Availability blocks are a fixed set of inventory that you provisionally remove from your public availability for private groups, for example, wedding parties, or for companies and travel agencies. You can use them for a contractually agreed upon rate for a fixed set of space categories within a specified time interval.

 

You can create blocks in Mews Operations for up to one year, for both short and long stays. After creating your availability block, you can still adjust the rate pricing or change the space category allocation for your picked-up reservations.

In this article, you can learn about:  

• Essential information about creating availability blocks
• How blocks affect space hierarchies
• How to create availability blocks

 

Essential information about creating availability blocks

Note: Availability blocks may or may not inherit restrictions set at the property level for rates and spaces. When you exclude availability block rates from global restrictions, restrictions only apply to availability block rates that you set directly on the rate group or the block-specific rate itself. This helps avoid unintentional blocking of group reservations by global restrictions such as minimum stay or closed to stay restrictions. You can learn more about managing restrictions settings for availability blocks in Mews Operations. 

 

• Blocks do not need to contain space categories at the time of creation. You can add space categories after you create the block. You can also change the space category later. You can learn more about this here.

• You cannot pick up a standalone existing reservation from within a block. To bring an existing reservation group under a block, you can merge it into the block's group. You can learn more in our help article Merging group reservations into availability block groups.

• If your property uses connected spaces, blocking a space also affects its parent or child spaces in the block's availability calculation. You can learn more in our help article Using connected spaces in availability blocks.

• You can create custom rates for blocks derived from the Availability block rate group. The system creates a new rate for each block of the type Availability block rate and does not list it in Rates. Block rates do not affect your rate quota.  
• Mews shows private rates for a block only when you pick up reservations either from Mews Operations or the Mews Booking Engine. This allows you to use lower rates for group business. 
• Permissions: 
  • You need the Manage availability permission to create availability blocks.
  • You also need the Manage availability block rates permission to override rate prices. 
• This feature is currently available for Enterprise subscriptions only. Properties with Pro subscriptions can access the booking engine links by purchasing the add-on.

 

How blocks affect space hierarchies

When you select space categories and specify the number of spaces to block, Mews automatically calculates the impact on related space categories in the hierarchy. This applies to any property that uses parent and child space structures, for example, beds inside bedrooms, bedrooms inside apartments, or apartments inside buildings.

 

Mews uses two principles to determine which spaces a block affects.

 

Minimal resource first

Mews always blocks standalone spaces before spaces that belong to a hierarchy. A standalone space is a space with no parent and no child, for example, a bed with no room attached, or a room with no apartment above it.

 

This means that blocking a small number of spaces does not cascade up through the hierarchy unless necessary. Only when all standalone spaces of that type are exhausted does the block extend into the hierarchy. At that point, blocking a child space reduces availability for its parent, grandparent, and so on up the tree.

 

For example, if you have 16 beds and 2 are standalone, blocking 1 or 2 beds reduces only the bed count and does not affect rooms, apartments, or buildings. Blocking a 3rd bed exhausts the standalone beds, so Mews moves into the hierarchy and takes from the room with the fewest beds. This reduces availability for that room, its apartment, and its building.

 

Note: The minimal resource first principle calculates the presumed availability shown in the Availability & Occupancy report. When reservations are picked up inside a block, Mews assigns them according to the assignment strategy defined on the space category, not the minimal resource order. The spaces shown as blocked in the report may differ from the spaces actually assigned to reservations.

 

Sibling preference

Once a block enters a hierarchy branch, Mews fills the remaining spaces in that branch before moving to a new branch.

 

For example, if one apartment already has a bedroom partially blocked, additional blocks continue filling the remaining bedrooms in that same apartment before moving to a different apartment. This keeps the impact contained to as few parent spaces as possible.

 

How blocks travel through the hierarchy

Blocks affect the hierarchy in both directions:

• Blocking a child space reduces availability for its parents. For example, blocking enough beds reduces the available count for the bedrooms, apartments, and buildings that contain those beds.
• Blocking a parent space reduces availability for its children. For example, blocking a building reduces the available count for all apartments, bedrooms, and beds within that building. Mews still applies the minimal resource principle, so a standalone building is blocked first.

 

Note: If a parent space is already blocked, Mews applies sibling preference rather than the minimal resource. Additional blocks go to the next sibling in the same branch rather than to a different standalone space.

 

How to create availability blocks  

To create an availability block: 

1. In Mews Operations, go to the main menu > Reservations > Availability block report. 
2. Click + and select the service for which you want to create an availability block. 
3. On the Availability block screen, enter the block details. Fields marked with * are mandatory.

• In the Settings section:
  • Name of the availability block *: Type in the name of your availability block.
  • Arrival *: Click to select an arrival date.
  • Departure *: Click to select a departure date. Note: Mews considers the Departure date as the check out date, where the block does not consume additional availability. For example, if you select a block from 1/12/2023 - 3/12/2023, the system blocks two nights. 
  • Original rate*: Click to select an original rate. This copies all details of your existing rate, including the pricing per day and per space category, and creates a new custom rate specifically for the block. The system uses the custom rate only for this availability block and does not list it in Rates. 

• • Overriding the custom block rate does not affect the base or copied rates in Mews. 
  • You can still adjust the rate per day for a block.
  • Adjusting the Original rate of a higher category room does not affect the availability block. 
  • Mews does not include Original rate descriptions in the confirmation email for availability blocks, as the Terms and Conditions may differ.
  • Status*: Click to select the status of the block. 
    • Confirmed: For confirmed blocks, the system deducts availability for the selected space category.
    • Optional: For optional, unconfirmed blocks, the system deducts availability for the selected space category. 
    • Inquired: For inquired, unconfirmed blocks, the system does not deduct block availability as there are no spaces assigned.

• • You can only pick up reservations from Confirmed blocks. 
  • You can revert both Optional and Confirmed blocks to Inquired. 
• In the Rule section, choose when to release the unused inventory with no picked-up reservations back to public availability.
  • Under Release availability block*, click to select:
    • One time: Release all unused inventory at a specific date and time.
      • Release at*: Click to select the specific date and time of the release. You can set the block's release date before or after the block’s start period, up to its end date.
    • Every day: Gradually release unused inventory, every day.
      • Release in advance of*: Indicate how many days in advance you want to release unused inventory for each day in the block interval.
      • Time*: Specify the exact time of the release for each day.
    • Do not release: Block your inventory for the entire block period.
  • Pickup distribution*:
    • All in one group: When you pick up reservations, Mews adds all of them to the same group.
    • Individual groups: You can pick up reservations and add them to different groups, where each group has its own billing. Ideal for blocks created by travel agencies as well as if you select to release unused inventory every day.

• • Purchase order number: Type in the purchase order number to add it to your availability block. All picked up reservations and bills have the correct purchase order item. You can modify the purchase order number at any time from the availability block, reservation or when closing a bill. 
  • External identifier: Type in an external identifier, necessary to map the block to a channel integration. You can learn how to connect your channel manager here. 
    Note:
    • You cannot add or change the External identifier after creating the block.
    • The SynXis integration uses this field to map a block to the distribution channel. If you have a SynXis Integration, you need to fill in the complete External ID field to map the block to the channel.
• In the Client section, add the details of your client.
  • Booker*: Type in the name of the booker. 
  • Company*: Type in the name of the company requesting the block.  
  • Travel agency: Add the travel agency contract, if any.
  • Booking purpose:  Click to select the purpose of the reservation, Business, Leisure, or Student.
  • Segment: Click to select the segment you want to add to the availability block. Mews uses this segment for all picked up reservations. You can modify the segment at any time from the availability block, reservation or an integrated event management system.  
• In the Info section, add any Notes for the block.

4. Click Create. 

This opens the block dashboard, which has all the information about your new block, for example, the block's name, status of the block, client information, and the block's number.

Check out represents the last day of check out. This field appears empty and only reflects the date of departure of the guests.

You can click on the  to add a custom booking engine link and select your Booking engine configuration.

Note:  

• You can add multiple Booking engine links. The number depends on the number of booking engines you set up for your property.  
• When you create an Optional availability block, the Pick up button, as well as the booking engine links, don't appear since you cannot pick up reservations from an optional block. 
• You can change blocks from Confirmed to Optional:
  • if there are no reservations picked up or
  • if picked-up reservations are canceled. 

5. In the Settings section, under Space category, use the drop-down to select the space category from which you want to add spaces to the block.

   • Mixed-occupancy rows: You can add the same space category more than once to set up rows for different occupancy levels, for example, single and double occupancy. To add a second occupancy row, select the space category again, then set its occupancy level. Each row represents a distinct occupancy level and keeps its own blocked quantity and pick-up count. Mews calculates the total Occupancy as the sum of all its rows. Note: For blocks with a single row per space category, behaviour is unchanged. The occupancy level of a row sets how the row is counted for pick-up. The Guests value estimates guests per space and does not change the row's occupancy level.

   • Guests: Click to adjust the number of estimated guests per space, for the selected space category. You can increase the number up to the maximum capacity allowed for the selected space category. 
     
     Note:
     • You can only view the Guest column when you adjust the space categories of your block.
     • The Guests number does not restrict the number of guests you can pick up for your reservations. 
     • You can view the total number of Estimated guests for your confirmed blocks under your Confirmed guests’ row, in the Overview tab of the Availability & occupancy report. Click a specific day to view the estimated guests per day, per each space category.    
       
     • Click View policies to view details about the payment and cancellation policies that apply to this reservation.
   • For each date, you can select the number of spaces you want to remove from the public availability. You can click Edit to remove the availability of a space category in bulk, for the selected days.  Note: You do not remove a space from public availability until you specify a space category.

6. Click Save to block the availability for the specified dates. 

Now, you can directly pick up reservations from Mews Operations by clicking on the Pick up button in the Status section. You can learn about picking up reservations in availability blocks here.

Note:  

• The date interval for the reservation cannot be outside the block interval. If a guest wants to stay longer, you need to extend the block interval.  
• You can decrease the block interval only if there are no reservations outside of the updated interval.
• When you pick up multiple reservations within the block, Mews automatically splits the price of the block between individual reservations or bills it to the Booker, Company, or Travel agency, as applicable.
  
• Click View policies to view details about the payment and cancellation policy that applies to this reservation.

 

When you create a block longer than a month you can select to view the block information for a specific month.