This article describes the Online Reservation by Lead Time report, which shows how far in advance guests booked through each of your online agents over a selected date range.
Overview
The Online Reservation by Lead Time report is an Operational Revenue report which shows how many reservations each of your online agents delivered in each lead time band, so you can see how much of your online business arrives as last-minute bookings and how much is booked weeks ahead. Lead time is the number of days between the date a reservation was made and its arrival date. Alongside the lead time bands, the report shows reservation volume, nights booked, average length of stay, average lead time, average revenue and total revenue for each online agent.
Revenue managers and distribution managers typically run this report over a completed month or quarter. The report is built from reservations attributed to an RMS Booking Engine or online channel agent, so reservations entered manually by staff are not included.
Please Note! RMS is highly configurable. Some Terminology, User Access & Permissions, Images, Labels, and Functions used in these articles may differ from your setup. CLICK HERE to find out more.
Use Cases
- Setting last-minute rate rules - at the end of the month, the revenue team runs the report to see how many online reservations arrived within three days of check-in before deciding whether to open or close last-minute inventory.
- Comparing booking behaviour by channel - a distribution manager runs the report across the last quarter to see which online agents deliver early bookings and which deliver short-notice bookings, then adjusts release-back and minimum-stay rules per channel.
- Checking the value of early bookings - a property compares average revenue and average length of stay across the lead time bands to confirm whether guests who book further ahead spend more.
How to Access
In the side menu of RMS, go to Reports > Online > Online Reservation by Lead Time.
Report Options
The report options below control the date basis, which reservations are included, and the lead time bands used to group them. All options appear on a single Report Options panel.
Tip! Report build screens default to a common use configuration, and selections can be made as required.
| Report Option | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Date | Date range | Today | The date range the report covers. Use a preset or set a custom range. |
| Reservation Made Between | Radio | Selected | Includes reservations created within the date range. |
| Reservation Arriving Between | Radio | Not selected | Includes reservations arriving within the date range. |
| Reservation In House Between | Radio | Not selected | Includes reservations in house on any night within the date range. |
| Property | Multi-select | All Selected | Limits the report to selected properties. Shown on multi-property databases only. |
| Online Agent | Multi-select | All Selected | Limits the report to reservations from the selected online agents. |
| Category | Multi-select | All Selected | Limits the report to selected categories. |
| Rate Type | Multi-select | All Selected | Limits the report to selected rate types. |
| Lead Time Segment | Number | Segment 1: 0 to 3 Segment 2: 4 to 7 Segment 3: 8 to 14 Segment 4: 15 to 28 |
Sets the four lead time bands, in days, used for the Lead Time By Days columns and the graph. |
| Do Not Show Graph | Checkbox | Unticked | When ticked, the graph below the table is hidden and only the data table is shown. |
| Only Show Totals (Only applies to Multi Property Selection) | Checkbox | Unticked | When ticked, the report shows totals only. Applies when more than one property is selected. |
| Add Report to Favourites Menu | Action | Not applied | Saves the report with the current options to the Favourites Menu. |
| Schedule | Action | Not applied | Opens Scheduled Reports so the report can run and be emailed automatically. |
| Build | Action | Not applied | Generates the report using the selected options. |
Column Headers
The columns below appear on the report output. Rows are grouped by property, with one row per online agent and a Grand Total row at the bottom. Where a value depends on a report option or a calculation, the Source / Calculation column points to the relevant concept under Data Sources & Calculations.
| Column | Description | Source / Calculation |
|---|---|---|
| Travel Agent | The online agent that created the reservations on the row. | The Online Agent report option. Agents with no reservations in the date range still show a row, with zero values. |
| Reservations Made | Number of reservations counted for the online agent. | See Which online reservations are counted. |
| Nights Booked | Total nights across the reservations counted for the online agent. | See Which online reservations are counted. |
| Avg LOS | Average length of stay, in nights, per reservation. | Nights Booked ÷ Reservations Made. |
| Lead Time By Days | Five columns showing how many of the reservations fell into each lead time band. The first four match Segments 1 to 4; the fifth is a catch-all for everything above Segment 4. | See Lead time and the Lead Time By Days columns. |
| Average Lead Time | Average number of days between the date a reservation was made and its arrival date. | Sum of each reservation's lead time ÷ Reservations Made. |
| Average Revenue | Average revenue per reservation. | Total Revenue ÷ Reservations Made. |
| Total Revenue | Total revenue across the reservations counted for the online agent. | See Revenue. |
Data Sources & Calculations
The following concepts each govern more than one column on the report.
Lead time and the Lead Time By Days columns
Lead time is the number of days between the date a reservation was made and its arrival date. The Lead Time Segment report option sets four bands, each with a From and a To value in days. The report then renders five Lead Time By Days columns: one for each of the four segments, plus a fifth catch-all column for reservations with a lead time above the Segment 4 To value.
The fifth column is labelled with the Segment 4 To value plus one, followed by a plus sign. With the default segments of 0 to 3, 4 to 7, 8 to 14 and 15 to 28, the columns are 0 - 3, 4 - 7, 8 - 14, 15 - 28 and 29 +. If Segment 4 To is changed to 20, the fifth column becomes 21 +.
Each reservation is counted once, in a single band, so the five Lead Time By Days values add up to Reservations Made on the same row.
Which online reservations are counted
The report only counts reservations attributed to an online agent. Reservations created manually by staff, and reservations from agents that are not online agents, are excluded. Use the Online Agent report option to narrow the report to specific agents.
Please Note! Reservations that have a cancelled status are not included in this report.
Which date the reservation is matched on depends on the radio button selected next to the date range:
- Reservation Made Between uses the date the reservation was created.
- Reservation Arriving Between uses the arrival date.
- Reservation In House Between uses any night the guest is in house within the range.
The Property, Category and Rate Type report options further limit which reservations are included.
Please Note! If no online reservations match the selected report options, the report builds with no rows rather than returning a message.
Revenue
Total Revenue is the revenue attributed to the reservations counted on the row, and Average Revenue divides that figure by Reservations Made.
The graph
Unless Do Not Show Graph is ticked, a stacked column chart is rendered below the data table. There is one column per online agent, stacked and colour coded by lead time band, with the number of reservations labelled inside each band. The legend lists the five lead time bands and updates to match the Lead Time Segment values entered on the Report Options panel.
Related Reports
- Reservation by Lead Time Report - the same lead time analysis across all reservations, not only online ones, with extra grouping and filtering options.
- Channel Performance Report - compares reservations, revenue, commission and average lead time by channel.
- Channel Category Comparison Report - compares category performance across online channels.
- Online Reservation Transactions Report - lists the individual online reservations and deposits behind the totals.
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