1. General info about the topic
---- Definition/What it does
The definition of allotment refers to something that has been given out in portions. In the hospitality sector, allotment is used to give third parties a part of the total availability of the accommodations. For example: an accommodation type does have 20 units. When there is an agreement with a third party that this party does have the security to be able to book 5 of these units, it is called that this party has an allotment of 5 units. Very often this party will operate as a touroperator.
- Where to be found/configured in Newyse/MXTS
Allotments are part of the Distribution Channel (DC) module. A few tabs are implemented to enable the configuration and release.
In Newyse, per DC it has to be chosen if bookings through this DC should be made from allotment or not. There are 3 options available on the General tab:
- Book only without allotment => bookings on this DC will use the total availability, except for that used for allotments added for other DC's.
- Book only from allotment => bookings on this DC will use the allotment that has been added for this DC. When there's no allotment available, because it hasn't been added or it has already been used, it won't be possible to make a booking.
- Book from and without allotment => bookings on this DC will first use the allotment that has been added for this DC. When there's no allotment available, because it hasn't been added or it has already been used, it though will be possible to make a booking from total availability, except for that used for allotments added for other DC's.
Allotment is visible on the planning chart in Newyse:
When allotment is used to make a booking, it will be gone from type level and a booking will be added on the DC and unit. The colour given to the Reservation Category usually shows the bookings made from allotment, but that's dependent on the configuration.
On the Allotments tab in the Planning chart module, the number of Total, Booked and Free allotments is shown and with Show/Hide details, it can be chosen to see the numbers only in Total or also per DC.
Allotment can be added on type level and on specific accommodations (units).
On the Allotment tab in de DC module, new allotment can be added. The allotment type can be normal or guaranteed. Usually it will be normal, only when the third party agreed on paying for all units and periods set in allotment, despite if they are booked or not, guaranteed should be chosen.
The accommodation type has to be chosen for which the allotment is valid for and the checkbox "Select specific units for this allotment" should be selected when the allotment should be fixed on specific accommodations (units).
It can be specified with how many the limit for the allotment might be exceeded. This could be done when the risk will be taken to overbook the allotment.
The price of the allotment per day can be added. This is meant for reporting purposes in case the allotment is guaranteed, so the allotment could already be reported as turnover in the reporting.
The allotment can be added in the Allotment configuration part of the Allotment tab. Through "Update" allotment can be added or removed.
In the Allotment configuration/Period definitions it is shown what allotment has been configured.
Allotments can be released kind automatically. This means, that it can be configured when allotment should be released (not being available any more). To activate the release of the allotments, someone has to click on the button or a script should be running checking all allotment configurations on a frequently base.
On the tab Release Allotments the release configuration can be added.
- A name can be given to the release rule
- A resort can be selected
- An accommodation type can be selected
- A valid from and to date can be added
- The release can be configured X days before arrival OR
- The release can be configured on a fixed date
- Example(s)
See above screenshots.
2. Most common questions/issues and of course the solution per issue
Numbers on Planning chart/Allotments tab doesn't seem to be related or correct:
In some situations the numbers shown on the Allotments tab are not as expected. An explanation based on an example of Chalet 6B on 3-6:
- Type total: 64 => all units on the planning chart.
- Reserved: 35 => all units where a reservation has been made for, including the reservations made from allotment.
- Locked: 0 => number of units where a lock is active.
- Reservable: 26 => number of available units - number of free allotments. In this example there are 29 units without a reservation or lock and there are 3 free allotments on type level.
- Allotments Total: 15 => number of configured allotments, independent of releases. In this example there are 3 free allotments left and there is only 1 booking made from allotment. Although the Total is 15.
- Allotments Booked: 1 => the number of units having a reservation booked from allotment.
- Allotments free: 3 => allotments which are bookable for the specific DC's and which haven't been release so far.
3. What is required for Maxxton to resolve the issue
N/a