A pick-up report tracks how many rooms in your room block have actually been reserved by attendees. You should request this report weekly starting 60 days before your event. Tracking your pick-up ensures you don't breach your attrition clause or face major financial penalties simply because your attendees booked outside the block.
GUIDES
How to Track a Hotel Room Block Pick-Up Report Successfully
TL;DR
Daily room-block pickup reports look like noise — but 4 specific numbers (T-30 pace vs commitment, wash rate, sub-block fill, cancel-resell ratio) predict attrition exposure 6 weeks before the bill lands. We break down each metric with free dashboard template below.
You've contracted a room block for 200 room nights at an excellent rate. Fast forward to the week before the event: the hotel sends you an invoice for 15,000 EUR in attrition damages because only half of the attendees actually used the booking code.
The difference between a flawlessly executed room block and a catastrophic attrition penalty is active monitoring. The tool you use for this is the pick-up report.
What is a Pick-Up Report?
When you contract a block of rooms, the hotel assigns a unique group code. As attendees book rooms using that code or your custom booking link, the hotel "picks up" the room from your block and assigns it to a real person.
A pick-up report is simply a running tally provided by the hotel showing: Total rooms contracted minus Rooms booked equals Rooms remaining in the block.
The Anatomy of an Active Room Block
If you wait until your cut-off date to check your pick-up, it’s already too late. You need an active schedule.
- 60-Days Out: The hotel provides the first report. You should be at 25-30% pick-up.
- 45-Days Out: Start pushing reminders to your attendees. If you are tracking behind your 80% attrition guarantee, it is time to intervene.
- 30-to-21-Days Out (Cut-Off Date): The deadline. This is when unbooked rooms revert to the hotel's general inventory. If you are significantly under your target, you may have the opportunity to officially release some of the block to mitigate damages.
Crucial Advice
Always instruct the hotel to perform a "cross-reference check" or "audit" against your attendee registration list. Often, attendees book at the hotel using their corporate rate or an OTA (like Booking.com) instead of your group code. If you can prove they are with your group, the hotel must count them toward your pick-up.
How to Request It in the RFP
Set expectations during the RFP phase so the hotel knows you will rigorously manage your block.
Cut & Paste RFP Clause
"Client requires the Hotel to provide a room block pick-up report on a bi-weekly basis starting 60 days prior to the event, and weekly starting 30 days prior. The Hotel agrees that any attendee from [Company Name] who books outside the official block (via OTA or corporate rate) will be credited toward the group’s pick-up and attrition calculation upon verification."
Taking Control of the Data
Do not let the hotel dictate your risk. If the pick-up report is showing low numbers, analyze the why. Is the retail rate currently lower than your contracted group rate? (If so, you have a solid argument for renegotiation). Are your attendees booking Airbnbs? (You need to mandate hotel stays for company expenses).
Start your RFP for free →Part of our Hotel RFP guide
This article is part of our complete guide to hotel RFPs. Start here: What Is a Hotel RFP? (full guide)
Continue reading in this topic
Or explore: Blog/Hotel Room Block Management Guide · MICE glossary · Try Easy RFP free
How to read a hotel pick-up report in 5 minutes
- Find the four numbers that matter most. Total rooms blocked (the original contract), total rooms picked up so far (actually booked), pace vs target (rooms booked this week vs forecast), and days to cut-off date. These four tell you 90% of what you need.
- Calculate your pickup percentage. Picked-up rooms ÷ blocked rooms × 100. Below 60% with <30 days to event = you're heading into attrition territory. Above 90% with >30 days = consider asking the hotel to add more rooms to the block.
- Check the pace vs forecast. Hotels usually forecast pickup pace as 10-20% of total per week starting 8 weeks out. If you're at week 4 with only 25% pickup, you're behind pace and need to send a registration nudge to attendees.
- Look at the room-type breakdown. Pickup isn't uniform — singles/doubles often book faster than suites or premium rooms. If your block is 70% standard rooms but 95% of pickup is in standard rooms, you may want to release the premium room allocation early to avoid attrition on those.
- Confirm the report's data freshness. Hotel pickup reports are usually updated nightly (US/EU) but sometimes only Mon/Wed/Fri. Check the report timestamp — making decisions on stale data is the most common reason planners overreact to short-term pickup gaps.
Ready to skip the manual work?
Let Easy RFP send and score your next RFP. Five hotels, automated, free.
Try Easy RFP free