Which chart makes a weekly room-booking schedule easiest to compare?

Start with a column or bar chart when the main task is comparing values across a few categories. Microsoft’s Excel guidance recommends column or bar charts for that purpose [S1]. In your case, make each room a category and plot its booking count for the same week—or compare room counts across a clearly defined set of weeks. Keep the comparison focused: if readers need to compare rooms, show rooms as the categories rather than squeezing several unrelated measures into one chart.

For example, suppose a hypothetical schedule has counts for Room A, Room B, and Room C during Week 1. A bar chart can put those three counts side by side. The example is just a layout choice; it does not imply any particular booking pattern.

Use a line chart when the ordered weeks’ changes are the point. Microsoft recommends line or area charts for trends over time or categories [S1]. Put weeks in chronological order and use a consistent count measure throughout. If you also need to compare rooms, use a separate line for each room only when the resulting chart remains easy to read; otherwise, make a small chart per room or show one room at a time.

A useful test is to ask what readers should notice first: the difference between rooms at a particular time, or the direction of change across time. The first favors bars or columns; the second favors a line. Don’t connect categories with a line if their order does not represent a meaningful sequence.

A pie or doughnut chart is appropriate only when you want to show proportions of a whole and the values make up 100% of that whole [S1]. For a room-share view, define the whole explicitly—for example, all bookings in one selected week—and include every room category that contributes to that total. If you leave out rooms or mix weeks, the slices may not represent the complete total you intend to show.

If your actual question is simply “Which room has more bookings?”, a bar chart is usually the more direct choice under the chart guidance for comparing categories [S1]. A share chart answers “What portion of this defined total belongs to each room?” The source guidance does not establish which chart will work best for your specific audience or booking system; check whether readers can answer the intended question from the finished chart.

Write the question first, then pick the chart that matches it. Here is a copyable planning example using explicitly hypothetical data:

1. Question: Which room had more bookings in Week 1? Chart: Bar chart. Categories: Room A, Room B, Room C. Measure: Bookings in Week 1.
2. Question: How did Room A’s bookings change across the weeks? Chart: Line chart. Horizontal order: Week 1, Week 2, Week 3. Measure: Room A bookings per week.
3. Question: What share of Week 1 bookings came from each room? Chart: Pie or doughnut only if the room categories together represent the complete Week 1 total.

Give the chart a title that names both the measure and the time period, such as “Bookings by room — Week 1.” Label the measure clearly as a booking count, and state the weeks or rooms being compared. These examples are chart-planning suggestions, not claims about a particular spreadsheet or booking product.