For the privacy of the customer where the test case is set up, certain information from the screenshots is marked in black.
Booking restriction/Request/Rolling request has been introduced for accommodation types so that the bookings within a certain period or stay can be regulated on request. This can be done so that locations will have enough time to prepare themselves for the guests that visit them as it is otherwise possible that guests will create a reservation for the same day and arrive already a few hours later. The configuration of the different kinds of booking restriction options can be done in the Content Manager. These restrictions are implemented in various applications from where the creating of a reservation is possible:
- Reservation manager
- Front-office manager
- Not implemented here yet. This is scheduled for 2024.
- Web manager
- Third party API
Content Manager
You can navigate to 'Accommodation types' → select the respective accommodation type → Availability → Restrictions/Request rules:
When 'New restrictions/Request rules' is selected, it is possible to select which type of restriction you would like to add:
When the Booking restriction is configured (1 day before arrival in this example), it looks as following:
Good to know
Under 'Time zone' the respective time zone is mentioned as in the Netherlands there's a difference between Standard time and Daylight savings time. When the time zone is changed from Daylight savings time to Standard time (or the other way around), the booking restriction won't be affected. The booking restriction will be considered as per the time zone of that day.
Once the restriction has been added as days or hours before midnight, then the rules are created for accommodation types.
It's also possible to configure the booking restriction via the batch update if the booking restriction should be the same for multiple accommodation types.
First, go to 'Batch updates' → 'New Batch update' and select the respective accommodation types. For this example we selected some random accommodation types:
Afterward, the row 'Restrictions and request rules' needs to be selected. Here, the desired restriction can be:
- Updated/added
- Removed
When 'next step' is selected, the scope of the batch update will be visible:
After 'Start batch update' is selected, the batch update will be exported and a summary of the executed batch update will be shown. Here, youcan see the status of the batch update:
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The result of the batch update (either succeeded or failed) and scope of the batch update is shown in the above screenshot.
Reservation Manager
Booking restriction
When a Booking restiction has been added, the accommodation isn't bookable as usual in the Reservation Manager. Once the respective accommodation types has been chosen, a notification pops-up:
When the option 'select and book accommodation' is chosen, the notification is shown once more:
Afterward, the reservation can be confirmed as usual and doesn't need to be approved in a special way. However, it could be desirable that this reservation will be communicated to/with the respective owner/client so he/she can approve the reservation. Because of the booking restriction.
Request/Rolling requect
The Request/Rolling request statuses are working in the same way in RM. When a restriction/request rule is added for the accommodation types, then the bookings in RM are created with the status 'On Request'.
Bookings engine/Web Manager
Different kind of restrictions
Booking restriction
The availability is blocked on Bookings engine for the period for which the Booking restriction has been configured. This means that guests will not be able to book arrivals for accommodation types for which Booking restriction has been configured.
Example: a restriction has been configured as 1 days 0 hours. This means that the guests are not be able to book the respective accommodation type(s) on the day of arrival (as per the daily criteria). This is different than how it works in Reservation manager at the moment. The employee who makes the reservation via the Reservation Manager is actually able to make a reservations, but only receives the notification that there is a booking restriction on that accommodation type.
Request
This is handled on BM in a way that guests will be able to book the accommodation types but the bookings will be created with status as 'On request'.
Rolling request
This variant of the booking restriction is not handled via the Web Manager.
How the restriction is shown
There are different ways of how the configurated booking restriction/request can be shown on the Web Manager. The restrictedaccommodation type can be shown as followed:
1.The restricted accommodation type is shown in the accommodation type overview. In that case, the toggle on 'Display accommodation types with booking restrictions' is on.
This causes the following menu where the accommodation type is included on the overview:
2.The restricted accommodation type is not shown in the accommodation type overview. In that case, the toggle on 'Display accommodation types with booking restrictions' is off:
What causes the following menu where the accommodation type is excluded from the overview:
Also the moment itself when the notification is shown can be configured.
1.This can be set on the ‘book now' button:
2.It can also be shown after the customer details are filled in and the guest hits the ‘Payment' tab:
Third party API
Bookings restriction
The accommodation types having Booking restrictions when a proposal or confirm reservation request comes in, it will be checked if some restriction is active and the resulting reservation will be created with status REQUEST
Request
The accommodation types having Request rules when a proposal or confirm reservation request comes in, it will be checked if some restriction is active and the resulting reservation will be created with status REQUEST
Rolling request
The accommodation types having Booking request when a proposal or confirm reservation request comes in, it will be checked if some restriction is active and the resulting reservation will be created with status REQUEST
Connections
No availability will be shown for the accommodation types having any kind of restriction or request configuration. Only days parameters are considered and the hours are rounded off to days.