COST ACCOUNTING IN GREEK HOTEL ENTERPRISES AN EMPIRICAL APPROACH.docVIP

MunichPersonalRePEcArchive COST ACCOUNTING IN GREEK HOTEL ENTERPRISES: AN EMPIRICAL APPROACH OdysseasPavlatosandIoannisPaggios TechnologicalInstituteofChalkida,UniversityofPiraeus November2007 Onlineathttp://mpra.ub.uni-muenchen.de/6364/ MPRAPaperNo. 6364,posted20. December200706:28UTC  TOURISMOS: AN INTERNATIONAL MULTIDISCIPLINARY JOURNAL OF TOURISM Volume 2, Number 2, Autumn 2007, pp. 39-59 COST ACCOUNTING IN GREEK HOTEL ENTERPRISES: AN EMPIRICAL APPROACH Odysseas Pavlatos1 Technological Institute of Chalkida Ioannis Paggios University of Piraeus The purpose of this paper is to provide insights of the Greek Hotel Industry practices in the field of Cost Accounting. To this end, a survey was conducted with 85 firms of the Greek hotel sector with the use of questionnaires. Results show that hotel enterprises have a high fixed cost structure and also face a high proportion of indirect costs. The gathered data led us to the conclusion that the majority of the hotels use traditional cost accounting systems. Nevertheless, the adoption rate of an activity based costing (ABC) system is considered rather satisfactory considering the rates that come from surveys conducted in hotel enterprises in other countries. According to the statistical analysis, the factors that mostly affect the managerial decision of hotels in favour of an ABC system include their cost structure and the cost calculation per customers categories. Keywords: cost accounting practices, cost accounting systems, cost accounting techniques, activity based costing, hotel enterprises, Greece INTRODUCTION Very little is yet known about cost accounting and its use in tourism enterprises and especially in hotels (Pellinen, 2003). Research in cost accounting has traditionally focused on accounting systems of large manufacturing companies. In addition, most accounting researchers interested in ser