Walking a Guest (Relocation)
Walking a guest (also called relocation) is the practice of moving a guest with a confirmed reservation to another comparable hotel when the original property cannot honour the booking, most often because of overbooking, an unexpected out-of-order room or a late departure. The guest is "walked" to the other property at the original hotel's expense.
How it works
The front office finds a comparable or better room nearby, usually at a similar star rating and location. The original hotel typically pays for the first night at the other property, transport there, and often a phone call or message home, and aims to bring the guest back the next day if inventory frees up. Many hotels also add an apology gesture such as a voucher or loyalty points.
Example
A 120-room hotel accepts 123 reservations on a night with a predicted 5% no-show rate, but only 1 guest fails to show. Two guests are walked to a partner hotel at €140 per night each, plus €25 taxi fares.
Walk cost = 2 × (140 + 25) = €330
If the extra bookings earned more than that in net revenue, the overbooking strategy still paid off, but reputation cost must be counted too.
Why it matters
Walks hurt guest satisfaction, trigger negative reviews and can breach OTA partner terms. Booking.com, Expedia and others track relocations and may penalise properties with repeated incidents through lower visibility or ranking. Revenue managers use walk rates to calibrate overbooking limits.
Related
- Overbooking is the main cause of walks.
- No-show and Wash (Cancellation Wash) rates drive how far a hotel can safely oversell.
- Out of Order (OOO) rooms can also force a walk.
- ORM (Online Reputation Management) deals with the review fallout.