The booking window, or lead time, is the number of days between the date a reservation is made and the arrival date. It varies widely by segment and market: business travellers and city weekenders tend to book days ahead, while leisure and group travel is often booked months in advance.
Knowing your typical booking window by segment tells you how much of a future date should already be on the books, which is the basis of pickup analysis and pace reports.
In practice: compare your on-the-books position for a date with where you normally are at the same days out. If your booking window is short, avoid discounting far-out dates too early: you risk leaving money on the table on bookings that would have come anyway.
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