What Is Overbooking?
Overbooking is the practice of accepting more reservations than a hotel has rooms, on purpose, to cover guests who will cancel or not show up. If more of those reservations turn into arrivals than expected, the hotel has to move, or "walk", guests to other accommodation and carry the cost (Cornell Hospitality Quarterly) (Overbooking strategy, solutions and policies).
Last updated: October 2026
How overbooking works
A hotel sets its overbooking level from a forecast of how many guests will not show up, so the level is a best bet based on that forecast (Cornell University, eCornell).
Selling only the rooms on hand has a cost too. In a hypothetical case with a 5% no-show rate, a hotel that never overbooks leaves those rooms sitting empty, and that can cost more than overbooking a little (Cornell University, eCornell).
The overbooking-ratio method weighs three inputs: the pattern of no-shows, the cost of an empty room and the cost of walking a guest. The ratio divides the cost of walking by the sum of the walk cost and the empty-room cost. A worked example from Cornell uses a walk cost of $300 USD and an empty-room cost of $100 USD, both illustrative (Cornell University, eCornell). A rule of thumb some hotels use is that walking a guest costs about twice as much as an empty room (Cornell University, eCornell).
Overbooking can also happen with nobody choosing it. Intentional overbooking is planned from historical booking patterns and forecasts, while accidental overbooking comes from system errors, outdated inventory or manual mistakes (Overbooking: what hoteliers should know).
Why overbooking matters for hotel distribution
Travel has grown less certain, and higher cancellation and no-show rates have made overbooking more important (Cornell Hospitality Quarterly).
The guest who gets walked changes the bill. Walk costs vary by guest type, and loyal guests who booked direct can cost more to walk than guests who came through a third-party channel (Cornell Hospitality Quarterly). The damage can outlast the night: research cited by Cornell's Sheryl Kimes found that 70% of walked guests do not want to go back to that hotel (Cornell University, eCornell).
Channels set out what the property owes when a walk happens. On Booking.com, a property with no other room must find the guest accommodation of the same or better standard elsewhere and pay for it (Booking.com Partner Hub). Booking.com's contract also sets deadlines for offering that alternative: 30 minutes on the day of check-in or within 24 hours of it, 2 hours between 24 hours and 7 days out, and 24 hours when check-in is more than 7 days away. The property pays the guest's reasonable costs as well, such as the alternative accommodation, transport and phone calls (Booking.com General Delivery Terms).
Expedia Group counts relocations caused by overbooking or double-booking as "preventable relocations", events within the property's control (Expedia Group Partner blog). A property selling through several channels therefore answers to each channel's rules whenever a forecast misses.
How properties stop unplanned overbooking across channels, and what each channel charges for it, is covered in our guide to hotel overbooking prevention.
Overbooking compared with related terms
| Term | What it is | How it relates to overbooking |
|---|---|---|
| Double booking | The same room sold to two guests for the same night, usually through a sync or manual error | The terms overlap. Some sources and channels, such as Booking.com, use "overbooking" and "double-booking" for the same thing. Overbooking is often a deliberate strategy, and double booking usually means a sync or manual error |
| Airline overbooking (bumping) | Selling more seats than a flight holds; in the US, airlines may bump passengers from an oversold flight when there are not enough volunteers | The same idea applied to seats. US rules make airlines ask for volunteers first, and passengers bumped against their will are usually entitled to compensation, with exceptions (for example, none is owed if the airline gets them to their destination within one hour of the original arrival time) (US Department of Transportation, Bumping and Oversales) (US Department of Transportation, Fly Rights). |
| Walking a guest | Moving a guest with a confirmed reservation to other accommodation because the booked property has no room | The cost a hotel risks when more overbooked reservations arrive than forecast |
| No-shows and cancellations | Bookings cancelled before arrival, or guests who never arrive and leave a room empty | What the overbooking level is forecast against |
Table sources: Overbooking strategy, solutions and policies Booking.com Partner Hub US Department of Transportation, Bumping and Oversales US Department of Transportation, Fly Rights Cornell Hospitality Quarterly Cornell University, eCornell
Frequently asked questions
What does overbooking mean?
Why does overbooking happen?
Is overbooking illegal?
What happens to a guest when a hotel is overbooked?
Related terms
See all termsWhere Jetstream fits
Accidental overbooking starts when a channel keeps selling rooms the property no longer has. Jetstream builds an AI channel manager that connects a property's reservation system to the channels where guests book and keeps rooms, rates and availability accurate on each one, managed from one place.