How does shared inventory work?

Calendar View & Shared Inventory

When the shared inventory feature is activated, and the room setup and linkage are finalised, the system will automatically create blocks ( or connecting blocks) in the virtual units corresponding to existing reservations in the linked physical rooms.

Automatic Block Creation:

• Manual Updates: If a new reservation or blocked date is manually added to a physical room linked with a virtual room, the system will automatically create a corresponding block in the virtual unit to prevent overbooking.
• External Updates: The same process occurs when reservations come in from external sources such as API, IBE, Booking.com, or Expedia. A corresponding block will automatically appear in the linked virtual unit.
• Reverse Process: If a virtual room type is booked through any of the above-mentioned platforms, the system will automatically create corresponding blocks in the linked physical rooms.

Example:

In the provided screenshots:

• Physical rooms Connecting Superior Double, Connecting Superior Triple, and Connecting Superior Twin are mapped to the virtual room Connecting, which is linked to the Connecting virtual room type.
• When a reservation is allocated to the Connecting virtual room type, the corresponding physical rooms will be automatically blocked.

Restrictions:

• These automatically created blocks cannot be deleted or moved, either from the virtual units or from the physical units.
• Each block will always display the corresponding reservation ID as a comment.

Handling Reservations in a Shared Inventory Linkage

1. Moving Reservations Between Linked Physical Rooms
   • When a reservation allocated to a physical room is moved to another physical room that is part of the same shared inventory linkage, the corresponding blocks in the virtual unit will automatically follow the change.
2. Moving Reservations to Non-Linked Rooms
   • If a reservation allocated in a virtual room is moved to a physical room that is not part of the shared inventory linkage, the corresponding blocks will be automatically deleted.
3. Deleting or Changing Reservation Status
   • If a reservation within a shared inventory linkage is deleted, canceled, or marked as a no-show, the corresponding blocks will automatically be removed from all affected units.
   • This behavior works both ways: changes in the physical or virtual room trigger corresponding updates.
4. Splitting Reservations
   • Virtual Unit Splits: If a reservation in a virtual unit is split, the corresponding blocks in the linked physical rooms will also be split accordingly.
   • Physical Room Splits: If a reservation in a physical room that is part of the shared inventory linkage is split, the corresponding block in the virtual unit will remain intact until the split reservation is moved to a different unit. At that point, the corresponding block in the virtual unit will be split and adjusted to reflect the new allocation.
5. Group Reservations
   • For group reservations, when member bookings are allocated to physical units that are part of a shared inventory linkage, the corresponding block's comment will display all the member reservation IDs.

Shared Inventory on the Reservation & Group Page

For reservations and group reservations allocated to a virtual unit, a new section called "Shared Inventory Details" will appear on the detailed page, below the Reservation Details or Group Details section:

Purpose of the Shared Inventory Details Section:

1. Display the Original Guest Profile Distribution
   • This section shows how the system initially distributed the guest profiles when the reservation or group reservation was created.
   • Important Note: The guest profile distribution follows the "next available" rule and is independent of the occupancy settings of the physical units. For example, if a reservation or group reservation is made for 6 guests, the system assigns these profiles one by one to available units until all profiles are allocated.
2. Enable Users the Modification of Guest Arrangements
   • Users can adjust the arrangement of guest profiles based on their preferences by clicking the Edit button next to the Physical Room Arrangement title.

Editing Guest Arrangements:

• Clicking Edit opens a popup window where users can rearrange guest profiles between physical rooms.

  • Blue: Indicates the original arrangement.
  • Yellow: Highlights modified guest profiles whose original locations have been changed.

    Color Indicators:

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• After making changes, clicking OK prompts a final confirmation popup summarizing the modifications:

Special Rules for Hungarian Users:

• If the company is based in Hungary (Company Country = Hungary), the system does not allow physical units to be left empty or without allocated guest profiles due to NTAK synchronization requirements.
• A warning message will alert the user if they attempt to leave any units empty:

Logging Changes:

• Any changes made to the guest profile arrangement are logged in the Change Log for easy tracking and auditing.

Important Notes About the Shared Inventory Section on the Reservation Page

1. Accompanied Guest Profiles
   • If the reservation includes "Accompanied Guest" profiles, these will be automatically allocated to physical units, primarily due to NTAK synchronization requirements.
   • If the accompanied guest profile is updated with real guest data, this will also be reflected in the Shared Inventory Details section.
2. Removing Guest Profiles
   • Removing a guest profile in the Guest Details section will also affect the Shared Inventory section. The removed guest profile will no longer appear there.
3. Applicability of the Shared Inventory Section
   • The Shared Inventory section is added to the reservation page for both individual and group reservations allocated to a virtual room.
   • However, reservations originally created for non-virtual room types will not have a Shared Inventorysection.
4. Moving to a Virtual Room Type
   • If a reservation originally placed in a non-virtual room type is later moved to a virtual room type, the Shared Inventory section will automatically appear on the reservation page.
5. Splitting Reservations
   • When splitting a reservation (individual or group) allocated to a virtual room type, the Shared Inventorysection will display the connected physical units. Users can move guest profiles between these units.
   • However, if the split parts of the reservation remain in their original locations and are not moved, rearranging guest profiles in the Shared Inventory section becomes unnecessary.

Shared inventory & NTAK:

In terms of NTAK synchronisation, the reservations that are allocated in a connecting / virtual unit are handled as group reservations.

To see how Shared Inventory impacts Reports, click on this help article.

To see how Shared Inventory impacts Housekeeping (HK) Planning and HK Application, click on this help article.

To see how Shared Inventory impacts your Internet Booking Engine reservations, click on this help article.