The average number of nights guests stay at a hotel, calculated across all bookings in a given period.
Average Length of Stay (ALOS) measures the mean number of nights guests stay at a hotel over a defined period. It's calculated by dividing the total number of room nights sold by the total number of bookings. ALOS is an important operational and revenue metric that helps hotels understand guest behavior, optimize staffing, forecast demand, and develop targeted marketing strategies.
ALOS affects virtually every aspect of hotel operations. Longer stays reduce turnover costs (housekeeping, check-in/out labor), improve occupancy stability, and often come with higher total guest spending. Shorter stays increase operational intensity but can yield higher nightly rates. Understanding ALOS helps revenue managers set length-of-stay restrictions, create stay-longer promotions, and optimize the overall guest mix.
ALOS is calculated by dividing total room nights by number of reservations:
ALOS = Total Room Nights Sold ÷ Number of Reservations
Example:
If a hotel had 300 reservations in a month generating 750 room nights: ALOS = 750 ÷ 300 = 2.5 nights This means on average, guests stayed for 2.5 nights.
