The Inventory page
The inventory page is where you set the day-by-day pricing, availability and restrictions for rooms at your hotel. You can edit each field one at a time if you only have a few specific changes to make to your inventory. To edit multiple details/settings for multiple room rates across a specified date period, use the bulk update.
Note: If you are using Channel manager, any updates you make directly within the booking engine extranet will be overwritten by the settings from the channel manager. This means you will need to update through the channel manager inventory grid instead.
Inventory view settings
Hide or show details on the inventory grid by changing the view settings:
Click All Fields to show all inventory fields (except inclusions)
Click Basic Fields to show only the Available and Rate fields
Click Inclusions to show the inclusions (hides all other fields)
Manage your inventory
To update the inventory grid:
Click on the Inventory tab
Select a date range
Make the required changes on availability, rates or restrictions directly on the grid (see below for more information on the values that can be changed)
Click on Save at the bottom-right of the window
Availability
In the inventory this value corresponds to the row named "Available".
When setting up the availability you need to enter the number of available rooms per room type.
For example if you have 5 Double Rooms that haven't been booked on a certain day, that day should show "5" for the Double Room row.
Availability is controlled by room type. All room rates under one room type share the same availability.
Rates (prices)
In the inventory this value corresponds to the row named "Rate".
When setting up the rates you need to enter the price for that night for a specific room rate.
Restrictions
Restrictions give you control over how and when your inventory is sold on the Booking Engine:
Minimum Stay - Appears as Min Stay on the inventory. This is the minimum number of nights a guest must book to make a reservation for a given room rate when checking in on the day with a Min Stay
Maximum Stay - Appears as Max Stay on the inventory. This is the maximum number of nights a guest can book when making a reservation for a given room rate when checking in on the day with a Max Stay
Stop Sell - You can check a Stop Sell box to stop this room rate from being sold
Closed To Arrival - Appears as CTA on the inventory. You can check a CTA box to prevent any guests from making reservations that would require them to check-in on that day
Closed to Departure - Appears as CTD on the inventory. You can check a CTD box to prevent any guests from making reservations that would require them to check-out on that day
A note regarding Minimum Stay in Booking Engine: the Booking Engine applies the Minimum Stay based entirely on the value set for the day of Check-In (as was already explained above). This is called a "Min Stay On Arrival".
Some channels allow the use of a "Min Stay Through", which means that the Minimum Stay is required as long as the reservation contains the day with a Minimum Stay. The Booking Engine does not allow for this type of Minimum Stay setting.
Examples:
Min Stay on Arrival: A three-night minLOS is set for August 2nd; but has a one-night minLOS on August 1st and August 3rd. Any guest whose stay starts on August 2nd, will be required to stay at least 3 nights. If the guest made the reservation on August 1st they could book for just one night.
Min Stay Through: A three-night minLOS is set for August 2nd. Any guest whose stay includes that day (August 2nd) must stay at least 3 nights. If the guest made the reservation on August 1st for 2 nights, passing for August 2nd, they would not be able to, and they would be required to book at least 3 nights.
Other values (only available on older versions of the Booking Engine)
These values are not available on the current version of the booking engine:
Hot Deals - Check this box to highlight a specific room rate's pricing as a 'Hot Deal' on the booking page
Inclusions - Click 'Inclusions' in the upper left of the page to show inclusions, and enter text to describe the inclusions for the specified room rate/s
Bulk Update your rates, availability and restrictions
Bulk update is the quickest way to make various changes to the inventory grid, as it allows you to edit multiple details/settings for multiple room rates across a specified date period.
Note: If you are using Channel manager, any updates you make directly within the booking engine extranet will be overwritten by the settings from the channel manager. This means you will need to update through the channel manager inventory grid instead.
To perform a bulk update:
From the Inventory tab, click on the button at the top right of the page.
Select date range - Select the From/To dates (dates are inclusive). If applicable, click on +Add to add more date ranges
Select Days - Tick the boxes of the days of the week when you want the updates to apply to
Select update type - There are 3 update types: Availability, Rates, and Restrictions.
Availability tab - this is where you adjust room availability. In this tab, there are only room types, as the availability of a room type is shared across all its room rates. Enter your room Availability and select the room type/s you wish to update, and click Save
Rates tab - this is where you adjust the rate/price of your room rates. You can update the price of multiple room rates all at the same time. Enter the rate/s you wish to adjust on the provided room rate fields and click Save
Restrictions tab - this is where you adjust the restrictions of your rates. For an explanation of every type of restriction and its effects please see above section Restrictions. Enter the restriction/s you wish to adjust on the provided room rate fields and click Save