Gross Revenue in Hotel RFPs (Plain English Definition + Examples)

Definition

Gross revenue in a hotel MICE context is the total contracted spend before any concessions, rebates, taxes, or service charges are applied — used as the calculation base for attrition fees, commissionable rates, and many force-majeure damage caps.

In European MICE sourcing, gross revenue sits inside a broader workflow that includes the brief, the longlist, the shortlist, the contract negotiation, and the post-event reconciliation. Understanding it in isolation is not enough — what matters is how it interacts with the other levers a planner can pull. The definition above is the textbook version; the sections below explain how it actually behaves in real RFPs.

Why Gross Revenue matters

Whether a clause is calculated 'on gross revenue' or 'on net revenue' is a five-figure decision. Attrition fees on gross revenue can be 20-25% higher than the same fee on net revenue. Always check the definition early in the contract; do not let the hotel default to gross unchallenged.

Example

Contracted event: rooms €75,600 + F&B minimum €18,000 + meeting room rental €6,000 = €99,600 gross revenue. Attrition fee at 50% of unmet rooms calculated on gross room revenue (€75,600) vs net (€75,600 - 8% concessions = €69,552). Difference: €3,024 on the same attrition trigger.

Where Gross Revenue appears in contracts

Gross vs net definitions live in the definitions section at the front of the contract. Spend 10 minutes reading those definitions before the rates section — they cascade through every fee calculation.

Related terms

Deeper reading