walk
attrib.— «Hotels will overbook to improve their chances of selling out for a night. To safeguard against homeless travelers, hotels in the same class and local area usually phone each other every day to compare occupancy rates and give each other “walk” rates—that is, how much hotel A will charge hotel B to put up their overbooked guests, if they should show. When it becomes appearant there will be more guests than rooms, the front office begins their “walk” strategy.…Another hotel may choose “walk candidates”—that is, pick people from the arrivals list that might not mind being bumped—leisure travelers, first time guests—and ask them, when thy arrive, if they wouldn’t mind moving to hotel B.» —“Are fully booked hotels holding back?” by Rubythursday Metafilter Feb. 13, 2008. (source: Double-Tongued Dictionary)
Further reading
In 1971, when a new public library opened in Troy, Michigan, famous authors and artists were invited to write letters to the city’s youngest readers, extolling the many benefits of libraries. One of the loveliest was from E.B. White, author of...
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