How to "Create a block on rooms"

A group block is created when a group wants to reserve rooms at a specified rate without creating reservations. These rooms are set aside for the group and removed from the general inventory.

• Go to Accounts> Groups > Open the desired Group Account or create a new group account.
• Navigate to the Block list Tab in the account
• Click on the “New Block” button.
• Enter the block name. 
  1. Block name needs to be unique within the group account.
• Enter the desired details in the search criteria and click on Search.

The search criteria are as follows:

• Stay dates: the dates for which you want to block inventory
• Rooms per night: the number of room needed for the block
• Rate Plan/Promo : Choose from a list of rate plans. Below are some important notes related to the rate plans used to create blocks:
  1. A block cannot be created using Interval and Package rate plans. These are restricted from the rate plan drop-down for now.
  2. The rules stored for the rate plan for Min stay, No check-in and no check-out are copied to the block and cannot be edited once the block is created.
  3. The included adults and persons are considered from the rate plan and only the rates are stored for the block
• Shoulders: Setting shoulders for a block is an optional step.
  Shoulders are used to extend the block rates for a definite number of days before the block arrival and after the block departure date. Shoulders mostly come in use when some guests arrive early and depart late and you want to offer the pre-negotiated group rates for those additional days.
  
  
  1. Pre Shoulder: Also known as pre-arrival dates. For example if the pre shoulder is defined as 2 and the block arrival date is 13th Nov then the pre shoulder is 11th and 12th
  2. Post Shoulder: These are dates beyond the block departure that can be used to offer the negotiated groups rate to days beyond the block stay. For example if the post shoulder is defined as 2 and the block departure date is 14th Nov then the post shoulder is 14th and 15th 
     • Shoulder dates do not allow for blocking of inventory. Using shoulders in the block reservations is dependent on the general availability at the time of pick up.
     • When the block has shoulder dates, the pick-up from the booking engine allows the guest to include shoulder dates as part of their stay.

Available Rooms

Based on the criteria provided, the system searches for the cheapest room available in the grid. The information in the column for Block and AVG Rate is indicated in blue and is editable.

Edit the count of rooms required for each room class across the stay dates of the block.

Update the rate to ensure the negotiated rate applies to the block only. The edited rates also apply to the shoulder dates. 

Grid Options

The advanced grid options are indicated below and are defaulted to OFF for new blocks:

Show Available Rooms By Date: 

• Displays the general room availability for all dates.
• This is a read-only column
• Also displays availability for shoulder dates

Block Room By Date: 

• Allows for blocking different rooms per night of the block
• A red icon displays in the Summary block column, indicating that the rooms blocked per night are not the same across dates

Show Rates By Date: 

• Allows for setting day-wise rates for the block
• The Avg Rate for the block recalculates, indicating the average rate for the room class across dates