A full house can still be a thin week

Occupancy is the figure that gets applauded. It is also the figure that can hide a poor week. A house at eighty-two percent on Tuesday with an ADR dragged down by an OTA package is not the same house as seventy percent on Friday with walk-ins at BAR. Both weeks can be called “busy” in a corridor conversation.

The night audit already knows this. The weekly meeting often does not, because occupancy is presented as a monthly blob and ADR as a second blob. Put them on one weekday drawing and the thin week usually appears as a set of cheap midweek nights, not as a mystery in the safe.

RevPAR is useful once occupancy and ADR are honest. It is less useful as a trophy. We have sat with owners who recited a RevPAR they liked while the dining room was cooking included breakfasts that never appeared on the rooms page. The week was thin in the kitchen, loud in the lobby.

When we open an extract, we look for the weekday that is doing the unpaid work. It is often Tuesday or Wednesday. It is occasionally Sunday in houses that sell a “weekend” package too early in the week. Name that day in the meeting. Then decide, with the person who loads rates, whether filling it cheaply is still the trade.

A Channel Mix Review is the short version of this argument. A Property Revenue Briefing is the longer one, with dining in the same binding.