Rushing the planning process can result that is a less useful management tool than it should be. Managers have a tendency to build their expense budgets by simply taking last year's numbers and adjusting them upward by an assume percentage, such as 5 percent . Abetter approach is to build a completely new budget each year, with justification for each expenditure. This approach focuses management's attention on constantly looking for ways to improve the hotel's operation rather than being satisfied with how things have been done in the past. Marketing expenditures from the prior year should be scrutinized to make sure they contributed to generating revenues before they are included in this year's budget.