of 4— Set Up a Budget Season Project in Claude

What you'll accomplish

Budget season is the most document-intensive period in a revenue manager's year — multi-scenario Excel models, assumption narratives, comp set analysis, and ownership presentations all happen in a compressed window. You'll use Claude Pro to draft the narrative sections, generate scenario commentary, and analyze the competitive documents that inform your budget assumptions. The modeling stays in Excel; Claude handles the writing and synthesis that currently takes the most time.

What you'll need

Claude Pro subscription ({{tool:Claude.plan}} — {{tool:Claude.price}}/month)
Prior year budget document (PDF or paste-able text) — for Claude to understand your format
Current year YTD performance summary
STR annual benchmarking report or monthly summary
Market outlook sources: your CVB market forecast, STR Pipeline report summary, or any new supply documentation

Use Claude Pro to Cut Budget Season Prep Time in Half

Step 1: Set Up a Budget Season Project in Claude

Create a dedicated Claude Project for budget season — separate from your regular RM project, since you'll be uploading large documents.

Go to claude.ai → Projects → New Project
Name it: "[Hotel Name] [Year] Budget"
Add project instructions:

Copy and paste this

This project is for [Year] annual budget preparation for [Hotel Name].
Property: [room count] rooms, [brand/segment], [city]
Current year performance baseline: RevPAR $[X], ADR $[X], Occupancy [X]% (YTD through [month])
Budget process: [describe — e.g., "We submit to asset manager by Nov 15. Three scenarios required: conservative, base, optimistic."]
Key stakeholders: [Asset manager name], [Ownership entity name], [GM name]
Budget format: [describe your standard format — narrative + financial tables, or narrative only]
Prior year outcome: Budget was $[X] RevPAR, actual came in at $[X] — [brief explanation of variance]

Upload reference documents:
- Prior year budget narrative (PDF)
- Current year YTD performance summary
- STR benchmarking annual report

Tools:Claude Pro

This project is for [Year] annual budget preparation for [Hotel Name]. Property: [room count] rooms, [brand/segment], [city] Current year performance baseline: RevPAR $[X], ADR $[X], Occupancy [X]% (YTD through [month]) Budget process: [describe — e.g., "We submit to asset manager by Nov 15. Three scenarios required: conservative, base, optimistic."] Key stakeholders: [Asset manager name], [Ownership entity name], [GM name] Budget format: [describe your standard format — narrative + financial tables, or narrative only] Prior year outcome: Budget was $[X] RevPAR, actual came in at $[X] — [brief explanation of variance]