Mapping Units to your Room Types

PMS users only

In order for your iBex system to allocate any bookings to specific units, you must assign your individual units to their appropriate room types. This is known as mapping the units to a room type and once complete, will allow iBex to automatically assign the appropriate unit to the booking when a customer books their required room type online.
It also enables iBex to provide users with a list of available units within that room type when you are manually adding a booking into the system.

When mapping your units to a room type, you also set the order in which those units get allocated to bookings so any units with better characteristics (for example, better views, less noise) can be set to be allocated first, and any units that are not so popular (or can be sold as a better alternative - see below), could be allocated last.

When adding a new room type to your iBex system you will be prompted to assign units to that room type and the order that you want them allocated in (as shown in the instructions).
If you want to change the order in which units are allocated to your bookings (for example, because a mattress is worn) or amend which units should be allocated for each room type (for example, because one room has been refurbished so is now a different room type), you easily can.

Tip - An advanced feature of iBex is that you can map the same unit to multiple room types. This means that the same unit has the potential to be booked not only as it's preferred room type but also as another, which in essence, increases the number of options for your customers to book. This can maximise your booking potential and is illustrated in 2 different examples below.

Instructions:

  1. Select Search Room Types in the Property Maintenance section in the menu
  2. Click on the ID of the room type that you want to change the unit mapping for
  3. Go into the Unit Mappings tab
    Tip - If you want all your room types listed, have the 'Show all room types' option ticked. If you just want to work with the room type that you are in, have it unticked. If you want to change to another room type so that you can just work on that one, select it from the Jump To: drop down option in the top right of the screen.
  4. Amend the order by changing the number in the cell that represents the unit and room type that you want to change
    Numbers must be from 1 upwards with 1 being the first to be allocated. If two units have the same number then both of those units will be assigned to the same booking so take time to ensure that no two units have the same number (unless you are selling them as a secondary room type - see example 2 below).
  5. Click Save Mappings

Example 1 - Maximising your booking potential

Property X has 6 units - 3 Standard Rooms (units 1, 2 and 3) and 3 Deluxe Rooms (units 4, 5 and 6).
Units 1, 2 and 3 are mapped to the room type Standard Room
Units 4, 5 and 6 are mapped to the room type Deluxe Room

You can set your preference of which unit within each room type is allocated to a booking first. In this example we will set them to be allocated as their numbers indicate so if a customer was to book a Standard Room online, unit 1 would be the first to be allocated. If this was already booked, unit 2 would be allocated. If both units 1 and 2 were already booked, unit 3 would be allocated. The same applies for the Deluxe Room meaning unit 4 would be the first to be allocated, followed by unit 5 and then unit 6.

Say if all 3 Standard Rooms and 1 Deluxe Room were booked, the customer would only have the option of booking a Deluxe Room.

However, you could map one of the Deluxe Room units (say unit 6) not only to the appropriate room type Deluxe Room but also as a Standard Room. This would then mean that you have 4 Standard Rooms and 3 Deluxe Rooms for sale.

If you set unit 6 to be the last unit to be assigned to a booking for both options (ie. as the fourth unit to be allocated for a Standard Room and the third unit to be allocated for a Deluxe Room), this would then provide your customer with another option to make a booking.

In the example above you would obviously want unit 6 to be booked as the Deluxe Room as it would generate you more revenue. If you want the option of selling it as a Standard Room but want more control over whether or not it can be booked as the cheaper option, you can set an On Request Threshold for the Standard Room so that the last unit mapped to this room type (ie unit 6) can only be requested by your customer. The request will appear in your iBex system (and you will be notified by email) so that you can decide either to Confirm or Reject the requested booking. It also provides you with the opportunity to contact the customer and discuss their requirements further if necessary.

Example 2 - Using Virtual room types where the same unit can be booked as different options.

Property X has 6 units - 3 Standard Rooms (units 1, 2 and 3), 3 Deluxe Rooms (units 4, 5 and 6), and 1 Family Room (units 1 and 2 together).

Since the beds in the Standard rooms can be split into 2 singles, units 1, 2, and 3 can be booked as a Standard Double room or a Standard Twin room.

Units 1, 2 and 3 are mapped to the room type Standard Double Room
Units 1, 2 and 3 are mapped to the room type Standard Twin Room
Units 4, 5 and 6 are mapped to the room type Deluxe Room
Units 1 and 2 have an interconnecting door so can also be sold as a Family room so are mapped (as one) to the room type Family Room.

iBex identifies that when a room type is booked and a unit is allocated to the booking, any other room type that has the same unit mapped to it will no longer have that unit as an available option. For example ...

If unit 1 or 2 is booked as a Standard Double room, then they cannot be booked as a Standard Twin room or as a Family Room
If unit 3 is booked as a Standard Double room, then it can be booked as a Standard Twin option.
If a Family Room is booked, then only 1 Standard Double or Twin room can be booked.

As mentioned in Example 1, you can set your preference of which unit within each room type is allocated to a booking first so you could set iBex to allocate unit 3 first to both Standard room options giving you more opportunity to sell units 1 and 2 as the Family Room.

Tagged: