Hotel occupancy refers to the percentage of rooms occupied in a hotel at a given time. The occupancy rate helps a hotel's administrators evaluate their business and determine whether the hotel has a vacancy for letting out rooms to walk-in guests. A hotel front-desk clerk or manager should know the information required to determine the hotel occupancy.

Multiply the number of reservations by the percentage of people with reservations who typically never check in to find the number of people unlikely to claim their room reservation. For example, if a hotel made 20 reservations but history suggests 10 per cent will not check in, the formula is: 20 times 0.10, which equals 2 expected no-shows.

Determine the total number of rooms available with a two-step process. Start with the number of hotel rooms in the building, and subtract the number of stayovers (guests reserving rooms more than one night), the number of overstays (guests who do not leave when expected) and the number of rooms not in operation. For example, if the hotel has 100 rooms, with two out of operation, 12 with multiple-day guests staying over, and three overstaying their reservations, the first step in the formula is: 100 minus 2 minus 12 minus 3, which equals 83.

  • Hotel occupancy refers to the percentage of rooms occupied in a hotel at a given time.
  • Start with the number of hotel rooms in the building, and subtract the number of stayovers (guests reserving rooms more than one night), the number of overstays (guests who do not leave when expected) and the number of rooms not in operation.

Add the number of understays (guests who left early) and the number of people with reservations who did not check in to the number determined from the first step of the calculation, which is the number of rooms in operation without overstays and without stayovers, to determine the total number of rooms available. Continuing the example from the first step, if the hotel had two no-shows and three understays, the formula would be: 83 plus 2 plus 3, which equals 88 available rooms.

Determine the number of occupied rooms by adding the number of sold rooms to the number of rooms provided free of charge. For example, if the hotel sold 40 rooms and comped four rooms, the formula for determining the number of occupied rooms would be: 40 plus 4, which equals 44 rooms occupied.

Determine hotel occupancy by dividing the number of occupied rooms by the number of available rooms. For example, if the hotel has 88 available rooms and 44 occupied rooms, the formula for hotel occupancy would be: 44 divided by 88, which equals 0.50 or a 50 per cent hotel occupancy.