Virtual rooms allow defining rooms (units) which are made up of other rooms (units). We call these other rooms Component rooms. With the virtual rooms you can diversify your products to better meet customer demand and increase your sales. They can be used as regular rooms (units) in all modules of the system: Bookings, Rates (including occupancy adaptable rates), Event blocks, Web reservation system, Digital guest portal, Channel manager, Housekeeping, Reports, and so on.
Setup
Virtual Room Types
- From the Navigation bar, select Settings->All Settings->Rooms->Room Types. Click the "+" button in the upper right corner and select 'Add Virtual Room' button;
- Enter a name for the virtual room type;
Add a line for each room that makes up the virtual room type. Examples:
- If a family room is made up of two DBL rooms, add two lines and select DBL for each of them.
- If a private room is made up of four beds, add four lines and select BED for each of them.
- If a four-bed apartment is made up of one DBL room and one two-bedded apartment (APP2), add two lines - one for DBL and one for APP2.
- A virtual room type cannot be made of another virtual room. Only standard room types can be used as components.
- 2 connecting DBL rooms can be sold separately or as a FAM (family) room. DBL is a standard room type, FAM is a virtual one.
- 4 beds in a single room can be sold separately or as a Private room. BED is a standard unit type, PRIVATE is a virtual one.
- 2 floors of a villa can be sold separately or together, as a villa. The FLOOR is a standard unit type, VILLA is a virtual one.
Virtual rooms
To create your virtual rooms:
- From the Navigation bar, select Settings->All Settings->Rooms->Rooms. Click the "+" button in the upper right corner and select the 'Add Virtual Room' button;
- Select the virtual type of your new virtual room;
- Fill in the fields as for a regular room;
- For each of component row, select the respective component room. The number of rows is defined in the virtual type settings.
- One standard room can be used as part of only one virtual room. For example: if 101 (standard DBL room) is used as part of a virtual FAM room, 101 can't be used for any other virtual room.
- Be careful! The components of a virtual room are defined only once, when it is created. After it has been saved, it cannot be changed. If you find an error in the room type or in its components, you can delete the virtual room or – if deleting is not allowed, remove the room from bookings.
How Virtual rooms work
When you define the virtual room types and rooms, they get their own capacity. It increases the capacity of the property like regular rooms would. When a Virtual room type is booked, the system automatically (indirectly) books the respective number of rooms of the Component type. The Occupancy forecast shows the component room types, which are booked indirectly, in the total number of Bookings. They are also shown separately in the row called “From Virtual Room”, i.e. these are bookings resulting from a booked virtual type.
When a Component room type is booked separately, the occupancy only shows that if the availability of the component type is lower than what is needed for the virtual rooms.
Example:You have 6 DBL and 2 FAM rooms. Each FAM is made up of 2 DBL.
- If you sell one DBL, the FAM availability will not change, because for the 2 FAM you need at least 4 DBL.
- If you sell 3 or more DBL, the FAM availability will be reduced. The reduction of the availability of virtual rooms (FAM) resulting from the sales of component ones (DBL) is shown in the row called “Constraint” in the Availability forecast.
- When specific component rooms are booked, the virtual room they make up is booked indirectly as well. The indirect bookings of virtual rooms are shown in section “Used as component” in the Occupancy forecast, and cross-hatched in the Room calendar.
- When a component room is stopped for sale (OOS), the virtual one that uses it is stopped as well. When a virtual room is stopped for sale (OOS), its components are also stopped.
Virtual Rooms and Blocks in Occupancy Forecast
Virtual room type blocks are reflected in two places in the Occupancy forecast: in the Blocked section of the virtual type and in the Blocked section of the component type, where they are marked as 'From Virtual Room'.
Component room type blocks can be seen in section “Blocked” of the component room type and - if the available component rooms left are fewer than what are needed for the virtual ones, in the 'Constraint' section of the virtual type.
