Forecasting in hospitality is complex. Every guest is different, and every booking carries its own context; from milestone celebrations to corporate meetings. Each plays a role in revenue performance, and teams need a clear view of what’s coming.

Distil Diagnostics has always focused its restaurant forecasting model on the regular flow of incoming bookings, typically made through online channels, because they follow consistent, repeatable patterns. We call these À la carte bookings or ALC for short.

But they’re only part of the picture.

What about the larger groups? The parties that can’t be booked online because they need an events assistant or a reservations manager to coordinate?

These Group bookings (GRP) are often higher value, more variable, and managed outside standard booking flows. They can significantly shape demand, yet historically sit outside the forecast because they do not follow predictable booking patterns.

Bringing those two worlds together without distorting Distil’s restaurant forecasting accuracy has been the challenge. With the latest release to Distil Diagnostics, that gap is now closed.

Forecasting now reflects how restaurants actually operate, combining:

• À la carte (ALC) forecast – (AI-driven)
• Group (GRP) bookings (live, in the books – confirmed and unconfirmed)

Side by side, in one clear view – forming a complete total forecast.

The result is a forecast that doesn’t just show what’s expected, but clearly reveals what’s driving demand.

Understand demand drivers with ALC and Group Forecast visibility

By separating À la carte (ALC) and Group (GRP) bookings, restaurant forecasting becomes far more than a single predicted cover or revenue figure.

It becomes a diagnostic tool with a direct link to the commercial goals.

Instead of asking “are we on track?”, it’s now possible to also understand why.

You can go deeper and answer questions like, is performance being driven by steady, predictable ALC demand? Or is it being shaped by a handful of large group bookings already in the diary?

This distinction is critical, particularly for revenue and reservations teams managing availability, pacing, and commercial decisions day to day.

With ALC and GRP shown side by side, those drivers are immediately visible, removing guesswork and increasing confidence in the forecast.

Expectations (targets) that reflect real demand patterns

Forecasting becomes far more powerful when it’s aligned with sales targets that reflect real demand patterns.

Previously, Expectations (targets) in Distil were set at a monthly level and distributed evenly across the days in the month. A straightforward and effective approach, but one that didn’t reflect how demand naturally fluctuates across days and weeks.

Expectations are now dynamically distributed based on the Distil algorithm for ALC covers, and historical performance for GRP covers.

The result is a daily expectation curve that better reflects how the business fills — not an artificial flat line. And when combined with the ALC and GRP forecast, you have a much clearer picture of how the business is going to do.

This makes it easier to:

• Compare Forecast vs Expectations with confidence
• Identify under- or over-performance at a daily level
• Align operational planning with realistic demand patterns

Get faster access to the commercial answers you need

Alongside improvements to forecast visibility, performance has also been significantly upgraded.

Forecast tabs and the Availability Scan now load faster and scale more effectively – even for larger datasets or more complex booking configurations.

This is driven by improvements in how data is processed behind the scenes, including pre-processing and caching.

The result is simple: less waiting, and faster access to the insights needed to take action.

Charts that tell the full story

With ALC and GRP now central to restaurant forecasting in Distil Diagnostics, charts have been updated to reflect this more clearly.

The forecast line is now explicitly labelled ALC Forecast, making it clear what the model represents.

Group bookings are layered on top for future dates, providing a more complete view of total demand as it stands today.

Tooltips have also been enhanced to show:

• ALC forecast
• GRP bookings
• Total combined context

All within a single interaction.

For historical views, charts focus on Actuals versus Expectations to avoid double counting, with further enhancements planned in future iterations.

The overall effect is subtle but important: charts become easier to read, quicker to interpret, and mean you take commercial decisions faster.

Keep track of progress with updated Monitors

Monitors are designed to give a quick, actionable view of performance — and with ALC and Group demand now central to forecasting, they’ve been updated to reflect that shift.

The Monitor Details view has been redesigned to align with the new experience across Diagnostics, bringing ALC and GRP data together in one place.

This means:

• ALC and Group demand can be viewed side by side
• Total forecast now reflects the full picture, not just ALC
• Group bookings are broken down into confirmed and unconfirmed, making performance easier to interpret
• Tracking links can be quickly reused with copyable UTM codes

The result is a clearer, more complete view of monitor performance — making it easier to understand what’s driving results and take action where it matters.

Restaurant forecasting levels-up in Distil

This update is not about adding more data — it’s about making forecasting more transparent and actionable.

By bringing together the power of Distil’s AI-forecasting model and highlighting the split between A la Carte and Group bookings, we’ve made:

• Forecasts clearer and easier to understand
• Expectations are more realistic and useful
• Performance becomes easier to interpret

And ultimately, teams are better equipped to make informed, revenue-driving decisions.

You can read more about this release in full here, or talk to one of our team today about getting started with Distil Diagnostics.

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