Room contracts (allotments) and release dates
What a room contract is, what the release date means, and how the rooms nobody booked leave the contract on that date by themselves.
A room contract (an allotment) is a block of rooms a hotel keeps for one of your trips, for set nights. The release date is the day you agreed to hand back the rooms you have not sold. On that date, the system takes the unsold rooms out of the contract by itself, unless your agency turned this off.
The contract
Each contract links one trip, one hotel and one stay (check-in to check-out). It holds:
- the rooms, chosen by type, and which physical rooms they are;
- the Meals plan and the Nightly rates per room type, which give the Room cost;
- the date Unsold rooms go back on (the release date);
- whether the rooming list was sent.
Two contracts can never use the same room on the same night.
The release date
When you contract rooms, the release date starts at check-in minus the days set in Settings → Preferences → Hotel release before arrival (14 days by default), and never before today. You can change it, or leave it empty. It cannot be after check-in.
The Release date column of the contracts table shows:
| What you see | Meaning |
|---|---|
| A date | The release date is more than 7 days away. |
| "In 3 days, 4 unsold" (amber) | The release date is within 7 days and rooms are still unsold. Act now. |
| Passed | The release date has passed. The unsold rooms have left the contract, or, when automatic release is off, they are still in it. |
| Completed | The stay is over (check-out has passed). |
| — | No release date set. |
What happens on the release date
When Settings → Preferences → Hand unsold rooms back automatically is on (it is on by default):
- On the release date, the rooms nobody booked leave the contract by themselves. Rooms with guests and rooms on hold stay.
- This happens once per contract. Rooms you add to the contract later are not released again.
- A contract made on or after its release date is skipped, so a contract you make late on purpose keeps its rooms.
- The contract's history records how many rooms went back, and the dashboard shows an alert for 3 days.
When the switch is off, the release date is only a reminder. Give rooms back yourself: open the contract and use Change rooms, meals or release date to lower the rooms, or Release this contract. See Change or release a room contract.
Warning
The system does not tell the hotel. Tell the hotel yourself which rooms you hand back.
The rooming list
List not sent yet or List sent … shows whether you marked the rooming list as sent. It feeds the trip's readiness and the Departures board. See Export and send the rooming list.
Related articles
- Contract hotel rooms for a tripReserve a block of hotel rooms for a trip or package (an allotment), with the room types, nights, meals, rates and release date.
- Change or release a room contractAdd or give back rooms, change the meals, rates or release date of a contract, or release the whole contract back to the hotel.
- Export and send the rooming listCheck who sleeps in each room, download the rooming list as Excel or print it, send it to the hotel and mark it as sent.
- Hotels and rooms: common questionsAnswers about floors and room limits, changing a built hotel, room types, moving guests, release dates and what customers see.