This article explains how to set up and use Area Allocation Suggestion, an Owner Accounting option that ranks the available Areas so revenue or Area nights are spread fairly between owners.

Overview

Area Allocation Suggestion is a feature in RMS that helps staff make informed decisions when manually assigning an Area to a reservation. Rather than relying on staff knowledge alone, the system ranks available Areas based on revenue or Area-night criteria you define, presenting the best option at the top of the selection list.

Area Allocation Suggestion helps properties distribute occupancy and revenue fairly across all Areas, particularly when managing Owner Contracts where fair income distribution between owners matters. Area Allocation Suggestion is set per property on the Owner Accounting Options screen.

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 It Works

When a User assigns an Area to a reservation, Area Allocation Suggestion ranks the available Areas based on the method selected on the Owner Accounting Options screen.

Areas with the least revenue or the fewest Area nights over the chosen period are listed first, so occupancy is steered towards the Areas that have earned the least. Areas are ranked within the Category being booked, and Areas with equal figures are listed in Area name order.

The period used for the ranking is based on the reservation's arrival date. It can be the month or calendar year the arrival date falls in, the financial year, or a set number of days before and after the arrival date.

Only Areas with a current Owner Contract on the arrival date are ranked. Areas without a current Owner Contract are listed after the ranked Areas, in Area name order.

Area Allocation Suggestion only changes the order of the list of available Areas offered when an Area is assigned to a reservation. Staff can still select any available Area. The suggested order is not used on the Booking Chart, for online bookings and channel connections, or by the Auto Area Allocation utility.

Prerequisites

• The Owner Accounting module must be active. Area Allocation Suggestion is set on the Owner Accounting Options screen, which is only available on properties that use Owner Accounting.
• Areas must have a current Owner Contract to be ranked.

Setting Up Area Allocation Suggestion

Area Allocation Suggestion is set up in the Options section of the Owner Accounting Options screen, separately for each property.

In the side menu of RMS, go to Setup > Accounting > Owner Accounting Options.

1. Select the property in the property selector at the top of the screen.
2. Select Options.
3. In the Area Allocation Suggestion section, select a Method:
   • (Not Used) - Area Allocation Suggestion is turned off and Areas are listed in their usual order.
   • Revenue By Current Month, Revenue By Calendar Year or Revenue By Financial Year - Areas are ranked by the revenue they earned in the month, calendar year or financial year of the reservation's arrival date. Areas with less revenue are suggested first.
   • Revenue By No of Days - Areas are ranked by the revenue they earned over a set number of days before and after the reservation's arrival date.
   • Area Nights By Current Month, Area Nights By Calendar Year or Area Nights By Financial Year - Areas are ranked by the number of nights they were booked in the month, calendar year or financial year of the reservation's arrival date. Areas with fewer Area nights are suggested first.
   • Area Nights No of Days - Areas are ranked by the number of nights they were booked over a set number of days before and after the reservation's arrival date.
4. If you selected Revenue By No of Days or Area Nights No of Days, enter the number of days in the Before and After fields. These define how many days before and after the reservation arrival date the system uses when calculating the Area's revenue or Area nights.
   • For example, entering 30 in both fields means the system looks at each Area's revenue or Area nights from 30 days before to 30 days after the reservation arrival date.
5. If you selected a Revenue method, select where revenue is taken from in Include statistics from:
   • Tariff Posted - Revenue is taken from the charges posted to the Area's reservations during the period.
   • Base Tariff - Revenue is the rate and package value of the Area's reservations that depart during the period, whether or not it has been posted.
6. Use the tick boxes to include or exclude specific reservation types from the calculation:
   • Include Owner Stays - When ticked, owner stays are included in the revenue or Area-night figures used to rank Areas. When not ticked, owner stays are left out.
   • Include FOC Bookings - When ticked, free-of-charge (FOC) reservations are included in the calculation. A reservation counts as FOC when its Rate Type belongs to the Complimentary Use Grouping on the Accounting Options Reporting tab.
7. Select Save.

Please Note! The Before and After fields only appear when Revenue By No of Days or Area Nights No of Days is selected, and Include statistics from only appears for the Revenue methods.

Using Area Allocation Suggestion

Once configured, Area Allocation Suggestion works automatically whenever a staff member assigns an Area to a reservation manually.

1. Open a reservation that needs an Area assigned.
2. Select the Area assignment field on the reservation.
3. The system displays available Areas ranked in order of suggestion. The Area ranked first is the one with the lowest revenue or fewest Area nights over the configured period - this is the recommended choice.
4. Select an Area from the list.
5. Save the reservation.

Selecting an Area other than the first suggestion does not need a reason. The suggestion only sets the order of the list.

Tip! To check how evenly revenue or Area nights have been spread across Areas, run the Room Allocation Distribution report in Reports > Owner Accounting.

Related Articles

• Auto Area Allocation
• Category
• Area
• Set up a new owned area