Pick Up: what is it and what is it for in hotels?

One of the key elements when analyzing occupancy and demand behavior is the PICK UP in hotels.

The Pick Up in hotels is the estimate we make in the increase or decrease of the booked rooms between two specific dates and in a specific period of time.

But first, you have to take into account a concept that is also important when carrying out your study. This concept is the Hotel Booking, which collects data on room nights (OTB/ On The Book) or the number of nights already processed in your management system (Property Management System).

This data of Booking or sale of room nights can be collected on a weekly, every 2 weeks or on monthly basis, comparing the data from the first to the last day of the period you have chosen to analyze. This is when we obtain the PICK UP in hotels.

In order to better understand this concept, let’s see it with an example

Let’s first calculate the average number of rooms (room nights) that are taken for the same day in a period of 7 days.
If we have the data for seven days, assuming that the rooms that have been reserved are:

• Day 1 – 26 rooms Day 2 – 49 rooms
• Day 3 – 41 rooms Day 4 – 16 rooms
• Day 5 – 0 rooms Day 6 – 10 rooms
• Day 7 – 12 rooms

In this case, the average would be

26+49+41+16+0+10+12 / 7 = 23 room nights per day.

In other words, during these 7 days the average number of room nights sold per day is 23 nights.

And, what would it be useful for us to know the average number of room nights sold?

This information mainly tells us the behavior of demand in a given period of time.

Based on these data, they can be compared with those of the same date of the previous year or period that we want to compare, to carry out an analysis and take the corresponding actions.

In this analysis we could find many reasons that lead us to find the reason why we are not obtaining the results we are looking for, such as that our prices are well above those of the competition, and in the case of the previous example, it could be the that was causing the lack of income.

We can also investigate the reasons why we are not having the expected reservations or room sales.

These data lead us to ask ourselves, “what could be happening, so that they are not reserving us right now?” And consequently implement an action plan to follow.

To establish a Booking (OTB / On the Book)

To establish a Booking (OTB/ On the book) in which we can compare the occupancy of our establishment, you can follow these steps:

1. Decide the section you want to compare: how many days, weeks or months you want to collect the data.
   
2. Create a table to compare. It can be an Excel spreadsheet to collect the data from the PMS or Property Management System and condense it into your table.
   
3. Carry out an analysis of this information to take the pertinent actions of the case.

What is the use of having Booking and Pick Up?

In the first instance, it helps us to determine the behavior of your demand and to be more precise when implementing prices on a given date.
Therefor, we will be able to carry out a Forecast more adjusted to reality and with less margin of error.

Together with the analysis of the pick up, average price and Revpar of previous years, we will be able to establish an action plan aimed at improving profits and income.

We can also understand how the market behaves with respect to our prices and how we are facing the competition.