Cannibalization

Definition

When a promotion or discounted rate is used by guests who would have booked anyway at the full price. The campaign shows bookings, but part of that volume isn’t new demand — it’s existing demand buying cheaper.

What it tells you

Why “the campaign brought 30 bookings” is not a result. If 18 of the 30 would have come regardless, the discount on those 18 is pure margin given away — and it can eat the entire gain from the 12 genuinely new bookings. Cannibalization is the difference between a campaign that looks successful and one that is.

How to track it

Compare campaign-period bookings against a credible baseline: what the same dates were pacing toward without the promotion (booking pace, last year’s same-point, or a control period). Bookings above the baseline are incremental; bookings within it are likely cannibalized. Fenced offers (member rates, advance-purchase, minimum-stay) limit how much full-price demand can leak into the discount.

Where it fits

It is the central trap of promotion economics and the twin concept of incremental revenue. The Academy covers promo timing in Marketing and RM in concert; the leadership track’s campaign-ROI lesson builds its whole calculation on separating incremental from cannibalized bookings.