> For the complete documentation index, see [llms.txt](https://revhero.gitbook.io/revhero-docs/llms.txt). Markdown versions of documentation pages are available by appending `.md` to page URLs; this page is available as [Markdown](https://revhero.gitbook.io/revhero-docs/learn-revhero/learn/06-does-this-date-need-you.md).
# Lesson 6 · Which dates need your attention
Lesson 6 — most dates need nothing from you. Learn the 4 signals that make a date worth opening, and how to decide in under a minute.
{% hint style="info" %}
**In this lesson.** You will be able to triage 90 dates in a few minutes, name the 4 signals worth acting on, and treat "leave it alone" as a real decision rather than a failure. **About 30 minutes.**
{% endhint %}
## You cannot review every date
A 90-day window in Base mode is 90 rows. A 180-day window is 180. Read each one properly and your morning is gone, every morning.
So the job is not reviewing dates. **The job is finding the few dates that deserve reviewing.** Everything else is left alone on purpose.
This is the habit that separates a revenue manager who is in control from one who is busy.
## The 4 signals
Four things are worth acting on. Nearly everything else is noise.
*Most dates stay in the list. Four things lift a date out of it and on to your short list.*
| Signal | Why it matters | Where you see it |
| ---------------------------------------- | ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Well behind on pace** | Bookings are not building as they did last year, and there is still time to fix it | `Send vs Last` is not the signal here — use pace against STLY |
| **A weekend, an event or a holiday** | These dates carry the most potential extra revenue, so an error costs most | `Day` column, and your own local knowledge |
| **Your rate sits well below the market** | You may be filling rooms you would have filled anyway, at a lower rate | [Market Rates](/revhero-docs/roompulse/market-rates.md) and the [KPI drawer](/revhero-docs/setting-your-rates/yielding-board/kpi-drawer.md) |
| **The date carries a restriction** | A minimum stay or a close-out set months ago may no longer be right | `LOS` and `Close Out` columns |
A large gap between `Send Rate` and `Rec Rate` is worth a look as well. Treat it as a prompt to check the 4 signals, not as a signal on its own.
{% hint style="warning" %}
**An alert or a signal is not an instruction.** It tells you something changed. The screen tells you whether it matters. Always open the date before you move a rate.
{% endhint %}
## Near dates and far dates
The same signal means different things at different distances from arrival.
| Distance | What a rate change can still achieve | How to treat it |
| ------------------------- | ------------------------------------------------------------ | -------------------------------------------------------- |
| **Today to about 7 days** | Limited. Most of the demand for the date has already decided | Act quickly if at all. Speed matters more than precision |
| **About 8 to 90 days** | The most. There is still demand to win, and time to win it | This is where your attention belongs |
| **Beyond 90 days** | A great deal, but slowly | Think, do not react. The date is still there next week |
Near dates reward speed. Far dates reward thought. Reading the whole 180 days with the same urgency is how people exhaust themselves on dates that did not need them.
## When to do nothing
Every rate change costs something. It uses your attention, it can undo a decision that was working, and on a date that was filling anyway it simply lowers your revenue.
Before you change a rate, answer 1 question: **what do I expect this change to do?**
If the honest answer is "I am not sure, but the number looked low", leave it. Write the date on a list and look again in 7 days. That is a professional decision, not avoidance.
## Worked example
Back to Saturday 15 August, from lesson 5.
**What you know.** 23 of 50 sold, 72 days out. You are at €145, the recommendation is €162, the market median is €170. Pace is 5 rooms behind STLY, and 7-day pickup is +5 rooms. A 2-night minimum is in place.
**Run the signals.**
| Signal | Present? |
| ----------------------------- | --------------------------------------------------------------------- |
| Well behind on pace | Slightly. 5 rooms, and pickup is healthy at +5 a week |
| Weekend, event or holiday | **Yes.** A Saturday in peak season |
| Rate well below market | **Yes.** €25 below the median, and €17 below the recommendation |
| Restriction that may be wrong | Worth checking. A 2-night minimum on a peak Saturday is usually right |
Two clear signals. This date earns your attention.
**What do you expect a change to do?** You are the cheapest of the 3 reference points on a date that is still filling steadily. Moving towards €162 should not slow the pickup much, and it raises the value of every remaining room.
**The decision.** Move the rate up, towards the recommendation. Lesson 7 sends it.
**The counter-example.** Now take a Tuesday in early November: 8 of 50 sold, 150 days out, pickup 0, rate €95, market median €98, no restrictions. Run the signals. Not a weekend, not below the market, no restriction, and far too early for a low OTB to mean anything.
**Leave it alone.** Nothing is wrong with that date. It is simply early.
## Try it on your own hotel
1. Open the [Yielding Board](/revhero-docs/setting-your-rates/yielding-board.md), **Base** mode, **Next 90 days**.
2. Go down the list and write down every date where you can name a signal out loud. Do not open anything yet.
3. Count your short list. If it is longer than about 15 dates out of 90, your signals are too loose. Tighten them and go again.
4. Take the 3 dates at the top of the list. Read each one in the 6 steps from lesson 5.
5. For each, write 1 sentence saying what you expect a change to do. If you cannot write that sentence, remove the date from the list.
6. Keep the list. You will use it in lesson 7.
Step 3 is the real exercise. Triage is a skill, and it is learned by being too generous once and then correcting.
## Check yourself
**1.** Sixty of your 90 dates show a Rec Rate above your Send Rate. Do you have 60 dates to work on?
Answer
No. A gap between the 2 rates is a prompt, not a signal. Run the 4 signals across those dates, and you will usually be left with a handful that genuinely need a decision.
**2.** A date 4 days away is 30% below last year's pace. How much attention does it deserve?
Answer
Some, but quickly. Most demand for a date 4 days out has already decided, so a rate change can achieve only a little. Act fast or not at all, and spend the time saved on dates 8 to 90 days out.
**3.** You cannot say what you expect a rate change to achieve. What should you do?
Answer
Leave the date alone and write it on a list to check in 7 days. A change you cannot explain is as likely to lose revenue as to gain it.
## What you learned
* The job is finding the few dates that deserve review, not reviewing all of them.
* Four signals: behind on pace, a weekend or event, well below market, a restriction that may be stale.
* Near dates reward speed, far dates reward thought.
* If you cannot say what a change will achieve, leave it.
## Next
* [Lesson 7 · How to send a rate](/revhero-docs/learn-revhero/learn/07-sending-a-rate-safely.md) — you will send the first date on your list.
* [The 15-minute daily routine](/revhero-docs/getting-started/daily-routine.md) — the same triage, as a daily habit.
***
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