Rate override audit: rooms sold below plan

A single override is a judgement call at the desk. Fourteen in one day under one login is a rate plan.

What a rate override is

Every reservation carries a rate code — BAR, AAA, corporate, contract crew — and each code has a rate for the date. An override is when the clerk types a different number. The PMS allows it; sometimes it should, to match a competitor or fix a booking error. The rate variance report lists every room where the charged rate differs from the code's rate, with the difference and the login.

Why it hides so well

Each override has a story, and each story is plausible. Walk-in at midnight, empty hotel, better $90 than nothing. A crew that always gets $99. A regular. The problem is never one override; it is the sum across a month, and the fact that nobody adds it up. Rate overrides are the leak most owners see on the report and read past.

Where it shows on the pack

Three figures per month tell the story: number of overrides, total dollars below plan, and share by login. Compare the share by login to the share of shifts worked. A clerk on 30% of shifts posting 80% of the overrides is the pattern.

What to ask the desk

What changes when it is watched

Overrides do not vanish; they get a floor. DeskWatch reads the rate variance line every night against the rules you set once ("nothing below $119 without a reason code," say) and sends you the ones outside them with the room, the two rates, and the login.