Here we are. It’s July, and the high season is officially underway. Over the past few months, you’ve done your best, bookings are coming in, and rooms are filling up. So... everything’s fine, right?

Maybe. Or maybe there are small mistakes you’re not seeing — the kind that can cost you.
If you don’t want to wait until the end of the season to find out (and regret it), now’s the time to stop and check how things are going.

Not sure where to start? No worries: this article gives you a checklist to help you see if your strategy is ready for the summer 2025 test.

There are four steps to follow. Each one checks a key part of your strategy: occupancy, ADR, total revenue, and minimum stay.
Let’s dive in.

Step 1: On the books occupancy

At a glance, your calendar might look promising. But if you really want to know how your property is performing, the question you should ask is: am I ahead of, behind, or in line with this time last year?

To answer that, it’s not enough to look at your current occupancy. And you definitely shouldn’t compare today’s numbers with last year’s final results.

To make a useful comparison, you need to use OTB (On The Books) data — comparing your current occupancy to what it was on the same day last year.

What is OTB (On The Books), and why it matters

OTB is the forward-looking data that shows you the occupancy and revenue already booked and forecasted for the coming period (before cancellations).

With OTB data, you can:

• get a snapshot of how the season is going right now
• compare it with the same snapshot from last year
• understand if you’re ahead or behind compared to where you were 12 months ago at this exact point.

In short, OTB lets you overlay two snapshots from the same date (e.g. July 8, 2024 and July 8, 2025) and see if you’re doing better or worse this year on the same day.

Which comparisons should you make today (with a real example)

To understand if your property is truly on track, here are the two comparisons you should make today:

OTB comparison

• How many bookings do you have today (July 8, 2025) for August 2025?
• How many did you have on July 8, 2024 for August 2024?

Market comparison

• Are you getting bookings at the same pace as other properties in your area?
• Or are you the only one struggling?

Real example

• Today is July 8, 2025 and your occupancy for August is at 55%.
• On July 8, 2024, your occupancy for August was at 62%.
• The market today is at 60%.

Result: you're behind compared to both benchmarks (OTB and the market), so it’s time to take targeted action. For instance, you could slightly lower prices only on weaker days to stimulate demand, or increase perceived value by including something like breakfast.

The goal is to make precise adjustments where needed — without slashing prices across the board, which could hurt you on days when demand is already strong.

Want a more in-depth explanation? Check out our article on how to analyze market occupancy.

Step 2: ADR (Average Daily Rate)

Got a solid occupancy rate? Great! But that’s not enough to rest easy.

If you’re selling at too low a price, you risk working a lot for little return. If your prices are too high, you might slow down demand and miss out on bookings.

That’s why ADR (Average Daily Rate) is such a key metric — and why you need to track it constantly.

Which comparisons should you make today (with a real example)

Once again, you’ll need both OTB and market data. Here are the two comparisons you should do today:

OTB ADR comparison
What was your average rate for the same period last year?

Market comparison
What’s the average rate your competitors are charging?

Real example

• In July 2024, your average rate was €160.
• Today, for July 2025, your average rate is €148.
• The market average is €165.

In this case, you’re doing well — but you could be doing better. If your occupancy is already good, you could afford to raise your rates slightly.

Step 3: Total revenue

Full rooms and a packed calendar don’t always mean higher profits. In fact, sometimes the opposite happens: more work, less money.

For example, if you lowered prices too much to fill your rooms, you might end up with less monthly revenue than last year — even if you sold more nights.

So don’t just look at a full calendar: look at what you’ve earned. That’s the real benchmark to assess if there’s room to grow.

Which comparison should you make today (with a real example)

You should check your total revenue and compare it to last year’s, month by month, to see if you're actually improving.

Real example

• In July 2024, you generated a total of €28,000.
• In July 2025, your projected revenue is €25,000.

To understand what went wrong, open your weekly or monthly report and look at:

• Where revenue dropped
• Whether there are fully booked weeks with below-average revenue
• If discounted stays are dragging down your monthly average

If you see that your total revenue isn’t growing as it should, it might be time to review your pricing or focus on increasing perceived value (e.g. packages, extras, upselling) instead of just chasing booking volume.

Step 4: Minimum stay

The minimum stay is a restriction that sets the minimum number of nights required for a booking at your property.

It’s a powerful tool to increase booking value. But if your rules are too strict — or you forget to adjust them when needed — it can backfire.

What to check today (with a real example)

Just open your PMS or channel manager and take a look at your calendar to see if you’re blocking potential bookings.

Ask yourself:

• Do you have single nights sitting unsold for days?
• Are there periods where restrictions are too tight based on actual demand?
• Are you only leaving unattractive options open (e.g. 4 nights midweek)?

Real example

Imagine opening your calendar and spotting a Friday night that’s still available, while all the days before and after are already booked.

You check and realize you’ve set a 5-night minimum stay rule. That’s why no one can book that single Friday.

To fix it, just lower the minimum stay to 1 night: chances are, that night will soon get booked at full rate — no discounts, no extra effort.

How to run every check on this list in 5 minutes (with Smartpricing)

Following the 4 steps in this checklist is easy. But only if your data is clear, up to date, and already organized. Otherwise, it becomes a never-ending task: exporting files, entering numbers into Excel, setting up formulas, checking your calendar manually. Do you really have time for all this in the middle of high season?

That’s why Smartpricing, the dynamic pricing software from Smartness, lets you run all the checks at once — in just a few minutes.

Let’s see how it works!

How to check On The Books, ADR, and Revenue with Smartpricing

One of Smartpricing’s most appreciated features is the ability to instantly check your OTB (On The Books) data and apply it to all the performance indicators in this checklist. That means you can complete steps 1 through 3 on a single screen.

How? It’s easy — just go to your Dashboard. Let’s walk through it together.

Real example

It’s July 8, 2025, and you want to see whether your property is doing better or worse than the same time last year.

The first thing to do is set the correct dates in the “Comparisons” section on the left side of this screenshot.

In the first comparison (top section), set Creation Date to “Until today” and Stay Dates to the period from 07/01/2025 to 08/31/2025. This way, you’ll be looking at all bookings made up to today (in our example, July 8, 2025) for stays in July and August 2025.

In the second comparison (bottom section), set Creation Date to include all bookings made until July 8, 2024, and Stay Dates to the period from 07/01/2024 to 08/31/2024. This will show you all bookings made up to July 8, 2024, for stays in July and August 2024.

Once both comparisons are confirmed, you’ll see all your On The Books data — Occupancy, Revenue, ADR, and RevPAR — at the top of the Dashboard, along with a chart below. In the chart, the blue line represents 2025 and the yellow line represents 2024.

Looking at the sample screenshot, it takes just a few minutes to see that revenue for July is slightly ahead of your 2024 OTB, while August still has some catching up to do.

Looking at the other indicators, you’ll see that compared to July 2024, your occupancy is slightly higher, your ADR is slightly lower, and your RevPAR (revenue per available room) is about the same. This means your July performance is tracking similarly to last year.

What about August?
Looking at the same charts, it’s clear that you’re still behind for August: revenue, occupancy, ADR, and RevPAR are all lower… so what should you do?

Before making any decisions, it’s essential to compare your results with market data.

How to analyze market occupancy with Smartpricing

In the Market Analysis section, Smartpricing lets you monitor both the average rates and the average occupancy in your competitive market.

This information helps you understand whether weak performance is due to something on your end or if it’s part of a wider market trend affecting other properties too.

So, continuing our example, let’s look at price trends in the Market Trends chart (bottom right in the screenshot below).

By doing this, we can see that July’s rates are slightly lower than the market average, while August is pretty much in line.

By selecting the Occupancy option, you can view the same chart but showing the market occupancy trend for July and August:

Thanks to this last comparison, we can better understand the data from the Dashboard, which showed lower occupancy in 2025 compared to 2024. In reality, August occupancy is perfectly in line with your competitors.

The chart also lets you dive deeper and see which specific days are slightly underperforming compared to the market.

This analysis brings us to the final step of our checklist: checking your minimum stay settings.

How to manage minimum stay and orphan nights with Smartpricing

If everything else is in order, a drop in occupancy on a specific day might be caused by an orphan night, a night left unsold because it’s “trapped” between two non-consecutive bookings.

With Smartpricing, you can not only set minimum stay restrictions (as explained in our article on managing minimum stay without mistakes).

You can also enable gap night management: this way, the software will automatically check for orphan nights and reopen availability every time it spots one — no manual work required on your end.

The best part? While you stay in control with just a few clicks, Smartpricing’s algorithm automatically monitors your performance and market trends to optimize your rates in real time.

But that’s not all: by using all the software included in the Smartness platform, you’ll be able to implement an integrated strategy in just a few clicks.

From revenue management to marketing, upselling, cross-selling, and guest communication, Smartness helps you achieve all your growth goals with ease.

Want to see how it works?