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Overview

The Operations Inventory screen allows users to create, manage and update inventory for things such as hotels, transfers, sightseeing tours, marketing promotions and more.  While on the inventory screen, users will be able to control the space that is allotted to be sold to the public versus the space that is contracted with the vendor, apply inventory to specific dates, date ranges, or days of the week, control the sale status and more.

The Inventory screen is a sub menu option under Ops Management.  

Creating Block Codes and Inventory

Once the Inventory screen is accessed, users can create new inventory by selecting the plus (+) sign.  Different than some other screens that are available under Softrip NEXT, once the plus (+) sign is selected, a new inventory screen will appear which will allow users to enter the information relating to the block code.  

OpsNewInventory.mp4

There are a variety of fields that display for users to enter the appropriate information.  

Defining the Fields:

  • Block Code 

    • Block Codes are typically the label that users will define on supplier services.  Block codes are the shell in which inventory will be taken from once the booking is confirmed.

Scenario 1- Block codes in supplier services

Harry's hotel in Las Vegas offers three different room categories: standard, deluxe, and suites.  Each room category comes with their own set of allotment.  Under Services in the Product system, users will build out a standard room category service type, a deluxe room category service type and a suite room category service type.  Each service type will have a block code associated to them.  Once these block codes are built out, users can enter that block code in Operations Inventory and associate the number of rooms to be sold within a certain date period based on the contract with the hotel. 

Example: Standard room category has block code HARSTD, deluxe room category has block code HARDLX, suite room category has block code HARSUITE.  Under Operations Inventory, users can enter in a number of rooms under each individual block code.  

Scenario 2- Block codes associated to Marketing Promotions 

Users would like to run a marketing promotion that provides users with a total of $200 off any booking made on Black Friday.  They would like this promotion to only be eligible for 150 bookings.  Users will build the block code under Operations Inventory first, with an IDate of Dec 31, 2050 and the appropriate allotment, and then add the block code to the promotion in Marketing.

For additional information regarding marketing promotions, review the promotions article. 

  • Contracted

    • Enter the number of rooms or the amount of space that is contracted for this block code.

Example 1:

Softrip's Annual Retreat is a group that is traveling to Mexico for 7 nights.  The group is contracted for 40 total rooms.  Users will enter the number "40" under the contracted field for the dates of travel.

Example 2: 

Harry's hotel is giving Company Y 50 standard rooms to sell for travel in the months of January, February, and March.  Users will enter the number "50" under the contracted field for the dates of travel.  

  • Allotted

    • Enter the number of rooms or the amount of space that is allotted to be sold for this block code.  This number is typically the same as the contracted amount; however, users will sometimes want to allot a smaller number of rooms to be sold than what is contracted to reserve the space in the event the allotted value is depleted.  

  • Available 

    • The number of rooms available will deplete as the number of rooms are sold.  Once set, the number of rooms available is not an editable field. 

Example:

In the standard standard room category at Harry's hotel, 50 rooms were available to sell for travel on the dates of January 1st-January 31st.  Users sold 10 rooms for travel on January 20th.  The number of Contracted and Allotted rooms on January 20th will display 50; however, the number of available rooms for travel on January 20th will display 40.

  • State

    • The state is the display of availability of the service.  The following values can be entered:

      • A

        • Active.

        • Services are available to sell if inventory is available.

      • R

        • On Request.

        • Services are on request at all times regardless if inventory is available.

      • B

        • Black Out.

        • Services are blacked out and cannot be sold.  

        • This state is mainly used if there are dates that are blacked out during a specific travel time frame.

        • Example: Travel in the suite room category at Harry's Hotel is blacked out for from December 20th-December 27th.  

      • N

        • No Arrivals.

        • Bookings are not permitted during the date period entered.

        • This state can be used if there are no arrivals allowed during a specific time frame due to festivals or holidays.  

      • C

        • Closed Out.

        • Services are closed out and cannot be sold.

        • This state is mainly used if a hotel contacts a business advising that there are specific dates of travel that are closed out due to events such as hotel renovations or festivals.

Note:  Black out, Closed and No arrival states have similar functionality and are available to the business to use in a way that best fits their business model.  

  • Release Days 

    • The release days is the number of days prior to departure that the state of the service should be changed. 

  • Release State

    • The release state is the change of the inventory state based on the number of days prior to departure as set by the release days.  

Example

The value entered under the release days for the standard room category at Harry's Hotel is 3.  The value under the release state is R. 

This reads as the following:  3 days prior to the departure date, the state of the standard room category will change from A (available) to R (on request).  If either an internal or external users attempts to book the standard room category at the Harry's hotel 3 days or less prior to the departure date, the standard room category will automatically display as "on request."   

This will look something like the following:  Date the standard room category at Harry's Hotel is booked is January 18th for departure on January 20th.  The standard room category will display as "on request" based on the values entered into the block code.  

  • Asset ID

    • This is a pointer to the inventory asset table.

      Shares: Shared inventory to be used for rooms that will be shared among one or more reservations. Uses prefixes M for Male, F for Female

      Ex. M:2/2. This is a system generated value. It is not directly user created.

      This field can be left empty.

  • Block Cap

    • This is the maximum number of rooms that can be sold within a block.  Once the inventory reaches this value, the inventory state will be changed to the cap type defined.  This field can be left empty.  

  • Cap Type

    • The Cap Type is the inventory state that will only apply to the inventory once the BlockCap is reached.  If the BlockCap field is left blank, the CapType can be left blank as well.  

    • The possible Values are: B (Block), R (On Request), and F (Freesale):

      • B (Block) - Once the BlockCap has been exhausted, all remaining rooms/inventories will be sold as B (Block)

      • R (On Request) - Once the BlockCap has been exhausted, all remaining rooms/inventories will be sold as R (On Request)

      • F (Freesale) - Once the BlockCap has been exhausted, all remaining rooms/inventories will be sold as F (Freesale)

Date Ranges

  • Single Date

    • Users can create inventory for a single date. 

Example 

The Black Friday Marketing Promotion is capped at 100 and is only valid on Black Friday.  Users will create inventory for the date of Black Friday only for this promotion.  

  • Multiple Days

    • Users can create and allocate inventory to multiple days.  This option gives users the opportunity to select multiple dates during the week, keeping a running list of the dates as they are selected.

  • Date Range 

    • Users can select a date range for the inventory to be created.  This option is mostly used when users are associating inventory based on a contract provided by a vendor (supplier).

OpsDateInventory.mp4

Managing and Updating Existing Inventory

Users can access existing block codes using a variety of filters available and can manage the inventory within the results grid as well.  

In the below example, users are able to search for any inventory that is associated to the Harry's Hotel in Las Vegas.

OpsSearchResponse.mp4

Managing Inventory:

Consistent with other screens available throughout Softrip, users have a variety of edit options available while managing inventory.  

Grouping Options:

Because the search filters provide users with the opportunity to conduct a search that may include multiple results, users can take advantage of the grouping options available at the top of the screen.  Using the grouping options allow users to filter through their results easier.  These grouping options are expandable and collapsible.  

Updating Inventory:

Users have two different options when editing inventory: directly in the search grid or use the mass change options.  There are two save options: save and save later.  When executing updates to the inventory, all edits will appear in red while editing and/or selecting "save later."  All changes will be saved upon selecting "saved."      

OpsInventoryUpdates.mp4

Inventory Tasks:

The option to create an inventory task will automatically display any time a new block is created or an existed block is updated.  These tasks are stamped against each block code and the details saved in the task are the block code, details of the action, the date the action was performed, and the user.  This is particularly important to a business as it provides internal staff with the ability to view any updates done to inventory at all times.  

Once the block code row is selected, users can expand the tasks on the right hand side of the screen to view the details.   

InventoryTasks.mp4

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