Sell multiple packages based on the same room

[markkinchin]

There are new settings on the Room >> Advanced settings page specifying how rooms are available and bookings are to be assigned.

Rooms can optionally be set to be available only if one or two other rooms are available. When two other rooms must be available they can be set to logic AND (both must be available) or logic OR (at least one must be available).
Additionally the room can be assigned to place it's web generated bookings into a different room. Using these settings "rooms" can now be treated as virtual and packages created based on availability of other rooms.

There are many possibilities of using these settings to create special packages, here is a simple example:

You choose to offer a last minute special which is only available 48 hours before arrival to fill empty rooms, these bookings have a limited service level compared to normal bookings.
To do this create a new room describing the offer and set it to only be available if the main room is available. Also set it to assign bookings to the main room.
Create a rate with your special price for the last minute room that is only available 2 days in advance, you may also want to set special deposit conditions etc. for these bookings.
Now you will be selling 2 virtual rooms (but really the same underlying room) with different conditions.

[markkinchin]

There are further options in the room advanced settings which make this even more flexible and powerful.

Rooms requiring other rooms to be available works in a chain so room 3 could depend on rooms 1 and 2 while room 5 depends on rooms 3 and 4 being available. (This means room 5 really depends on rooms 1, 2, 3 and 4)
By chaining together rooms you should be able to create almost any combination of dependency logic.

The sell priority setting can be set to zero which means the room is hidden from the guest. This way virtual rooms can be created to handle internal availability logic while not being directly bookable by a guest.

Additionally there is now the provision to allocate the booking to any room in the property and create a copy of the booking in a second room.
This allows easily blocking two rooms with one booking, as well as any other rooms that were dependent on these two rooms being available.

The purpose of all this is that you can create packages that are available when certain combinations of rooms (virtual or real) are available.

[Epicea_old]

I think that's broken something. We can't access the calendar anymore and we're seeing many error messages like these :

An error has occured: room dependancies cannot be calculated. This can occur if two or more rooms are dependent on another in a circular manner. Please check the room advanced settings.

That's from trying to save a connecting room we had setup, there's no settings that allow that to be saved.

[amberbb]

... further options in the room advanced settings which make this even more flexible and powerful. ...Rooms requiring other rooms to be available works in a chain...

I can see that this is potentially a very potent enhancement.

I've just begun experimenting with chaining 2 intermediate virtual rooms to implement an en-suite room type dependent on only one of 2 x 2 = 4 actual rooms being available.

I've made both their sell priority settings zero and this successfully hides them from Web customers.
However, a cosmetic tweek would be to have a toggle to also hide their appearance in the Calendar> Table from front desk staff who might be confused.

I'm sorry to report one wee bug:

Additionally there is now the provision to allocate the booking to any room in the property and create a copy of the booking in a second room.
This allows easily blocking two rooms with one booking, as well as any other rooms that were dependent on these two rooms being available.

I made a test booking on the web for our Balcony Suite 2 (booking 29279) after setting the Balcony Suite to be dependent on the Blue Room being available. I also set the Balcony Suite to create a copy booking in the Blue Room for Web bookings - and I think it is important to emphasise in the help file that NO copy booking will be made if the booking is NOT made via the web.

Automagically a copy booking (booking 29280) was correctly created for the Blue Room.
Unfortunately, if I now look at my Blue Room calendar or attempt to make a web booking, the BLUE Room is still showing available for the dates of the copy booking (booking 29280).

10 minutes later: Availability for the Blue Room has now updated - what would you expect the typical propagation delay to be for these copy bookings, please?

[markkinchin]

The teething problems should be sorted now, do let me know if there are any more.

When you have a linked room that changes to unavailable because the linked room changed status there can be a delay before it shows in the calendar as unavailable, I am working on speeding this up.
In any case the room will not be able to be booked by a guest if it is not available even if it is still showing as available in the calendar. Once the booking process begins a check is made and will report the room as unavailable.

[amberbb]

...there can be a delay before it shows in the calendar as unavailable, I am working on speeding this up. In any case the room will not be able to be booked by a guest if it is not available even if it is still showing as available in the calendar.

Prevention of double bookings is the main thing, it doesn't matter too much if the update of the calendars, etc suffers a wee delay.

Thanks again for a terrific enhancement!

[Epicea_old]

The teething problems should be sorted now, do let me know if there are any more.

When you have a linked room that changes to unavailable because the linked room changed status there can be a delay before it shows in the calendar as unavailable, I am working on speeding this up.
In any case the room will not be able to be booked by a guest if it is not available even if it is still showing as available in the calendar. Once the booking process begins a check is made and will report the room as unavailable.

I'm afraid there is. Our rooms are showing as unavailable on days where they are available and unrestricted. I can't see a pattern to it and it's not purely for rooms that are part of a dependency.

[Epicea_old]

I'm afraid there is. Our rooms are showing as unavailable on days where they are available and unrestricted. I can't see a pattern to it and it's not purely for rooms that are part of a dependency.

Actually, I do see the pattern now. Rooms without any availability dependencies have acquired one. For example one of the rooms was set to available on itself AND NULL which resolved in the boolean manner you'd expect.

[amberbb]

Rooms without any availability dependencies have acquired one.

Yes, that's been our experience too - so I would personally advise everyone to individually double check ALL the advanced properties of EACH of their rooms after a major update and enhancement like this one.

Now that you have corrected any introduced and irrelevant room dependencies, is everything back to normal for you, Epicea?

[markkinchin]

Can you tell me what the settings are that cause the problem?
I will test and correct them at the system level so everyone does not need to check every room.