Travel Agent Allotments reserve available inventory for use by a specific Travel Agent, with options for guaranteed or non-guaranteed allocations and staged release schedules.
Overview
A Travel Agent is a business that can be added and used in RMS for reservations, Accounts Receivable, and the Corporate Portal.
Allotments are allocations of inventory that are reserved for booking by a specific Travel Agent. They are useful when you have contractual agreements with Travel Agents that guarantee a certain number of rooms will be available for them to sell. Allotments can be allocated at a Property, Category, or Area level.
Allotment Types
| Allotment Type | Description | When to Use |
|---|---|---|
| Non-Guaranteed | Inventory is earmarked for the Travel Agent but remains available for general (house) bookings. The allotment is informational and does not restrict other bookings. | When you want to track expected volume from an agent without restricting availability for other guests. |
| Guaranteed | Inventory is secured exclusively for the Travel Agent. These rooms are only available for booking by that agent until the allotment is released back to house use. | When your contract requires rooms to be held exclusively for the agent until a release date. |
| Guaranteed (Deduct) | Works like Guaranteed Allotments, but the allotted rooms are not affected by property overbooking. This means the guaranteed rooms remain available to the agent or Group even if the property is overbooked. The allotments will only be used when the agent uses them or they are released back to house use. | When you need to protect agent allocations from being consumed by property-level overbooking. |
Release Options
Release settings control when unused allotment inventory is returned to house use. There are two release methods:
| Release Method | Description |
|---|---|
| Single Release | All unsold allotment rooms are released back to house use at a single point in time, defined by the "Days Before Release" and "Days After Release" settings. |
| Multiple Release | Inventory is released back to house use in stages according to a schedule. For example, 50% of rooms might release 30 days before arrival and the remaining 50% release 14 days before arrival. This is useful for contracts with tiered release clauses. |
✎ Please Note: Multiple Release is only available when using Category Allotments. If you are using Property or Area allotments, only Single Release will be available.
⚠ Important: Allotments that are deleted from the Control Panel are also deleted from the Travel Agent profile and are not recorded on the Travel Agent profile Audit Trail.
✎ Please Note: RMS is highly configurable. Some Terminology, User Access & Permissions, Images, Labels, and Functions used in these articles may differ from your setup. CLICK HERE to find out more.
How to Set Up a Travel Agent Allotment
Prerequisites
Before configuring allotments, you must have a Travel Agent set up in RMS.
Steps
In the side menu of RMS, go to Setup > Travel Agent.
- Select Edit on the Travel Agent you want to configure allotments for.
- Navigate to the Allotment tab.
- Select the Availability option Agent/Wholesaler Allotment.
- Select Add.
- Select a Date Range for the allotment period.
Use the date picker fields to select the start and end dates for the period the allotment should cover.- Optional: Select the checkbox Set Permanently to make the allotment ongoing without an end date.
- Optional: Select the checkbox Guaranteed Allotment to secure the inventory exclusively for this Travel Agent (see Allotment Types above).
- Select the Allotment Type (Property, Category, or Area).
- Optional: Select the checkbox Do Not Sell Above Allotment to prevent bookings that would exceed the allotment quantity.
- Optional: Select the checkboxes for specific Available Days of the Week if the allotment should only apply on certain days.
- Configure the Allotment Release settings:
- For Multiple Release (Category Allotments only): Select the Multiple Release checkbox. Enter the ordinal inventory release quantity and the ordinal release period for each stage.
- For Single Release: Enter the Days Before Release (how many days before the arrival date the unsold allotment rooms are released back to house use). Enter the Days After Release (how many days after the arrival date, if applicable).
- Enter the Allotments quantity (number of rooms to allocate).
- Optional: Enter a Reporting ADR (Average Daily Rate) for reporting purposes.
- Select Save/Exit.
★ Tip: Days After Release can be used when "Set Permanently" is selected to continually roll forward the future bookable period for the allotment. For example, if "Days After Release" is set to 90, the allotment will always be available for the next 90 days from today.
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