Booked so far vs usual

The definition

In the rule builder, pick Booked so far vs usual in the Metric dropdown, right after booking speed. Its Compare dropdown reads Ahead of usual by at least (to start) or Behind usual by at least, and its Threshold is a percent from 0 to 100, 25 to start, of the rooms the rule measures. Beside it the builder says what that is in rooms, from the room types you have ticked: "about 5 rooms" for 25% of 20, "about 1 room", or "under 1 room". The "?" beside Threshold says:

"Compares every room booked for this night so far with what similar nights in earlier years had booked at the same number of days before arrival."

The similar nights are found the way booking speed finds them, which also takes earlier weeks of this season when your history has them (read Which nights it compares with).

For each night, MAYA takes, over the room types the rule measures:

• Booked: every room booked for the night so far, the same count sellable occupancy uses.
• Usual: what similar past nights had on the books at the same number of days before arrival, averaged, and worked out on tonight's rooms to sell, to 0.1 of a room.

Ahead of usual by at least 25% is true when booked less usual is 25% of the night's rooms to sell or more, the mark included. Behind usual by at least 20% is true when usual less booked is 20% of them or more. 0% means at or ahead of usual (or at or behind it). A percent is kept to two decimals: 12.345 saves as 12.35.

Said as a sentence, a rule with it reads: When a night has at least 25% of its rooms (about 5 of 20) more booked than usual for this point, raise 10%. The rules list reads "Booked so far ahead of usual by at least 25%".

The rule builder offers Booked so far vs usual once MAYA's checks on your property read it: after an update reaches your property, from MAYA's next check that prices your nights there (within minutes of a booking or a rate change, at the latest just after midnight at your property). Until then it isn't in the Metric list, and a rule with it can't be saved: "This condition isn't ready on your property yet." A rule saved with it always opens on its row.

What counts

• Every room booked counts, every room of a group booking and every one of the bookings made together, now and on the nights it is compared with. A wedding block of 20 rooms is 20 rooms, as occupancy counts it.
• Rooms held in a group block that nobody has booked yet are not read, as occupancy doesn't read them.
• Rooms you have marked out of service lower the night's rooms to sell, so each percent is fewer rooms, and the usual is worked out on tonight's rooms to sell. A renovation never makes a night read as behind.
• A room type you have unticked under Counts as a room is never counted, on the night or on the nights it is compared with. The change log says when a rule's count leaves one out: "That count leaves out Pickleball Court."
• A room type with no rooms to sell that night is out of both the rooms booked and the rooms to sell.

Which nights it compares with

Found the way booking speed finds them: up to 8 similar past nights from the last three years, most recent first, the same weekday in the same season, then the steps the search takes when too few match, and around a holiday the same holiday in each of the last three years. Closed periods and nights you have set aside are never compared, so Not a fair comparison? changes both conditions. Read Which past nights your rules compare with (advanced).

The seasons are your seasons as they stood at the end of last month, read from the 35 whole months before this one, so they stay the same all month. Booking speed's are worked out again every day, and a night near the edge of a season can fall in one season one day and the next season the day after. Its similar nights would then change with nothing booked, and a rule on the usual come on and off by itself. So near the edge of a season the two conditions can compare with different nights, and on the first of the month a night's similar nights, and its usual, can change.

Each similar night counts as a share of the rooms that were selling on it. The single highest and lowest are left out when there are 5 or more, and the rest are averaged, then put on tonight's rooms to sell.

A similar night is left out, never read as none booked, when:

• your property had no booking on it at all, so your history holds nothing for that night;
• none of the room types the rule measures was selling yet;
• the room types selling then had fewer than half of today's measured rooms;
• any of its measured bookings has no booking date in your history;
• most of its measured bookings were entered after the night, as in history carried over from an earlier system.

The same point before arrival

Your history keeps the day each booking was made, not the time. Tonight's count includes today's bookings so far. So each similar night is read at the point the part of today already gone can only make harder:

• Ahead of usual by at least reads each similar night up to the end of the same day before arrival, the most it had by then.
• Behind usual by at least reads it up to the start of that day, the least it had.

Today's bookings count straight away either way, so a booking that lifts a night out of behind takes a cut off at the next check. The usual moves:

• once a day, when the night is a day closer, at MAYA's first check after midnight at your property, and on the first of the month, when the seasons are read again;
• when the night's rooms to sell change, as the usual is put on them: marking a room out of service lowers it from the next check;
• when a booking or a cancellation lands on a night already over, or you set a night aside, from the next check;
• when a room type that has never sold gets its first booking, since the nights before it are then read without it (Room types that started selling later).

Room types that started selling later

A room type is read from the first night it sold in your history. On earlier nights the room types already selling are read, and their share is put on tonight's rooms. A room type that has never sold and has nothing booked ahead counts as selling all along. For a rule that measures every room type, room types your property system stopped listing are read on the nights they sold, so a room type replaced by two new ones reads as the rooms it was. Room types you switched off yourself stay out.

MAYA keeps no history of room counts, so earlier nights are read against today's counts. A room type that grew (10 rooms to 14) makes its earlier nights look emptier than they were, so nights read further ahead than they are, for up to three years. Read What rules cannot do yet.

Not enough similar nights

A rule on it needs at least 3 similar nights with bookings. With fewer, the condition is not true. There is no stand-in from nearby nights, as booking speed has. A brand-new property's rule on it stays quiet, and so does a Mews property's at first: MAYA has only the 30 days its reads cover at connect, growing by a day each day.

A night near a holiday is compared with that holiday in each of the last three years, one night a year, so it needs all three. With less than three years of history, every holiday night stays quiet. A few nights about a year out stay quiet even then, when their holiday hasn't come round again this year.

Where MAYA explains a rule, it says why:

• the day card: "12 booked. Not enough similar nights to compare with yet."
• the popup when you turn the rule on: "On 40 nights where the rest of this rule is true, there aren't enough similar nights to compare with yet, so it leaves them alone.", or on a new property "There aren't enough similar nights to compare with yet, so this rule won't change any night until there are."
• Show the numbers on a change that night: "There aren't enough similar nights to compare with yet: 2 could be compared, and 3 are needed."
• the change log, when that is the only part no longer true: '"Weekend pace" stopped applying an earlier 10% raise here: there weren't enough similar nights to compare with.'

Booking speed or booked so far vs usual?

Booking speed asks how fast bookings are arriving right now: the bookings made in the past day, week or month against what similar nights got over the same stretch. A wedding block or a group counts as one booking there. Booked so far vs usual asks where the night stands overall: every room on the books against where similar nights stood at the same point. On a small property, a few bookings a week make booking speed move a lot; rooms on the books move more steadily. Use both in one rule to raise only when a night is both filling fast and already ahead. Read Booking speed.

Cancellations and the undo box

The usual moves with every day closer to arrival as well as with cancellations, so a booked so far rule is read as it is, ticked or not: a cancellation that takes the night under the mark takes its change off at the next check, even with the undo box unticked. On a booking speed or pickup rule, booked so far vs usual is one more thing that must be true when the rule acts, and cancellations never take that rule's change off for it. Read When a price change comes off.

A price you type pauses a rule already on the night. The first check that prices the night after you type decides whether this rule was already true there.

What earlier years can't show

Your history holds where bookings ended up, not where they stood, and tonight holds bookings that may still change. Most of these make a night read further ahead than it will end, most on nights far out:

• Cancelled bookings and no-shows are gone from your history, and tonight's count holds bookings that may still cancel or not show.
• A booking moved to a night, or extended at check-in, keeps the day it was first made, so it reads as on the books for that night from then.
• A guest moved to another room type, or upgraded at check-in, is read on the room type they ended up in: a rule on the room type guests move into reads behind, one on the room type they came from reads ahead.
• On Cloudbeds, if your past bookings were read from the plainer reservation list, a past booking with several rooms may count as one room, so group nights read ahead. Read The history import.

Where you see it

• The calendar's day card, while a rule that is on has the condition: "12 booked, usually 7 by now", one line per set of room types the rules measure ("Standard and Deluxe: 9 booked, usually 5.5 by now"). With rules on both ahead and behind for the same room types, both numbers show: "12 booked, usually 6.5 to 7 by now". Read The calendar.
• The change log, for a change it was part of: "It had 12 of its 20 rooms booked with 30 days to go, where similar nights usually had 7 by then: 5 more, reaching the 25% mark you set." Read The change log.
• Show the numbers, under that change: what was booked against what similar nights usually had, then Which nights were compared? and List the nights, each night with its rooms by then. Read The numbers behind a change.
• Why this price?, in the change log's words, for a change it was part of. Read Find out why a price changed.
• Why didn't it fire?, from its last reading on the night: "It had 9 of its 20 rooms booked with 30 days to go, where similar nights usually had 7 by then: 2 more. Your rule needs rooms booked at least 25% ahead of usual.", or "There weren't enough similar nights to compare with yet." Read Why didn't it fire?.
• The Rate Simulator, with a Booked so far vs usual (%) box for the night. The Week view has no such number from your calendar, so a rule on it never acts there. Read Trying rules out in the Rate Simulator.