Ghost Reservations and No-Show Reality

16/01/2026

How do you reduce the cost of no-show guests in hotel reservations?

There are certain problems in the hotel industry; demand skyrockets during peak season, prices are suppressed during low season... These are inherent to the business.

But no-shows and their more insidious cousin, ghost reservations, are not natural occurrences; if left unmanaged, they are operational errors that directly eat into profitability.

Let's be realistic:

You think a room has been sold, you budget for it, you plan your shifts... but the guest never shows up. The room is empty, the revenue is zero, and the labor has been expended. This is precisely the point of "ghost revenue."

What Does No-Show Hotel Mean?

No-show refers to a situation where a guest, despite having a confirmed reservation, does not arrive at the hotel by the check-in time and does not cancel the reservation within the allowed time frame.

Technically, the process works like this:

The reservation appears active in the PMS
The room remains unavailable for sale
The guest doesn't show up
After the specified time, the reservation is marked as a no-show
The hotel's no-show policy (first night fee, penalty fee, etc.) kicks in

It looks simple on paper.

In reality, however, things rarely go so smoothly.

No-Show is Not the Same as Late Cancellation

Let's make this distinction clear.

Late cancellation: You still have a chance to resell the room. The loss is limited.
No-show: There is no prior notice. The room remains empty. Staff are on standby. Revenue is completely lost.

Moreover, if there are payment issues (declined card, insufficient authorization), the loss isn't just financial; operational burden is added.

A Short Scenario from the Field (All Too Familiar)

A guest makes a reservation via an OTA with a flexible rate.

They don't cancel.

They never show up.

Reception attempts pre-authorization → card is declined.

No communication with the guest.

The reservation becomes a no-show after the deadline.

The result?

The room remains empty
The night's revenue is lost
Front desk chases after the declined card
Operations waste time unnecessarily

This is not an exception; it is a routine loss if proper precautions are not taken.

So, what is a "ghost reservation"?

Even more dangerous than a no-show is a ghost reservation.

Because the problem here is not that the guest doesn't show up;

it's that a reservation that never actually existed is tying up your system.

Typical sources of ghost reservations:

Fake or invalid credit cards
Incorrect or fabricated contact information
Guests comparing prices making multiple reservations
Bot activity crawling OTAs or websites

These reservations:

Appear as "confirmed" in the PMS
Remove the room from sale
Fail during pre-authorization or verification
If left unaddressed, they directly turn into no-shows

So the problem doesn't start at the door; it starts at the moment of reservation.

The real question is: Are these losses inevitable?

Short answer: No.

Long answer: Without proper revenue management, the right technology, and clear rules, they feel inevitable.

No-shows and ghost reservations are not just a problem for the front desk

Not just a problem for sales

Not just a problem for OTAs

Revenue management + reservation policy + payment infrastructure is a topic that must be addressed as a trio.

Otherwise:

The rooms you thought you sold will vanish from the report at the end of the month.

What to Do Next?

The next step is to address the following topics:

Pre-authorization and card verification strategies
Re-engineering flexible pricing
Channel management based on OTA no-show rates
Bot and fake reservation filters
The impact of no-show data on RevPAR and GOPPAR

Because no-show is not a "guest problem,"

it is a management reflex problem.

The good news is:

With the right setup, it is possible to eliminate these ghosts from the system.