Overbooking is accepting more reservations than physical rooms, betting that cancellations and no-shows will free the difference. Done deliberately it protects revenue, done accidentally through sync failures it creates walked guests and reputation damage.
Deliberate overbooking uses forecasted wash, the predictable share of bookings that never arrive, to sell rooms that would otherwise sit empty. The lever is sized by segment and day, tighter when arrival certainty is high, looser when cancellation-heavy demand dominates.
When the bet fails, a guest must be walked to another hotel, an expensive and delicate operation that should follow a prepared protocol, not improvisation. Accidental overbooking from channel manager delays is the avoidable kind, and monitoring sync health prevents most of it.
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