Booking curve

A booking curve in hospitality is a graph that helps hotel revenue managers visualize booking trends or how the property fills up over time. It usually has “days before arrival” on one axis and “number of rooms sold” on the other.

As a rule, the booking curve shows that very few reservations are made well in advance (more than 90 days) and that the number of reservations increases closer to the arrival date. However, booking behavior greatly depends on the property’s business focus (business or leisure travel), season, special events in the area, and so on.

Analyzing booking curves, revenue managers get insights into such metrics as booking windows and booking pace. That helps forecast demand, adjust the pricing strategy, and monitor the results of such adjustments.