Between Forks

Most hotel EBITDA is not performance.

It’s what’s left after the system absorbs what it cannot fix.

Across the industry, EBITDA margins typically sit between 15% and 20%.

On paper, that suggests control.

In reality, it often signals something else.

A system that is holding together.

Not a system that works.

This is a False Stability Margin.

A business that looks stable from the outside,
while internally everything is compensating for something else.

The margin holds.

Because the system absorbs what it cannot resolve.

You see it most clearly in F&B-driven assets.

Rooms generate margin.
F&B concentrates complexity.
Labour stretches to keep the operation running.
Structure expands to manage what should not exist.

Nothing in the P&L looks broken.

That’s exactly why it is.

Look closer.

An 18% EBITDA with a 35–45% F&B revenue mix rarely comes from efficiency alone.

It usually means the operation is working harder than it should to produce the same result.

Overbuilt kitchens.
Menus that exceed operational capacity.
Labour models disconnected from demand patterns.
Management layers created to stabilise unstable systems.

None of this appears in the number.

Because it is not something you manage.

It is something your system allows.

Most operators optimise the residue.

They adjust costs.
They push teams.
They refine outputs.

The number holds.

The system does not improve.

So the margin stays stable.

And the business slowly deteriorates underneath it.

This is where the illusion becomes expensive.

Because the real question is not whether the margin looks acceptable.

It is whether the business generates sustainable cash flow.

Many do not.

They report acceptable margins while continuously reinvesting to maintain the same operational level.

Ageing kitchens.
Operational fatigue.
Continuous capex cycles.

This is not performance.

It is pressure, sustained over time.

If your EBITDA needs constant attention to hold,
the problem is not performance.

It’s design.

I don’t improve margins.

I redesign what produces them.