For users of the TourCMS tour operator ecommerce platform

Rooming Preferences & Single Supplement

Hi,
I am sure that this is an issue faced by others and there is probably a simple way around this that I cannot fathom.

Firstly - how does everyone go about getting room preferences off the customer at the point of booking. We currently list the various rooms types - double/twin/single/triple as options which the customers then select at the time of booking. This works pretty well until we get to singles.

Single Rooms: I know it should be easy to charge single supplements but we have the following problem with offering single rooms as an option with a cost attached.

Solo Bookings - We need to force a single supplement and they will of course be automatically booked into a single.

Group Bookings - We want to offer the option of single rooms within the booking (with supplement).

I have tried every permutation of forced supplements, single rooms only available to 2 + (but then they cannot select 1 single room) but as yet have not come up with a solution.

Any ideas?
Neil

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Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Ralph Foulds on May 15, 2008 at 4:05pm: Hi Neil,

We have similar issues, which are further complicated by trying to share twin rooms between separate solo traveller bookers (On some of our tours, single travellers (or bookings with odd numbers in), must book a single room, and on others they can share with other people booking separately).

The group bookings part is easy - just add a single supplement option to the tour, and they can choose how many people in their booking want to take it.

Solo bookings are more complicated.
In your Single Supplement option, you can give it some descriptive text to explain the rules (Content / Description). For example, on our website we use some popup text on the option name (see the tour options box).
http://www.egypt-uncovered.com/tours/egypt/geja.php
You could also add some explanation into the option title, but this is a bit clumsy to display online (eg. Optional single room supplement - compulsory for single travellers)

I'm not sure if you can do it completely automatically though (force a single supplement on a solo booker).
At the moment there is no rule to automatically include/not include an option based on the number of people in the booking. If you're quick you may get that into their snag list week if you put a post up about it now, but probably it will take a while for that kind of functionality to be added. It'd be useful for us too.

You could also add Notes in, at various points in your online booking process to tell single bookers they must add the single supplement option.

When the booking comes in, then your staff can look at it, and manually add the single supplement option if the client hasn't done it already.
I appreciate that if you're trying to take their full payment online at the time of their initial reservation, then this means you have to go back to them to ask them for more money. I think most users though will just take an initial deposit online (if anything), and then have some communication wtih the customer before collecting the balance, and you can explain any extra single supplements you've added at this time.

Hope that helps.
Ralph; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by Neil Lapping on May 15, 2008 at 4:36pm: Thanks Ralph,
Much appreciated, I think that we are just going to have to stick with the current system which is exactly the same as yours. As you say the problem is when customers book and don't add single supplement and then we have to go back to them and telll them the trip is more expensive but I suppose there is simply no getting around certain things.

I think I will also add notes during the booking process to stress a room choice single supp is compulsory for solo travellers.

Thanks again.
Neil; ▶ Reply to This

Permalink Reply by TourCMS team on May 15, 2008 at 5:06pm: Incidentally, coming *soon* is a room level product type (in a new hotel product).... which will help with room level allocations and rooming list reporting. ETA is May/June 08.

Neil - if you can send the exact logic you want to Alex..... we will see what we can do in the hotel room development.

(Top level of the hotel development is that there will be a 3rd "subtype" on a tour - so we will have departure, freesale and hotel - and then - you will be able to add room types within the hotel....); ▶ Reply to This