Hotel Revenue Glossary · Operations

Stayover

A guest who is currently checked in and scheduled to remain through the current night. A stayover room normally reduces that night's arrival requirement, but early departures, room moves, and status changes can alter realised occupancy.

Why it matters: Stayovers form part of the night's expected occupied-room base and reduce the number of new arrivals needed if they remain as booked. The original booking may still carry channel, loyalty, sales, or marketing cost, and the occupied room still incurs servicing cost; use current PMS status when pricing remaining inventory.

Worked example: Tonight's 200-room house shows 118 stayovers, 46 arrivals due and 74 departures. Occupied rooms tonight land at 118 + 46 = 164, leaving 36 to sell. Two stayovers then check out early and one moves rooms after a maintenance fault: the working figure becomes 116 + 46 = 162, and 38 rooms are live. At 4pm, with 38 rooms and a walk-in rate of A$189, that is A$7,182 still on the table.

Common mistake: Pricing the evening off the morning's stayover count. Early departures, room moves and late cancellations move that number all day, and a desk pricing at 9am against a stale figure either sells rooms it no longer has or holds rate on rooms that are quietly empty. Re-read PMS status before every rate change.

All glossary terms OTB (On The Books) Length of Stay (LOS) Occupancy