Originally Posted by rrz518

It varies by the day.

Speaking as a (former) front office manager at an airport hotel at EWR, it goes like this:

The affected airline calls the hotel to secure a quantity of rooms, for any number of reasons. At EWR it happened pretty much every day.

The amount of rooms is based purely on the airlines needs, coupled with the hotels availability.

So, if CO (for example) calls, and wants 75 rooms, you make 75 reservations. Usually, < 75 rooms arrives, and the airline pays for the full amount contracted, and the hotel has some no shows (that helps offset the low rate). Sometimes, > 75 rooms arrive, and you either accomodate or you don't. It's usually the former, not the latter, but both scenarios happen.

They call for weather reasons, international flight misconnects, you name it. Believe me, though, you do NOT want to antagonize that relationship, as your hotel can start the day empty and end up full. So you do want to be as helpful as possible.

However, there may be arrangements by which the hotel/airline have a fixed amount per day, but the same applies.