Revenue Management
Pickup
The bookings gained for a target date over a defined period — the momentum of the booking curve.
Academic definition
Pickup is the number of reservations gained for a target arrival date over a defined interval, such as since yesterday, over the past week, or since a prior reference point. It measures the recent momentum of bookings, complementing pace, which compares cumulative bookings against history. Revenue managers monitor pickup to detect shifts in demand as a date approaches, validate or adjust forecasts, and time pricing and restriction changes. Strong pickup may justify raising rates or applying length-of-stay controls; weak pickup may prompt stimulation. Pickup is analysed by segment and channel and over multiple intervals to distinguish a brief surge from a sustained trend. Net pickup accounts for cancellations within the interval, since gross new bookings can mask offsetting attrition. Like pace, pickup describes the movement of booking volume toward a date rather than the cost or profitability of the bookings being gained.
Bookings as of today = reservations on the books now · Bookings as of a prior reference date = reservations at the earlier comparison point
Worked example
A date held 150 bookings last week and holds 180 today, a pickup of 30 — encouraging until a channel split shows 25 of the 30 came through a discounted OTA promotion.
The ProfitPAR™ lens
Pickup is momentum, and momentum is only good news if it is carrying profit. A burst of pickup that turns out to be a flash OTA promotion converting price-shoppers is volume that arrives pre-leaked — commission attached, margin thin. Reading pickup as an unqualified positive is how a hotel celebrates filling rooms it will barely profit from. ProfitPAR™ reads pickup net of cancellations and split by channel, because the profitable signal is not how many bookings arrived this week but how many profitable bookings did. When pickup spikes through the cheapest channel, the right response is often to tighten that channel and steer the momentum toward direct, not to ride it.
Strong pickup through your cheapest channel is momentum in the wrong direction.
Measure what each room actually keeps.
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