Pickup count (advanced)

The definition

MAYA keeps a record of what is booked for each night, written again within about five minutes of a change to its bookings, its booked revenue or its rooms to sell. A record stands until the next one, since nothing changed in between. A pickup rule compares two of those records, over the room types the rule measures:

• now: what is booked for the night now (for a rule set to Less than, when today began, less anything cancelled since)
• when the window opened: what was booked when the first day of the lookback began at your property

Pickup is now minus then. For pickup, each room on each night counts one: a four-room booking for one night is 4 room nights of pickup. That is different from booking speed, where the same booking counts once.

Every room counts, a group's too. On Cloudbeds or ThinkReservations, ten one-room reservations in one wedding block or group are 10 room nights of pickup, exactly like one reservation with 10 rooms, and each one that cancels takes its room night off. So are ten reservations made together within 3 hours, on any system. Booking speed counts a linked group, or (once you turn that setting on) bookings made together, as one booking, and a recent bookings condition counts a linked group as one booking too.

Pickup measures sets the unit:

• Room nights (units): the number of booked rooms, rounded to a whole number.
• Revenue (currency): the sum of each booked room night's current rate, as your property system reports it, in your property's currency, to the cent. Nothing is converted.

A booking counts the same whatever channel it came from. There is no way to count only direct bookings.

The fields

Choose Pickup count (advanced) in the Metric dropdown. The row shows:

• Compare: Greater than or Less than. Comparisons are strict: Greater than 5 means 6 or more room nights, not 5 exactly.
• Threshold: the number of room nights, or the amount, starting at 5. It must be 0 or more. Decimals are kept.
• Lookback window: 1 day, 3 days, 7 days, 14 days or 30 days, starting at 3 days.
• Then waits (advanced): how long the rule leaves a night alone after acting on it. It starts on Same as the lookback window, or on 1 week once you pick 14 days or 30 days. It also offers 1 day, 2 days, 3 days, 1 week and 2 weeks.
• Pickup measures: Room nights (units) or Revenue (currency), starting at room nights.

Lookback windows are whole days

A lookback window counts whole days on your property's calendar. It moves on only at your property's midnight, so the passing of time never changes a pickup count in the middle of the day. Only bookings do.

• A rule set to Greater than counts today so far and the days before it. With 3 days, that is today, yesterday and the day before: it compares what is booked now with the most recent record taken at or before the moment the day before yesterday began.
• A rule set to Less than counts full days only, up to yesterday, because a day that is not over yet would read as slow. With 3 days, that is the three days before today. A cancellation made today counts against it straight away. A booking made today counts from tomorrow.

Negative pickup

When more rooms cancel than book, pickup is below zero. A rule set to Less than 0 acts on nights that are losing bookings. A rule set to Greater than anything does not act on them. The threshold itself cannot be negative.

When pickup cannot be measured

A pickup rule needs a record from when the window opened. When there is none for one of the measured room types, or the most recent one is more than 12 hours older than that moment and your property had no cycle at all in the 12 hours before it, the condition is false and the rule does nothing on that night. An older record on a quiet night is fine: it is still what the night had. This happens:

• On a newly connected property, or for a new room type. MAYA starts keeping records the first time your rules run. A 3-day lookback can only be measured once your rules have been running for 3 days.
• After a long gap in runs, for example a connection that was down for days. Once your rules run again, the rule measures again after a full lookback.
• When every room type the rule measures is unticked as a room, or has been switched off in MAYA. There is nothing to record. Read Measure one set of room types, change another.
• On the furthest nights of the 396-night window. A night is first recorded a few minutes after it enters the window at midnight, and needs a record from before its lookback began. A rule set to Greater than cannot act on the furthest nights of the window, as many as its lookback in days (1 to 30), and one set to Less than on one night more. Each night becomes measurable as it moves closer.

Records are kept for 37 days, whatever lookbacks your rules use: a week more than the longest lookback, 30 days. So a rule you add, edit or switch back on with a long lookback counts at once, as long as your rules have been running that long, except on those furthest nights. A night's record is written again when its bookings, its booked revenue or its rooms to sell change, and about every 4 to 5 days when nothing does.

How long a pickup rule waits

After a pickup rule acts, its change stays on the price and the rule leaves that night and room type alone for its wait: Same as the lookback window, unless you chose another in Then waits (advanced). A 14- or 30-day lookback starts on 1 week. A "?" beside the dropdown says which wait the rule keeps.

A rule set to Less than waits at least its whole lookback, whatever wait you chose: a short stretch always looks low, so it judges again only once a whole lookback window of full days, starting with the day of its last change, has passed. A 3-day rule that cut on Monday judges again as Thursday begins, and a 30-day rule cuts a night at most once every 30 days. The shorter options say so: "(low pickup holds it to 3 days)".

A rule that has both a pickup row and a booking speed row waits the longer of the two, and each Then waits (advanced) dropdown says so beside its shorter options: "(pickup holds it to 3 days)" on the booking speed row, "(booking speed holds it to 1 week)" on the pickup row.

When the wait is over, the rule counts only what came in since the newest change still on the night by itself or by a stronger booking speed or pickup rule that moves the price the same way, or a stronger rule's change that going live from your current rates took off, so it never counts the same burst twice. Pickup and booking speed rules rank on one list for this. Read After a rule acts.

A cut on low pickup, far out

A rule set to Less than looks for quiet nights, and a night far in the future with no bookings yet is always quiet. So a cut on low pickup with no Booking window (days to stay) row reaches every night of the 396-night window, and each time its wait is over (its lookback window at least, read above) a night that is still quiet gets the cut again, on top of the one before. With a 7-day lookback that is a cut a week on every quiet night: nine cuts in ten weeks on a night nothing has happened to. Cancellations never undo them, since fewer bookings only make the rule truer, and the Rules that keep adjusting banner asks you after three changes on a night but the rule keeps adjusting until you answer. Read Answer the keeps-adjusting banner.

Two things keep this in your sight. The rule builder fills a Booking window (days to stay) Less than 60 row in the moment your rule takes this shape, with a "?" beside it that says why; change the number or remove the row, and saving never adds it back. And the window that opens when you add the rule or turn it on says how many nights it reaches and that the cut repeats, from the same trial run as its count of days. Read The rule builder and Turning a rule on. Rules you saved before are left as they are until you open one with Edit: the row is filled in there too, and you can remove it before you save. To cut only the nights that need it, keep a booking window row, or add a Sellable occupancy (%) row so both must be true. A booking window row set to Greater than keeps the cut far out instead, and repeats the same way there: the window says so when a night stays that far out for more than two of the rule's waits.

What the rule card and the change log say

On the Rules tab a pickup condition reads "Pickup above 5 room nights (past 3 days), then waits 3 days", "Pickup below 2 room nights (past week), then waits 1 week" or "Pickup above 2 room nights (past 30 days), then waits 1 week". A revenue rule reads "Pickup above 500 in revenue (past week), then waits 1 week". A rule that also watches booking speed names its wait once, on the booking speed condition.

In the change log it reads "9 room nights booked over the last 3 days, past the 4-room-night mark you set.", where a two-room booking for the night is 2 and "the last 3 days" is the lookback, counted from the day of the change. A 30-day rule reads "2 room nights booked over the last 30 days". A rule set to Less than reads "1 room night booked over the last 3 full days, under the 2-room-night mark you set.", and "2 more room nights cancelled than booked" when the count is under zero. After a change on the night it reads "6 room nights booked since this rule or a stronger one's latest raise still on this night, past the 4-room-night mark you set." When a rule measures different room types from the ones it changes, the sentence names them: "9 room nights booked in Standard and Deluxe over the last 3 days, past the 4-room-night mark you set." A revenue rule shows the room nights too, with your amount as the mark: "past the 500 revenue mark you set".

The Rules that keep adjusting banner names the unit: "Pickup over the 3 days it counted came to 6 room nights, against the 4 you set." A revenue rule shows money there. When the count ran from a raise, it reads "Pickup since the raise before its latest one, by it or a stronger rule, came to 6 room nights".

To see everything an older rule measures, click Edit on it: the rule builder shows every setting as saved (an older cut on low pickup with no booking window also gets the 60-day row filled in, read above). Change what you want and click Save changes, or click Cancel editing to leave it as it is.

Pickup or booking speed

Both look at what a night gained recently. Pickup compares with a fixed number you type, which is right for some nights and wrong for others: 5 room nights in 3 days is a rush for a quiet Tuesday and nothing special for a Saturday in peak season. Booking speed compares with your own similar past nights instead. Read Booking speed or pickup count.

When MAYA suggests removing it

When you click Get suggestions from my data on the Rules tab, MAYA may suggest removing a pickup rule that one of your booking speed rules already covers (it measures and changes at least the room types your pickup rule does, on at least the same days and dates). The suggestion reads: "Your booking speed rules already cover the same nights by comparing with your own similar past nights. Keeping both would stack two price changes on the same bookings.", after a first line saying the pickup rule reacts to a fixed booking count. You choose Remove it, Turn it off, keep it or Leave it running. Nothing changes unless you accept. Read Getting suggestions later.

In the Rate Simulator

The Rate Simulator has a Picked up box per room type, in rooms, and a revenue rule values those rooms at the base price you typed. Read Trying rules out in the Rate Simulator.