Hotel Attrition Calculator

Hotel attrition questions planners ask

What is hotel attrition?

Attrition is the gap between the room-nights you committed to in a hotel contract and the room-nights your group actually books. The contract gives you an allowance, so you can finish under the commitment by some percentage and pay nothing. Below that line the hotel bills you for rooms nobody slept in, usually at or near the contracted rate. It applies to the room block; a separate clause normally covers a food and beverage minimum.

What is a typical attrition clause percentage?

Most group contracts allow 10 to 20 percent, so a 300 room-night block with a 15 percent allowance can finish at 255 room-nights with no fee. Citywide dates, peak season and compressed markets run tighter, sometimes 5 to 10 percent. Soft dates and long lead times get more room. The allowance is negotiable, and it usually moves more easily than the rate does.

How is hotel attrition calculated?

Multiply the contracted room-nights by the allowance percentage to get the room-nights you may miss for free. Subtract your actual pickup from the contracted room-nights to get the shortfall, then subtract the allowance from that shortfall. What is left is the chargeable shortfall. Multiply it by the room rate and by whatever share the clause charges, commonly 80 to 90 percent of room revenue or a stated profit margin. Some contracts measure the shortfall across the whole block and some measure it night by night, which costs more when pickup is uneven.

What is the difference between attrition and cancellation?

Attrition applies when the event happens and the block underperforms. Cancellation applies when the event does not happen at all, and the fee is normally a sliding scale tied to how close to arrival you cancel, often rising toward the full expected room revenue. They are separate clauses with separate math, and one contract can charge a room-night shortfall and a food and beverage shortfall for the same event. Read them as two different exposures and model them separately.

What happens if the hotel resells the rooms?

That depends on what your contract says, not on what feels fair. A mitigation or resale clause credits you for rooms the hotel sells to other guests over your dates, which can cut or erase the fee on a night that sells out anyway. Plenty of contracts contain no such clause, so the hotel can fill the room and still bill you for it. Ask for resale credit in writing before you sign, and ask how the hotel will evidence the occupancy.

How do I negotiate the attrition allowance down?

Ask for a bigger allowance rather than a lower rate when pickup is the thing you are unsure about. Other levers worth asking for: cumulative measurement instead of per-night, a review date around 30 days out where the block is resized without penalty, credit for rooms your attendees book outside the block, resale credit, and a stated dollar cap. Bring pickup history from your last two events. A hotel gives more room to a planner with numbers than to one without them.

Are attrition fees charged on room revenue or on lost profit?

Both wordings are common. A room revenue clause charges a share of the rate, often 80 to 90 percent, for each unsold room-night. A lost profit clause charges the rate minus the cost of servicing the room, written as a margin, often 70 to 80 percent. Profit language usually costs less, so it is worth asking for. Check which one your draft uses before you model anything, because the same shortfall can differ by thousands of dollars between the two.

Is cumulative or per-night attrition better for my group?

Cumulative is better for almost every group. It measures the whole block against the whole allowance, so a heavy Tuesday covers a light Thursday. Per-night measurement applies the allowance to each night on its own, so a strong night earns you no credit and every weak night bills separately. Switch the measurement control in the tool above to see what the difference is worth on your own numbers.