About the Inventory
You can easily update rates, stop sell rooms, and apply restrictions on your booking engine and connected channels from the Inventory tab.
Please note: If you are connected to a Property Management System(PMS) , the channel manager is receiving updates from your PMS.
It is recommended to check with your PMS provider as to which updates are being sent through.
Should you make a change directly in channel manager for a value sent from your PMS, this might result in those values not being applied correctly in the channel manager's inventory. Please do not make any manual changes for the updates your PMS provider will sent through.
Inventory Model
The channel manager's inventory model makes it easy to see and manage how a room is being sold across multiple channels. The three key components of the channel manager's inventory model are:
room types
room rates
channel rates
Room types represent the type of accommodation available to your guests. In the channel manager room types are used to manage the availability of your inventory.
Room rates are the different ways a room type can be sold. You can create a room rate by assigning a rate plan to a room. Each room rate manages the availability, pricing, and restrictions for mapped channel rates across multiple channels.
Channel rates represent the connection between a room rate and a room/rate on a connected channel.
For example, the 'Single Room' (room type) is sold as a 'Standard Rate' (room rate).
This room rate (Standard rate) is mapped to two channels (Channel A and Channel B) which are represented as channel rates.
Navigation overview
The inventory grid is where you manage the day-to-day availability, pricing, and restrictions for your property.
It is important to become familiar with the inventory grid as it is an essential part of your channel management.
Click INVENTORY at the top-left of the channel manager – the inventory grid will display automatically.
Basic navigation features of the inventory grid:
Date Picker - You can use the date picker to navigate to a specific date range
Room Rate - Click the channels drop-down view the channel rates connected to this room rate
Restrictions - Select a restriction type from the drop-down menu to view/manage restrictions
Filter/Search - Search and filter your room rates by room type, room rate name (search), and channel. Also, you can view availability only
Bulk Update - Make updates to availability, pricing, and restrictions across multiple date periods with Bulk Update
Quick Update - Click the quick update icon - a little lightning - to update a value over a specific date range
Update inventory grid
You can update the inventory for specific days directly in the inventory grid.
If you are looking to update a longer period than the 2 weeks visible in the grid or multiple date ranges, the Bulk Update will be the quicker option.
To update the inventory grid:
Find the day/s you wish to update in the date picker
Click directly in the box of the value you wish to update
Enter the value you wish to change to - the box will now display in Green
If you wish to apply this to all dates currently visible in the grid, or to other room rates, click on the blue Copy Icon that displays next to the room rate name while you are editing the rate box. See section Copy rates below
Once you have finished editing the values, click on the Save button in the upper right. Once saved, the boxes will no longer show in green and your changes have been applied
Please note: When you are updating inventory manually , you can use "reset" button to reverse any changes that haven't been saved yet.
The "reset" button will not reverse changes after you have clicked Save.
Updating restrictions
If you wish to update restrictions, you will need to have the room rate mapped to channels first, as restrictions are on channel room rates. To switch from editing rates to restrictions in the inventory tab, click on the blue "x channels" next to the room rate name. For each channel room rate, Rates in the second column will show up in blue with a downside arrow next to it. Click on the arrow to switch between restrictions.
If the field for a certain restriction shows up as "-", then this means that the channel does not take updates from the channel manager for this restriction.
Bulk update your rates, availability and restrictions
With the Bulk Update, you can quickly and easily perform extensive updates to availability, rates, and restrictions across your inventory for a chosen period of time. It features flexible date options so you can update multiple date ranges and specific weekdays over a date range.
When updating, please be aware that every channel has different update periods.
To update your inventory with the Bulk Update:
Click INVENTORY
In the upper right of the page, click Bulk Update
Select Rates/ Availability or restrictions (CTA/CTD/Min Stay/ Max Stay/ Stop Sell)from the Set drop-down
Rates - apply changes to manual rates
Availability - apply changes to room type and room rate availability
Restrictions - (CTA, CTD, Stop Sell, Min Stay, Max Stay) - apply changes to restrictions for each channel rate
Enter the values you want to update to
Specify a date range from the calendar picker
Select or deselect weekdays as required. (All days are selected by default)
Add another date range (if applicable)
Specify the room rates/channel rates you want to update:
Click a checkbox to apply updates to a specific room rate/channel rate
Click a drop-down to reveal manually managed channel rates
Room rates/channel rates without any tick box represent derived rates that are not selectable
Click Save in the bottom-right of the screen to apply the update
The Bulk Update tool will now update your inventory according to what you set up. You can view the changes in the inventory grid by navigating to the date range you selected.
Please note: When updating availability, you need to select the room type this applies to, as availability is managed on room type level. When updating rates, you need to select the specific room rate to update. Room rates that are derived from other rates will not be selectable. When updating restrictions, you need to select the room rate and the channel for which this update applies. If the channel does not take the specific restriction update from us, then this channel will not appear as an option in the Bulk Update.
Copy your rates, availability and restrictions
The copy feature allows you to copy rates, availability and restrictions to other room rates/channels across multiple dates in your inventory grid.
Please note: This action will only apply to dates visible on the grid (14 days). Dates outside the visible grid will not be affected.
If you wish to copy a channel room rate's rates/restrictions entirely to a different channel room rate, please see: Channel Manager - Copy channel rate settings
Click INVENTORY
Select the date you want to display
Click a cell to edit availability or rate, or channel rate to edit restriction
Click the COPY button
Select one of the following options based on the inventory item you want to copy
COPY ACROSS: To update multiple dates at once, copy the selected rate/availability or restriction horizontally across the inventory grid for multiple dates (14 days) for the room rate
APPLY TO OTHER: To update multiple room rates/room types at once, apply the selected rate/availability or restriction vertically down to other room types/room rates/channel rates in the inventory grid
COPY ROW TO OTHER: To update multiple room rates/room types across multiple dates at once, copy the entire row of the selected rate/availability or restriction vertically down to other room types/room rates/channel rates in the inventory grid for multiple dates (14 days) (not applicable for availability)
Click Save
All changes will be pushed to your connected channels.
Red box in the inventory grid
A red box may appear due to one of the following reasons :
Invalid Value Entered
You may have tried to enter an invalid value, like a currency symbol ($ £ € ), in a field that will only accept a numeric value.
To resolve this error check the value that you have entered and remove any unnecessary symbols.
Minimum Rate Threshold
You may have tried to enter a rate value lower than the value you specified as your 'Minimum Rate' in Setup. To resolve this error ensure that you are only entering rates that are higher than the minimum rate. Example: Error displaying for incorrect value/value below minimum rate.