RevPASH: revenue per available seat hour
What is RevPASH and how do I calculate it?
RevPASH is revenue per available seat hour. Divide dine-in sales for a period by available seats multiplied by the hours in that period. It measures revenue from seating capacity, but does not establish profitability on its own.
A full dining room for one hour followed by empty tables tells a different story from a steadily occupied evening. RevPASH relates sales to both capacity and time.
The term means Revenue Per Available Seat Hour and is used in restaurant revenue management. See Sheryl Kimes’s Cornell report on Restaurant Revenue Management.
Start with a complete meal period
RevPASH = sales during the period / available seat hours.
When capacity stays constant, available seat hours equal seats multiplied by hours.
Hypothetical example: 40 seats available for four hours provide 160 seat hours. Dine-in sales of SEK 32,000 excluding VAT give a RevPASH of SEK 200 per seat hour.
Use a consistent VAT basis, preferably excluding VAT for financial analysis. Include only sales from the operation whose seats you are measuring. Takeaway does not use dining room seats and should not inadvertently inflate the result.
When available seating changes
If the terrace opens for only part of the evening, multiply each area’s seats by its own available hours.
Example: 40 indoor seats for four hours provide 160 seat hours. Another 20 outdoor seats for two hours add 40. Total capacity is 200 seat hours. With corresponding sales of SEK 36,000, RevPASH is SEK 180.
Sales are higher than in the first example, but RevPASH is lower because more capacity was available. Adding seats does not automatically improve the metric.
Be careful with short intervals
A guest may occupy a seat from 18:00 to 20:00 and pay at 20:05. Assigning all revenue to the payment hour gives a distorted picture of when capacity was used. Begin with complete lunch or dinner periods and document how visits crossing period boundaries are handled.
Cornell research on calculating RevPASH explains why revenue allocation matters, especially over short intervals.
Use the metric to ask specific questions
Compare the same weekdays and meal periods. Investigate whether empty seats reflect weak demand, a table mix that does not match party sizes or unnecessary gaps between visits. Review average spend and product mix too.
Reduce waiting to order or pay without rushing guests through their meals. An additional seating requires demand and kitchen capacity.
RevPASH measures revenue, not profit. Track ingredients, labour and other costs alongside it. Vendion Analytics can provide sales records; verify seats and operating hours before calculating. Book a demo using the period you want to analyse.
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