Free tool
Hotel no-show cost calculator
Plug in rooms, ADR, occupancy, and current no-show rate. The output shows annual room revenue currently lost and what pre-arrival authorisation would recover on your assumed post-deployment rate.
Interactive calculator
Annual cost of no-shows, and what pre-arrival auth would recover
Plug in your own numbers. The output is your scenario, not our claim. The pre-arrival authorisation column assumes a hold (not a charge); operator-reported reductions land in the 3-4 percentage-point range per anonymised case data.
Your scenario
Annual room revenue lost to no-shows now
Annual revenue lost with auth
Annual revenue recovered
The recovery figure is your scenario, not a vendor claim. Pre-arrival authorisation is a hold, not a charge; the no-show-rate reduction depends on your channel mix, the wording of the authorisation message, and how the hold release is handled.
How the math connects
- Annual room nights sold = rooms × 365 × occupancy %
- No-show revenue loss = nights sold × no-show rate × ADR
- Recovery = (current rate − post-auth rate) × nights sold × ADR
Pre-arrival auth assumes the property sends an authorisation request before arrival and holds (not charges) the card. Operator-reported no-show-rate reductions on anonymised mid-market properties land in the 3-4 percentage-point range in the first quarter after deployment.
How to read the result
The recovery number is your scenario, not a vendor claim. Whether the assumed post-deployment no-show rate is realistic depends on two things: the channel mix (prepaid OTAs already enforce a hold, so the no-show rate on that channel is structurally lower) and the wording of the authorisation message (guests who do not understand the hold often fail to update an expired card).
Why pre-arrival authorisation works
The simplest version is a 24-72-hour pre-arrival flow that places a one-night hold on the booking card via the PMS payment gateway. Cards that decline or expire are caught while there is still time to contact the guest; guests who confirm are markedly more likely to arrive. The mechanism is one part friction (the guest is reminded that a real booking exists) and one part operational signal (the property sees declined cards before arrival day).
Operator-reported reductions
Anonymised independent-property data places the no-show-rate reduction in the 3-4 percentage-point range in the first quarter after deployment. The reduction tends to be larger at properties starting from a higher base rate (7-8% → 3-4%) and smaller at properties already running aggressive pre-stay confirmation flows.
Where this fits in the stack
The authorisation call usually originates from the PMS payment gateway (Stripe, Adyen, or a regional acquirer) and is triggered by the guest-journey platform's pre-arrival message workflow. Three of the guest-journey platforms compared in our /compare/ section ship native pre-arrival authorisation triggers: Canary (the category strength on PCI-grade payment), Duve via the higher tiers, and Guestivo on the messaging side with the auth call routed to the PMS gateway. For the PMS decision itself the PMS Fit-Finder is the relevant decision tool.