August is a high-stakes month. On one hand, you’ve worked hard to reach good occupancy—so it’s tempting to leave prices and strategies untouched.

On the other hand, it's hectic: guests coming and going, staff coordination, and the usual daily chaos taking up all your time.

If this sounds familiar, here are the risks you're likely facing:

• You may not realize you're losing revenue or missing out on opportunities to sell your remaining August rooms at a better rate.
• You’re postponing September planning and may end the season with empty rooms and no time to fix it.

That’s why this article walks you through how to take action on both fronts quickly and effectively.

How to tell if you're losing revenue in August

One of the most common mistakes during high-demand periods like August is measuring success only by your occupancy rate.

Maybe your occupancy today is the same—or even higher—than it was this time last year. But that doesn’t automatically mean your revenue is keeping up.

To be sure, you need to look at three key metrics together: your on-the-books data (OTB) for occupancy, your ADR (Average Daily Rate), and your RevPAR (Revenue per Available Room). Then, compare them to your OTB data from the same date last year.

How do you do that? If you’re doing it manually, you’ll need some patience: go back and find the sales forecast from exactly the same day last year (for example, August 5).

No time for that, or having trouble tracking down the data? Dynamic pricing tools like Smartpricing can do the work for you. The system collects and compares your data automatically, as shown in the screenshot below.

With Smartpricing, you just set your comparison dates (on the left side of the screen) like this:

• In the top section, select August 2025
• Below, select the same dates from 2024 and ask the software to show your performance as of August 5, 2024

Within seconds, you’ll see the comparison at the top of the screen: 2024 in yellow, 2025 in purple. In our example, occupancy is the same, but ADR and RevPAR have dropped by more than 6%.

That means you’re working just as hard, but earning less.

How to make the most of last-minute bookings in August

Good news: It’s absolutely not too late to act. You may have lowered your rates to match last year’s occupancy levels. But August isn’t over—and if you still have rooms available, now’s the right time to take action and recover margin.

One effective approach is this: raise your prices right away across all room types, then adjust them downward closer to the arrival date if needed, based on demand pressure. This helps protect your average daily rate, lets you sell at higher prices when possible, and only drop rates when (and if) it’s really necessary.

Here’s how you could do it

To use this strategy, you need to define clear thresholds. For example, you might decide that:

• If a date is completely empty (0% occupancy), reduce the price by 20% closer to check-in
• If occupancy reaches at least 30%, apply a 15% reduction
• If you’re over 60% occupancy, limit the discount to 10%

To apply these rules manually, you’d need to check your sold rooms for each future date every morning, calculate the daily occupancy rate, and then update pricing in your PMS or channel manager accordingly.

If instead you use a tool like Smartpricing, you can define your own custom rules in the “Strategies” section, setting discounts based on occupancy and number of days before check-in, as shown in the screenshot below.

Once configured, the algorithm applies your rules automatically. Prefer not to set rigid conditions? No problem. By using your base prices as a starting point, the algorithm adjusts rates dynamically based on performance and demand pressure—so you can maximize every booking, even last-minute.

How to prepare for September

September is a tricky month: it’s less predictable than July or August, with demand often coming in close to check-in and different booking behaviors between weekends and weekdays.

If you wait until the last minute to manage it, you risk having empty rooms and not enough time to fix it. Here are two strategies you can apply today to stay ahead:

1. Check your rates

Have you already published your September prices? If yes, now’s the time to double-check they align with:

• Your average rate from last September
• Your current pacing of reservations
• The pricing of your local competitors

If you want a quick way to check whether your rates are in line with the market, try Smartfree, our free market intelligence tool that monitors your compset and also gives you a ready-to-use dynamic pricing strategy.

2. Use different strategies for weekdays and weekends

September often feels like a “split” month: weekends can fill up easily, while weekdays are harder to sell. Here’s how to handle the difference:

• Weekends: Keep higher rates and stricter rules (e.g. a 2-night minimum stay)
• Weekdays: Lower your rates slightly and allow shorter stays (1 night).
  Alternatively, keep the base rate, but increase perceived value, for example, by including breakfast or late check-out.

With Smartpricing, setting different prices for weekdays and weekends is easy—no need to adjust every single date manually. You can use the "Day of the Week" parameter to change the influence each day has on your pricing strategy.

This way, the algorithm will automatically raise prices for high-impact days—so you can focus on everything else without having to worry about your pricing.

Smartpricing also helps you manage minimum stay rules in a flexible, dynamic way, adapting them to how far out the check-in date is. As seen in our article about mastering minimum stay strategy, you can:

• Require at least 3 nights for arrivals 30–60 days out
• Lower to 2 nights when you're 7–29 days out
• Accept 1-night stays during the final 6 days before check-in to avoid leaving rooms empty

This lets you maximize advance booking value while staying flexible closer to arrival, and without having to adjust everything manually.

The best part? Smartpricing adapts to you—not the other way around.

If you already have experience and want full control over how the algorithm works, you can make the most of all the advanced strategies we covered in this article.

But if you prefer a simpler approach, just set up the core elements of your pricing strategy during onboarding with our team—then let the algorithm do the rest. It’ll analyze your historical data, compare it with market trends, and apply the most effective pricing strategy for you every day.

Want to see how it works?