOP. These are non-operating costs: GOP leaves them out to measure pure management performance.
- Reading a single month's GOPPAR. Without a comparison to history, budget and comp set, the absolute value says almost nothing.
Related resources
- GOPPAR calculator — from revenue to profit per room
- RevPAR and ADR calculator — the three revenue KPIs at once
- Cost per occupied room calculator — the basis of every pricing decision