A Group Allotment Block is an availability block for specified dates. Within a group, such as a wedding party, a property may choose to create an allotment block(s) to reserve availability at a special or base price.
When creating a Group Allotment Block, a property may decide to block availability for the number of rooms agreed upon or may decide to have a special group rate without blocking availability.
One group profile may have several allotment blocks.
To create an allotment block you need to create a group profile first: Groups - Creating a Group Profile. Group Profile Overview
How to Create an Allotment Block
- On the 'Groups' page open the desired group profile
- Click on the 'Allotment Blocks' tab
- Under the tab click '+Create Allotment Block'
- Enter 'Allotment Name'
- Select 'Allotment Status'
- Tentative: Allows to specify availability but does not take rooms out of your property inventory and does not allow to book reservations within the block.
- Definite: Allows to allocate rooms from your property inventory (normally, this option is selected if the group guaranteed their bookings or there was a contract to keep certain rooms for the group) and allows to book reservations within the block.
Please note that when an Allotment Block has the 'Tentative' status, no rooms will be allocated from the property inventory. To book reservations from the block, the status needs to be updated to 'Definite'.
- Select Rate Type - you will see different settings for the allotment block interval based on which rate type you select)
- Base: This means that this allotment block will pull the base rates that you have set up for your property for each corresponding Accommodation Type.
- Rate Plan (in order to use this option you need to create a rate plan first): Means that the rates for this Allotment Block will be taken from the rate plan created on the Rate Plans and Packages page. Here you will need to select the rate plan to pull rates from.
- Custom: Allows you to enter your desired rates for the allotment block.
Be advised that changing the allotment block rate type is not possible after it's created and saved.
If you associate an allotment block with a rate plan:
- The allotment block will be created for the same room types and for the same date range as the rate plan. If a date outside of this range is selected, an error will pop up (see the following image).
- The allotment block will become unavailable when the rate plan expires.
- Currently, it is not possible to deactivate or remove a rate plan under the Rate Plans & Packages page if it is linked to an active Allotment Block (even in closed status).
- Select 'Allotment Type'
- Block: You will need to specify the number of rooms to be allocated when adding dates to the block (the rooms are blocked so they cannot be booked by anyone outside of the group). This setting also enables the option to select "Auto Release" (see the next step "Set Auto Release").
- Based on Availability: Means that availability for this allotment block will be taken from your property availability (i.e. if there are 2 rooms available in your property - they will be available for the group; if you've sold out - the group can't book from this allotment block as well).
- Set Auto Release - if you selected 'Block' as your allotment type you will be able to set 'Auto Release'
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No: Unsold rooms won't be automatically released back to the property inventory (e.g. if you have allocated 3 out of 5 rooms to be booked by the group and only 2 are booked, 1 room will remain not bookable for all your guests outside of the group unless you manually release that room). Manual release can be done on the Pickup page of the group profile.
- Yes: Unsold rooms will be automatically released back to the property inventory based on the days out and time specified.
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No: Unsold rooms won't be automatically released back to the property inventory (e.g. if you have allocated 3 out of 5 rooms to be booked by the group and only 2 are booked, 1 room will remain not bookable for all your guests outside of the group unless you manually release that room). Manual release can be done on the Pickup page of the group profile.
- Set the Release Schedule - if you selected the allotment block to be auto-released you may choose one of the release options)
- Release all inventory for all dates simultaneously: The system will release the unsold rooms for all dates in the allotment block simultaneously.
- Release all inventory one day at a time: The system will release the unsold rooms in the allotment block one day at a time based on the days out and time scheduled.
- Release all inventory one interval at a time: If there are multiple intervals in one allotment block, the system will release the rooms one interval at a time based on the days out and time scheduled.
See the examples in the Auto Release Scenarios
Example:
- The Company XYZ gatherings will be held on two consecutive weekends 9-11 October 2020 & 16-18 October 2020, the company requested your property to hold 10 rooms for each event day.
- You then created one allotment block with two allotment block intervals: (9-11 October 2020) & (16-18 October 2020).
- And setup the block to be auto-released 3 days out at 10:00 AM, in case there are rooms left unbooked by the group, you can sell them to other guests outside Company XYZ.
See the result of each Auto Release:
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Release all inventory for all dates simultaneously: All the unsold rooms from both allotment block intervals will be released 3 days out from the earliest arrival date (October 9th), which means every unsold room will be released on October 6th at 10:00 AM.
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Release all inventory one day at a time: For the first allotment block interval, the system will start releasing any unbooked rooms for October 9th on October 6th at 10:00 AM (3 days out); for October 10th, the unbooked rooms will be released on October 7th and so on.
The same apply to the last allotment block, in this case the unsold rooms for October 16th will be released on October 13th.
- Release all inventory one interval at a time: On October 6th at 10:00 AM, the system will release the unbooked rooms from the first interval (9-11 October 2020), and any unbooked rooms from the last interval will be released on October 13th.
- You can add several intervals for one Allotment Block
- When adding an interval, Availability fields are only shown if “Block” was selected as the Allotment type; Rates fields are only shown if “Custom” was selected as the Rate type
The number of rooms allocated for the block cannot exceed the number of rooms available for the corresponding Accommodation Type
To create an allotment block interval, click "+Add Dates".
The settings here will depend on the rate and availability options you selected in the previous steps.
- Select "Room Types"
- Select start and end dates for the interval
- Select days of the week
- If you previously selected Allotment Type = "Block", you will need to manually enter the number of rooms to be allocated for this interval.
- Click "Add Interval"
- Select "Room Types"
- Select start and end dates for the interval
- Select days of the week
You don't have to enter the rates because they will be pulled from the rate plan selected in step 2.
- If you previously selected Allotment Type = "Block", you will need to manually enter the number of rooms to be allocated for this interval.
- Click "Add Interval"
- Select "Room Types"
- Select start and end dates for the interval
- Select days of the week
- Set the interval parameters if needed (MinLos, MaxLos, Cut-off, Last Minute Booking, Closed to Arrival/Departure)
- Enter the rates for the selected Accommodation Types
- If you previously selected Allotment Type = "Block", you will need to manually enter the number of rooms to be allocated for this interval
- You can also enter the additional guest pricing if needed or select it to be the same as base rate
- Click "Add Interval"
If desired, you can add the informative notes for your allotment block (description of event, special requirements, etc.) but it's not mandatory.
- Scroll down to the section 'Notes and type the note
- Click 'Submit Note'
Notes can also be added to an Allotment Block at a later time (from the Notes tab of the group profile).
Save the Allotment Block
Make sure that the allotment block details are correct, and click SAVE
The allotment block details will appear on the group profile page, under "Allotment Block" tab, where you can edit them any time (see section "Editing Allotment Block Details".
Under the "Allotment Blocks" tab you can quickly review the block's details:
- Allotment code: unique allotment block code which always starts with "b". It's required to generate an allotment block URL for the booking engine. Learn how to generate the booking URL in this article: Groups - Creating Group Allotment Block URL for mybookings
- Allotment Name: click on it to edit the allotment block
- Type
- Date created
- Earliest Arrival: The earliest check-in date taken from the linked reservations
- Latest Departure: The latest check-out date taken from the linked reservations
- Auto-release
- Status
- Actions: remove allotment block or generate a Booking Engine URL
In this view, you can also conveniently review each Allotment Block's intervals' details, by clicking on the '+' sign on the left from the allotment block code, which will open up another section with more details.
The default status for Earliest Date and Latest Departure is N/A when no reservations have been linked.
Allotment Blocks Occupancy / Availability on the Calendar
The occupancy on the calendar reflects all "Definite" Allotment Blocks (that belong to “Open” Group Profiles) for that day by adding that number to the current occupancy.
Example:
- Total capacity is 10 rooms
- Allotment Block allotment = 5 rooms
- 1 reservation booked and does not belong to Allotment Block or Group Profile
- 2 reservations booked within Allotment Block
Occupancy on the calendar should show:
5 blocked rooms + 1 reservation outside of Allotment Block = 6/10 = 60% occupancy
Availability per accommodation type on the Calendar also reflects any existing "Definite" Allotment Blocks that belong to "Open" Group Profiles.
Allotment Blocks also affect the remaining number of rooms that can be reserved in the future for the corresponding Accommodation Type.
Example: if all rooms/beds of this Accommodation Type are held by the Allotment Block this Accommodation Type will not appear when making a new reservation (unless overbooking option is allowed).
When a definite Allotment Block is created and rooms are allocated as a block, keep in mind that:
- Availability of the corresponding Accommodation Type will be modified based on the number of rooms/beds of this type in the Allotment Block.
- Nothing will display in the Calendar indicating a block (i.e. no other elements on the Calendar) if rooms are blocked but not yet reserved.
- Whenever availability in an Allotment Block (if “definite” status and if Group Profile is “open”) is updated by the user, availability on the Calendar for the corresponding Accommodation Type will be recalculated instantly.
- Booking reservations out of an Allotment Block (that has "Block" type) will not affect the availability on the Calendar because those rooms are already subtracted when rooms are allocated in the interval. But it will add to the "Reservations" number (blue circle) on the Calendar.
If you want to edit or delete and Allotment Block, please check the following article: Groups - How to Edit or Delete and Allotment Block
