Choose fields and aggregations for a Cloudbeds Insights report

Gabriela Garcia

Updated September 22, 2026 21:26

Purpose	Choose reporting fields and metric aggregations that match the question you want a Cloudbeds Insights report to answer.
Best for	Property managers, general managers, administrators, and owners who build or validate custom reports.
Use this when	You are unsure which field to use, need to choose an aggregation such as Sum or Mean, or a report total, average, or count does not look as expected.
Requirements	Cloudbeds Insights. To edit a report, you also need the appropriate Author permission for the data included in that report.
Expected result	A report that uses fields at the correct reporting level and applies numerical aggregations that match the business question.
Limitations	Available fields depend on the report data you are working with. Aggregations apply to numerical fields in grouped or summary views; row-level reports display the underlying record values instead.

Introduction

A report can return a technically valid number and still answer the wrong question if the field or aggregation does not match the reporting goal. Two decisions have the biggest effect on the result:

Which field represents the data you want to measure?
How should multiple numerical values be combined when the report groups records together?

Use this guide to make those decisions before or while configuring a custom report in Builder. For the steps to add fields, group data, filter results, and save the report, see Build and configure a custom report in Cloudbeds Insights.

Field not available? The Report Type selected when the report is created determines which fields and filters are available. If the field you need is outside that Report Type, create a report with the appropriate Report Type instead. See Build and configure a custom report in Cloudbeds Insights for more context.

Choose reservation or operational data
Understand how aggregation works
Choose an aggregation
Avoid misleading calculations
Understand no value and zero
Troubleshoot unexpected results

Choose reservation or operational data

Start with the question the report should answer. Cloudbeds Insights can represent similar information at different reporting levels, so fields that sound related may count records differently.

Compare	Reservation reporting	Operational reporting
Reporting level	Reservation or room-reservation	Stay date
Repeats across stay dates?	No. The value is reported once per reservation or room-reservation.	Yes. The activity is represented for each applicable stay date.
Example fields	Reservation Guest Count, Reservation Room Nights, Room Revenue Total	Guest Nights, Total Room Revenue, Room Rate
Use when	The question is about the reservation itself.	The question is about what happened on a specific stay date.

Do not mix reporting levels without checking what each field represents. A reservation-level value does not automatically become a nightly value when you group a report by stay date. Using a reservation-level field across stay dates can make a result appear repeated or overstated.

Common field choices

If you want to measure...	Consider this field
Total guests on the reservation	Reservation Guest Count
Guests counted for each night of their stay	Guest Nights
Total nights across all rooms on the reservation	Reservation Room Nights
Room revenue for the whole stay, before taxes and fees	Room Revenue Total
All room revenue for a stay date, before taxes and fees	Total Room Revenue

Understand how aggregation works

A numerical field contains one value per underlying record. When you group a report, many records can collapse into one displayed row. The aggregation is the rule Cloudbeds Insights uses to turn those values into the single number shown for that group.

Changing the aggregation changes the calculation, not the underlying data. Aggregations apply to numerical fields in grouped or summary views. Text and date fields do not have an aggregation option, and a row-level report shows the record value directly.

Filters also affect the values included in an aggregation. Cloudbeds Insights removes records that do not match the active filters before grouped calculations are displayed. The remaining records are then grouped and summarized using the selected aggregation.

In Table Outline, numerical metrics appear in blue and non-numerical dimensions appear in gray. Use this visual distinction to identify which fields can offer aggregation options.

Select a blue numerical metric in Table Outline to review the aggregation options available for that field.

You can select more than one aggregation for the same numerical metric when you want to compare different calculations for that field in the same report.

Choose an aggregation

Use the aggregation that matches the question you are asking. The first five options cover most day-to-day reporting. Std and Var are statistical measures and are less commonly needed.

Aggregation	What it calculates	Use it to answer
Sum	Adds every value together.	How much is there in total?
Mean	Adds the values and divides by the records that have a value.	What is the typical or average value?
Max	Returns the single highest value.	What is the highest value?
Min	Returns the single lowest value.	What is the lowest value?
Count	Counts the records that have a value in that field.	How many records have a value?
Std	Measures how spread out the values are, in the same unit as the field.	How consistent are the values?
Var	Measures spread as variance, which is the standard deviation squared.	Use when a statistical calculation specifically requires variance.

When to use Sum, Mean, Max, Min, and Count

Sum: Use for values that accumulate, such as revenue, taxes, fees, room nights, guest nights, and paid amounts.
Mean: Use for a typical raw per-record value, such as a room rate, stay length, or booking window.
Max and Min: Use to find extremes or sanity-check the range of the data. They can help expose unusually high, low, or zero values.
Count: Use when the question is how many records contain a value. Choose the field you count carefully because records with no value are skipped.

Avoid misleading calculations

Do not Sum rates, percentages, or other non-additive values

Sum is appropriate when values accumulate. A percentage, rate, stay length, or booking window does not become more meaningful by adding it across records. For example, adding three 80% occupancy values produces 240%, which does not represent an occupancy rate.

Do not apply Mean to a field that is already an average or percentage

Fields such as ADR, occupancy percentage, and commission percentage are already calculated figures. Applying Mean to them can produce a misleading result when the groups contain different numbers of records.

For example, consider two room types in one month:

Room type	Rooms sold	Room revenue	ADR
Suite	1	$400	$400
Standard	9	$900	$100
Property total	10	$1,300	$130

The Mean of the two ADR values is $250, but the actual property ADR is $130. The simple Mean gives the one suite night the same weight as the nine standard room nights.

Use the calculated ADR field at the grouping level you need instead of averaging ADR values again.

Understand no value and zero

Aggregations ignore records that have no value in the selected field. Those records are not treated as zero, and Count does not include them.

Zero is different. A record containing 0 has a value, so it is counted and included in calculations. For example, a $0 room rate can lower a Mean room rate, while a record with no room rate value is skipped.

Example	Result	Why
Count of 1, no value, 1, 5, 6, 9, no value	5	The two records with no value are skipped.
Mean of 1, no value, 2, 3	2	The total of 6 is divided by the 3 records that contain a value.

Add Count when you need context for another aggregation. A total or average can be based on far fewer records than the full report if the selected field is blank on many records. Count the same field to see how many records actually contributed a value.

Troubleshoot unexpected results

What you are seeing	What to check
The average is higher than almost every individual value.	One or more outliers may be pulling the Mean up. Add Max and Min to check the range.
A percentage total is over 100%.	Check whether the percentage field is using Sum. Percentages should not be added together.
ADR or occupancy does not match another report.	Check whether an already-calculated field is using Mean. Use the calculated field at the grouping level you need instead of averaging it again.
The Count is lower than the number of records you expected.	The selected field may have no value on some records. Count a field that is populated for the records you intend to count.
A total looks much lower than expected.	The field may be blank on many records. Add Count on the same field to see how many records contributed a value.
There is no aggregation option for a field.	The field may not be numerical, or the report may be showing row-level records rather than grouped results.
Revenue appears doubled or tripled when grouped by stay date.	Check whether you are using a reservation-level revenue field where an operational stay-date revenue field is needed.
A Reservations report shows more rows than expected after adding a field.	Check whether the field is a multi-level attribute. In the Reservations data, a multi-level attribute can repeat rows based on the level where the data exists.

Next Operational Step

After choosing the fields and aggregations that match your reporting question, return to Build and configure a custom report in Cloudbeds Insights to add them to Table Outline, group the report, apply filters, and save the configuration.