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About Hospitality Assets

An asset is a physical instance of a product that is tracked in a centralized database and associated with an individual property. Required items for an event are reserved using automated booking for critical resources and one-click booking for noncritical resources.

Unlike function space products and room block products, catering products are booked as assets. When an end user tries to reserve a product, the user is actually reserving assets, not catering products.

Multiple assets can be associated with a single product. For example, the user might create a product record called Piano with the following assets:

• Yamaha Piano at San Mateo property, Serial # 7896-0987
• Wurlitzer Piano at San Jose property, Serial # Z765-9876

NOTE:  An asset cannot be created unless a product for that asset has already been defined.

Each catering product is classified by resource type. The three types of resource types are:

• Critical. A critical product is any resource that is critical to the event; very few products are defined as critical. If, for example, there is only one grand piano for the entire property, the piano might be designated as a critical product. A critical product must be booked.
• Non-Critical. A non-critical product is defined as any resource that is generally available in sufficient quantities at the property, but must be reserved. An example is a projector.
• General. General products are common resources that are not difficult to replenish and do not require booking. Examples include tables and chairs, which are available in sufficient quantities at the property and do not need to be booked.

In a typical asset record, the Product field shows the centralized product definition. The Property field shows the property with which the asset is associated. The asset Description field allows the asset description to be customized by property. The Ownership field shows rental and leased assets tracked by owner.

Automatic Reservation of Critical Assets

Critical resources are automatically reserved after the user creates a new Function line item or changes the line item quantity and saves the record. Critical resources also are reserved when a Function line item for a critical asset is copied or when the service start time is changed. If booking is unsuccessful for a critical resource, the status is changed to Not Available or Not Enough Assets.

If changes are made to the function, such as a status change or a time change, then the asset inventory booking process is automatically launched.

AutoBook and Non-Critical Assets

Non-Critical assets are reserved using the AutoBook functionality. When launched, the AutoBook process attempts to book all line items listed for the function at the property where the event is being held for the specified function time. The AutoBook process reserves the first available listed assets that meet the line item's quantity and time period specifications.

Using AutoBook, event and operations managers can first enter all the applicable non-critical Function line items and then click AutoBook to reserve all of the line items at one time.

After the initial entry, if line items are added or quantities changed, only line item changes are processed for that function. If the user deletes line items, then the item is automatically unbooked.

AutoBook can also be used in some instances to reserve critical resources. For example, the user might change the function time or service time and, as a result, the critical asset that is booked becomes unbooked. In this case the user can then rebook the critical asset by clicking AutoBook.

Double-Booking and the Availability Gantt Chart View

In some cases, a particular asset at a property is requested for more than one function scheduled for the same time. The first booking request successfully reserves the asset. An additional booking request fails to reserve the asset. If the inventory status for the desired item is Not Available, the user can choose to double-book the asset.

When the Double Book button is clicked, a time-specific request is created for the asset. A double-book request does not, however, automatically result in an asset reservation for the second requestor if the first request is cancelled. The user still has to select the Auto Book button for the change to be reflected at the line item level. In addition, there is no limit on the number of times an asset may be double-booked.

NOTE:  Only critical and non-critical products may be double-booked.

When an asset is double-booked, the Inventory Status for the line item changes to Double Booked. In the Function Line Item Availability view, the Gantt chart shows two bars that represents the bookings, with the double-booked asset displayed in a different color. The Gantt chart shows the times for which individual assets are reserved or double-booked and the identities of the users who have booked or double-booked those assets. This information can be useful if the second requestor wants to negotiate with the first requestor to determine whether or not the double-booked asset can be shared between the conflicting functions.

Table 10 describes the status values that occur when booking assets.