Create a virtual room type from several individual rooms so you can sell the rooms individually and as a room type without overbooking. Bookings for the room type are placed in one of the real rooms.
Use this setup if:
- You have individual rooms connected to individual listings at a channel (for example Airbnb or Tripadvisor Rentals) and also want to sell them on Booking.com or another channel that needs a room type with a quantity. It works with 2 to 12 individual rooms.
- Or you have a room type with a quantity of more than one on a channel (for example Booking.com) and want to show each room individually on your booking page.
Tip: If you sell by room type on your booking page and only want to assign bookings to specific rooms, you don't need dependencies: assign unit names in Settings > Properties > Rooms > Setup.
Warning: Test your dependencies thoroughly. Connecting one physical room more than once to a booking channel risks overbookings. See How to setup Room Linking and Dependencies.
Quick Guide
- Create one real room per physical room with Quantity = 1.
- Create a virtual room with Quantity = the number of real rooms.
- In Settings > Properties > Rooms > Dependencies, make the virtual room require availability in all real rooms and assign bookings to the first available one.
- Set up or link the prices, and move existing bookings to the real rooms.
How it works
- Bookings are assigned to the real rooms.
- The virtual room needs availability in at least one of the real rooms.
- Bookings for the virtual room are placed in one of the real rooms.
- Multi-day bookings for the virtual room are still accepted if they need a room change in the real rooms. The booking then stays in the virtual room and needs manual assignment. See Manual and existing bookings.
Set up the room type
Step 1: Create the real rooms
- Go to Settings > Properties > Rooms and add a room for each of your rooms.
- In Settings > Properties > Rooms > Setup, for each room:
- Enter a Name.
- Set Quantity = 1.
- Optional: set Sell Priority = Hide to hide the individual rooms from the booking page.
- Set Overbooking Protection = Property.
Step 2: Create the virtual room (room type)
- Go to Settings > Properties > Rooms and add a room for each room type.
- In Settings > Properties > Rooms > Setup:
- Enter a Name.
- Set Quantity = the number of individual rooms bookable through this room type, which is the number of rooms you created in step 1.
- Give all other settings the same characteristics as your individual rooms.
- Optional: set Sell Priority = Hide to hide the virtual room from the booking page.
- Set Overbooking Protection = Property.
Step 3: Set the dependencies
In Settings > Properties > Rooms > Dependencies, set for the virtual room:
| Setting | Virtual room | Real rooms |
|---|---|---|
| Requires Availability in | All the individual rooms (2 to 12) | Nothing selected |
| Combination Logic | Sum of all bookings | Sum of all bookings |
| Dependency Level | Ignore Sub Dependencies | Ignore Sub Dependencies |
| Assign Bookings to | First Available Dependency Room | This Room |
| Include Bookings from | Optional: the real rooms, to see their bookings in the virtual room | Nothing selected |
Warning: Don't set any availability dependency for the real rooms. Keep the default settings shown in the table.
Note: If you use Include Bookings from in the virtual room, the unit allocation within its units doesn't work.
Step 4: Add prices
The individual rooms and the virtual room can have their own prices, or you set prices for one room and link them or use Use Prices and Restrictions From. See Prices for linked rooms for what each option copies.
Step 5: Check existing bookings
If you already have bookings in the virtual room type, move them to one of the real rooms.
Expected result: The room type shows as available while at least one real room is free, and each booking for it lands in a real room.
Manage bookings
- Add manual bookings to the real rooms, not the virtual room.
- Occasionally a booking can't be assigned automatically, for example a two-night booking that needs a room change or other bookings to be reassigned. It's then assigned to the virtual room and you must reassign bookings manually to block the real rooms. If you can't accept this, don't use room types to sell your rooms.