Anyone who says that running a hotel (or being a property manager) is “easy” has clearly never experienced the months leading up to peak season.

Those days when you’re checking the booking calendar obsessively, wondering if everything’s on track or if August will end up empty, losing the most important revenue of the year.

Those days when your anxiety grows and it’s hard to resist the temptation to drop prices—just enough to get some quick bookings, fill the rooms, and finally sleep at night.

But before you get caught in that cycle again this year, stop. Maybe the problem isn’t even you. Have you thought about that?

In this article, I’ll walk you through the 4 key steps to analyze your occupancy—without false alarms—and show you how to act accordingly.

Step 1: Are you looking at the right data?

Here’s a real-world example:

It’s mid-June, and you’re (rightly) keeping a close eye on your high-season sales. You open your booking calendar and see that August is full of gaps: a quick calculation shows you’re only at 27% occupancy.

Seriously? In your most important month of the year? No way—August has always been your strongest month, with near-full occupancy every year.

So you double-check: you pull up last year’s booking calendar, and just as you remembered, it was practically sold out.

You decide to put it in black and white: August 2024 vs. August 2025. But the numbers confirm your worst fears:

• Revenue 2024: €66,975
• Estimated revenue 2025: €22,790

• Occupancy 2024: 90%
• Estimated occupancy 2025: 27%

• Average price 2024: €104
• Average price 2025: €120

A disaster, or so it seems. And at this point, the temptation is strong: drop prices immediately to get more bookings and avoid empty rooms.

But before making any decisions, hold on!

What you’ve just done is compare your final numbers from 2024 (i.e., bookings that already happened) with the current bookings for 2025 — and that’s a mistake many people make.

It’s like comparing a marathon you’ve already finished to one you’ve only halfway completed: it doesn’t make sense. Instead, you need to analyze your on-the-books data.

Step 2: How to compare on-the-books occupancy

The right way to assess booking performance (without panicking) is to compare your on-the-books data — meaning, the occupancy you had on the same date last year.

In our example: If today is June 10, 2025, ask yourself: What was my occupancy on June 10, 2024, for August?

Many hoteliers skip this step because comparing final numbers is easier, while comparing on-the-books data requires downloading reservations and having decent Excel skills.

The fastest solution is to use a tool that automates these comparisons for you, like Smartpricing, the dynamic pricing software from Smartness.

Continuing with our previous example, with Smartpricing you can simply open your dashboard and set the correct comparison dates, as shown in the screenshot on the left.

This way — in just a few minutes — you’ll see that your occupancy for August on June 10, 2024, was 31% (quite far from the 90% you were comparing to just now).

Today, your occupancy for August 2025 is at 27%: that means, yes, you’re a little behind, but the situation isn’t nearly as bad as you thought.

Step 3: Evaluate your options

Now that you have a reliable on-the-books comparison, you can consider your options more calmly.

You discovered you’re only slightly behind last year, and your average rate is actually a bit lower than it was then.

At this point, you have two possible paths:

• Push occupancy by lowering your rates, if you’d rather fill your rooms than leave them empty.
• Protect your ADR and raise prices, if you’d rather sell fewer rooms but at a higher rate per booking.

Both options can be valid, but it’s still too early to make your choice! There’s one crucial step left that many hoteliers and property managers skip: comparing your performance to the market.

Step 4: How to compare yourself to market occupancy

Before making any price changes, the question you should always ask is: “What if the problem isn’t me, but the market?”

Think about it: every year, demand patterns change. Booking windows get shorter or longer. Competitors adjust their offers. Some raise prices, some keep them stable. So, you can’t just look at your own sales to understand what’s going on.

The only way to get the full picture is to compare your occupancy to the market. We’re not just talking about rates, but actual occupancy: how many rooms are others selling?

If your competitors are just as empty as you are, there’s no point in lowering your rates. If they’re getting bookings, and you’re not, then yes, it’s time to act.

And here’s where Smartpricing comes in again.

Returning to our earlier example of a slow August: to see if it’s really just your problem, simply head over to the Market Analysis section, like in the screenshot below.

In the chart at the bottom right, you can select the period you’re interested in and compare your occupancy to the market’s. Within minutes, you’ll see that your occupancy is roughly aligned with the market’s.

It’s not that your property is empty—it’s that the market itself isn’t generating bookings. Feeling the panic subside?

Smartpricing doesn’t just give you the data; it also automatically adapts your strategy based on market trends:

• If the market is slow and your property is in line with the competition, Smartpricing keeps prices steady to avoid unnecessary price cuts.
• If everyone else is getting bookings, and you’re lagging behind, Smartpricing lowers your rates to boost competitiveness.
• If you’re selling well and others aren’t, Smartpricing raises your rates to maximize your margin.

What to do if the market is slow, and you want to boost occupancy

You’ve checked the data, compared your performance to the market, and discovered that demand is simply low for everyone. But that doesn’t mean you should just stand by!

Even in a slow market, you can take action to stimulate demand—especially if you have past guests who stayed with you during this same period.

How? By creating targeted email marketing campaigns with personalized discounts or offers that include extras and exclusive packages.

This is where Smartconnect comes in: the guest communication software from Smartness. When activated alongside Smartpricing, Smartconnect detects periods of low occupancy and automaticallysuggests the campaigns you should send.

Want to see how Smartpricing and Smartconnect can help you beat the panic and approach peak season with more peace of mind?