Learn how to release a room to be immediately available for booking based on the ‘booking window’, the number of days between the booking date and the check-in date.
What is Release Period?
The Release Period is a feature in Hotel Link channel manager that defines when a room is released to be immediately available for booking based on the ‘booking window’, which is the number of days between the booking date and the check-in date.
In simpler terms, this feature determines whether a room can be booked on short notice. For example, if the booking window is set to 1 day, it means the room can be booked for the following day, allowing last-minute reservations. On the other hand, if the booking window is set to 7 days, the room can be booked up to a week in advance. Adjusting this setting allows the hotel to control how far in advance guests can book a room.
How it works?
The Release Period in Hotel Link is applied at the room level. Once you set up the Release Period for a room, the system will automatically restrict the sale of the room in all connected channels based on the release rule/number.
The rooms with a release period set will appear as ‘On Request’ for booking searches outside of the release period threshold if the ‘On Request Rooms’ function in the Booking Engine is set to ‘Show’. When an ‘On Request’ booking is made, the guest has to wait for the hotelier to confirm availability.
How to set up the release period?
To set up and manage the release period, please follow the steps below:
- Navigate to Booking Engine > Rates and Availability.
- Select either 'Monthly Rate Plan Update' or 'Yearly Rate Plan Update.'
- Under 'Show Items,' select the 'Release Period' option.
- Choose the date or date range on the calendar.
- Enter the number of release period days in the ‘Change Release Period to’ field.
- Click 'Save'."
