Overbooking Ceiling Defaults

Use Ceiling Defaults to set a maximum overbooking amount by day of week at the property or room type level. Ceiling Defaults are settings that apply to all future dates for the selected days of the week.

What Help Do You Need with Ceiling Defaults?

I need to know the steps to set up Ceiling Defaults.
Ceiling Defaults can have unintended consequences. Show me the best practices before using them.
Instead of using Ceiling Defaults:
- Directly influence the overbooking decision by Overriding Wash for Individual Groups
- Ensure your Room Type Configuration allows overbooking.
- Limit overbooking or cost of walk for a specific period of time with Overbooking Overrides or Multiday Overbooking Overrides.

Setup Steps

Click and then Overbooking.
The Overbooking Management calendar displays the overbooking decision and the occupancy forecast. Learn how to change your calendar view.
Select the Room Type for which you want to apply the Ceiling Default. For a property level ceiling, leave the selection as Property.

Note: if you use run-of-house overbooking in Room Type configuration, you can only set Ceiling Defaults at the property level.
Click Ceiling Default.
The Ceiling Default Setup window displays.
Ceiling Defaults apply to all future dates. For each day of the week, select one of the following options:
- No Ceiling: G3 RMS sets the overall property or room type overbooking up to the calculated optimal amount. This setting is recommended. Switch back to this setting to remove a saved ceiling value.
- Value: Enter a value if you want to set a ceiling for the number of rooms that the overall property or room type can be overbooked.
  Note: you can't set a zero value as the Ceiling Default. If you do not want to allow overbooking for a room type or day of week, use Room Type Configuration.
Click Save.
You see a warning that Ceiling Defaults exist and that they limit maximum overbooking. It displays on the Overbooking Management page and when you click a date in the calendar.

Note: What If is not available to test the impact of Ceiling Defaults since they have no end date.

Best Practices

Consider Other Factors Before You Apply Ceiling Defaults

G3 RMS optimizes all decisions together, so applying Ceiling Defaults directly influences other decisions in the system. For example, by lowering overbooking with a ceiling default, you keep G3 RMS from offsetting wash. The system may forecast occupancy to be below capacity, despite demand that is well above capacity. It might also increase price and LRV to get the most revenue from the lower occupancy.

Factors that impact overbooking:

Review	Description
Wash	G3 RMS primarily overbooks to offset Wash The drop in occupancy due to cancellations, no-shows, group cut-offs, etc. For future dates, the percentage is the expected drop for the Peak Demand. For past dates, it is the expected wash as of the last optimization., so always review wash forecasts first. In most cases, questions about overbooking are answered by reviewing and, if necessary, overriding wash. See Best Practices for Overriding Wash to learn more.
Cost of Walk	If you agree with the wash forecasts, and before you set a ceiling to the overbooking, review the Cost of Walk Cost of Walk happens if your property is unable to provide the confirmed room to a guest and has to relocate, or walk, the guest to another hotel. In that situation, costs might include the hotel room at the other hotel, a taxi, etc. Cost of Walk influences the overbooking level: G3 RMS weighs the risks of overbooking, represented by Cost of Walk, against its benefits, which are the additional revenues from selling another room. The higher the Cost of Walk, the lower G3 RMS tends to overbook.. Cost of Walk can impact how aggressively G3 RMS overbooks so, if needed, override Cost of Walk or change its setup. This may achieve the same result of lower overbooking decisions without the risks of limiting overbooking.
Upgrade Path	If you're concerned about a high room type overbooking decision, for example 30 rooms for the Standard room type in a property of 100 rooms, review your Upgrade Path. Often there is more demand than capacity for your lower-priced Room Classes and not enough demand to fill the more expensive ones. In this case, the system overbooks lower Room Classes more than what is needed to offset wash, with the expectation that you'll upgrade or upsell, based on your Upgrade Path setup. A Ceiling Default on Standard room types might block the upgrade path, which leads to unsold rooms despite demand. Note that the overbooking decision at the property level overrules the overbooking decision at the room type level. In the above example, if the property-level overbooking decision is five, and the property is oversold by five rooms, then G3 RMS doesn't accept any further reservations, even if the room type level overbooking has not reached the maximum of 30.
Room Type Configuration	The Room Type Configuration, like Overbooking, ensures that your property can sell out and maximize revenue. For example, if you don't allow overbooking for all room types, you constrain the total property level overbooking as well, because the total property overbooking can never be more than the sum of all room type overbooking.

Understand When To Use Ceiling Defaults

A ceiling means that G3 RMS can't overbook to the optimal amount and can't offset wash, see the factors that impact overbooking above. But there are valid scenarios for ceiling defaults, like when your property changes the business practice of upgrades.

For example, the practice was to overbook the lower-priced room types and to upgrade for free. Due to the strong demand and wash for those lower-priced room types, their overbooking in G3 RMS is likely high.

Now the property wants to restrict free upgrades. It directs the reservations team to sell the higher room types. In that case, a Ceiling Default on the lower-priced room types might be the right temporary solution. Once the system has learned from the data that there is more demand for the higher-priced room types, you remove the Ceiling Default.

Note: you can't set a zero value as the Ceiling Default. If you do not want to allow overbooking for a room type or day of week, use Room Type Configuration.

Override the Ceiling Defaults If Needed

A Ceiling Default is a setting and you can change that setting with overbooking overrides. Use What If to test the impact of overriding overbooking.

If you set up seasonal overbooking in Room Type Configuration, review your Ceiling Default settings to ensure that your overbooking settings are as expected. The seasonal setting acts like an override. G3 RMS uses the seasonal overbooking setting for the room type rather than the Ceiling Default.