Board and treasurer work for a family ski lodge. No legal name.
Chris had been on the board four years when COVID hit in March 2020. The chair and treasurer resigned. The lodge was moving onto Xero, but there was no budget and no forecast, and winter opening was early June. He took treasurer, built a budget, then a cash-flow forecast. That forecast made one thing obvious: they needed a government-underwritten small-business loan as a buffer. They opened in June. The buffer carried them through the end of the 2021 season. Government support arrived in 2021, but it had not been certain when they borrowed. Without the loan, they would have run out of cash.
Once they were through COVID, the live problem was the year itself. Most cash comes in February through August, with the bulk in February and March. Money goes out June through November. October is when the board plans off-season maintenance: what is urgent, and what can they actually afford. Directors carry real obligations around trading while insolvent, so the cash-flow forecast is on every monthly agenda. That rhythm is how the lodge decides what to spend, and when to wait.
The lodge was built in the 1960s, high in the alps. Late 2019 into early 2020 they renovated five of the nine room bathrooms. The plan was to split the work across two summers. The first round already reduced cash. Then lockdowns hit revenue, and the second round had to wait. They finished the remaining bathrooms in the 2023-24 summer, once the cash-flow forecast said they could afford it. Summers since have been modest repairs, not another lump of capital.
For more than ten years the lodge ran on a booking system built for another ski lodge, maintained by one man now in his seventies. They ran a software selection and chose Checkfront. It handles bookings, availability and pricing. Reports the product did not ship with, oversnow transport and longer lead times on supply, were built as extracts so operations could plan. The real gain is forward capacity. Empty rooms are visible in time to promote, and to put incentives on the nights that would otherwise sit empty.
When the booking system showed spare rooms, the lodge did not cut the rate. They offered fifty dollars a person for a two-night stay, as a meal voucher at a local cafe. Guests received it by email. The lodge only paid the cafe once the voucher was scanned. Occupancy went up. Cash only left when the guest actually ate.
COO d'Prix Pty Ltd · Sydney, NSW · ABN 77 649 762 710 ·