Restrictions

Restrictions help you manage occupancy and revenue (RevPAR) by defining the conditions under which specific rates, room types, and/or room classes are available to sell for new reservations . For example, you could place a two-night minimum stay restriction on all rooms and rates during a weekend when demand is high, or you could set extended stay durations on certain room types and rates to ensure maximum revenue is achieved over periods of high demand.

Restrictions can be set at the house level, meaning that any restrictions placed are applicable to all rooms/room types or based on the channel, rate code, rate category, room type, or room class. You can combine restrictions to apply to more than one element; so for example, you are able to restrict reservations for a specific room type and rate code combination.

You can view existing restrictions by month, week, or day using the calendar view or in a list.

Note:

The restriction types available at your property are determined by the Restriction Types OPERA Control setting.

You can automate the setup of rate restrictions by configuring rate strategies, which are rules to automatically set restrictions for a specific date range, according to occupancy levels or number of times a rate code is sold.

Restriction Types

Open: By default, all rate categories/rate codes and room classes/room types are open. You would only set an Open restriction in order to reverse or remove an existing Closed restriction. For example, a property has closed the Discount Rate Category for July 4-6. Occupancy levels have dropped and now the property would like the Discount Rate Category to be available for sale. The property would set an Open restriction on Rate Category Discount in order to lift the closed restriction.
Closed: Rate categories/rate codes or room classes/room types are unavailable for a certain date or range of dates and will not be offered at the time of reservation. Closed rates or rooms can only be booked if the user has special user rights to override the rate availability restriction.
Open for Arrival: A reservation can be made for arrivals on the days defined for this rate category/rate code and room class/room type. By default all rates and rooms are open for arrival. The Open for Arrival restriction should be used to reverse or remove a Closed for Arrival restriction.
Closed for Arrival: No reservation can be made for arrival on the selected date.
Open for Departure: Reservations can be made for departure dates falling in this date range. By default, all rates and room are open for departure. The Open for Departure restriction should be used to reverse or remove a Closed for Departure restriction.
Closed for Departure: No reservations can be made having a departure date falling on this date or in this date range.
Minimum Stay Through: If any part of a new reservation touches the Minimum Stay Through restriction dates, it cannot include less than the minimum number of days on the stay restriction in order to be booked. For example, if a Minimum Stay Through restriction is set up on Saturday for 3 nights, a guest trying to book a reservation for Friday through Saturday would not be able to book a reservation, as it includes fewer than the minimum number of days on the Minimum Stay Through restriction. If a guest wanted to stay Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, then he would be able to book the reservation.
Maximum Stay Through: If any part of a new reservation touches the Maximum Stay Through restriction dates, it cannot exceed the maximum number of days on the stay restriction in order to be booked. For example, if a Maximum Stay Through restriction is set up on Saturday for 2 nights, a guest trying to book a reservation for Monday through Saturday would not be able to book a reservation, as it exceeds the maximum number of days on the Maximum Stay Through restriction. If a guest wanted to stay Friday and Saturday only, then he would be able to book the reservation. A guest trying to book a reservation for Saturday and Sunday would also be able to make a reservation.
Minimum Length of Stay: New reservations arriving on the date where a Minimum Length of Stay restriction is in place, must meet the minimum number of days on the Minimum Length of Stay restriction in order to be booked. For example, if you have a Minimum Length of Stay restriction on Saturday for 3 nights, a guest trying to book a new reservation for Saturday only, would not be able to book a reservation, as it does not satisfy the minimum length of stay restriction of 3 nights. If the new reservation were arriving on Saturday for 3 nights, then the reservation would be able to be booked. A guest trying to book a reservation for Friday and Saturday would also be able to book the reservation, as it does not arrive on Saturday and is not subject to the Minimum Length of Stay restriction.
Maximum Length of Stay: New reservations arriving on the date where a Maximum Length of Stay restriction is in place, cannot exceed the maximum number of days on the Maximum Length of Stay restriction in order to be booked. For example, if you have a Maximum Length of Stay restriction on Saturday for 4 nights, a guest trying to book a new reservation for Saturday through Friday, would not be able to book a reservation, as it exceeds the maximum number of days on the maximum length of stay restriction. If the new reservation were arriving on Saturday for 3 nights, then the reservation would be able to be booked. A guest trying to book a reservation for Sunday through Friday would also be able to book the reservation, as it does not arrive on Saturday and is not subject to the Maximum Length of Stay restriction.
Minimum Advance Booking: New reservations are subject to a minimum number of days booking window and cannot be booked to arrive on the date where a Minimum Advance Booking restriction is in place once the number of days before the arrival date falls below the number of days on the Minimum Advance Booking restriction. You must book for this arrival date 10 days in advance and no less. For example, if you have a Minimum Advance Booking restriction set on Saturday for 3 nights, a guest trying to book a new reservation for arrival Saturday on Friday would not be able to book the reservation, as the number of advance booking days does not satisfy the minimum number of advance days of 3 days on the Minimum Advance Booking restriction. A guest trying to book a reservation arriving Saturday on Tuesday would be able to book the reservation.
Maximum Advance Booking: New reservations are subject to a maximum number of days booking window and cannot be booked to arrive on the date where a Maximum Advance Booking restriction is in place until the number of days before the arrival date falls below the number of days on the Maximum Advance Booking restriction. You must book for this arrival date no more than 120 days in advance. For example, if you have a Maximum Advance Booking restriction set on Friday for 4 nights, a guest trying to book a new reservation for arrival Friday on Sunday would not be able to book the reservation, as the number of advance booking days exceeds the maximum number of advance days of 4 days on the Maximum Advance Booking restriction. A guest trying to book a reservation arriving Saturday on Friday would be able to the reservation.
Length of Stay Not Available (LOSNA): This option is often used instead of Minimum Length of Stay when various lengths of stay are open or closed for arrivals on the currently selected date.

When selected, seven LOS fields appear; each field represents a number of days, from 1 to 7+. (7+ indicates 7 or more nights.) Enter O (for Open) or C (for Closed) in each field to indicate whether the corresponding minimum length of stay is allowed. For example, if the following appears in the LOS fields: C C C O O O O, for reservations arriving on this date stays of 1, 2, and 3 nights are not allowed, but stays of 4, 5, 6, and 7 or more nights are allowed.

Managing Restrictions

Parent topic: Inventory