Overbooking or Cost of Walk Overrides

1. Click and then Overbooking.
   The Overbooking Management calendar displays.

2. Navigate to the month in the calendar view that contains the date for the override. Learn how to view your data.

3. In the calendar, click the date of the override.
   The Room Type tab on Override Details window opens.

4. Click Hide to collapse columns for easier access to the override fields.

See how to add an overbooking override.

1. Under Overbooking Override, select the Type and enter the number of rooms that you allow the system to overbook for the property or the room type:
   • Ceiling: Set the maximum number of rooms that G3 RMS can overbook. This type of override allows the system to optimize the overbooking decision within the upper limit.
   • Value: Overbook by a specific number of rooms for the day at the property level. This type of override forces G3 RMS to use that value instead of its own optimal decision, until you change or remove the override.
   • No Ceiling: G3 RMS sets the optimal overall property or room type overbooking.
2. Click the notes icon to explain why you enter the override. This helps during your regular reviews of your overrides. This icon indicates that a note exists.
3. If needed, click on the top, right side of the page to export room type information into a Room Type Override report.
4. Click Apply. The unsaved changes icon in the calendar indicates the date with the override that you must save or cancel.
5. Click What If to see the impact of adding the override. See What If to learn more.
6. Click Save to save the override.
   Once saved, the new override value is displayed and an override icon replaces the unsaved changes icon. The impact on the forecast and other decisions is calculated and automatically sent to your selling systemin the next Processing.

We recommend that you apply Ceiling instead of Value overbooking overrides whenever possible. Ceiling overrides allow G3 RMS to adjust its decision as the conditions change, like when the system expects less wash as the override date approaches.

1. Under Cost of Walk Override, enter a new value for a room type in the User column.
2. Click the notes icon to explain why you enter the override. This helps during your regular reviews of your overrides. This icon indicates that a note exists.
3. Click Apply. The unsaved changes icon in the calendar indicates the date with the override that you must save or cancel.
4. Click What If to see the impact of adding the override. See What If to learn more.
5. Click Save to save the override.
   The impact on the forecast and other decisions is calculated and automatically sent to your selling systemin the next Processing.

1. In the Action column for the property or room type row where the override exists, click to remove.
2. Click Apply. The unsaved changes icon displays for the date where you removed the override.
   
3. Click What If to test the impact of removing the override. See What If to learn more.
4. Click Save to finalize the override removal. The icon is removed.

G3 RMS optimizes all decisions together, so overriding overbooking directly impacts other decisions in the system. For example, by lowering overbooking with an override, you keep G3 RMS from offsetting wash. The system might forecast occupancy to be below capacity, despite demand that is well above capacity.

That overbooking override may also increase pricing and Last Room Value (LRV) because less capacity means accepting less lower-priced demand. And if an overbooking override blocks the Upgrade Path, then decisions for Room Classes ranked above the one with the override are also impacted.

Do you expect different wash than the system does?

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 first review wash forecasts. You can answer most questions about overbooking by reviewing and, if necessary, overriding wash, see best practices to learn more.

If you are concerned about overbooking and wash of a high-priced Room Class, like Suites, review this consideration.

Is high market compression resulting in a higher cost of walk?

If you agree with the wash forecasts, and you are concerned with the overbooking at the property level, 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.

Note:

• Cost of Walk impacts overbooking much less than Wash.
• Changing Cost of Walk to a very low value likely increases the overbooking significantly, because it means a very low risk when overbooking.
• Changing Cost of Walk to a high value likely doesn't result in zero overbooking because of the expected wash. As an extreme example, if the system expects 100 cancellations, then overbooking by 10 is still a low-risk approach, since it only offsets 10% of expected wash.

Is this a repeating or frequent overbooking issue?

If you disagree with overbooking often, review the following setups:

Room Type Configuration:

To ensure that your property can sell out and maximize revenue, your setup should allow overbooking for at least one room type in each Room Class. Otherwise you constrain the total property level overbooking, because the total property overbooking can never be more than the sum of all room type overbooking. Click the above link to learn more.

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. To see if that's the case, review the Remaining Demand The remaining unconstrained demand for a date in the future. This value is either generated by G3 RMS or, in case of an active user demand override, the user override value plus or minus a possible system adjustment. G3 RMS adjusts a demand override according to the booking pace, so the override remains accurate after its implementation. versus the Occupancy Forecast for each Room Class.

Note that the overbooking decision at the property level supersedes 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.

Allow overbooking for at least one room type in each Room Class. This way, when you constrain overbooking for a room type (either through room type setup or with an overbooking override), G3 RMS proportionately allocates the room type's expected wash to other room types in the same Room Class, based on their capacity. For examples, see Scenarios for Room Type Overbooking.

Overbooking Ceiling - set the maximum amount of overbooking

Overbooking Ceilings allow you to set a maximum amount of overbooking, while you still let the system optimize the overbooking decision below that ceiling. G3 RMS can adjust the overbooking as the conditions change.

• Overbooking Ceiling Defaults apply to all future dates at the property or room type level. Before you use Ceiling Defaults, review the best practices.

• Apply Overbooking Ceiling Overrides instead of a specific value override for the day so that G3 RMS can still optimize the overbooking decision within the upper limit.

Overbooking Value - A specific number of rooms overbooking at the property level

Overbook by a specific number of rooms for the day at the property level. This type of override forces G3 RMS to use that value instead of its own optimal decision, until you change or remove the override.

Cost of Walk Overrides - Override the default Cost of Walk value

For the overbooking decision, Cost of Walk defines the monetary risk from overbooking too much and incurring walks. The system weighs that risk against the revenue reward for selling an additional room. The higher the Cost of Walk, the lower G3 RMS tends to overbook. Use a Cost of Walk override when the values vary from the default. For example, when a large, two-day convention sells out all hotels and your Cost of Walk increases.

Multiday Overbooking or Cost of Walk Overrides

At times you might need to override overbooking for more than just one day at a time. G3 RMS offers Multiday Overbooking or Cost of Walk Overrides as a separate option for those instances. While it's a convenient option to override overbooking or cost of walk for a time period, you should only use multiday overrides after careful consideration and after reviewing other factors that impact overbooking.

If you feel you have to override overbooking for longer periods, contact your IDeaS representative or open a case for IDeaS Support.