Creating Blocks (for Events or Group Bookings)

Quite often, along with the event, you provide accommodation for the attendees as well. Since, usually, this is a large group of people taking longer to arrange, confirmation about exactly how many rooms will be needed is not immediate.

Through the Blocks section on the Main Event page, you are able to create hotel room blocks, which depending on theirs or the Events` status, may or may not affect and reduce room availability.

Furthermore, you are able to attach rates to the room blocks, in order to generate a full-price offer and attach a code allowing organizers/guests to book a room themselves from the block through the BookDirect (WRS).

Creating a Block

To create a block press the ‘Add’ button in the ‘Blocks’ section on the Event page. 

To create a block:

• select for which room type you want to create a Block

• next you will be asked to select the dates for which you want to block rooms. You have 3 options:

Flat

Automatically picks up the dates of the event and will apply the block for every day of the event for the selected room type. Once you select Flat, you will be asked to enter how many rooms you want to block and if you want to apply Cut-off days specific to this block.

Periods 

You are able to enter one or many periods for which to block rooms. Those periods need to be within the period of the whole event you have created. This option is extremely useful when applying blocks for Tour operator allotments or Tour Series. You can easily block rooms for many periods within the same block/event.

Once you select 'Periods', you will be asked to select the period(s), enter how many rooms to block for each period and set Cut-off days specific to each period.

Furthermore, you are able to copy the periods you have added and paste them in another block - e.g. when creating the blocks for another room type.

Days

You are able to block a different number of rooms for the days of the event. Once you select 'Days', you will see a list with every day of the Event.

We've added a couple of tools to help you add the blocks easier especially in case of long events:

• Date (1) and Jump to Date (2) - you can change the start date of the list
• Bulk update (3) - add the number of blocked rooms for the whole period loaded in the list.

Additional details of the Block

Apart from just creating a block and eventually converting it to a booking, the Block module also provides some more advanced features. Regardless of which of the 3 modes you used to apply a block (Flat, Periods, Days), before you finalise the Block you will be presented with the following screen:

• Name (1) - you can enter a name for the block. Used for internal information purposes only.
• Code (2) - enter a code for the block. You can provide this code to the organizer/guests and they can use it to create bookings from the block themselves through the BookDirect (WRS). Read more HERE.

• Description (3) - you can add an extra description for internal use to be visible in the row of the block itself.
• Rate (4) - select a rate allocated to the block. By selecting a rate in a block you will:
  • enable organizers/guests to book from blocks themselves on the BookDirect (WRS) in combination with the code (2)
  • have a forecast of expected revenue in the Occupancy/Revenue Forecast and Pace report.
  • be able to generate an offer that includes the pricing of the rooms
  • save time when manually converting blocks to bookings as this information will be automatically transferred to the booking.
• Manual price / Currency (5) -  if you've agreed on a specific price for the block which is not available in the rate, you can apply a manual price which will be the one used instead of the price of the selected rate.
• Adults/Children per room (6) - enter how many adults + children this room type and rate combination entails.
• Status (7) - you can change the status of the block to be 'Optional' or 'Cancelled'.

Result

Technically, this is all you need to create a block. Simply click Save and as long as the status of the block is 'Active', the respective number of rooms will be taken out of availability and reserved for this event.

You can see the blocks for each room type indicated in the Occupancy Forecast.

Cut-off days and Expiry Date

Cut-off or Expiry date are applied to automatically release unused blocks for sale. You can apply them in the 'Block' section of the Event page.

Cut-off days

With Cut-off days you essentially set a release period for all blocks. Optional.

For example: 

• Event start date: 10 March. Duration - 3 days.
• Cut-off days: 7
• On 4th of March, unused (not converted) room blocks for the 10th of March will be released.
• On 5th of March, unused (not converted) room blocks for the 11th of March will be released.
• On 6th of March, unused (not converted) room blocks for the 12th of March will be released.

Note: This sets cut-off days for all blocks for all periods. Alternatively, each block/period can have a different release period. For example, blocks for periods of high season can have a shorter release period.

Expiry date

With the expiry date a date on which any unused (not converted) room blocks will automatically be released for sale. Optional.

Additional Blocks for the same room type

Often, you may need to have two blocks for the same room type. For example, the organizer may want an offer/block for several DBL rooms at a price/rate for 2 PAX and several more at a price/rate for 1 PAX, This would mean that you need to add an additional block for the DBL with the pricing/rate/code for 1 PAX. In order to add it, follow the same procedure to add the Block and just select a different rate for it or apply a manual price.

Visualisation on the Event page 

All blocks (active and optional) will be visualised in the Blocks section of the Event page.

• If the event is 5 days (4 nights), the block pick-up table for the event will be visualised. Additionally, you can always open the block pick-up table for the event through the calendar button (1):

• If the event is longer than that, a list of the blocks will be visualised:

Additionally, you have quick links to open the Block Pick-up report (x2), create bookings or see the related to the event room bookings.

When selecting 'Related bookings', all bookings connected to the event will be listed and you can open them individually (1) or load them for Mass functions (2) (e.g. Check-in, Check-out, Cancel, etc.)

Now you know how to create blocks, apply rates and codes and more. Please make sure you also read Converting Blocks to Bookings to learn how you can convert blocks to bookings and how guest can book themselves and a further reading - Documents and Emails, to see how block information is represented in event documents (both internal and guest-facing).