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
It’s hard to imagine now, but there was a time when people disagreed over the best word to use when answering the phone. Alexander Graham Bell suggested answering with ahoy! but Thomas Edison was partial to hello! A fascinating new book about...
Robert Greene’s pastoral romance Menaphon (Bookshop|Amazon), written in 1589, includes this memorable simile: “Thy breath is like the steeme of apple pies.” This is part of a complete episode.
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