Booking EngineEngine configuration

Reading the booking engine summary

Six figures and three charts covering your direct business only. What each one measures, which ones move together, and the two comparisons that tell you whether the engine is actually earning its place.

Where to find it
Booking EngineDashboard
Permission needed
booking-engine.dashboard.view
Last checked
August 16, 2026

This is the only screen in Prostay that reports on your direct business by itself. Everything on it counts bookings that came through your own booking engine and nothing else, which is what makes it worth reading: it answers the question of whether the engine is earning the commission it saves you.

What this page counts

Every figure here is the Direct Booking channel's slice of your trading. The same reservations appear in the property-wide performance reports as well, where they are one source among many, so the numbers on this page will always be smaller than the ones on ReportsPerformance. That is not a discrepancy. If you want to compare direct against your OTAs, Production by Booking Source is the screen that puts them side by side.

The Booking Engine Dashboard: a header with the engine link and a Go to Booking Engine button, six figure tiles in two rows of three, three chart panels below them, and a "What is My Booking Engine?" explanation at the foot.
Six figures, three charts. Every one of them is the direct channel only.
The top of the Booking Engine Dashboard, with the heading Dashboard on the left and, on the right, a light blue chip holding the engine address https://app.prostay.com/booking-engine/demo-partner/demo-hotel with a link icon, and a blue Go to Booking Engine button.
Your engine address. Click the chip to copy it, the button to open it.

The chip holds the public address of your booking engine. This is the link you put behind the Book Now button on your website, in your email signature, on your Google Business Profile and in your confirmation emails. Click it to copy. The blue button opens the engine in a new tab, which is the fastest way to check that a settings change has landed.

The money tiles

The first row of tiles: Total Revenue from Booking Engine, Average Daily Rate (ADR) and Revenue per Booking, each with a time-frame dropdown reading Today, a figure in US dollars, an arrow showing the direction of travel, and a "Compared to previous" line.
Three ways of dividing the same revenue. Each has its own time frame.
  1. Total Revenue from Booking Engine. What your direct bookings sold in the window.
  2. Average Daily Rate (ADR). That revenue divided by the room nights it covered.
  3. Revenue per Booking. That revenue divided by the number of bookings.
TileWhat it tells you
Total Revenue from Booking Engine The headline. On its own it only says whether you had a good week, so read it against the comparison line rather than in isolation.
Average Daily Rate (ADR) What you sold a room night for on average, direct. Compare it against your overall ADR: if direct is lower, you are discounting the channel that costs you least, which is usually a rate-plan mistake rather than a strategy.
Revenue per Booking ADR multiplied by length of stay, in effect. It moves when guests book longer stays, take more rooms, or buy extras, so it is the tile that reacts to your add-ons and your minimum-stay rules.

The arrow beside each figure compares the window you have chosen against the one before it: green and rising means up on the previous period, red and falling means down. Both are drawn from the same Compared to previous figure printed underneath, so if you want the size of the move rather than its direction, read the number.

The volume tiles

The second row of tiles: Total Direct Bookings with a count and a comparison, Booking Conversion Rate as a percentage, and Occupancy from Direct Bookings as a percentage, each with its own time-frame dropdown.
Volume, efficiency and how much of the house the engine filled.
  1. Total Direct Bookings. How many reservations the engine took.
  2. Booking Conversion Rate. Those bookings as a percentage of visits to the engine.
  3. Occupancy from Direct Bookings. The share of your available room nights that direct filled.
TileWhat it tells you
Total Direct Bookings A count, not a value. It is the tile to watch after any change to your engine, because a change that helps will show up here before it shows up in revenue.
Booking Conversion Rate Bookings divided by visits. This is the single most useful figure on the page, because it separates a quiet week from a broken engine: traffic you cannot control, conversion you largely can.
Occupancy from Direct Bookings Room nights sold direct as a percentage of all the room nights you had to sell. Read against your total occupancy, this is your direct share of the house.

The three panels

The three chart panels. BOOKING PERFORMANCE, set to Today, shows counts for Bookings, Tentatives, Holds and Cancellations above a doughnut. SALES PERFORMANCE, set to This Month, shows a total and a line chart running across the month. ROOM PERFORMANCE, set to Today, shows a doughnut split by accommodation type with a colour key underneath.
Bookings by state, revenue over time, and which room types the engine actually sells.
PanelWhat to look for
Booking Performance Confirmed bookings, tentatives, courtesy holds and cancellations, with the doughnut showing the split. A cancellation slice that keeps growing is worth chasing: it usually means a policy that is too loose, or rates being undercut somewhere after the guest has booked.
Sales Performance Direct revenue over time, with the window's total above it. On a single day it is drawn hour by hour, which tells you when your guests actually book; on a month it is a daily line, which shows you your pickup pattern.
Room Performance Which accommodation types the engine sold, as a share of bookings, with a colour key underneath. This is the panel that tells you whether your engine is selling your whole hotel or just its cheapest room.

The Sales Performance total is the same figure as the Total Revenue from Booking Engine tile when both are set to the same window, so you can use one to check the other.

Room Performance is the panel most worth acting on. If one type takes the large majority of your direct bookings, it is usually your cheapest, and the fix is not to raise its price but to give the types above it a reason to be chosen: a photograph that shows the difference, a description that names it, a rate plan with breakfast in it. A guest who cannot tell what the extra $40 buys will not spend it.

Time frames and comparisons

Every tile and every panel carries its own time-frame dropdown, and they are independent. That is genuinely useful, since you can leave revenue on This Month while you look at conversion for Today, but it is also the most common way to misread this page: two tiles set to different windows are not comparable, and nothing on the screen warns you. Before you draw a conclusion from two figures, check that both dropdowns say the same thing.

Fourteen windows are offered, from Today to Last Year. Each one is compared against the equivalent period before it: This Month against Last Month, This Week against Last Week, Today against Yesterday. That is what Compared to previous means, and it is why the arrows are meaningful without your having to remember what last month's number was.

Reading it like a revenue manager

Two comparisons carry almost all the value on this page, and both need a second screen.

Direct ADR against total ADR. Your direct rate should be at least as high as your blended rate, because the guest booking with you directly is paying no commission and should not be getting a lower price for the privilege. If direct ADR is below your total, look for a promotion or a rate plan that is only exposed on the engine.

Direct occupancy against total occupancy. This is your direct share, and it is the number to move. Every point you take from an OTA is a point at full margin. If it has been flat for months while total occupancy has risen, your growth is coming from channels that charge you for it.

When conversion falls and traffic has not, the cause is almost always on the engine rather than in the market. Work through it in this order: search a date and see whether rooms actually appear, since a missing base rate interval or a zero allotment empties the list; check that your prices match what the OTAs are showing for the same night; then walk the funnel to the payment step and count how many fields you are asking a stranger to fill in.

All three of those live in the booking engine settings, which is where a number on this page turns into something you can change.

Common questions

  • Why are these figures lower than my performance reports?

    Because this page counts direct bookings only. The property-wide reports under Reports include every channel, so they will always be larger. Production by Booking Source is the report that shows direct against the OTAs side by side.

  • Why do two tiles disagree?

    Check their time frames. Every tile and panel has its own dropdown and they do not move together, so one may be showing Today while the other shows This Month.

  • What is a visit, for the conversion rate?

    A session on your booking engine. The rate is bookings divided by sessions over the same window, so it falls when traffic rises without bookings rising with it, which is exactly the signal you want.

  • My conversion rate dropped. Where do I start?

    Search real dates on your own engine first: an empty rooms list from a missing base rate interval or a zero allotment reads as a conversion problem. If rooms appear, compare your prices against the same night on an OTA, then walk the funnel to the payment step and count the fields you are asking for.

  • Can I export this page?

    Not from here. The dashboard is a live read of the same data the performance reports use, so export from Reports and filter to the Direct Booking source when you need a file.

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