Hotel Revenue Glossary · Operations

Walk (Walking a Guest)

The act of relocating a guest with a confirmed reservation to another hotel because the property is overbooked and has no available rooms. The hotel typically pays for the guest's room at the alternate property and provides transportation and compensation.

Why it matters: Walking a guest is the most costly consequence of overbooking gone wrong. Beyond the direct financial cost (paying for another hotel), it damages guest loyalty and brand reputation. Accurate no-show and cancellation forecasting minimizes walk incidents.

Worked example: Friday is oversold by three rooms. Each walk costs a room at the alternate hotel (A$240), a taxi (A$35), and a goodwill night on return (A$189 of foregone rate): about A$464 a guest, A$1,392 for the three. Against that, the three oversold rooms earned A$219 each, A$657. Overbooking paid on the 22 Fridays it absorbed no-shows; it cost A$735 on this one. Judge the policy across the season, not on Friday.

Common mistake: Walking whoever arrives last. The one-night booker on a discounted rate costs you far less than the corporate account's regular traveller, or a guest three nights into a five-night stay. Agree the walk order in advance — loyalty tier, nights remaining, rate, account value — so the decision is not made by a tired duty manager at 11pm.

All glossary terms Overbooking No-Show Rate Cancellation Rate