Occupancy

Definition

The percentage of your available rooms that are sold for a given period. 70 occupied rooms out of 100 available = 70% occupancy.

What it tells you

Occupancy is the simplest signal of demand for your inventory. High and rising = strong demand; low and falling = weak demand. Combined with ADR, it builds RevPAR.

How to track it

Available in every PMS and BI tool. Track daily, by day-of-week, by segment, by channel.

Where it fits

The pricing decision often comes down to whether to push for higher occupancy at lower rate or hold rate and accept lower occupancy. The trade-off depends on your strategy (yield / balanced / volume). Raising it deliberately — without giving the rate away — is covered in how to increase hotel occupancy. For the full lesson, see The three core KPIs in the free Academy.