Automated Gap Management
Automated Gap Management allows users to set polices that will automatically update rate restrictions as availability changes in order to manage gaps between bookings.
Automated gap management can be used to:
Minimize gaps between bookings - in order to maximize revenue.
Force gaps between bookings - for operational reasons such as to allow time for housekeeping or maintenance for large properties.
Gap Management works by specifying policies that set Closed to Arrival, Closed to Departure and Min Length of Stay restrictions on rates, and applying these to rate plans for room types for date ranges.
Restrictions set on rate plans linked to OTAs and agent systems (that support the settings used) will be propagated to these systems.
Setup
There are 2 steps to setting up gap management, setting up the policies you wish to use and applying these to rate plans / room types / date ranges.
Manage Policies
Define the gap management Policies you wish to use. Policies can be for:
Room Types with a single room (eg. a room type for a single 3 Bedroom House). 4 settings can be applied in this case.
Room Types with multiple rooms (eg. a room type with 10 x Twin rooms). 2 settings can be applied in this case.
Settings are:
Default Min Los
A number of nights, default 1.
The default minimum length of stay for the policy.
Floor Min Los
A number of nights, default 1.
The lowest minimum length of stay setting that will be applied under the policy.
Where a gap exists that is below the Default Min Los and greater than or equal to the Floor Los the Min Los set will be reduced to the length of the gap.
Forced Gap (Only applies to room types with a single room)
A number of nights, optional, default unset.
If set policy will use CTA and CTD settings to force a gap of this number of nights before and after bookings.
Prevent Gaps Shorter Than Min Los (Only applies to room types with a single room)
A checkbox, optional, default unset.
If set policy will use CTA and CTD settings to prevent bookings that would cause a gap less than the Min Los.
Apply Policies
Add rules to apply your polices to rate plans / room types / date ranges:
When applying a policy it is only possible to apply to room types with the appropriate rooms. Ie. it is only possible to apply a Single Room in Type to room types with a single room.
Notes
When availability changes or changes are made to gap management settings, updates to restrictions are not instant. This is particularly the case with the propagation of changes to linked systems.
For Room Types with multiple rooms a gap is considered to be the time period between 2 dates with zero occupancy.
Gap management rules can not be applied to rate plans that derive minimum Length of Stay from another plan.
If gap management settings are removed or changed, restrictions present on rates no longer covered by the settings will not be removed.
Gap management settings will not prevent:
Staff with Rate Restrictions Override Role from making or changing bookings ignoring these rules.
Staff making or changing bookings with manually set rates ignoring these rules.
Gap management does not prevent user edits to the restrictions on rates:
if changes are made by the user they will overwrite those made by gap management.
similarly gap management will override manual edits made by the user.
Examples: How The Settings Are Applied
Example 1 - Force Gap
A policy with Force Gap 1 applied to a date range with a booking on the July 10th:
Would cause the CTA and CTD on the linked plans to be set as:
The Closed to Departure setting on the 10th will prevent booking being made that checks out the day of the booking on the 10th forcing a 1 night gap before the booking.
The Closed to Arrival setting on the 11th will prevent booking being made that checks in the day after the booking on the 10th forcing a 1 night gap after the booking.
Example 2 - Reduce Min Loss
A policy with Default Min Los 5 and floor Min Los 2 with a booking checking out on the 15th and another checking in on the 18th:
Would cause the Min Los on the linked plans to be changed to 3 for the dates between the 2 bookings:
Example 3 - Prevent Gaps Less Than Min Los
A policy with Default Min Los 3 and Prevent Gaps Shorter Than Min Los set and a booking from the 10th to the 13th:
Would cause the CTA and CTD on the linked plans to be set as:
The Closed to Departure settings before the booking would prevent a booking that would cause a gap of less than 3 nights before the booking.
The Closed to Arrival settings after the booking would prevent a booking that would cause a gap of less than 3 nights after the booking.
Check out on 10th and check in on the 13th are possible as this would leave a zero gap.
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