What Are Room Types?

A room type is a product of a brand or property. For example, a room type may be called Double and offer a double bed with a maximum occupancy of two adults. There may be a quantity of ten rooms of this type in a particular property, each offering air conditioning and sea views.

Room types may be created at either the brand or property level.

Note: Some brands require a high degree of standardisation for the rooms (or products) that are sold by a property.

The system enables you to define a catalogue of room type products at the brand level, which then may be imported by the individual properties within the brand.

In brands that require a high degree of standardisation, the property may not be allowed to create additional room types other than those defined by the brand.

In the system, a room type is composed of the following:

•Configuration – This tab contains the name, code, and pricing mode for the room type. You can also set the occupancy rules and add bed type information.

•Description – This tab contains the detailed information about the room type, including the category and style of this room type at the property.

•Room Type Amenities – This tab contains the information about the amenities offered in this room type.

•Mappings – This tab contains the information about the channel mappings for the room type.

Room types must be configured and activated before they can be sold. If room types are not configured, then the property's inventory structure cannot be created.

When you define room types, you are creating the basis for the property's inventory of rooms. Once you have defined the room types, you can then set the number of rooms for each room type in the Inventory module. This is called the "room type capacity."

Note: Room types that have not been defined in the Configuration module cannot be used other modules such as Rates and Inventory.

For more information on inventory and room type capacity, see Setting Room Type Capacity .

You must define the occupancy for a room type: the number of adults and children that can stay in a room. This is important because it is the basis for pricing the room in a rate plan. Rate plans set the prices for the different products available at the property.

Note: Only the room type occupancy that has been defined in Configuration can be priced in a rate plan.

If you have created inventory allotments to manage reservations for the various room types, you can map the rate plans to specific allotments. If you do not map a rate plan to an allotment, the rate plan conditions target rooms in the General Inventory. The General Inventory groups all the rooms available for sale for a property by default.

When a room type is defined and activated at the brand level, it automatically appears in the property's list of room types.

Note: Room type codes cannot be duplicated. If the brand-defined room type has the same room type code as a room type that has been defined at the property level, the brand-defined room type will not appear in the property's list of room types.

To define the brand-level room type at the property level, you must activate it at the property level in the same way that you activate room types that have been defined by the property.

Any changes made to this brand-defined room type at the brand level are automatically reflected at the property level. If you modify the brand-defined room type at the property level, you break the link with the brand-defined room type and will not receive any changes made at the brand level.