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extra bed inventory

  • 13 May 2024
  • 9 replies
  • 199 views
Philippe H3C

Over the weekend, we experienced an overbooking of additional beds. Despite using Mews for 3 years, they still haven't developed inventory management for additional beds for children, which should be a basic feature of a PMS. It should automatically close categories when all additional beds are booked. Does anyone have any ideas or solutions to offer, besides telling me to go vote?

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Best answer by bsaurabh 14 May 2024, 11:31

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S
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Hello @Philippe H3C 

We have the same issue

 

We have created a space category for our “Extras” (extra bed and baby cot) linked to a specific service called also “Extra”

 

We did so because when you select the service, you have the specific timeline of the service and you can have a better look at what’s remaining. 

 

To book the extra, it works like a reservation. It shows the remaining space available for a reservation

 

The downside is that each extra space is billed to you by Mews but they are willing to let it “slide” for now (if you ask gently of course😉) as they don’t have any solution by now and the spaces are considered small or very small on their calculation sheet

 

Hope it helps a little

 

Regards

 

Stephane

Philippe H3C

Thank you for your response, but this seems very complicated to implement. Indeed, we have around ten room categories that accept additional beds. On top of that, we need to manage the booking engine. How do you handle availability on your website and OTAs? 

Best regards,

S
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I think in that case,  you have to create a product called extra bed or a rate category triggering the product booking when the reservation gets in...anyway it is indeed not convenient...

bsaurabh
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Hi Philippe,

Nice to hear from you. I work on the Product side of things in the Revenue tribe - and would love to connect with you about this. We are actively planning this and intend to start working on this soon. I believe your feedback around this will be instrumental in helping us understand the problem and its nuances and enable us to develop a solution that works well.

Could you send me a message or email ([email protected]) with a few slots from your availability for next week if you’re interested in helping? 

Once again, thank you for reaching out about this.

Best,
Saurabh

Philippe H3C

Hello, we've been asking for this for three years, but if it takes three years to develop, it doesn't make much sense. Over all these years, we've had numerous discussions to improve the product, but you don't hear our calls. This is unfortunate and causes disappointment. This weekend, we had to buy and borrow 5 additional beds for a non-professional PMS, which caused stress and additional expenses. It's very simple to do; here's how:

1. Create a global inventory of extra beds on-site (adjustable for the hotelier).
2. Room categories that can accommodate extra beds should be adjustable and deduct from the inventory.
3. As soon as the inventory is depleted, it should close the sale of rooms for multiple guests and only offer rooms for 2 guests (note that this should also affect the Channel Manager).

Simple, isn't it?

J
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Hello everybody! Hi @bsaurabh !

I would like to add a few thoughts to the discussion:

  • extra bed inventory would be a nice thing, in other PMS it’s an “inventory item” that may be attached to a stay service and/or addional service package (package for pricing, inventory for availability) - that would also work for other inventory limited additional services like bikes, strollers, sports equipment, golf carts, parking spaces (if no exact space assignment is necessary), or what ever!
  • We already have the “extra capacity” in “space categories” - that works well if you can accomdate the exta persons on fold out beds or similar beds that are guaranteed to be available any time (because they are in the room anyway), but not for “roll away” beds that are stored centrally and put in the room upon reqest - that’s what inventory items would be good for
  • I understand @Philippe H3C  ‘s idea to close availability for extra bed occupancy in channel managers, but I would be rather sceptical about that - it would be a really complex feature that most channel managers and channels will probably not support (mapping of inventory item availability to channel managers - Have not heard of that yet). So my approach to that would be to only publish live bookable rates for room occupancy that can always be provided for sure. Extra guests (on roll away beds) may only be booked/confirmed manually on request. Alternatively, just buy enough extra beds to acoomodate 95% (or so) of all cases of extra bed requests :-)
  • Possible improvised solution: if you have a number of similar rooms currently in the same space category (for example “Superior Double Room”), just split your rooms in two separate categories - one with extra capacity (“Superior Double Room - regular”), and one without (“Superior Double Room - extra capacity”). Configure the space categories with the actual normal bed count and extra capacity settings and setup prices accordingly. Place as many rooms in the extra capacity category as you have extra beds available. Setup the same room categories in your channels and channel manager. Then you can solve the problem for now with exitsting capabilities of mews. You even get the “extra bed” symbol in mews in case a room with extra capacity is booked - automatically. You may even group your rooms in the category type according to location, for example if you have a floor where your extra beds are stored place only those rooms on that floor or close to the central storage in the extra capacity category…
    If you buy more beds, just place more rooms in the extra capacity space category and be done with it … The more I think about it, the more I like the idea :-) However, it only makes sense if you have a reasonable amount of rooms to split them up...

Kind regards,

Jean-Philipp.

cedric.previtali
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Dear Philippe, Thank you very much for your comments. I have noted your remarks and look forward to discussing them in more detail during our meeting at the beginning of June. I have sent you an email to confirm the date.

See you soon. 

Cedric

Cedric P
tobiaskoehler
Userlevel 3

Hi everybody, 
thank you for the discussion. The thread helped me a bit, while the result is unsatisfying as there is no possibility to set inventories for products. I asked the Mews Support Bot about it. I don’t know if it is halluzinating or if there is actually a solution in place to limit the number of products. Reading this thread I think the bot is halluzinating, although the description is very logic. Is there a beta going on that we could join?

Kind regards

Tobias

 

bsaurabh
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Hi @tobiaskoehler You’re indeed correct. I will report the bot’s behaviour internally to the correct teams. Thank you!

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