Hotel Revenue Glossary · Operations
Cutoff Date
The deadline by which a group must finalize its room reservations (submit the rooming list and confirm the block size). After the cutoff date, unreserved rooms in the block are released back to general inventory for the hotel to sell.
Why it matters: The cutoff date is a critical revenue management milestone. If it is set too close to arrival, the hotel has little time to resell released rooms. If too far out, the group may push back. Negotiating the right cutoff date protects the hotel from block-wash risk.
Worked example: Same 80-room block, two contracts: cutoff at 30 days or at seven. Twenty-two rooms wash either way. Your own history says released rooms sell through at 70% with a month to run and 35% with a week. At 30 days: 15 rooms x 3 nights x A$210 = A$9,450. At seven: 8 x 3 x A$210 = A$5,040. The 23 days of selling time you negotiated are worth A$4,410 on this block alone.
Common mistake: Letting the cutoff pass without doing anything. The date is not automatic in most systems — somebody has to reduce the block, return the rooms to general inventory and reopen them in the channel manager. Blocks that expire on paper but stay held in the PMS are how sold-out nights finish at 88%.