What are Blocked Rooms?
Blocked rooms are rooms held back from inventory for what ever reason. Examples include a burst water pipe in a room so the room is unusable until the plumber has fixed the problem. Other examples would be rooms held back from inventory that you plan to release at a later period. This is particularly applicable to rooms being held back from OTAs.
Types of blocked room
There are two types of blocked room – indicated by the padlock symbol
- Fully blocked – this room can’t be used for any reason (a burst water pipe for example)
- Partially blocked – this room can be booked if need be (a room held back from inventory)
How to block a room?
You’ll find the “Block Rooms” section under the “Rates” section of Benson.
Select the ‘Room Type’ and the individual ‘Room’. Click ‘LOAD BLOCKED ROOMS’.
You will get a display similar to the rate type view.
- Property Occupancy
- Room Type Occupancy
- Occupied – a booking is already in this room
- Blocked
Select the period you want to edit by:
- individual day
- entire month – click the month
- days of a month – click the day of the month to select all the mondays for example
Click ‘EDIT BLOCKED ROOMS’ (the edit button will be faded out until you select at least one day to edit).
You will have to add a reason – this appears on the reservation calendar view to assist your users in seeing why a room is blocked.
Selecting ‘Allow Users to override these Blocked Rooms in a Reservation’ is the toggle between fully and partially blocked rooms.