What are the common use cases that are addressed by Apaleo with this new functionality of Combined Inventory?
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Accommodation providers can offer their adjoining rooms as connecting units which is a popular choice for guests looking for access to more space.
Eg: a combination of 2 adjoining double rooms can be sold as a Suite or Family Room
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Most of the family business properties and leisure hotels consisting of at least 1 family room (or) communicating room, can sell them either as a combined unit or as separate units, seasonally, based on demand.
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Even the properties can choose to offer a whole floor as a single unit.
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Hostels can sell by a bed or group multiple beds and sell as a whole dormitory.
As a PROPERTY, using Apaleo, what it means for me to have this functionality of Combined Inventory?
As a PROPERTY,
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I can create new unit groups by defining the unique composition of connecting unit groups that I want to offer to my guests.
Eg: I can create a family suite unit group, by specifying that it’s a composition of 2 double units.
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I can create a new unit, by specifying which of the combination/group of units is forming this new unit.
Eg: FS1 is a combination of units D101 and D102.
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Once my combined inventory setup is ready, I can create rate plans and offer them to my guests like I do for any regular inventory type.
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I can still choose if I want to sell my regular units individually or offer them as a combined unit.
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I would want the Availability calculations to automatically consider and manage the dependency between connecting unit groups.
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I would want my operations like Housekeeping, Maintenance, Night audit, and Room Assignments (manual as well as auto-assignment operations) to automatically consider and manage the dependency between connecting units.
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When I receive a reservation on a connecting unit group, I would always have this revenue on the connecting unit group though internally sold a set of connected unit groups.
Similarly, it should also be reflected accordingly in my Folio, Invoice, Revenue, and Finance areas.
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I would want all my metrics like Occupancy %, RevPAR, House Count, etc., to exclude combined inventory count so that my KPIs are intact.
As an APP partner, integrated on Apaleo, what it means for me to have this functionality of Combined Inventory?
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As a Mobile guest journey app, if I offer a custom functionality of unit auto-assignment to my users when I check in a guest to a combined unit, I need to adjust my logic considering the impact on the combined unit and its underlying connecting units.
Similarly, when I check in a guest to a regular unit, which is part of a combined unit, I need to understand that it would impact the availability of assigning the combined unit to other reservations.
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As a Revenue Management application / benchmarking application / BI application, I need to understand how to handle the combined inventory when it comes to various metrics like availability, SoldUnitCount, occupancy%, RevPAR, and so on. I understand that revenue generated on the connecting units won’t be carried to the underlying connected units. Though, we mark them as sold but don’t mark any revenue in case the parent is sold.
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As an app that optimizes room assignments, I need to understand how to manage the unit auto-assignment when a property has a combined inventory. And the preferences of keeping combined inventory to be available to the maximum extent when assigning the rooms (connected vs non-connected) for the reservations. For this, I need to adjust my logic considering how an assignment of a connected unit impacts its combined unit’s availability.
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As a Housekeeping app / Task Management app, I should be aware of how to treat a combined unit and how to display them. For example, how do I want to handle guests coming in for combined units —> say, to keep the connecting door open or I need not repeat certain stuff in both rooms, etc.,
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As a Key Management app, I need to know how to generate and revert keys for the combined units. For example, when guests come in for a family suite, I need to issue keys for both connecting rooms. Or key management for beds in case of hostels, etc.,
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As a PBX / IPTV / In-room tablet / Room control app, I need to understand how to assign revenue or activate devices in several units when I receive a reservation on a combined unit, etc.,