Booking Curves are visual representations that display how hotel bookings occur over a certain period of time. These curves are usually displayed in graph form and can include several data items, including room pickup, bookings, and availability. The data that is compiled to create a booking curves graph is usually calculated using a hotel’s Property Management System (PMS).
What are Booking Curves For?
Booking Curves provide a better visual tool for revenue managers. By converting data from pick-up reports into graph form, managers can make better decisions to improve hotel operations and increase revenue.
Benefits of Booking Curves
Displaying the data used to create Booking Curves in graph format gives hotel revenue managers an easy way to visualize how room bookings materialize over time. A booking curves graph is another tool for revenue managers to make data-driven decisions to improve hotel efficiency.
Booking Curves can also be used to compare from year-to-year or month-to-month. This helps revenue managers develop new marketing strategies that can improve hotel revenue. It also helps with forecasting expected pick-up rates, occupancy, and availability for future dates.
Limitations of Booking Curves
Booking curves contain room pick-up data for all cancellations as well as complete stays. This must be taken into account when using a booking curves graph to make decisions on room rates, seasonal promotions, and other hotel management factors. Failure to account for cancellations can cause revenue managers to make inaccurate assumptions on booking futures. One possible mistake would be overbooking if managers underestimate demand based on past cancellations caused by an unforeseen, random event.
How are Booking Curves Calculated
A booking curves graph typically has ‘Days Before’ on the horizontal axis and ‘Rooms Sold’ on the vertical axis. Data from your Property Management System (PMS) is used to plot points on the graph and a connecting line helps managers see larger trends in the data.