Pace reports show whether bookings for a future date are building ahead of or behind last year and budget. Here’s how hotel sales teams use them to spot shortfalls early, adjust pricing by segment and follow up on the right deals.
A venue sales team can know what’s on the books this week and still get blindsided next month, because a snapshot doesn’t tell them whether bookings are building faster or slower than they should be.
A pace report shows that trend, so the team can see a period running ahead of budget or falling behind last year before the gap gets hard to close.
A pace report compares how bookings for a future date are building against a benchmark, such as the same point last year (often called STLY), the same stage of the sales cycle, or the budget target set at the start of the year. The name is literal: it measures how fast bookings are coming in, alongside the total already on the books (OTB).
For a hotel with meeting and event space, this matters more than it does for guest rooms alone. Group and event business books further out and passes through more hands before it’s confirmed. A pace view gives sales teams a way to see that whole pipeline.
For example, if a hotel has $180,000 of event revenue on the books for March with 90 days to go, and had $220,000 at the same point last year, March is pacing about 18% behind. That gap is the signal to act, even though $180,000 might look healthy on its own.
Many planners now book group business at shorter notice, which puts pressure on venues to qualify and respond to enquiries quickly. Speed matters because planners tend to stop looking once they’ve found something that works. Central Hall Venues, for example, responds to enquiries 3x faster with iVvy. Speed alone won’t rescue a soft pipeline, though.
Pace reporting helps catch a soft pipeline earlier. Hotel sales teams spend much of their week on admin and on chasing data across disconnected systems, which leaves little time to cross-reference spreadsheets for a pacing problem by hand. A pace report that builds itself from live booking data takes that job off their plate.
Hotels use pace reports to see where bookings are falling behind and decide what to do about it, whether that’s a pricing change, a targeted promotion or a follow-up push. Here’s how that works day to day:
Spot shortfalls early. If bookings for a date three months out are tracking behind the same point last year, that’s a signal to act now, before the calendar is thin.
Adjust pricing and packages by segment. Different event types each pace differently. Breaking the report down by segment shows where a promotion or a rate adjustment will have the most effect.
Watch tentative business. Pacing by booking status (enquiry, tentative, definite) shows how much of the forward calendar is still at risk, and which tentative holds need a decision date.
Prioritise follow-up. Proposals that go quiet need a nudge, and pace data helps flag which deals have gone cold before they’re forgotten.
Set realistic goals with revenue and events teams. Comparing pace to budget keeps forecasts grounded in what’s on the books, rather than in last year’s assumptions.
A report like this only holds up if the data underneath it is trustworthy. That means live figures and a true point-in-time record, rather than a dashboard that overwrites yesterday’s numbers every time someone refreshes it. It should also account for cancellations and downgrades, since a healthy new-booking figure can hide business slipping away.
Venues that review pace weekly catch shortfalls while there’s still time to fix them. It helps when pace reporting lives in the same venue management system as enquiries and bookings, so the figures update as deals move and nobody has to rebuild a spreadsheet every Monday. Beyond that, it comes down to routine: a set time each week to look at the report, and one person responsible for turning what it shows into a pricing or follow-up decision.
For a closer look at how pace reports are calculated, what they should include and the mistakes that skew them, read our guide to pace reporting for venues.
STLY stands for “same time last year”. It compares what’s on the books for a future date today with what was on the books for the equivalent date at the same point last year.
Weekly suits most venues with event space. Peak periods and dates with a known shortfall may need a check every few days.
Pace compares your current position against a benchmark. Pickup is the volume of new business added over a set window, such as the last seven days.
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