FAQ - What do Non-Elastic, Elastic, Sell Limits, and Shoulder Dates in Inventory Control mean?

PARAMETERS

BLOCKS

Group Level Settings

Elastic Block [ELASTIC_BLOCK]
Activate Elastic Block Functionality

Shoulder Dates [SHOULDER_DATES]
Use booking Shoulder dates

Maximum Shoulder Days [MAX_SHOULDER_DAYS]
Maximum number of days a block can arrive early or check out later

Non-Elastic, Elastic, Sell Limits, and Shoulder Dates settings allow you to control if block reservations can be made beyond the allotted number of rooms and/or beyond the number of days outside of the block's core (start and end) dates.

Elastic means that the block can be "stretched" to accommodate reservation demand, having the ability to pick up more than the block's allotted rooms and to book outside of the block's core dates. Shoulder dates can be used in conjunction with Elastic to set restrictions on how many days outside of the block's core dates that reservations can be booked (See Shoulder Dates below).

(Blocks > Shoulder Dates parameter; Blocks > Shoulder Dates > Maximum Shoulder Days parameter)

Shoulder Dates are available with both Elastic and Sell Limit options. Shoulder Dates define a period of time before and/or after the block core dates where reservations can be made against the block during the reservation pickup process. Different rates can be set for the shoulder start period and the shoulder end period.

The Blocks > Shoulder Dates > Maximum Shoulder Days group level setting allows you to restrict the number of shoulder days to a maximum number before and after the block's core dates.

With Sell Limits you can specify a maximum number of rooms that can be borrowed from house availability for the block beyond the allotted number of rooms or room types. Shoulder dates can also be used in conjunction with Sell Limits to set restrictions on how many days outside of the block's core dates that reservations can be booked (See Shoulder Dates above). Sell limits can be set separately for core dates and for shoulder periods.

Blocks that are ELASTIC but have NO SHOULDER DATES defined are considered to be without pre and post date limits and reservation pick-up is possible for any dates as long as those dates overlap the core block dates.

Blocks that are ELASTIC and HAVE SHOULDER DATES defined will use these shoulder dates as the date limits for reservation pick-up.

NON-ELASTIC blocks can not have shoulder dates defined - the core dates are considered the block date limits.

What to expect while performing a Borrow Operation

the room type quantity borrowed from will be reduced and the room type receiving the borrow is increased.
The number of rooms borrowed for a particular date equals the difference between the number of rooms available and the number of rooms requested
Only one Room Type per stay date can be selected.
Rooms may be “Borrowed From” available block rooms or from the House availability (if your block is elastic or up to the block's sell limit).
Borrowing More rooms than are available will result in an OVERBOOK prompt.

What to expect after performing a Borrow Operation

If the borrow operation is complete yet the reservation is still in Book Now screen or in the Trip Composer, the following actions will return the borrowed inventory to the original “borrowed from” room types.

Closing the Book Now screen WITHOUT making a reservation
Selecting CLOSE to return to the Available Block Rooms Grid
Selecting End Call before completing the Trip Composer process
Selecting the Remove link while the reservation is in the Trip Composer
Selecting Close in the Book Now screen before the reservation has been completed

When the Reservation is completed, the application does not retain the sources of rooms used during the borrow functionality.

The following actions will return the rooms to the same room type for which the reservation was made:

Change Stay Details (Block to Transient or Block to Block including extending dates)
Shares (Removing Block Guest from a block to Transient or to another Block)
Cancellation of Block Reservations.

(The determination on whether the returned room goes to the BLOCK or back to HOUSE in that Room Type will be dependent on the RETURN BLOCK TO HOUSE parameter which will return these rooms to house if the setting is Y.)