STLY (Same Time Last Year) answers the one question every hotelier asks when they see the night’s numbers: “good or bad compared with last year?” The hard part is not the calculation. It is the times when there is no answer — and what you do then.
“Last year” does not come from anywhere — you build it
The comparison reads no market database and no industry history. It reads your own recorded nights. That has a consequence worth understanding before you complain about the gaps: in the first year the comparison is mostly silent. That is not a fault. It is the truth of the first year.
It is also why recording the night is not paperwork. Every night you close today is the denominator of the same night next year. The second season with the tool does not look like the first — not because the app changed, but because it now has a past.
Four answers at night level, not one
When you ask for last year’s figure for a specific night, the app does not always return a number. It returns one of four states, and tells you which:
- Found — with its basis stated. Next to the number it shows which night you are looking at: “Sat 4 Oct 2025”, or “Easter 2025 (3 nights)”. It does not ask you to trust a comparison without telling you what it compares with.
- Not found. No night from last year recorded for this date. The field stays empty — it does not write zero, it does not use the week’s average. Not knowing is called not knowing.
- You were closed. There is a recorded night, with no activity. That is a fact, not missing data — and it is shown differently from the previous state. The difference looks small until someone tells you “last year you had zero revenue” when they mean “I don’t know”.
- Incomplete reference. Last year’s holiday lasted three nights and you recorded one. The average comes from the nights that were found and is marked as incomplete, instead of passing for complete.
Which night from last year is the right one — same date, same weekday or same holiday name — is a separate question, answered in detail in the article on holidays and local events. Here we care about what you do with the result.
The fifth state: the month that refuses to be compared
At month level there is a mistake that is arithmetically right and completely misleading: a month with 4 recorded nights out of 31, next to a complete month last year, gives “last year −88%”. No number there is wrong. The comparison is.
That is why a month is classed in one of three states:
- Complete — every comparison is a result.
- Current — the comparison is a pace, not a result, and it is made on what is secured (actuals plus what is already on the books) — not on actuals to date.
- Past, with gaps — no comparison holds, and it says so.
Where all this leads: the month’s target
The comparison with last year is not there for looking back. It is there to give you something to stand on as you move forward. The month’s revenue target is not a number you dream up in the shower: it is last year’s revenue for the same month, plus the growth you want.
Growth you want: 8%
Month target = 61,500 × 1.08 = €66,420
Per day: 66,420 ÷ 30 = €2,214
At an ADR of €86 → 2,214 ÷ 86 = 25.7 rooms a night
That is, occupancy: 25.7 ÷ 47 = 54.7%
The target has stopped being a slogan. It is now 26 rooms a night — a number the night auditor can look at and say “we made it” or “we are three short”. That is the whole difference between a target that hangs on the wall and one that works.
Did you know? In WisDom RM the month’s target is worked out for you: last year’s revenue times the growth you set in the Settings. Last year comes from the complete month you recorded, if you have it, and otherwise from the figure you entered. The target then becomes room nights and occupancy, at three rates. The growth is your decision, not a suggestion from the app.
Try it free for 14 days →A warning about the target
The revenue target is gross. It does not take off commissions, because the app does not know which channel each booking came from. Two months with the same revenue and a different channel mix leave a different amount in the bank. The target tells you whether you are getting where you wanted. It does not tell you what is left.
And pace: last year at the same point, not last year at the end
There is one more trap, and it is the easiest to fall into. When you look at a month that has not come yet, your rooms are still filling up. Compare them with last year’s final and you will see permanent red percentages that mean nothing — you are comparing a race still running with one that has finished.
The right comparison is at the same pickup point: how many rooms you had booked last year at this time, the same number of days before arrival. That is the question “am I ahead or behind?” — and it is different from “did I make it?”. It is explained step by step in booking pace.
The comparison with last year is one of your two compasses. The other is where you stand today against the hotels around you — and that is measured by ARI. One compares you with yourself, the other with the market. You need both.
Conclusion
Keep three things. “Last year” is yours, and you build it by recording — the first year is silent, and that is fine. A gap in the comparison is not a fault: it is the difference between “I don’t know” and “it was zero”, and it is worth reading. And last year is not a monument — it is the basis of this year’s target, turned into rooms a night. One thing worth trying: enter last year’s revenue for next month and see how many rooms a night the growth you have in mind really means.
Mathematician with studies in hospitality management and years of night shifts in hotels. WisDom RM — and this blog — were born on the night shift.
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