Thanks - and it was super-helpful. We changed a number of things in the availability calendar and so far properties love it.
One thing I must mention - sorry - do not want to promote here... but we launched "orphaned room functionality..." based on feedback from at least one forum member here, and a couple other properties. I find this little thing to be particularly neat. Here is the deal:
Lets say you have a 2 night min on every night of the year. Customer books Wed-thur night, then another books Sat-sun night... So now you have "orphaned" friday night. It cannot possibly be booked online because it has a 2 night min. On the phone you can waive it, but if a customer does a 1 night search, they are out of luck... this is pretty typical.
So now, if a room is orphaned like this - meaning it has a min stay but that min stay is bumped against sold out rooms on both sides - the min stay can be set to drop off so 1 night can now be booked..
Let me get this straight.
- If my system is set up that all rooms have a two-night minimum every night, and
- if a guest searches for a one-night room
- then only the orphaned rooms for the night in question will be shown as available. Correct?
If a one-night room is requested on a night with no orphaned rooms but other rooms
are available, then the system will show no availability (because only one night was requested)?
What if the minimum stay is three nights? Is a room that is only available for two nights considered orphaned? Would the system show as available only those rooms that have availability that exactly matches the request? (In other words, only show one-night only rooms for one-night requests, two-night rooms for two-night requests, etc.) Along the lines of your example, but with a three-night minimum, if a booking checks out on Friday and the next booking does not come in until Sunday then Friday and Saturday nights are orphaned. If someone requests a single night, will that room show as available? (
i.e. does the system alter the minimum-stay requirement to the next-highest-level -- three day minimum becomes two-day minimum -- or does it completely drop the minimum when it cannot be achieved?)