Cost of Walk (COW)

Cost of Walk (COW) is the expense incurred by a hotel when a guest must be relocated to another property due to overbooking, maintenance issues, or operational constraints. 

Walking a guest is considered a last-resort measure in revenue management, as it involves both tangible and intangible costs to the hotel, from financial compensation to reputational impact.

Hotels intentionally overbook rooms to maximize occupancy to account for no-shows. In this case, COW helps hotels evaluate the trade-off between overbooking revenue and potential guest dissatisfaction, loyalty loss, or negative reviews.

COW may include loyalty points compensation, vouchers, a paid hotel room, and retention damage.