Booked Over Meaning

[Favio Cassidy]

Occupancyrate is the percentage of occupied rooms in your property at a given time. It is one of the most high-level indicators of success and is calculated by dividing the total number of rooms occupied, by the total number of rooms available, times 100, creating a percentage such as 75% occupancy.

Think of your hotel occupancy rate as a percentage of rooms booked for that night. When you have a lot of booked rooms you have a high rate of hotel occupancy. A lot of empty rooms means a lower rate. This is not always bad, and happens to nearly every hotel at some point, but you want to have as high of a rate as possible, as often as possible.

While knowing the occupancy rate definition is crucial, improving it is where strategic actions come into play. One effective strategy is the application of Length of Stay (LOS) restrictions. By setting a minimum or maximum number of nights a guest can book, hoteliers can better manage room turnover and optimise occupancy, especially during peak seasons or major events.

For example, during a major conference in the city, setting a minimum LOS can ensure that rooms are occupied for the duration of the event, preventing gaps that might arise from one-night stays. Conversely, during quieter periods, setting a maximum LOS can free up rooms for potential longer-staying guests.

Hotel occupancy rate can give you a good marker for occupancy levels for a given night, letting you know what days of the week and times of the year are best for your hotel, and which seasonal periods need work.

You can also calculate the average occupancy rate for more than just one night, if you want it as an average for a week, a month, or even longer. To do this, determine the number of total rooms you have, and the number of rooms that were filled every night.

If you want the average rate for the week, you would add together the number of rooms that were filled every night, divide that number by seven days, and then divide the resulting number by the number of total rooms you have for rent.

For the most part, between 2022 and 2023, global hotel occupancy rates have remained between 50% and 65%, with peaks and troughs in line with seasonality. However, there have been some occasions where occupancy has drifted outside these margins. In January 2022, for example, the occupancy rate of hotels in Europe fell to just 34%. Compare that to August 2022, where European hotels saw an occupancy rate of 74%; the highest of any continent over the same time period.

Looking at occupancy rate in isolation is rather meaningless, you need to evaluate it in conjunction with other metrics to understand if increasing, or decreasing, your occupancy rate is the right thing to attempt.

Comparing yourself with other hotels in the area can help you get a good gauge of whether you have a competitive occupancy rate. A newer hotel in a prime location will often see higher occupancy rates, but only if your costs are fair and you treat customers well.

Most hotels experience peaks and troughs in demand based on the season. For instance, a beach resort might see higher occupancy during summer months, while a ski lodge would be busier in the winter. Recognising and preparing for these seasonal fluctuations is essential for maximising occupancy throughout the year.

Striking the right balance in room pricing is a delicate art. Price too high, and potential guests might look elsewhere; price too low, and while you might fill rooms, you could be compromising profitability. Dynamic pricing, which adjusts rates based on demand, local events, and other factors, can help hotels maintain a competitive edge and optimise occupancy.

Fortunately, for any hotel that may be struggling, or that just wants to see higher numbers for occupancy because they have empty rooms, there are plenty of tips to improve hotel occupancy rate numbers. Cleanliness, price, and guest experience are big factors, but there is so much more you can do.

Market to people who have stayed there before, and who may not know about the event. The goal is to bring people to your hotel when they come to the event, and to potentially hold events at the hotel as well.

Companies often need hotels when they send their employees to various locations for business trips (learn how to attract these business travellers to your hotel here). Local companies may have people coming in from outside the area, and companies with a number of locations in areas around the country may have get-togethers in specific places.

These companies can easily be contacted, and there are ways to work with them to provide meeting spaces, rooms at a discount, and other perks and amenities that they may appreciate. Getting these companies to book rooms at your hotel can really raise your occupancy rate.

Holding weddings at your hotel can be an excellent way to raise your occupancy rate. Even if the couple getting married are local, they probably have friends and family members who will be coming to the wedding from outside of the area.

Discounts for midweek weddings can also be a great way for you to increase your midweek occupancy. It will cost the couple less than a weekend wedding, and it will also help to raise occupancy rates during a time when these rates are typically lowest.

If you have good relationships with local real estate agents, these agents can recommend your hotel to the people they work with. That can help your occupancy rate increase, and can get you repeat business in some cases.

For example, when the people who are looking for property return to look again, or they move into the area and are waiting to close on the home they chose on their last trip to your location, they will need somewhere to stay. Feeling welcomed by the local community and its businesses is a great way to help people feel good about their new area and all it has to offer, as well.

It can be easy, and very tempting, to think that slashing rates to virtually nothing will sell more hotel rooms and increase room revenue during the week. While it may sell a few rooms, the discounting strategy rarely sells enough to offset the reduced revenue.

Packaging allows you to mask actual room rates with features, which add value to staying at your hotel. If your hotel offers additional services like fitness classes and spa treatments, package them together with accommodation for a really great deal that encourages guests to use services they may not have previously thought about.

Try collaborating with tourist attractions locally and submit advertisements or editorial to newspapers and websites in population centres within the vicinity promoting midweek breaks that include bus tours, wine tasting trips, or a concert.

Develop mailing lists of your best weekend customers and stay in contact with monthly emails listing midweek special offers and promotions. Remind them that midweek is the best time to visit local shops and attractions; away from the weekend crowds. Mail them midweek discount vouchers too.

There are hundreds of people in town every night viewing a new house or opening a new office, and they need a place to stay. Offer the realtor or agent special rates, and free advertising in your room brochure.

This means the guest could pay different prices each night. The rate distributed will fluctuate to be the same as unrestricted rates available publicly on any other channel, including online retailers, hotel web sites, global distribution system (GDS), and more.

The video of a man being dragged off a United Airlines flight set to depart Chicago to Louisville, Ky., has sparked outrage against the airline over how the incident was handled, and for what many feel was an insufficient display of remorse.

By the end of the day, United's CEO Oscar Munoz put out another statement, saying that he deeply apologizes "to the customer forcibly removed and to all the customers aboard. No one should ever be mistreated this way."

Meanwhile, the Department of Transportation's Office of Aviation Enforcement and Proceedings has begun an investigation, while here in Canada the federal government, prompted by the controversy, announced it will introduce legislation about bumping rules, part of a proposed air passenger bill of rights.

The United passenger's rough ejection to open a seat for airline employees has clearly raised questions about overbooking and bumping, the rights of passengers and what they can do to avoid being bumped from their seat.

It's a perfectly legal practice and based on a statistical analysis of previous passenger trends and the number of no-shows in the past. However, it's not an exact science, which leads to overbooked flights.

If airlines aren't able to recoup their lost revenue, passengers should expect airline ticket prices to go up, Charles Leocha, chairman and co-founder of the consumer advocacy group Travelers United, told Time magazine.

When an airline has overbooked a flight, some passengers will need to be bumped, and the airline will ask for volunteers to take another flight. If none are forthcoming, passengers will be involuntarily bumped. At that point, there's really not much a passenger can do.

According to the Canadian Transportation Agency, the Canadian carriers will "usually help passengers that are voluntarily or involuntarily "bumped" to find a seat on the next available flight at no additional cost."

Although it's been suggested that passengers who get bumped are randomly chosen, Canadian and U.S. carriers have their own set of guidelines to decide. Some airlines, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation, will bump passengers with the lowest fares first. Others bump the last passengers to check in.

In Canada, the amount of compensation depends on the individual carrier. However, in 2013, the transportation agency ruled that Air Canada had to increase its amount of compensation for bumped passengers on domestic flights following a complaint launched by consumer advocate Gabor Lukacs.

3a8082e126