Dependencies

This page  explains how you can make rooms dependent on each other to sell rooms in different layouts or constellations with shared inventory

1 When to use dependencies

Rooms can be linked to be dependent on each other for the various

1. Room availability dependant on another room.
2. Include bookings from another room into this room.
3. Assign a copy of bookings in this room to another room.
4. Rates from a room can be linked with or without a price offset to other rooms.
5. A room can use the prices from another room instead of it’s own.

Setting room dependencies allows you to sell one physical room under multiple layouts. Examples are:

• Selling room as two different room types i.e. double and twin.
• Offering a holiday rental as a whole house or rent individual rooms.
• Combining two rooms for example to a suite or rent them individually.
• Having a room type on OTAs like Booking.com or Expedia, and individual listings on other channels.
• Selling a room as both a dorm or a private room.
• Selling a room only if another room is not available.

If you are linking rooms across accounts the account sending a booking to a property in another account needs to have write access to the property in which the booking should be placed.

2 Bookings

2.1 Assigning Bookings

Bookings can be assigned into the original room or directly to another room.

They can also be assigned to the first available dependency room, in this case order the dependency rooms with the preferred rooms to place bookings at the top.

Another option allows bookings to be created with a copy of the booking placed in every dependency room.

2.2 Assigning Booking Copies

There are two ways to copy bookings into additional rooms.

The generally preferred way is to use the “Include bookings from” setting. This does not create a new booking, rather it creates a “shadow” copy of the booking in the additional room which maintains any modifications to the original booking.

The alternative is the “Assign a copy” setting. This creates a new booking in the room with the values from the original booking. Once created though, it is an independent booking and modifications to the original booking will not automatically apply to the copy. Modifications will need to be manually applied to all copies.

3 Multiple Properties

Click on the ‘User’ icon on the top right and then on ‘Account Management (in the old control panel SUB ACCOUNT in the top right) then MANAGE > ACCOUNT -> MANAGE PROPERTY -> “Room Linking” to limit the visibility of inter-property and inter-account room linking for this property.

If this setting is set to PROPERTY ONLY then rooms in other properties will not be visible to this property.

If this setting allows linking to properties in other accounts, the rooms will be available for linking with the rights set in SUB ACCOUNT >> MANAGE > ACCOUNT >> MANAGE PROPERTY >> “Make Property Available in Multiple Accounts”.

Click on the ‘User’ icon on the top right and then on ‘Account Management (in the old control panel SUB ACCOUNT in the top right) then MANAGE > ACCOUNT -> MANAGE PROPERTY where “Make Property Available in Multiple Accounts” allows defining the visibility of the property in the control panel, inventory (price and availability) and bookings independently.

Only accounts owing a property can set dependencies so you will need to log into the account which owns a property if you want to set dependencies between rooms in different properties.

If you are using dependencies please test thoroughly to make sure your setup reflects your rules. If you are connecting one physical room more than once to a booking channel you are risking overbookings.

4 Examples and Use Cases

Use Case	Link to help page
You have a number of individual rooms connected to individual listings at a channel (for example Airbnb or TripadvisorRentals) and you also want to sell these rooms on Booking.com or other channels that require a “room type” with a quantity of the available rooms.	Combine rooms into a room type
You have a room type with a quantity or more than one on a channel (for example on Booking.com) and you want to showcase each room individually on your booking page.	Combine rooms into a room type
You have rooms that you sell independently or can be combined into a suite if both are available.	Combine two rooms to sell as a suite
You may have two room types and some bookings can be placed in either type if available.	Bookings can be assigned to more than one room type
You have a house which you rent as either a whole house or rent as individual rooms or apartments.	Divide a house into separately bookable units
You have a dorm which also offers a private room.	Sell room as dorm and private room
You want to sell dorms on Airbnb.	Dorms on Airbnb
You have a room which you only offer if another room is unavailable.	Sell a room only if another room is unavailable
You have a number of rooms of one type but you want to limit the number of rooms open for booking and automatically open an additional room whenever you receive a booking.	Auto Top-up rooms
You have set up individual properties but you want to showcase them under one property as well.	Combine individual properties into one property with_multiple rooms