CPOR (Cost per Occupied Room)
CPOR (Cost per Occupied Room) is an operational efficiency metric that expresses a hotel's total departmental operating costs relative to the number of rooms actually occupied during a given period. It is the expense-side counterpart to ADR and is most useful when analysed alongside RevPAR and GOPPAR to understand the true relationship between revenue and cost.
Formula
CPOR = Total Operating Costs ÷ Number of Occupied Rooms
Total operating costs typically include rooms department costs, housekeeping labour and supplies, front desk labour, guest amenities, and allocated overhead. The exact scope varies: some operators use a rooms-only CPOR; others include food & beverage, maintenance, and shared services. Consistency in definition is essential when comparing across properties or periods.
Example
A 200-room hotel with 150 rooms occupied on a given night incurs $18,000 in total rooms-related operating costs. Its CPOR is $18,000 ÷ 150 = $120. If ADR that night was $180, the rooms department gross margin per occupied room was $60.
Why it matters
A hotel can achieve a high ADR and strong RevPAR while still running poor profitability if operating costs are not controlled. Rising labour costs, elevated amenity spend, or inefficient housekeeping workflows can erode the margin gains from rate growth. Comparing CPOR against prior periods, budget, and competitive benchmarks — via providers such as HotStats — reveals whether cost inflation is outpacing revenue improvement.
CPOR also informs minimum viable rate decisions: if CPOR is $120, accepting business below that threshold produces a direct loss on a cash-cost basis (before fixed-cost allocation).
Relationship to other metrics
- CPOR vs ADR: The gap between ADR and CPOR gives a rough rooms-department contribution margin per occupied room.
- CPOR vs GOPPAR: GOPPAR captures revenue minus all operating costs across all available rooms; improving CPOR directly lifts GOPPAR.
- CPOR vs TRevPAR: When ancillary revenue is significant, combining CPOR analysis with TRevPAR gives a fuller picture of total profitability per occupied room.