In most cases a property would want to stop selling rooms if they are at 100% occupancy, but there are some cases where a property would like to allow additional bookings. This is applicable when the property is at least at 100% occupancy, where one of the room types is already overbooked, but another still has availability.
There are two overbooking options in myfrontdesk:
- Allow additional bookings when property is at full occupancy in General System Settings
- Allow Overbookings (Not Recommended For Most Properties) on Availability Matrix
This article will walk you through the difference between these two options. We will show how having them on or off affects the system behavior.
If there is over 100% occupancy - overbooking in a particular room type - Double Room (1), but there is still availability in other rooms Single room (2), Mixed dorm (3) the following will happen:
a) The calendar will show real numbers (remaining inventory and overbookings)
b) Cloudbeds will send "0" for ALL ROOM TYPES to myallocator Channel Manager and all connected channels.
c) It will be impossible to make a booking via mybookings or on the calendar (even though the other room types(2), (3) will show availability)
Please note that it is true for all Reservation Sources apart from Third Party Sources - this option always allows overbookings to be created
a) The rooms that still have availability - in our example Single room (2) and Mixed room (3) - will still be sold on the connected channels and in mybookings
b) It will be possible to create new reservations via Create New Reservation on the Calendar
If you turn on this option and increase the number of rooms which can be sold and if it is more than your actual availability, this can cause overbookings. If you want to prevent such overbookings, please keep this feature turned off.
Overbookings can only happen if the number of Amount Allotted For Sale is increased to a higher number than Remaining Inventory on the availability matrix page.
If this feature is ON, the system allows you to create new reservations via "Create New Reservation" function in the system.
- Myallocator (channel manager by Cloudbeds) does not send an inventory to a channel greater than the amount of units specified for a room type.
- On myfrontdesk calendar, you will still see the real (remaining) availability
Here are the steps for how to switch it on:
- Click on Settings
- Select 'Overbooking Settings'
- Choose to 'Enable' or Disable' this feature
- Click to Save
Read the warning message carefully and if you are sure that you want to enable this option, click on 'Continue'
When you add more rooms than you actually have, the number of rooms will be marked pink which indicates a potential overbooking day.
It will be impossible to change the Amount Allotted For Sale to a higher number than Remaining Inventory.
You won't be able to increase the number of rooms and the warning message will appear.
