The Allotments section is a new feature in Backyou designed for Central Desks and their hotels. It enables Central Desks to create allotment requests, and hoteliers to process them.
An allotment is a block of rooms reserved in advance by an event organizer, whose task is to market it within a certain timeframe.
Contents :
Introduction:
A Central Desk is contacted by a customer who is organizing an event and wishes to reserve a large number of rooms in order to offer them to the event's participants. The Central Desk then creates an allotment request that groups together the customer's requirements, and solicits hotels for this request. These hotels receive the request and can then process it. They have the option of offering some of their rooms, which creates a contract between the customer and the hotelier. The terms of this contract are defined and can be modified in the Allotments tab.
Central Desk view
Status :
Request status:
In progress: The request has been created, hotels have potentially been approached and have potentially responded. The request remains in “in progress” status.
Status of allotment requests (specific to each hotel):- Inactive allotment request: The allotment request is inactive from the moment the hotel is contacted until the request is activated.
- Waiting for quote: The allotment request has been activated.
- Waiting for moderation: The hotelier has made an offer.
- Allotment ready for customer approval: A proposal is awaiting approval, to be sent to the customer.
- Request for customer approval: The proposal has been sent to the customer, awaiting validation.
- Negotiation with the establishment: The proposal was not a perfect fit and you request a modification from the hotelier.
- Allotment ready for sale: The hotelier has proposed a contract which has been accepted by the customer.
- Allotment declined: Allotment cancelled after passing through “Ready for sale” status.
Create an allotment request :
To create a new allotment request > New request > Allotments.
There are 7 steps to creating an allotment request:
- Customer: Select the customer by searching for it in existing customers or by creating a new customer account, then validate.
- Manager (optional): Select the person responsible for the request from the drop-down menu. Here you can choose to notify the person responsible for the request of all exchanges linked to the request by checking the “Notify the person responsible for all exchanges linked to this request” box. It is not mandatory to define a contact person.
- General: Enter event name (mandatory), event location (mandatory), marketing dates (mandatory), event dates (mandatory and included in marketing dates), customer requirements (optional), estimated event turnover (optional) and event reference (optional).
- Accommodation and services: Enter the room types requested in the drop-down menu (optional), the services requested in the drop-down menu (optional) and the total requirements per night. To guide hotels as to the number of rooms they can offer you, you can also specify a recommendation per establishment.
- Release conditions: Enter the release calculation base, the reference base, then add the desired release conditions. The pre-filled condition is mandatory; any addition is optional.
- TFinished: You can view the request that hoteliers will receive before creating it by clicking on “Create request”.
Manage allotment requests :
Existing requests appear in the > Allotments section.
For each request, you'll find some information: the reference, name, dates and location of the event, the person responsible for the request, the customer, the stock status, the status of the request and the button that allows you to view the request in its entirety.
Clicking on the button with the open file pictogram provides all the information on the request:
At the top of each folder, you'll find the information mentioned above, as well as the button for contacting the customer by e-mail.
There are then 4 sections:
- List of establishments : This is where you'll find a list of the establishments you've contacted. For each establishment, you'll find its name, address, your contact at the hotel, the status of the stock held by the hotel, the status of the request, an exchange tab and a tab for viewing and interacting with the offer. On this page you'll also find the option of adding a new establishment, or activating all those on the list that aren't.
- Offer summary: Here you'll find a list of hoteliers' offer summaries, with the option of sorting them and viewing the details of each offer (number of rooms and price for each day).
- Orders: Feature to come
- Mini site configuration: Feature coming soon
From this area, you can request hotels, consult the progress of requests in the various hotels and process them:
- Create a proposal
- Request a modification from the hotelier
- Modify the proposal directly
- Decline the offer
- Send offer to customer
Hotelier view
Status:
- Waiting for quotation: You have received the request, but no proposal has been created.
- Waiting for moderation: The proposal is sent to the Central Desk, which must check it and decide whether it requires modification or can be sent to the customer as is.
- Request for customer approval: The Central Desk has sent the proposal to the customer for validation.
Processing allotment requests
Allotment requests appear in the Allotments tab.
For each request, you'll find some information: the reference, name, dates and hotel concerned, the person responsible for the request, the status of the request and the button that allows you to view the request in its entirety.
Clicking on this button takes you to the proposal, which must first be completed.
Create a proposal
Please note: there is no “Save” button to exit the proposal and save its contents. This action is automatic, and you can exit the proposal at any time before publishing it, without risking losing the data.
At the top of each folder, you'll find the information mentioned above, plus a button for contacting the central desk by e-mail.
You can view the allotment request to help you respond to it as effectively as possible.
You can then complete the proposal:Please note: the number of rooms in the allotment request is the total number of rooms required for the event. You can propose a partial offer.
- Activate or deactivate breakfast, and set the price.
- Set the price of tourist tax per night and per person.
- Add a product with the button
You can choose a product from the drop-down menu, then specify the price and quantity you wish to supply to the event on each date.
You also have the option of specifying the details of each product. For double rooms, you can indicate whether they can be converted into twin rooms (twinables) by ticking the corresponding box that appears when you select the product.
Tip: When you enter a product price or quantity for one day, this value is automatically carried over to all other days when this value is 0. If you wish to modify a price or quantity, and have this modification applied to all days for this product, you can use the copy button next to your value.
Once you've completed the form, you can publish your proposal. Initially, it will be sent to the Central Desk for moderation. If the proposal is acceptable to the customer, a Central Desk agent will send the proposal to the customer. If not, you will be asked to make changes.