Pickup tracking

Know your pickup before the hotel calls

Blocks tracks blocked, assigned, picked-up, and pending room nights for every date and hotel, flags where pickup is drifting from your block, and turns any view into a report you can export.

A pickup report shows how many of your blocked room nights have actually been booked, per night and per hotel. Blocks tracks blocked, assigned, picked-up, and pending for every date, flags the variance against what you committed, and exports any table to CSV — so you know where each block stands before the hotel's pickup call.

“The hotel's pickup report and my spreadsheet never match, and I find out at the worst possible time.”

Blocks tracks blocked, assigned, picked-up, and pending for every night, so your numbers and the hotel’s line up date by date — and gaps surface early, not on the pickup call.

“My total pickup looked fine, but three shoulder nights were nearly empty.”

Because Blocks measures pickup per date, a strong peak night never papers over a soft shoulder night — the variance is visible for every night in the block.

“We run a dozen events a season and I'm rebuilding the same pickup spreadsheet every time.”

Series views roll pickup up across every event in the run, so you see the whole season in one place instead of stitching a dozen spreadsheets together.

“Half my group booked around the block, so my pickup credit was low even though the rooms filled.”

Blocks shows picked-up against blocked for every night, so when the count lags you can raise it with the hotel — with the exact nights and shortfall in hand.

What is a room block pickup report?

A pickup report is a running count of how many of your blocked room nights have actually been booked — usually broken out by hotel and by night. Blocks builds it from four numbers on every date: blocked (what the contract committed), assigned (what you've promised to a guest), picked-up (what the hotel has confirmed), and pending (what's still awaiting confirmation). Reading those side by side tells you not just how full a block is, but where the gap sits and whose move is next. Because rooms are measured in room nights per date rather than one aggregate count, a pickup report shows the shape of demand across the stay — not a single percentage that hides the soft nights. Any view you're looking at exports to CSV, so the report on screen is the same one you can hand to finance, a department lead, or the hotel.

How does Blocks track hotel pickup per night?

Blocks keeps a row for every block and every night, with blocked, assigned, picked-up, and pending tracked on each one. When you assign a guest to a room or a reservation is confirmed, those numbers move on the exact dates that guest is staying — a four-night stay adds four room nights across four dates, not one line on a total. That per-night detail is what makes the variance against your block meaningful: you can see a Tuesday running a dozen rooms under contract while the Saturday is full, instead of an average that looks healthy. Pickup updates in the product as work happens — assignments, confirmations, names arriving through a department lead’s portal — so the number in front of you reflects where the block actually stands. Nothing about your reservations changes on its own; Blocks proposes, and you confirm before anything is committed.

Why track pickup per night instead of one total?

Because attrition and cost are both measured per night, and one strong night can hide several weak ones. A block that reads 70% picked up overall might be full on the peak nights and nearly empty on the shoulder nights flanking them — and the shoulder nights are exactly where you'll owe attrition if they don't fill. Per-night tracking puts the variance on every date, so you see the soft nights while there's still time to release rooms, chase names, or shift demand between hotels. It also scales across a season: series views roll pickup up across every event in the run, so a whole tour's worth of blocks lives in one place instead of a stack of spreadsheets. When pickup lags on a given night, you're looking at the exact rooms and the exact date — which is what turns a vague worry into a specific decision before the cutoff.

Where do the hotel’s pickup reports live?

When a hotel emails back its own pickup report, it stays attached to that hotel's conversation — the loop of what you sent, what you're still waiting on, and what came back. Blocks keeps it as evidence you can open and read next to your own numbers; it isn't parsed into your counts automatically, and it doesn't clear anything on its own. If the hotel goes quiet for a few business days after you've asked for a pickup update, that loop is flagged so a missing reply doesn't sit unnoticed for weeks. This is the difference between chasing a number across a dozen email threads and seeing, per hotel and per event, what you asked for and whether the answer has landed. When the report does come in and your figures disagree, you have both side by side to work from — the hotel's line and yours, on the same nights.

In a citywide convention study, 71% of attendees stayed in the block but organizers may have received credit for only about 48% — the pickup gap you can’t see without per-night tracking.

Source: PCMA — Room Block of the Future

Average room-block pickup across the meetings and events industry hovers around 30–40% and has been trending downward.

Source: Groups360

Frequently asked questions

Blocks tracks blocked, assigned, picked-up, and pending room nights for every date and hotel, flags where pickup is drifting from your block, and turns any view into a report you can export.

What is room block pickup?
Pickup is the share of your blocked room nights that have actually been booked. It’s measured in room nights per date — a guest staying four nights picks up four room nights — so pickup is really a curve across the stay, not one number. Blocks tracks blocked, assigned, picked-up, and pending on every night, so you can read pickup for each date and hotel rather than a single total.
Is there a pickup report template I can use?
Instead of a static template you fill in by hand, Blocks generates the pickup report live from your blocks and exports any view to CSV. You get the current blocked, assigned, picked-up, and pending numbers per night and per hotel — no re-keying, no stale copy — and the CSV drops straight into a spreadsheet when finance or the hotel wants it there.
How often should I check room block pickup?
Regularly, and well before the cutoff — pickup rates across the industry have been trending down, so a block that filled last year may not this year. Blocks keeps pickup current as assignments and confirmations happen and flags nights drifting under your block, so you’re not waiting for the hotel’s pickup call to learn a block has gone soft.
Can I see pickup across a whole season of events?
Yes. Series views roll pickup up across every event in a series, so a season of weekends or a tour’s worth of blocks lives in one place. You can read pickup per event, per hotel, and per night, then export the combined view to CSV — instead of rebuilding the same report each time a new event starts.
Does Blocks change my reservations based on the hotel’s pickup report?
No. A pickup report the hotel emails back stays as read-only evidence attached to that hotel’s conversation — Blocks doesn’t parse it into your numbers or adjust reservations on its own. When your figures and the hotel’s disagree, you see both side by side and decide what to do; nothing is committed until you confirm it.

Have more questions? Check our glossary of terms or get in touch.

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