Attrition in hospitality means the percentage of expected guests or bookings that don’t show up. This can be cancellations, no-shows or early departures. For hotels it’s often calculated as the number of room nights lost divided by the total number of room nights booked. Restaurants might calculate it as the number of cancelled reservations compared to total bookings.
Understanding attrition is key for hospitality businesses because it affects revenue and resource planning. High attrition means lost revenue, over-staffing and wasted resources. By tracking this metric, managers can better predict actual occupancy or covers, adjust staffing levels and implement strategies to reduce cancellations and no-shows. It also helps with negotiating contracts for group bookings where attrition clauses can protect the business from big losses.
Let’s say you’re the manager of a busy city centre restaurant. You have a group booking for 50 people on a Saturday night. Your restaurant’s historical attrition rate is 10% so you expect 45 to show up. You use this to plan your staffing, food prep and table arrangements. 47 people arrive on the night, which is close to your prediction. By using your attrition rate you’ve avoided over-staffing and over-prepping and saved costs while still delivering great service to your customers.