Journal
Shoulder-season breakfast covers and the rooms mix that feeds them
In April and October the breakfast room is often the more honest occupancy document. Covers that fall short of occupied rooms can mean guests left before breakfast, or that occupancy was counted on rooms that were complimentary, or that twins sold as doubles produced two people in a room that the kitchen expected as a pair of singles. Covers that exceed occupied rooms usually mean day visitors, staff meals mis-coded, or a private dining room counted as breakfast.
Shoulder-season occupancy in Lincolnshire is mixed: race meetings, school holidays that do not align, and midweeks that depend on contractors. A seasonal trading review that ignores breakfast will miss the houses where the rooms board was optimistic. We ask for covers by day for the same period as the occupancy file. The kitchen is not on trial; the available-room count might be.