The hospitality industry - like other consumer and travel oriented sectors - is feeling the pain of the recession.

Many hotels have seen occupancy rates drop as families cancel annual vacations or take day trips instead of overnight getaways.

Although new deals and lower airfares may be enticing some to travel and stay in hotels again, companies in this sector are taking steps to better manage their costs.

In the hotel industry, tracking and controlling labor costs is said to be one of the most important ways a company can better manage its budget. Some hotels are now using business intelligence tools to automate the labor data collection and analysis process.

ZMC Hotels in Minnesota is one hospitality company using business intelligence tools to track and correct labor expense variance on a more real-time basis instead of at month end. The company is already seeing results.

The business intelligence tools are also being used to track overtime expenses at all of the company's properties.

"Our reports rank our hotels by the percentage of payroll expenses to revenue per property," said Raija Macheledt, chief financial officer for ZMC. "It is a very powerful measurement because we are constantly striving to schedule work so staff does not have to use overtime."