How to Automatically Allocate Reservations to Areas Based on Allocation Priority

Overview

The Auto Area Allocation utility automatically assigns areas to reservations arriving within a selected date range. This is designed for properties using Book by Category in RMS, where reservations are created against a category (such as "Standard Room" or "Powered Site") rather than a specific area (such as "Room 101" or "Site 42"). Auto Area Allocation saves time by bulk-assigning areas based on rules you define, rather than requiring manual assignment for each reservation individually.

Use Auto Area Allocation when you need to assign areas to multiple unallocated reservations at once, such as during pre-arrival preparation, high-volume check-in periods, or daily operations where many reservations need area assignments before guests arrive.

Key Features

The following key features are available on the Auto Area Allocation utility in RMS:

• Assign areas to multiple reservations based on selected rules.
• Honour or ignore guests' preferred category or area.
• Set allocation priorities based on reservation creation, length of stay, or Owner contracts, or no contract.
• Date Filter options of Reservations Arriving Between, Reservations Arriving Within, and Reservations Arriving.

Key Terms

How It Works

When using Book by Category, an area can be assigned to a reservation at any time from when it is first created up until the guest arrives. However, an area must be assigned before the reservation can be changed to "Arrived" at check-in.

If a guest has a preferred category or area, this can be stored on their Guest Profile. When running Auto Area Allocation, you can choose whether to respect or ignore these saved preferences.

The utility gives you flexible control over which reservations are allocated and when:

• You can select a future date range and/or limit allocation to reservations arriving within a specific number of days.
• Unallocated reservations can be shown on the Booking Chart using the Booking Chart Options.

You can also control how reservations are prioritised when areas are assigned. Auto Area Allocation can prioritise by:

• Reservation creation date - Allocates in the order reservations were created in RMS.
• Length of stay - Prioritises reservations with longer stays.
• Owner contracts - Prioritises assigning areas that have Owner contracts, helping distribute Owner income fairly.
• No Contract - Prioritises reservations for areas that are not Owner-owned.

You can select multiple priority rules at once and arrange them in order to control which rule takes precedence when deciding which reservations are allocated first.

When running Auto Area Allocation over a date range, the same area can be allocated to more than one reservation, provided the reservation stay dates do not overlap. For example, if Reservation A departs on 25 March and Reservation B arrives on 25 March, both can be allocated to the same area in a single run because their dates do not conflict.

If needed, you can exclude specific categories or areas from auto-allocation. To configure exclusions, use the Category and Area setup screens in RMS. Excluded categories or areas will never be assigned automatically by the utility and will always require manual selection on a reservation.

Areas can still be manually assigned at any time:

• Directly on an individual reservation
• From the Booking Chart
• From the In/Out Movements screen

Date Filter Options

The utility provides three date filter options to control which reservations are included:

• Reservations Arriving Between - Select a specific start and end date range. Only reservations with an arrival date within this range will be included.
• Reservations Arriving Within - Specify a number of days from today. For example, selecting "7 days" will include all reservations arriving in the next 7 days.
• Reservations Arriving - Filter by a range of days from today. Use the >= and <= fields to specify how many days from today reservations must be arriving. For example, setting >= 0 and <= 7 includes all reservations arriving within the next 7 days.

User Guide

In the Side Menu of RMS, go to Utilities > Auto Area Allocation.

1. Select "Reservations Arriving Between", "Reservations Arriving Within", or "Reservations Arriving" and set the dates or days.
2. Select the checkbox for the Categories you want to include in the allocation. You can select one or more categories depending on which areas you want to assign.

3. Optional: Select the checkbox for an Area Grouping to limit allocation to areas within a specific group.
4. Optional: Select the checkbox 
   • "Ignore Preferences". When selected, the preferred category or area saved on a Guest Profile will be ignored during allocation.
   • "Include Already Allocated Reservations". Reservations with an area already assigned will be included in the displayed search results and can be re-allocated.
5. Optional: Set the Allocation Priority. Select the up ↑ or ↓ down arrows to set the Priority Order. When more than one priority is selected, the priority order determines which criteria takes precedence.
6. Select the "Search" icon to display matching reservations.
7. Select the checkbox for each reservation you want to allocate, or use "Select All" if available to select all displayed reservations.
8. Select the "Allocate Areas" icon .
9. Select the "Process" icon to confirm allocation of areas to the selected reservations.

Areas will be automatically allocated to all selected reservations using the options and priorities set.

Verifying Allocation Results

After running Auto Area Allocation, verify that areas were assigned correctly:

• Open the Booking Chart and check that previously unallocated reservations now show assigned areas.
• If a reservation was not allocated an area, check whether the category or area is excluded from auto-allocation in the Category or Area setup.
• If the wrong area was assigned, you can manually reassign the area directly on the reservation or re-run Auto Area Allocation with different priority settings.