Calculating the optimal number of overbookings for a given day or time period is a complex process and depends on historical trends and the results of forecasting fluctuations such as cancellations (last-minute/same day), stay extensions, early departures, no-shows, and walk-ins.

In addition, you have to keep the the property's business mix in mind: If the property has a lot of group business coming in or negotiated contracts that have a no-walk clause, then this needs to factor into the overbooking number. Or if the property has a 24-hour cancellation policy, this can also help you determine what the overbooking number should be for the next day.

The more information you have, the better suited you are to oversell strategically.

Scenarios

A Business Hotel has a lot of cancellations and no-shows Monday to Friday. In order to sell those rooms, they work with overbookings to avoid underselling the property on a regular basis. They also have to leave some rooms for unexpected walk-ins which also happens quite often during the week. The property has 100 rooms to sell (100% occupancy), they expect 10 rooms to be cancelled or to be no show reservations and 5 walk-ins. The overbooking value will be set to 8 as the property wants to leave some room for unexpected reservations and does not want to oversell.

A property has allocated an airline crew allotment (5 rooms) each day. Because allotment rooms are tentative, not always picked up or on a 4 pm release, the property can calculate with these 5 rooms and sets their house overbooking to 5.

The Hotel has a general hotel overbooking limit set to 10 rooms, but also limits the number of rooms that can be overbooked within a certain room type, e.g., double-room is set to 5. The total to overbook is then set to 10 and includes the 5 double-rooms that can be overbooked. With the exception of double-rooms, the remaining 5 can then be taken from any other room type.

Let's assume that walk-ins happen quite often,e.g., an average of 8 rooms per day. Taking walk-ins into consideration is extremely important for properties with a complicated rate structure. These properties generally charge the highest rate to the walk-in guests. They would prefer to leave a few rooms unsold until the day of arrival when they are sold at the highest rates to the walk-ins instead of to guests with cheaper contract rates. The overbooking level may be set to about 5 rooms per day.

Example: Determining overbooking limits on a daily basis

Define the number of reserved rooms.
Check the arrivals list for a given future day. Take a look at the reservation status (e.g., guaranteed or non-guaranteed), booking notes, cancellation policy, market code, and room status to identify possible late or early departures, no shows, last minute cancellations and amendments. This will indicate how many rooms are expected to be occupied for the particular date.
Compare the number of reserved rooms and the number of rooms expected to be occupied – the difference between them shows the potential overbooking.

User rights and roles

User right

User right to open Overbooking Setup Window (view only) = PAirOverbookingSetUpViewOnly

The PAirOverbookingSetUpViewOnly user right is required to access the dialog for setting up overbookings (Options menu > Overbookings). This right is automatically included in the pAir Front Office role, which gives the user access to all functions in the Front Office by default (including newly developed ones). When using this role for your hotel, it's important to know that all of the users with this role can access the dialog box, but they cannot make any settings there.

Hint: If you do not want to use the overbooking function in your hotel, make sure that the above right is NOT assigned

User roles

System > User administration > Users > Select User > User roles tab> [Add]

User roles must be assigned to each user individually!

Please note: If you do not want to use the overbooking function for your property, make sure that the following user roles are NOT assigned.

Setting up overbooking limits

Name of the user role: PAirOverbookingSetUp

The PAirOverbookingSetUp user role allows the user to set appropriate overbooking limits in the overbooking setup dialog (Options > Overbooking). This role should only be assigned to employees with administrative tasks, such as managers, etc.

Example

For the Christmas holidays, the user sets an overbooking limit of 10 rooms at house level in the overbooking dialog.

Allow room type overbooking

Name of the user role: PAirOverbookingOverrideRoomType

The room type overbooking user role allows the user to make overbookings at the room type level. This means that the user can exceed the overbooking limit for the room type.

This role should only be assigned to employees with appropriate authorization.

Examples

No overbooking limit has been set at room type level (overbooking limit = 0). Once all rooms in the room type have been sold, a user cannot book another room for this room type without special permission. However, a user with the room type overbooking user role is able to book additional rooms for the room type.

A property has 20 double rooms. An overbooking limit of 5 rooms has been set for the double-room room type (overbooking limit = 5). Theoretically, 25 double rooms are available for sale. This means that even if all 20 double rooms are booked, a user can book another 5 double rooms without special authorisation (only as long as rooms are still available in the property. If the occupancy rate is 100%, the user would also need the right to overbook the property, see below). If all 25 double rooms are sold and a user tries to sell another double room, a warning message appears. The booking can only be closed with the room type overbooking user role because it would exceed the set sales limit.

Hint: An employee with the room type overbooking user role can overbook a room type as long as the property is not overbooked (an additional user role is required for the house overbooking, see next section).

Allow House Overbooking

Name of the role: PAirOverbookingOverrideHouseLevel

The house overbooking user role allows the user to make overbookings at house (property) level. This user role is always required as soon as the overbooking limit set at house level will be exceeded.

This role should only be assigned to employees with appropriate authorizations (FO Manager or similar).

Examples

No overbooking limit has been set up at house level for a property (overbooking limit = 0), because it normally should not be overbooked. As soon as all of the rooms have been booked out, a user without special permission cannot book another room (even if he or she has the room type overbooking user role). However, if the logged on user has the house overbooking user role, they can book additional rooms.

An overbooking limit of 10 rooms has been set up at house level for a property with 100 rooms. In total, there are 110 rooms available for sale. This means that every employee without special permission can overbook the property up to a total of 110 rooms. Only if the overbooking limit is exceeded (110 + x) the logged on user does require the authorization for house overbookings if they are to be able to book additional rooms.

Learn more about user rights and user roles here: User administration

If a user who does not have any overbooking rights tries to overbook, a message with the authorization option appears.

Another user with the respective rights (for example, a manager, front office manager, or similar) can then grant permission to overbook to the user without rights.

More overbooking examples

Reporting

All of the reports are generally calculated based on the actual occupancy (physical rooms plus overbooking value). For example if all 100 rooms are sold and the property is overbooked by 2 rooms, the Occupancy is at 102 rooms etc. (Manager Report and House Status Report).

BWI reports

Only applicable to Best Western properties: For BWI customers a special report is available which shows the Overbooking values per room type per day (Office > Reporting > Best Western Interface > Overbooking).

System settings (XSetups)

XSetup	Description
Display Overbooking in Room Type Plan = False	Overbooking checkbox in room type plan is not selected.
Display Overbooking in Room Type Plan = True	Overbooking checkbox in room plan is selected by default.

If you wish to make this setting and require assistance, please contact our Cloud Support Team.

Former Overbooking XSetups have been disabled with the new functionality since the new logic is available for all customers.

Action Log

The action log reports all of the changes made within the overbooking set-up (add, modify, and cancel). It states the following:

the original limit and the new / changed limit it is set to
room type and / or house level limit (level that overbooking is set to)
date, time and User
source the setting comes from (manual setting in FO or IFC like IDeas)
Manager Override / authorization (Room Type Override/House Override)

Overbooking and Interfaces

Best Western Interface

The Overbooking at hotel level option is not available. for Best Western properties. This is because only overbooking values per room type level can be entered into the Best Western Interface.

IDS Interface

Connection of channel managers and booking engines

Please contact the Cloud Support Team if you are using the overbooking function together with an IDS interface. We'd be glad to assist you with properly configuring your IDS interface with your overbooking function in protel Air. Because the IDS interface uses protel Air's room type plan for the availability enquiry, it is also necessary to adjust the interface's configuration when NOT wanting to use the overbooking function in your online portals!

WBE 5 / protel Air WBE

If the property works with overbookings, then overbooking values are also available to be booked online.

IDeaS

IDeaS is compatible with the overbooking function, i.e. overbooking limits which are set in IDeaS are also properly transmitted.

What happens to the old logic?

Only applies to overbooking limits which are entered in the system data

Overbooking values which are saved directly in the room types in the system data will be migrated into the new grid until the end of 2019. The old option to enter overbooking values is greyed out and only the new set up screen is applicable. As of 01 January 2020, overbooking limits only need to be set in the overbooking setup screen.

Overbooking | Introduction

Overbooking limits