Dynamic room substitution explained
Outlined below is an explanation of dynamic room substitution.
Dynamic room substitution (DRS) provides hotels with the ability to set revenue management rules in the booking engine which will then intelligently substitute rooms to facilitate long-stay bookings.
Rules are built that would check if another similar type rooms are available that can be substituted to allow the booking.
This feature increases the hotel's availability for multi-night stays, without causing an overbooking scenario, and ensures the most competitive price for the customer.
You can set specific controls for different length of stay (LOS) and allow certain substitutions to only happen for certain rooms.
⚠️Important: If you have a Guestline integration or you are integrated with D-Edge, dynamic room substitution is not a feature that can be implemented.
Key features of dynamic room substitution
Outlined below is are the key features of dynamic room substitution.
Secondary room must have availability to be used.
At no stage does the customer know about the substituted room.
Hotel is notified when DRS is used.
Primary room price is always used, no matter which room is being substituted in.
Multiple substituted rooms may be used.
1 DRS rule per room per LOS.
Highest matching LOS rule used.
Limits by LOS supported.
Secondary room restrictions do not apply.
Set up dynamic room substitution
Click the Booking Engine tab.
Hover over Manage Rooms.
Click Room Substitution.
To create rules select the require LOS from the drop down.
The LOS value of the customers search that this substitution rule will apply for.
Select the primary room for this rule you want to allow substitutions on.
For example if you have no availability in a single room, but want to substitute from a double room that is available, you would select the single room as your primary room you want to allow substitution on.
Click + add rule.
Click into the text box under the header substituted rooms.
Select one or more rooms you want your primary room to pull availability from.
Enter a max number of nights to restrict the substitution.
If nothing is entered it will pull inventory from another room for the number of nights the guest has searched for.
If there are particular dates you don't want room substitutions to take place for a particular DRS rule, you can click the exclusions calendar on the right hand side of each rule and select dates you wish it not to apply for.
Click apply.
Optionally specify that room substitutions will never happen on any dates greater than a minimum leadin period.
This maximum leadin applies for all rules this is a global restriction.
If any day of stay for a given checkin + LOS query falls outside the maximum leadin specified, then the entire rule is ignored.
This is also the case for global date restrictions where applicable.
If there are certain dates you don't want available to any DRS rules, click the Manage exclusions tab under global exclusions and select the dates you would like to have exclusions.
Click apply.
If there are particular rates you only want DRS to work on or if there are particular rates you want to exclude DRS on, you can set that up by clicking the rate control tab at the bottom of the page.
If you want DRS to work on the majority of your rates and not apply to some, then you should select the disable dynamic room substitution for all selected rates option. Then tick the box beside each rate you do not want to apply DRS on.
Alternatively, if you want DRS to only work on a small few of your rates, then you should select the enable dynamic room substitution for all selected rates. Then tick the box beside each rate you want to apply DRS on.
If you want to apply DRS to all rates, just select the disable dynamic room substitution for all selected rates option and ensure no rate boxes are ticked.
Click the rates you would like to include or exclude.
Click save changes.
Dynamic room substitution in use
To check if a room has been substituted on a reservation follow the steps below.
Click the Booking Engine tab.
Click Room Reservation Reports on the left navigation.
Enter a reference number or last name of the reservation or select a date range.
Click more options.
Tick the button named Inventory under the header transaction details.
Click Search reservation.
Search down through the results until you see a yellow warning triangle under the Inv column.
Click on any yellow warning triangle and it will bring you into the reservation with details of the DRS outlined at the bottom of the reservation.
Pause dynamic room substitution
If you have dynamic room substitution (DRS) set up but do not want it available on specific rates, then follow the below steps.
Click the Booking Engine tab.
Hover over Manage Rooms.
Click Room Substitution.
Under the rate control, select the rates you want the DRS to be disabled on.
Click save changes.
Dynamic room substitution (DRS) and Siteminder integration
Outlined below describes how the inventory will change and what a dynamic room substitution reservation looks like.
If you take an example of a dynamic room substitution (DRS) rule you may have where if a single room isn’t available, then inventory from a double room is allowed to be substituted in.
If someone then makes a single room booking for two nights, where a single room isn’t available on one of those nights and is then subsequently substituted by a double room, so as to ensure the booker can book a single room for two nights.
The booking engine will then send Siteminder a message to say that two nights for the single room were booked.
Siteminder would then send the booking engine a message to reduce the inventory on the single room for each of those nights booked. Because one of the single room nights already had zero inventory, so this will stay the same.
On the confirmation email from the booking engine for that booking there will be a comment stating which rooms were dynamically substituted on that booking.
If you wish, you could manually reduce the inventory for the double room on the night the substitution is happening either by going into your PMS (if connected to Siteminder) or going into Siteminder and updating. That update will then automatically sync across the booking engine.
Getting a booking on a room that isn't available
Outlined below are the reasons for a booking occurring on a room that is not available.
This is likely due to dynamic room substitution taking place.
DRS rules will not override restrictions sent by the channel manager or PMS.
📌Note: If dynamic room substitution isn't the reason why you got a room booking when it should have been unavailable, then email [email protected] with details of the reservation.