Lead time: how far ahead your guests book

1. 1Take the bookings that arrived in a period, such as last month.
2. 2For each booking, count the days from the day it was made to the day of arrival. A booking made on the day of arrival has a lead time of zero.
3. 3Sort them into bands: the same day or the next, up to a week, one to two weeks, two weeks to a month, one to three months, and more than three months.
4. 4Work out the average, and the middle figure: the lead time with half the bookings closer to arrival and half further ahead.

Bands and the middle figure tell you more than the average, because a few bookings made months ahead can pull an average far from what most guests do.

• Booking.com: the “Bookwindow information” page in the extranet's “Analytics” tab shows how far in advance guests book your rooms. Booking.com's notes for developers say the same report gives the rooms booked, the average rate and the share of rooms for each window, from the same day or the next to more than 90 days ahead.
• Booking.com's “Cancellation characteristics” page shows whether your guests tend to cancel within a certain time before their stay, which is worth reading beside the book window.
• Expedia Group: in Partner Central, “Data and insights”, then “Guest insights”, shows the average booking window for guests from each country, compared with last year or with the hotels you compete with.
• Agoda: the Analytics Center in the Partner Portal shows your guests' lead time on its traveller insights tab, and booking lead times for your whole location on its market demand tab.

Your own property management system holds the booking and arrival dates of every booking, from every channel, which is all the sum needs.

• By night: work out the lead time for weekends, festivals and ordinary weekdays apart, because one figure for the year mixes them.
• By kind of guest: guests travelling for work and guests on holiday rarely book the same way. Compare your weekday bookings with your weekend ones.
• By booking site: each site's book window shows when its guests book, and Booking.com's cancellation page shows whether the guests who book early cancel more.
• By country: Expedia shows the booking window by guests' country, so you can see whether guests from abroad book earlier than guests from India.
• By town: Agoda's market demand tab shows how far ahead guests book your location. If your lead time is far shorter than the town's, guests may be booking elsewhere before they ever see you.
• Over time: EHL Hospitality Business School notes that the pandemic changed how guests book, from the booking window to the length of stay. Compare this year with last before you plan on old habits.

• Set each date's price before its bookings begin. If most of a festival's bookings come six weeks ahead, a price set two weeks before is too late.
• Reward guests who book early on dates that would otherwise fill late. EHL describes an advance purchase rate: a lower price for guests who commit 14, 21 or 30 days ahead.
• Don't cut the price of a night just because it is empty weeks ahead, if its bookings usually come in the last few days. Read its pace against last year first.
• Use last-minute offers for nights still empty close in, and keep them off nights that fill on their own.
• Booking.com lets you set a minimum and maximum advance reservation, the shortest and longest time before check-in a guest can book, among the restrictions in the extranet calendar. Booking.com also says the more restrictions you set, the fewer guests see your property, so use them with care.

• MakeMyTrip and Goibibo: in the InGo-MMT extranet, “Promotions & Coupon” under “Grow your business”, then “Create New Promotion”, offers an Early Bird Promotion aimed at guests booking long before check-in, and a Last Minute Promotion aimed at guests booking up to two days before check-in.
• Expedia Group: in Partner Central, go to “Marketing”, then “Promotions”, select “Create a promotion”, then “Early booking”, and choose the booking dates and the stay dates.
• Booking.com: a minimum advance reservation stops bookings too close to arrival, and a maximum stops bookings too far ahead, for the rooms and rate plans you choose.

On any site, give each offer an end date, and check afterwards whether it brought bookings that wouldn't have come anyway.

• Whether a guest will come: a booking made months ahead leaves more time for plans to change. Read your cancellations by lead time too.
• Why guests book late: it may be their habit, or it may be that they only find you at the last minute.
• What price they would have paid: a short lead time on a night that sold out says the night was priced low, not that guests like to book late.