Overview tab

[Reservation > Allotments > Overview]

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The Overview tab opens when you add a new allotment or edit an existing one in the Allotments window (Reservation > Allotments).

The following entry fields is where you enter basic information about the allotment.

Allotment status

The allotment status determines the processing status of the allotment and whether or not the rooms held in the allotment are deducted from the availability (blocking or non-blocking).

Enquiry

Allotment reservations with this status are non-binding requests that do not influence availability. In order to make a binding room type reservation, the enquiry needs to be confirmed by the booker. Upon confirmation, the allotment is assigned either the Non deduct or Deduct status (see below). If the request is not confirmed, the status can be set to Cancelled (for example, by specifying the reason "Request not confirmed by booker", or the like).

Example

Being the reservation agent, you receive an enquiry for a wedding. You know the exact date and the number of required rooms. The names of the guests are to be added when they call the hotel or book via the website. You will first need to set the allotment to enquiry.

Using the 'Status = Enquiry' filter, the hotel management can see at any time how many enquiries there are for an allotment. Using the date filter, hotel management can also track enquiries accordingly (e.g. show all enquiries for the next month).

Non deduct

The rooms of a non deducting allotment will not be deducted from the hotel's availability. Reservation accessed by the allotment (= "named") are deducted from availability. Non-blocking allotments can be assigned the additional "Open for pick up" / "not picked up" status.

Non deduct - no pickup

The allotment does not influence availability, but should be taken into account for further planning.

Example

7 days after a non-binding allotment enquiry, the reservation employee asks the booker whether he would like to firm up the dates. After the booker signals his agreement, the reservation agent declares that the hotel will not initially hold rooms from availability and will not release them for booking until a contract has been signed. The reservation employee thus confirms the provisional booking and sets the allotment status to Non deduct - not open for pickup.

Depending on each hotel, management may adopt an approach using the 'Non deduct (no pickup)' option when a booker would like to proceed, however not signed a contract.

Non deduct - Open for pickup

The allotment does not affect availability, however, rooms can be named it is retrievable.

Example 'Free sale Allotment'

If a free sale contract has been agreed with a contractual partner, it is advisable to create an allotment that does not reduce availability, but is basically open for pickup.

Suppose a reservation clerk receives an email of a booking from a travel agent who has a free sale allotment. The reservation clerk books the reservation for the selected dates and picks up from the Allocation. The reservation status is set to Definite, however the Allotment Status is Tentative and Open for pickup.

Depending on each hotel, management may adopt an approach where an allotment does not create a lot of revenue. This management decision does not remove rooms from availability. It only acknowledges the request and only guarantees the reservation once an email has been received.

Deduct

The rooms of a deducting allotment are generally deducted from availability in the relevant room types, regardless of whether or not there are reservations for this allotment.

Deduct - no pickup

The allotment reduces the availability, however, is not open for pickup.

Example

The allotment contract was sent to the booker of an allotment for signing. It is signed and returned a few days later including the acceptance of the terms and conditions. The allotment can now be set to deducting, since we are now dealing with a binding business agreement and the allotment is now guaranteed.

Deduct - Open for pickup

The allotment reduces the availability and is open for pickup.

Example

For a contractually secured allotment (see above: deduct - no pickup) the reservation employee receives the list of names with the guests 3 days before arrival. By this time at the latest, the allotment will be set to Open for pickup and the employee can now comfortably enter all of the names of the guests, e.g., by means of the rooming list function in the allotment dialog box.

Cancelled

Cancelled: Allotmant has been cancelled (e.g. , due to an act of god (Tornado), Booker called and cancels allotment).

Lost: Business was lost (to a competitor).

Refuse: The allotment has been turned down.

See also section "Cancelling an allotment" on this page.

Cut-off date and cut-off days

In addition to the allotment status, protel Air distinguishes between two Cut-off types:

Allotments will only be displayed in the room type plan, not in the room plan. The current allotment capacity can be seen in the room type plan at any time. (go to section Displaying allotments in the room type plan).

Note: Because the room allotment is not considered to be a fixed reservation, they will also not be included in the forecasts, e.g., hotel status list or other lists.

Entry fields

Hint: The screenshot contains the contract status flow feature which has to be activated separately.

Fields marked with an * asterisk are mandatory!

Allotment status

Enquiry

Activate the Enquiry option to save the allotment as a non-binding request without affecting availability.

Non deduct

Activate the "non deduct" option if the allotment's room should NOT be deducted from availability.

Deduct

Activate the "deduct" option if the rooms of  an allotment are to be deducted from availability.

Example: The allotment includes 5 double rooms >>> Availability will be reduced by 5 double rooms after the allotment has been created. This means that the rooms in the allotment cannot be sold elsewhere during the allotment's time-period.

Open for pickup (checked)

Open for pickup (unchecked)

If you check this box, reservations for the allotment may be named or booked.

If you uncheck this box, reservations for the allotment CANNOT be named or booked for this allotment.

All in all, there are four possible combinations:

Non deduct - no pickup

Allotment does not affect availability. The allotment has not yet been released, i.e., rooms are not open for pickup (rooms against allotment cannot be named).

Non deduct - open for pickup

The allotment doesn't affect availability. The allotment has been opened for pickup. This means that rooms can be named against the allotment.

Deduct - no pickup

Allotment affects availability. The allotment has not yet been released, i.e., rooms are not open for pickup (rooms against allotment cannot be named).

Deduct - Open for pickup

Allotment affects availability. The allotment has been opened for pickup. This means that rooms can be named against the allotment.

Cancelled

If an allotment has been cancelled or a request has been refused by the hotel, you can activate the Cancelled option.

When you change the status of a booking to cancelled, you have to select a cancel type (Lost, Refuse, (=Turned Down), or Cancelled). In addition,  you have to enter the reason for the cancellation, e.g. the reason for a lost business and the competitor to whom the business was lost before you can save your changes and close the allotment screen.

If rooms have already been assigned to the allotment in the allotment tab, these no longer affect availability once you have assigned the cancellation status!

If rooms have already been named for an allotment (that is, reservations already exist in the system), the allotment cannot be flagged as "Cancelled". In this case, you need to first remove the reservation(s) from the allotment!

Allotment type

Here you can assign an allotment type for the allotment. Use the function to divide your allotments into various segments, such as weddings, events and meetings, business events, and much more. Depending on your system settings, the assignment of the allotment type is optional or mandatory (see next paragraph: XSetup). If the entry is not mandatory, you can leave the selection field empty.

You can arbitrarily create the allotment types in your protel Air system data and adjust them individually to meet your needs. (see section: System Data > Reservation > Allotments).

Additional benefit: You can define a separate workflow for the contract status flow for each allotment type! The workflow function must be enabled separately in protel Air (see below: Workflow steps)

Upon request, you can define the '''Allotment type''' as a mandatory field:

XSetup: Allotment type as mandatory entry

  • Name: Allotment type mandatory

  • XSetup-Path: /currentProperty/propData/Parameters/RequiredFields/allotmentType

  • Type: Boolean

  • Default: false (not activated)

Related topics:

System Data > Reservation > Allotments > Allotment type

Workflow steps

(contract status flow)

Define various workflows that specify an exact contract status flow and support the user with processing allotments.

User defined workflows are an additional feature that must be activated by the protel Cloud Support team or your protel partner. Contact us or your protel partner if you want to use the feature in for your business (cloudsupport@protel.net). Further details can be found in the section on "System data > Reservation > Allotments > Contract status flow".

If the function is activated, an additional pane automatically appears in the Allotments dialog box as soon as you assign an allotment type - see the figure below:

If a specific workflow has been defined for the selected allotment type, the next step is automatically predefined.

Example:

Assuming that the following Contract status flow is located in the system data for the "Tour Operators" allotment type:

When assigning the "Tour Operators" allotment type to the allotment, the Enquiry step is entered as the first step and appears in the CURRENT STEP pane - see following figure:

The values defined in this workflow step for the allotment status, reservation status, and pick-up status are also entered in the allotment.

The next possible step is already displayed in the NEXT FLOW pane - see the figure below:

Once the conditions for the next step are met, click the arrow to assign the next step.

You will then be asked whether you want to jump to the next step. If you are sure, confirm with Yes.

The display is then updated in the CURRENT FLOW pane and the values defined in this step (allotment status, reservation status, and pick-up status) are set for the allotment.

When the last step is reached, three dashes (---) appear in the NEXT STEP pane - see the figure below:

Related topics:

System Data > Reservation > Allotments > Contract status flow

*Name,

*Short name

Give the allotment a name and an abbreviation. These entries are mandatory.

Keyword

This is where you enter the keyword/code which is supposed to be provided when making a reservation for this room allotment.

*Contact person

By means of the guest search, a contact person for the allotment can be entered.

Res. Status

Enter the reservation status which is to be given to a reservation for which the allotment is being booked.

Rate code

The rate code is not a mandatory field and does not need to be selected. If selected, the rate code is automatically transmitted to the reservation accessed by the allotment.

If there have not been any rates saved to the allotment, the hotel's default rate automatically takes effect. (In the same manner as when saving an individual reservation)!

Please make sure that  strategies, restrictions, or daily rates can be set for a rate code, which means that the actual  rate  can vary.

 

Cancellation cond.

Cancellation conditions are not mandatory and do not need to be selected. If cancellation conditions have been selected, they will be automatically transmitted as a cancellation condition to the reservation accessed by the allotment.

Guarantee cond.

Guarantee conditions are not mandatory and do not need to be selected. If guarantee conditions have been selected, they will be automatically transmitted as a guarantee condition to the reservation accessed by the allotment.

Travel reason

Travel reason is not a mandatory field and does not need to be selected. If a travel motive has been selected, it will be automatically transmitted to the reservation accessed by the allotment. It will check to see if there are default values which take effect in the hotel.  If you do not select anything, the system's default values automatically take effect.

Market code

Market code is not a mandatory field and does not need to be selected. If a market code has been selected, it will be automatically transmitted in the reservation accessed by the allotment.

It will check to see if there are default values which take effect in the hotel. If you do not select anything, the system's default values automatically take effect.

Distribution channel

The distribution channel is not a mandatory field and does not need to be selected. If a distribution channel has been selected, it will be automatically transmitted to the reservation accessed by allotment. It will check to see if there are default values which take effect in the hotel.  If you do not select anything, the system's default values automatically take effect.

Comm. Channel

Communication channel is not a mandatory field and does not need to be selected. If a communication channel has been selected, it will be automatically transmitted to the reservation accessed by the allotment. It will check to see if there are default values which take effect in the hotel. If you do not select anything, the system's default values automatically take effect.

The communication channel answers the question of how the booker heard about the hotel or how he got to know the hotel.

Cut-off date

Enter the cut-off date if the entire allotment is to receive a fixed cut-off date. As of this date, the allotment can no longer be booked. All rooms which have not been pickeded up by then, will be automatically released at the end of day procedure and will once again be available for general sale. For non-blocking room allotments, the number of rooms will be automatically set to zero in the allotment column.

Example: Reservation of group rooms for conferences and other large events. Here, a defined number of rooms would be reserved under a certain keyword within the framework of a non deducting allotment. The guests make an individual reservation contract with the hotel at the time of booking. Designate a closing date for the allotment where rooms which have not been picked up are once again available for general sale.

DO not enter a date if the allotment is to receive a dynamic cut-off date (Days before arrival).

Cut-off days
(Days before arrival)

Fill in this field if the allotment has a dynamic expiration date. The value entered  here (e.g. "7") indicates the number of days before arrival when the allotment expires. The reservation must be booked before this date. Example: If the number "7" appears here, it means that the last reservation needs to be entered 7 days before arrival, at the latest.

Description

Enter a description for the allotment, as need arises.

Then, click the [Apply] button to save your entries.

When setting up a new allotment, you will be automatically navigated to the next entry (Allotment).

Cancelling an allotment

When you change the status of an allotment to Cancelled, you have to select a cancel type and enter a cancel reason, e.g., the reason for the lost business and the competitor to whom the business was lost before you can save your changes and close the allotment.

To turn down or cancel an allotment

  1. Open the Allotments Start Window (Reservation > Allotments) and find the Allotment using the Name Search field at the top of the window, and then click the Edit button or double-click the allotment.

  2. Change the allotment status to Cancelled and select the cancel type (Lost, Refuse or Cancelled).

  3. In the <Enter reason> section, enter the reason why the allotment is cancelled.

For example, if an allotment was lost, select 'Lost' and enter the Lost Reason, the date the allotment was lost, and the competitor to whom the business was lost. To provide additional information about the lost business, you can also enter the 'Lost To City' and any other comments.

If an allotment was cancelled (e.g. by the booker), select 'Cancelled' and enter the cancel reason.

If you want to turn down an allotment (enquiry), select 'Refuse' and enter the reason why the booking is turned down

  1. Click Apply.

Note

If the allotment has already been setup  in the allotment tab (e.g., 6 Double rooms from 12-01 to 12-31), these no longer affect availability once you have assigned the cancellation status!

If rooms have already been named against the allotment (that is, reservations already exist in the system), the allotment cannot be simply flagged as "Cancelled". In this case, you need to first remove the reservation(s) from the allotment!