The Forward Reservation report shows how many reservations are in house on each upcoming date, either day by day for the next 14 days by Category or Reservation Type, or as a 12-month summary by day of the month.
Overview
The Forward Reservation report is a forward-looking count of reservations. It answers the question "how many reservations do we have staying on each date ahead?" without revenue figures. The Detail view shows, for each Category, how many Areas are booked and how many are vacant on each of the next 14 days. The Summary view shows the number of reservation nights booked in each of the next 12 months.
The report counts reservations, not people or revenue. A reservation is counted on a date when it is staying overnight on that date: it has arrived on or before the date and departs after it. Reservations with a status of Cancelled, No Show, Quote or Maintenance are never counted. See Data Sources & Calculations for the full rules.
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
Run the Forward Reservation report when you need a count of upcoming reservations rather than revenue, for example:
- Fortnight ahead planning - the front office manager builds the report with the default Detail by Category options at the start of the week to see, for each Category, how many Areas are booked and how many are vacant on each of the next 14 days, and plans staffing and housekeeping around the busy dates.
- Pace across the year - the revenue manager builds the Summary view each month to compare the number of reservation nights already booked for each of the next 12 months and to spot soft months early.
- Mix of business - a property that classifies reservations with Reservation Types builds Detail by Reservation Type to see how the next 14 days split across those types.
How to Access
In the side menu of RMS, go to Reports > Management > Reservations > Forward Reservation.
Report Options
The Forward Reservation report has the report options below. All options are visible on the Report Options panel; there is no More Options button on this report.
Tip! Report build screens default to a common use configuration, and selections can be made as required.
| Report Option | Type | Default | Description |
|---|---|---|---|
| Start Date | Date | Today | The first date on the report. The picker offers Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow or Custom Date. Detail views run for 14 days from this date; the Summary view starts from the first day of this date's month. |
| Property | Multi-select | All Selected | Limits the report to the selected Properties. Shown on multi-property databases only. |
| Category | Multi-select | All Selected | Limits the report to reservations in the selected Categories. |
| Display Options | Radio | Detail |
Sets the layout of the report. Options:
|
| Detail grouping (dropdown under Detail) | Dropdown | Category |
Sets what each row group on the Detail view represents. Greyed out when Summary is selected. Options:
|
| Add Report to Favourites Menu | Checkbox | Off | Adds the report to your Favourites menu. |
Please Note! The option labels follow your property's System Labels. If your property has renamed Reservation, Category, Area or Reservation Type, the report name, the Category and Reservation Type options and the row labels on the output show your labels instead. For example, a property that labels reservations as Bookings sees the report as Forward Booking.
Column Headers
The Forward Reservation report has three layouts, chosen with the Display Options. Each layout has its own columns and rows, described below. None of the layouts shows revenue.
Detail by Category
The Detail by Category layout has one column for each of the 14 dates from the Start Date, and a block of three rows for each selected Category. Categories are listed in their Category display order and the report header shows the date range, for example Date: 21 Sep 2026 To 04 Oct 2026. There is no total row.
| Column or Row | Description | Source / Calculation |
|---|---|---|
| Date columns | One column per date, showing the date and the day of the week. | Start Date and the 13 days that follow it. See Report windows. |
| Category (row group) | The Category name, followed by its Res, No Of Area and Vacant rows. | Each Category selected in the Category report option, in Category display order. |
| Res | The number of reservations in the Category that are in house on that date. | Reservations that arrive on or before the date and depart after it. See Which reservations are counted. |
| No Of Area | The number of Areas in the Category. The same figure shows on every date. | Count of Areas assigned to the Category during the 14-day window, regardless of the Area Statistics setting. See Areas and vacancy. |
| Vacant | The number of Areas in the Category without a reservation on that date. | No Of Area minus Res. The figure is negative when more reservations are held than there are Areas. |
Detail by Reservation Type
The Detail by Reservation Type layout has the same 14 date columns and one row for each Reservation Type found on the reservations in the window. There are no Area or Vacant rows and no total row.
| Column or Row | Description | Source / Calculation |
|---|---|---|
| Date columns | One column per date, showing the date and the day of the week. | Start Date and the 13 days that follow it. |
| Reservation Type (row) | One row per Reservation Type, labelled with the Reservation Type name. | The Reservation Type set on each reservation. Reservations with no Reservation Type are grouped in a single row with no label. |
| Count | The number of reservations of that Reservation Type in house on the date, across all selected Categories. | Same rule as Res above. See Which reservations are counted. |
Please Note! If your property does not set a Reservation Type on reservations, the Detail by Reservation Type layout shows every reservation in one row with a blank label, as in the screenshot above.
Forward Reservation Summary
The Forward Reservation Summary layout is a grid of days against months. It has one row for each day of the month (1 to 31) and one column for each of the 12 months starting with the month of the Start Date. Each column heading shows the month and year and the words Res Count. A Total row at the bottom adds up each month.
| Column or Row | Description | Source / Calculation |
|---|---|---|
| Date | The day of the month, 1 to 31. | Fixed rows. A cell is blank where the day does not exist in that month, for example 31 in September. |
| Month columns | Twelve columns, each headed with the month, the year and Res Count. | The month of the Start Date and the 11 months that follow it. See Report windows. |
| Res Count | The number of reservations in house on that day of that month, across all selected Categories. | Same rule as Res above. Zero shows as a blank cell. |
| Total | The month's total, shown for every month including months with no reservations. | The sum of the Res Count cells in the column, which equals the number of reservation nights in the month. |
Data Sources & Calculations
The following rules apply to every layout of the Forward Reservation report.
Which reservations are counted
The Forward Reservation report counts a reservation on a date when the reservation is in house overnight on that date, meaning its arrival date is on or before the date and its departure date is after the date. A reservation is therefore not counted on its departure date. A reservation that spans several dates is counted once on each of those dates, which is why the Summary Total equals the number of reservation nights.
- Status: reservations with a status of Cancelled, No Show, Quote or Maintenance are excluded. Every other Reservation Status, including Unconfirmed and Pencil, is counted.
- Group reservations: the Master Reservation record of a group is not counted. The individual reservations in the group are counted like any other reservation.
- Category filter: only reservations in the Categories selected in the Category report option are counted. On the Detail by Reservation Type and Summary layouts the counts combine all selected Categories.
- Count basis: each reservation counts as one, whatever the number of guests or the tariff.
Report windows
- Detail views cover 14 days: the Start Date and the 13 days after it. The report header shows the range, for example Date: 05 Oct 2026 To 18 Oct 2026 for a Start Date of 5 October 2026.
- Summary view covers 12 months starting from the first day of the Start Date's month. A Start Date of 15 August 2026 produces columns from August 2026 to July 2027, and the August column includes the whole month, not only the days from the 15th.
- The Start Date can be in the past. The report then shows the reservations that were in house on those dates.
Areas and vacancy
No Of Area on the Detail by Category layout is the number of Areas assigned to the Category. The count is taken once for the 14-day window, so it is the same on every date. An Area that was moved between Categories within the window is counted once, in the Category it most recently belonged to during the window. Areas created after the end of the window are not counted.
Unlike the Occupancy Report, the Forward Reservation report ignores the Area Statistics setting: an Area with Area Statistics set to No is still counted in No Of Area.
Vacant is No Of Area minus Res for each date. Because the report counts reservations rather than allocated Areas, Vacant goes negative when a Category holds more reservations than it has Areas, for example after an overbooking or when reservations are booked by Category and not yet allocated to an Area.
Please Note! The Forward Reservation report shows counts only. For projected revenue and occupancy percentages over the same dates, use the Projected Forecast Report or the History & Forecast Report listed below.
Related Reports
- Reservation Position Forecast Report - the availability position of each Category for a selected date range, filtered by reservation status.
- Area Availability Report - a list of the available Areas on a date, how many nights each is free for and its Best Available Rate.
- Projected Forecast Report - projected occupancy and Operational Revenue for the months or dates ahead.
- History & Forecast Report - Operational Revenue and occupancy statistics for each date in a selected range.
- Reservation List report - a list of the individual reservations arriving, departing or staying in a date range.
Related Articles
- Reservation Types - the lookup table behind the Detail by Reservation Type layout.
- Reservation Status Change - the reservation statuses and how to change them.
- System Labels and terminology - why the report name and row labels can differ between properties.
- Scheduled Reports - how to schedule the report to email as a PDF or CSV.
Comments
0 comments
Please sign in to leave a comment.