The Dallas-based ownership and management group cut monthly close time by over 30% and scaled the portfolio without adding accounting staff

By the numbers:

Introduction

For hotel ownership and management companies with ambitions to grow, there’s a point where the financial infrastructure that served them well at one scale simply can’t keep pace with the next. Reporting demands multiply, properties add complexity, and leadership needs real-time visibility — not month-old numbers assembled after weeks of manual work. The operators who grow successfully are the ones who recognize that inflection point early and build a foundation that can scale with them. For Lowen Hospitality Management, a proven owner-operator with deep roots in the Dallas–Fort Worth market, that recognition came as the company set its sights on continued expansion — and began considering third-party management as a natural next chapter.

TownePlace Suites by Marriott Dallas Downtown, owned and managed by Lowen Hospitality Management.

The Challenge

By the time Lowen began evaluating a new accounting platform, the company had already built a strong foundation: a growing portfolio of Marriott and Hilton brand properties in the Dallas–Fort Worth market, brand management approvals from both flags, and a clear vision for continued growth. What needed to evolve was the financial infrastructure behind it.

Lowen’s existing accounting setup relied on a proprietary system that had been built for a smaller, simpler operation. Night auditors at each property printed PMS reports, scanned them, and sent them to the corporate office, where the accounting team manually entered the data to build P&Ls — a process that worked at one scale and became a bottleneck at another:

▪  A process designed for manual control, not portfolio scale. Every reporting cycle ran through a physical chain — print, scan, email, enter — with no automated connection between the PMS and the accounting system.

▪  Reporting that ran behind the business. With entries always catching up, leadership couldn’t access a real-time P&L without waiting for the accounting team to work through the backlog.

▪  Compounding risk at every data-entry step. Manual transcription across multiple properties meant variances were likely and time-consuming to trace back to their source.

▪  A month-end close that couldn’t keep up with growth. Closing a single month took approximately 2.5 weeks — sometimes running as late as the third week of the following month — a pace that Lowen wasn’t willing to accept as the portfolio expanded.

Lowen’s leadership saw the ceiling clearly and began the search for a more modern financial management platform. Based on a strong referral from fellow management company Phoenix American Hospitality, Lowen made the move to HIA’s ERP & Accounting platform in mid-2024. Rafael Luque, Regional Director of Operations, joined the company as that transition was already underway — stepping into a role that still carried remnants of the old workflow — and experienced firsthand the contrast between where Lowen had been software-wise and where it was headed. He gives the metaphor:

“Imagine you are living in a house that is lit up by candles. Everything was so old school, so antiquated. Now we have LED lighting, we have solar panels on the roof — totally the opposite… That is what HIA did for us. The way we have been able to adapt and embrace the technology, it has been like day and night for us.”

— Rafael Luque, Regional Director of Operations, Lowen Hospitality Management  

Hilton Garden Inn Dallas Fort Worth Airport South, owned and managed by Lowen Hospitality Management

The Solution

Lowen implemented HIA’s ERP & Accounting platform, replacing the prior manual, paper-based processes with a streamlined workflow. At the center of the new system is HIA’s integration with Lowen’s PMS platforms — the connection that eliminated the print-scan-enter chain entirely.

PMS Integration — The Engine of the Daily Workflow

Rather than night auditors printing PMS reports and accounting staff manually entering the data, HIA pulls financial data directly from Lowen’s Marriott and Hilton property management systems. What was once a time-consuming manual transfer now happens automatically. Each morning, General Managers log in not to enter data, but simply to review it — resolving any new unmapped PMS entries and signing off on a clean daily report by 10:30 AM. The accounting team then confirms variances, verifies bank deposit slips, and releases the day. By the time month-end arrives, every single day has already been verified in near-real time.

“The way that HIA has been able to communicate with the brands and pull all that PMS information into the platform with literally no hiccups — that’s a big takeaway for me.”

— Rafael Luque, Regional Director of Operations, Lowen Hospitality Management

Key Supporting Modules & Integrations

▪  Accounts Payable — Lowen handles payables processing digitally, with invoices scanned and uploaded into HIA by the team. The module includes a dynamic approval workflow that routes invoices based on configurable rules — for example, requiring additional approvals for invoices above a set dollar threshold — giving the corporate office structured oversight across the portfolio without manual coordination. 

▪  Netchex Payroll Integration —  Payroll data flows directly from Netchex into HIA on a daily basis, automatically generating the corresponding payroll journal entries in the accounting system. This eliminates the manual step of re-keying payroll figures across properties — keeping labor costs current in the P&L without additional effort from the accounting team.

For Luque, clean daily data isn’t just a process preference — it’s the foundation for every financial decision the company makes.

“I’m huge at analyzing data and making sure it’s clean. So we wait for the GM’s to do that. We give them a window till about 10:30 in the morning. After that the accounting team goes in and does the review to make sure there are no variances. If I know for a fact that every day is clean, then I can trust that if I decide to run a P&L, the data is correct.”

— Rafael Luque, Regional Director of Operations, Lowen Hospitality Management

Courtyard by Marriott Dallas Carrollton and Carrollton Conference Center, owned and managed by Lowen Hospitality Management

The Results

Operational Efficiency & Monthly Close

Before HIA, Lowen’s accounting team spent approximately 2.5 weeks closing a single month — with some periods not fully reconciled until the third week of the following month. The root cause was the manual chain: every number had to be printed, scanned, entered, and verified retroactively across every property. With HIA’s automated daily report workflow in place, that retroactive scramble is gone. Because every day is verified and signed off in real time, month-end is largely a formality.

“One of the things I always talk to my general managers about is ‘P&L on demand.’ The P&Ls are on demand — run, click the buttons, and you’ll know exactly where you are. If I come to your property and ask how your GOP is looking and you tell me you don’t know, then we have a problem.”

— Rafael Luque, Regional Director of Operations, Lowen Hospitality Management

▪  Monthly close reduced from ~2.5 weeks to 12 days — more than a 30% reduction in close cycle time.

▪  Long-term close target: 5–7 days into the following month (Luque’s stated goal, actively in progress).

▪  Daily entries are verified and released same-morning across all 10 properties, every business day.

Financial Visibility & Leadership Time

The shift from a reactive, batch-based process to a live daily workflow changed how Lowen’s leadership engages with financial data. Luque’s full morning review — checking for variances and confirming data quality across the portfolio — now takes approximately 30 minutes, freeing the rest of his day for property visits, staff engagement, and guest-facing operations.

▪  Morning portfolio review:  About 30 minutes to verify data quality across all 10 properties.

▪  P&L available on demand at any point in the month — not just at close.

▪  Dashboard variances  enable same-day issue identification without pulling manual reports.

“I can log in in the mornings and in five minutes I can see we’re all good. That frees me up to go conduct my property visits and focus on the stuff that’s happening on property — guest-facing, condition of the hotel rooms, all that.”

— Rafael Luque, Regional Director of Operations, Lowen Hospitality Management

Tru by Hilton Dallas Fort Worth South, owned and managed by Lowen Hospitality Management

Scalability & Staffing

Lowen’s accounting team has remained at three people since before HIA was implemented. In that same period, the company added a dual-branded property in downtown Dallas and is on track to grow from 10 to 12 properties by year-end — with a longer-term goal of exploring third-party management opportunities beginning in 2027.

▪  Added a dual-branded downtown Dallas property with no additional accounting staff.

▪  Expanding from 10 to 12 properties without increasing back-office staff

▪  Additional automation (invoice processing, forecasting) is expected to further extend the team’s capacity as the portfolio grows.

Data Security & Document Management

Moving to HIA eliminated the physical paper trail that had accumulated at both the corporate office and individual properties. PMS and financial reports that were previously printed, boxed, and stored on-site are now housed digitally within HIA, reducing exposure from unauthorized access to physical financial documents.

▪  Physical print-and-store workflow eliminated across all properties.

▪  PMS reports centralized and housed digitally in HIA.

▪  Reduced risk of unauthorized access to on-site financial documents.

Hilton Garden Inn Dallas Airport South, owned and managed by Lowen Hospitality Management

Conclusion & Key Takeaways

Lowen Hospitality Management replaced a fragmented, paper-driven accounting process with a daily-verified digital workflow that has cut monthly close time by over 30% and given leadership real-time P&L visibility across the entire portfolio. With an accounting team that has held at the same level after adding multiple properties, Lowen is well positioned for continued growth.

For hotel operators navigating the gap between where they are and where they want to be, Lowen’s story illustrates what a solid financial platform can do: not just process faster, but make every day of the month count toward a clean, easy, trustworthy close.

“I’ve been very happy (with HIA). As someone that got pushed into becoming the expert in the system without knowing anything about the system, probably within a few weeks I was very hands-on and I was like ‘Oh, this is pretty easy to follow.’ It’s been a great experience for us.”

— Rafael Luque, Regional Director of Operations, Lowen Hospitality Management

 

Residence Inn Dallas Fairview, owned and managed by Lowen Hospitality Management