Hotel attrition calculator for group room blocks

Enter your block one night at a time and see what a shortfall would cost — per night, where the exposure actually sits, and cumulatively, where it hides. Free, no email, nothing leaves your browser.

Your block, night by night

One row per night of the stay. Peak and shoulder nights usually carry different rates and very different pickup, which is exactly what an aggregate number hides.

What your contract says

Four clauses decide the bill. Every one of them is negotiable, and every one of them changes this number.

The attrition clause states

% you must fill — you may miss 20%.

Measured

The single clause that moves this number most. Per night, a surplus on your peak nights cannot cover a shortfall on your shoulders.

Counted at

Attrition is usually assessed on what the block actually performed, at or after arrival — but read your own clause, because some contracts count at the cutoff, where a late booking no longer helps you.

A shortfall is charged at

A group-favourable clause charges the rate less the hotel's saved variable cost, not full room revenue.

The share of your shortfall you expect the hotel to resell and credit back. Nothing unless your contract says so.

% of the shortfall credited back.

Night by night

Where the exposure actually sits. A healthy cumulative pickup percentage routinely hides one soft shoulder night, and that night is the bill.

NightBlockedMust fillPicked upShortExposure
Thursday (shoulder)1512120$0
Friday (peak)3024280$0
Saturday (peak)3024270$0
Sunday (shoulder)10862$378
Total8568732$378

The same math, live

A calculator tells you what a block would cost. Blocks tells you what yours is costing.

Blocks reads the floor, the rate and the measurement basis off your signed contract and runs this calculation against live pickup, every night, for every hotel on the event. When a shoulder night starts sliding you hear about it while you can still release rooms or push names in — not in the final invoice.

Every figure carries what it is based on, in the same breath as the number: assumes 80% pickup, no attrition terms on file; no attrition clause on file; exempt, not your liability; commitment settled. A block that has been released or reconciled quotes no projected penalty at all, because there is nothing left to project.

What this calculator is doing

The floor, per night

Each night's contracted room nights times your minimum pickup percentage, rounded down, gives the room nights you must fill on that date. Anything below it is a shortfall, priced at that night's rate. Rounding down matters: 7 room nights at an 80% floor is a commitment of 5, not 6.

Per night versus cumulatively

The calculator computes both and shows you the one your contract uses, with the other underneath. On the seeded example — 15, 30, 30 and 10 rooms across four nights at an 80% floor — the block owes $378 measured per night and nothing at all measured cumulatively. Same block, same pickup, one clause apart. That is the number worth reading your contract for.

Peak and shoulder rates

Every night carries its own rate, so a shortfall on a $250 Saturday costs more than the same shortfall on a $150 Thursday. When the clause measures cumulatively there is no single night to charge, so the shortfall prices at the average contracted rate weighted by contracted room nights — and the calculator says so rather than quietly picking one.

Rolling release, resell credit, lost profit

Rooms handed back at a review date come off the block before the floor is applied, which is the whole reason to negotiate for review dates. A resell credit takes the rooms the hotel resold back out of your shortfall. And a group-favourable damages clause charges the rate less the hotel's saved variable cost — often around 75% — rather than full room revenue. All three are switches on this page because all three are switches in a contract.

What it cannot know

Whether your clause measures at arrival or at the cutoff changes which pickup number belongs in the grid, not how the grid is priced — so the calculator asks, relabels the column, and says which one it assumed. It does not model wash, it does not know your cancellation tiers, and it is business decision support rather than legal advice. The contract in front of you is the authority.

Hotel attrition, answered

The questions that decide whether the number above is the number you owe.

How do you calculate a hotel attrition penalty?
Multiply the room nights you contracted by your minimum pickup percentage to get the floor you must fill, subtract what you actually picked up, and price the shortfall at the contracted rate. A block of 100 rooms a night for three nights is 300 contracted room nights; at an 80% floor you must fill 240, so picking up 210 leaves a 30-room-night shortfall. At a $189 rate that is $5,670 — unless the clause measures per night, in which case each night carries its own floor and the same 210 rooms can cost $9,450.
What is the difference between per-night and cumulative attrition?
Cumulative attrition compares one total commitment against one total pickup, so a full peak night can cover a soft shoulder night. Per-night attrition gives every date its own floor, and a surplus on one night never offsets a shortfall on another. It is the single clause that moves the bill most: the same block with the same pickup can owe nothing measured cumulatively and thousands measured per night. Read your own contract for which one you signed.
Is attrition measured at the cutoff date or at arrival?
Usually at the block’s performance, at or after guest arrival, not at the cutoff. The cutoff is a names deadline: it decides which rooms you keep at your group rate. Attrition is a money question assessed on the room nights people actually consumed, so a guest who books after the cutoff can still count toward your floor. Some contracts do tie part of the commitment to the cutoff, which is why the calculator asks.
What is a resell credit worth?
A resell or mitigation clause requires the hotel to credit you for rooms it resells out of your shortfall. If you end a night 25 room nights short and the hotel resells 15 of them, you owe on 10 rather than 25. It costs nothing to ask for at contracting time and it converts the hotel’s own inventory recovery into your saving, so it is one of the highest-value clauses a group can negotiate.
Is this calculator free, and do you keep what I type?
It is free, there is no email gate, and nothing you type leaves your browser. The whole calculation runs on this page. It is business decision support built from published room-night math, not legal advice — your signed contract, and your own counsel, decide what you actually owe.

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

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