The 'Rate and Availability' screen is intended to optimise the work with new bookings, as well as to reduce the response time for enquiries received over the phone. Using the screen to enter new bookings, you will seriously minimise the possibility of errors, while considerably speeding up the process of booking handling. You can access the screen by clicking Availability->Rate and Availability from the navigation menu.
Loading Prices and Availability
The first step to reply to an enquiry or enter a booking is to load the valid prices for the period and check the availability. At the top of screen, you will find the fields where you can enter the parameters of the specific enquiry:
- The minimum requirement is to enter the period (1) of the enquiry/booking;
- For more precise results, you can enter the number of guests (1)- they will have an impact on the price, if there are levels or guest offsets set in the rates;
- In case your pricing is differentiated and depending on the children age (1), you specify it in the respective field. If the values are more than one, separate them through a comma (5,10,12).
- Load the result by clicking 'Check Availability' (5).
Result Filtering
If you don't set filtering, the system will load all possible prices for the period of the enquiry. To get more precise results, you can use these filters:
- Room Type (8) - select the room types only in whose availability you are interested;
- Rate Plan (9) - select from which rate plans to have prices loaded;
- Favourite rates (7) - if selected, only the rates to be displayed will be the ones on the list of the preferred rates for work on the screen. You can set them up by clicking the 'Favourite rates' (10) in the top left corner.
- Available (6) - it hides all results that cannot be booked due to restrictions in the rate, a missing price or no availability;
Companies and Blocks
- Company (2) - use it in the cases when the Company has agreed prices in advance. The company selection ignores the rest of filters described above (it doesn't refer to the Available filter). The result includes only rates related to the company.
- Block (3)- use it in the cases when you need to enter a booking for a predefined Block. Blocks are always associated with a certain event or company. To select a block, first, you will need to choose the company.
- Block code (4) - use it the same way like the previous field. If you know the block code to load its products, it is not necessary to choose a company.
Product Results
As a rule, the search results are arranged by room types.
- In the row of each room type, you will see info on the number of free rooms (13) for the period;
- Depending on the number of rates you have filtered, the respective products will load under each room type;
- For each product, you will see information about:
- Rate plan and rate;
- Final price for the enquiry's whole period;
- The 'Book' button's colour indicates if the respective product is available (green button) for booking;
- If you click the price of a product, you will receive detailed information of the prices by days, guarantee policy applied, and for the products unavailable for booking due to rate restrictions, information about these restrictions will be shown;
- If the product is limited, the section will display information of the number of packages that can be booked;
- Help messages for staff (14) are available on the screen. You can call them by clicking the respective icon;
- Calendar (11) - if selected, the product results will be presented in a calendar view. It will help you see details of prices and availability by day.
- Rooms (12) - if selected, product results will be shown for each room. You can book the specific room, as this way, you will make sure that not only that there are free rooms, but that you will not need to move guests to another room during their stay.
Booking/Enquiry Creation
The final step after choosing the respective product is to complete the creation of the booking or simply add a new enquiry. Please note that all parameters you have filled in on the screen (period, number of guests, children ages, company) along with product rate and all its parameters will be filled in the booking. You can learn more about how to complete the booking or save the enquiry.