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Hotel-tech glossary

Walk-In

A guest who arrives at the property without a reservation.

A walk-in is a guest who arrives at the property without a prior reservation, typically asking for same-day accommodation. Walk-ins are a high-margin channel because they bypass OTA commission entirely, but they require the property to have inventory available, which means leaving some inventory closed on OTAs as a deliberate strategy. The economics flip during low-demand periods when walk-ins compete with OTA-shifted inventory.

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Part of the hotel-tech glossary. Maintained by Maciej Dudziak, founder of Guestivo.