What Is Pick-up? Hotel Booking Pace and Lead Time Explained

Pick-up shows how quickly new bookings come in. Why it and booking lead time matter for pricing.

By Michael Külbel 2 min read

Graphic: pick-up example: bookings on hand for a Saturday 60 days out 12 rooms, 30 days out 21, 14 days out 29, last year 14 days out 24 rooms
Worked example: how bookings build up for one arrival date. Graphic: eingecheckt.de · Background photo: Schezar, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0
Key points
  • Pick-up is the number of rooms newly booked for an arrival date within a given period, minus cancellations.
  • Booking lead time describes how many days before arrival guests typically book.
  • Together they form the booking curve. If current bookings are above or below the usual pattern, a hotel can adjust rates and availability.
  • The later guests book, the more important it is to check pick-up regularly rather than just before the date.

A hotel is 60 per cent booked for the Saturday after next. Is that good or bad? It depends on how quickly the bookings are coming in. That is exactly what pick-up measures.

What pick-up is

Pick-up is the number of rooms added for an arrival date within a given period, minus cancellations. An example: on Monday, 21 rooms were booked for a Saturday in March; by Friday, it is 29. Pick-up for that week is eight rooms.

What booking lead time shows

Booking lead time, also called the booking window, is the gap between booking and arrival. A conference hotel often knows about its groups months in advance, while a city hotel relies on bookings in the last few days. Anyone who knows their typical lead time knows how much pick-up is normal at each stage.

The booking curve as an early warning system

Plotting bookings on hand for an arrival date over the preceding weeks produces a booking curve. Chris Anderson and Sheryl Kimes of Cornell University describe it as a central forecasting tool. Hotels create such curves for each guest segment. If current bookings are above or below the usual pattern, the hotel can react.¹

If the curve is above last year, the hotel can raise rates or close cheaper rates. If it is below, targeted offers or better visibility on distribution channels can help.

Why short-notice bookings make everything harder

The later guests book, the less time there is to react. The ANDERS Hotel Walsrode, which we featured in the magazine, shows what that feels like day to day: 100 overnight guests, but only two table reservations in the restaurant. Tracking pick-up daily makes it possible to spot developments earlier and plan staffing and purchasing better.

What hoteliers should look for

Checklist: tracking pick-up
  1. Set a fixed day: Record bookings on hand every Monday for the next eight to twelve weeks.
  2. Compare with last year: Compare with the same number of days before arrival in the previous year.
  3. Include cancellations: Look at net pick-up: new bookings minus cancellations.
  4. React: With strong pick-up, review rates; with weak pick-up, review offers and visibility.

More in the magazine

How hard short-notice demand is to plan for is shown in our article "Last-minute bookings make staff planning hard for ANDERS Hotel Walsrode". Why guests are booking later and how hotels can adapt is explained by tourism professor Marco A. Gardini in "AI is changing how guests find hotels and they are booking later – how hotels can adapt". How hotels derive rates from bookings on hand is explained in the glossary entry on revenue management.

Sources

This glossary entry is based on the following source:

  1. Chris Anderson, Sheryl Kimes (Cornell University) (n.d.)
    Revenue Management for Enhanced Profitability: An Introduction for Hotel Owners and Asset Managers
    Book chapter, Cornell eCommons. Forecasting with booking curves, rate fences and segmentation, revenue increases from revenue management of 2 to 5 per cent in many cases.
Hotel Glossary

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