Seven signs your hotel is underpriced this weekend

Your hotel is probably underpriced this weekend if bookings for Saturday are arriving faster than they did at the same point last year, the hotels around you are selling out or putting their prices up, and you are filling first. Any one of those is a hint. Three or more together usually mean you could charge another £8 to £12 a night for your remaining rooms without losing them.

Here are the seven signs we look for at our hotels, how to check each one, and what to do.

Why does this matter on a weekend in particular?

Weekends are where a small hotel makes its year. In our 24-room example on the Welsh coast, a summer Saturday sells at £165 against £110 for an autumn midweek night. The rooms are the same; the demand is not. If the rate on your busiest nights is a few pounds too low, you lose that money on every room, and you lose it on exactly the nights when guests would have paid it.

Underpricing is also invisible. A night that sells out early feels like a success. Nobody calls to tell you they would have paid more.

What are the seven signs?

1. Pickup is ahead of last year. Compare rooms on the books for this Saturday with rooms on the books for the equivalent Saturday last year at the same number of days out. If you are noticeably ahead without having cut the rate, demand is stronger. See pickup and pace.
2. Hotels around you are selling out. If two or three of the hotels a guest would compare you with show no availability for Saturday, the guests who wanted them are now looking at you.
3. The hotels still selling have gone up. When the rest of the market raises its rate and you have not moved, you have become the bargain without meaning to.
4. You are filling before them. If you have four rooms left and comparable hotels have plenty, the likeliest reason is price.
5. The lead time is shorter than usual, and still filling. Guests booking in the last few days at your current rate, on a weekend that is already busy, suggest there is room above you. See lead time.
6. Nobody is haggling. Phone and email enquiries that book straight away, with no “is that your best rate?”, mean the price did not register as high.
7. There is something on in town. A wedding at the big venue, a match, a festival or a half-term. Events push demand up for everyone; check your local calendar before you assume the weekend is ordinary.

What do you do when you see the signs?

1. Count the signs. One sign on its own is noise. Three or more is a decision.
2. Raise in a step, not a leap. About 5–8% at a time. On £150 that is roughly £8 to £12.
3. Raise the right rate. Move your best available rate and let your other rates follow it, rather than changing one channel by hand. Our glossary entry on BAR explains why.
4. Protect the last rooms. Consider a two-night minimum on Saturday if Friday or Sunday is weaker. Our post on length-of-stay rules covers when that helps and when it hurts.
5. Look again in two or three days. If pickup carries on, step again. If it stops dead compared with last year, step back.

A worked example: Saturday 24 October

Our example hotel has 24 rooms on the Welsh coast. It sells around £110 a night midweek in autumn and £165 on a summer Saturday, runs at 68% across the year, and takes about 40% of its bookings through online travel agents.

Say it is Friday 16 October. Saturday 24 October is eight days away. October Saturdays usually sell at about £140.

• Pickup: 17 rooms on the books, against 12 at the same point last year.
• Competitors: two of the four hotels a guest would compare it with are showing no availability. The other two have moved from £145 and £150 to £158 and £165.
• Filling first: seven rooms left.
• Town: half-term starts that weekend, and there is a wedding at the big hotel down the road.

That is five of the seven signs. The hotel moves its Saturday rate from £140 to £150, adds a two-night minimum for Saturday arrivals on all channels, and leaves Friday at £130 because Friday is not showing the same signs.

What it is worth. If the seven remaining rooms sell at £150 rather than £140, that is £70 more on the night. If the two-night minimum turns three of those stays into Friday and Saturday stays, Friday gains three rooms at £130, which is £390 it would not otherwise have had. Over the year, being £10 too low on twenty busy Saturdays across seven remaining rooms is £1,400, before you count the weekends where the gap is larger.

Three days later, with only two rooms left, the hotel steps again to £158.

What should you watch out for?

• Raising on one sign. One fast morning of bookings is not a trend. Wait for at least two signs to agree.
• Comparing the wrong night. Last year’s equivalent Saturday is the one on the same weekend of the year, not the same date. 24 October 2025 was a Friday.
• Forgetting cancellations. A weekend that looks full can have three flexible bookings that will cancel. Look at how many of your rooms are on non-refundable rates.
• Raising only on one channel. If you raise your website and leave the agents where they were, you have broken rate parity and handed the agents your direct guests.
• Leaving the rise in place when the signs fade. If pickup stops, step back down. A rate is a decision with an expiry date.

What should you do tonight?

Pick next Saturday. Write the seven signs down the side of a page and tick the ones you can see. If you would rather have the competitor rates, your pickup against last year and the events in town in one place for every night, you can start a 14-day trial and look at your own weekend. If you want the bigger method behind all of this, read our guide on how to price hotel rooms.

Then, if you have three ticks or more, move your rate one step.