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Blog · Forecast and pipeline · Hospitality

Pace per property: rooms on the books against the same date last year

How a hotel group builds a pace report from the reservation export that a revenue manager can act on: rooms and revenue on the books for each future month against the same point last year, by segment, per property, the properties behind pace in a segment where their comparable set is ahead, the pickup still needed to reach budget, and the identity that ties the pace table to the reservation system.

The short answerPace is rooms and revenue on the books today for a future month, against what was on the books for the same month at the same point last year, per property and per segment. A property behind pace in group business while its comparable set is ahead has a group sales problem, not a market one. Pickup needed is budget minus on the books, and against the property's own historical pickup from this point, it says whether budget is reachable. The pace table's on-the-books total equals the reservation system's, so the report is the system, cut by time.

A revenue manager knows the property is behind for October. The pace report from reservation snapshots says behind by how much, in which segment, against what the property's sister hotels are doing, and whether the property's own history of pickup from this point gets it to budget. This guide sets out the pace measures, the comparable set, the pickup, and the identity.

The measures

Per property, per future stay month, per segment, as of today:

On the books = rooms and revenue reserved for the month Same time last year = on the books for the equivalent month at the same point last year Pace = on the books − same time last year, in rooms and revenue, and as a share Pickup needed = budget − on the books Historical pickup = median rooms added from this point to the month, past years

The rows you need

  • Reservation snapshots: property, stay date, segment, rooms, revenue, snapshot date.
  • Budget: property, month, segment, rooms, revenue.
  • Property master: property, comparable set.

Property identifiers only.

The identity

Σ segments' on the books = reservation system's on the books, per property per month, at the snapshot

A segment unmapped from a rate code fails it and is listed.

A worked pace table

Property P-114, October, as of 1 June.

Segment On the books Same time last year Pace Budget Pickup needed Historical pickup Reading
Group 1,200 2,100 −43% 3,000 1,800 700 Behind; budget unreachable on history
Corporate 1,900 1,750 +9% 3,400 1,500 1,600 On track
Leisure 800 850 −6% 2,800 2,000 2,100 On track
Total 3,900 4,700 −17% 9,200 5,300 4,400 Behind, in one segment

The property is behind in total because it is behind in group, and group has to be sold months out. Corporate and leisure are fine. The conversation is with the group sales manager in June, not the revenue manager in September.

Against the comparable set

Property Group pace
P-114 −43%
Comparable set median +6%

The set is ahead on group. It is not the market; it is this property's group book.

Where it goes wrong

No snapshots. Pace cannot be computed; the reservation system holds today only.

Total pace only. Behind in one segment, blamed on all.

Pickup needed without historical pickup. Every property can reach budget in theory.

Comparable set ignored. A market-wide group slump looks like a sales failure.

Every week, pace by segment

Mapped once, the reservation snapshots, the budget and the property master produce pace, pickup needed against historical pickup and the comparable set comparison per property per month every week. Covirage builds this from the exports as they are. The hospitality page describes the setup, and the segment mix guide covers the comparable set the pace comparison uses.

Questions people ask

What is the same point last year?

The reservations that existed on the same calendar day last year for the same future month: a snapshot. Pace needs snapshots of the reservation export, taken daily or weekly and kept, because the reservation system only holds today's view.

Why by segment?

Because a property can be ahead on leisure and behind on group, and the total hides it. Group pace behind is a sales conversation months out; transient pace behind is a pricing conversation weeks out. The segment says which team.

What is historical pickup?

The rooms a property typically adds between this point and the stay month, from its own past snapshots. A property that needs 800 rooms of pickup and has historically picked up 500 from here is not going to reach budget without a change, and the report says so in month minus four rather than month zero.