Understanding restrictions in Mews Operations

Mews OperationsRate Management

You can use restrictions in Mews to prevent guests from making bookings or reservations that meet certain conditions – giving you more control over your reservations. You can apply restrictions to rates and space types in your property(s), to control the way guests can book them. You cannot apply restrictions to products. 

You can apply restrictions to, for example;

  • A promotional rate, to be bookable during July and August, and only during weekends.  
  • A space type, to stop customers from reserving a room in that space category.


You can define the details of your restrictions while creating them, to determine how they function. You can learn more about creating restrictions here. You can control restrictions in Mews with conditions and exceptions:

  • Conditions are rules that a reservation needs to meet for the restriction to be applicable.  
  • Exceptions are rules that stop a restriction from applying to a reservation, even if it meets all the conditions.


A reservation needs to meet all exceptions as well as the conditions of a restriction.

 

If you create a restriction in Mews, without defining any conditions or exceptions, this blocks your entire property, making it impossible to create any reservations. Note: This can be useful if you operate a seasonal property.

You can create and delete your restrictions in Mews operations either individually, or in bulk, and can edit them at any time. You can learn more about managing restrictions here.

 

You can view and organize your restrictions in Mews Operations in a List view, or in a Calendar view:

 



To view your restrictions: 

  1. In Mews Operations, go to the main menu Image> Settings > Services. 
  2. Click on your bookable service. 
  3. From the Settings menu, click Restrictions.   
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Note
  • You can also access the "Restrictions" section of your bookable service directly from the Mews Operations search bar by typing in "restrictions". 
  • Restricted rates still appear during reservation creation. You can only select a restricted rate if your role includes the Override restrictions permission. Without this permission, the system blocks the rate selection.

 

In this article you can learn about the following: 

 

Types of restrictions

You can set up the following types of restrictions in Mews. You can learn more about creating restrictions here, and more about each specific type of restriction by clicking on the appropriate link below: 

  • Closed to arrival: Prevents guests from making a reservation with an arrival time during the restricted period. 
  • Closed to departure: Prevents guests from making a reservation with a departure time during the restricted period.
  • Closed to stay: Prevents guests from making a reservation with nights that occur during the restricted period. 
  • Length of stay: Prevents a reservation from being made if it is shorter or longer than the specified length of time.
  • Advance booking: Prevents a reservation from being made at your property unless it is made a certain number of days in advance.
  • Price restrictions: Prevents a reservation from being made if a single night costs less or more than the specified price.

 

Restriction conditions

Restriction conditions are rules that a reservation needs to meet for the restriction to apply to guest bookings or reservations. When creating a new restriction you can define this information in the Restriction details section of the restriction creation page in Mews Operations. You can review the conditions of any restriction by clicking on its name in the Time column on the Restrictions screen. This opens the Edit restriction screen, as below. You can also delete restrictions if you no longer need them. You can learn more about this here. 

Note:  

  • If a restriction has multiple conditions and a reservation only meets one, the restriction does not apply. 
  • Creating a restriction without defining any conditions or exceptions blocks your entire property, making it impossible to create reservations. This can be useful if you operate a seasonal property.
  • You can define the start and end dates for the restrictions you create or delete.
  • You can select date intervals to delete specific dates from existing restrictions. If a restriction spans several weeks, Mews deletes the restriction only between the date intervals you define, so the system splits the restriction to create two new ones in its place. 

 

Restriction exceptions

Restriction exceptions are rules that stop a restriction from applying to a reservation, even if it meets all the conditions. A reservation needs to meet all exceptions as well as the conditions of a restriction to be successful. For example, block guests making shorter bookings with a restriction, and choosing a Minimum length exception of 2 nights.

In Mews: 

  • Restrictions with exceptions and without exceptions are treated as a separate type of restriction.  
  • This enables you to have both restrictions active together to ensure there are no unplanned openings at your property(s). 
  • Restrictions with no exceptions take priority over restrictions with exceptions. 
  • You can get a full overview of your restrictions on the summary screen where you can review which restrictions the system creates or deletes or the ones that remain unchanged.  

 

You can define the following types of exceptions:
 

  • Minimum advance: Minimum number of days in advance to make a booking. 
  • Maximum advance: Maximum number of days in advance to make a booking. 
  • Minimum length: Minimum number of nights / days / months / hours to stay. 
  • Maximum length: Maximum number of nights / days / months / hours to stay. 
  • Minimum price: Minimum price of the booking. 
  • Maximum price: Maximum price of the booking. 

 

Note:  

  • The units for Maximum length and Minimum length are different depending on the Bookable period of the Bookable service to which this restriction applies.
  • If the bookable period of the service is Night, then the unit for minimum and maximum length is ‘Nights’.
  • If the bookable period of the service is Day, then the unit for minimum and maximum length is ‘Days’.
  • If the bookable period of the service is Month, then the units for minimum and maximum length are ‘Months’ and ‘Days’. It’s possible to combine both ‘months’ and ‘days’ units for monthly bookable services, for example, 1 month and 10 days.
  • If the bookable period of the service is Hour, then the unit for minimum and maximum length is ‘Hours’. 

 

You can choose how to apply the exceptions by clicking on the dropdown menu, as below. You can choose from:  

image-20230929-102430.png 

  • Merge with existing exceptions: The system merges the exceptions for any existing restrictions that share the same conditions. Any exceptions left blank remain unchanged.  
  • Replace all exceptions: The system replaces the exceptions for any existing restrictions that share the same conditions. And removes any exceptions that you leave blank. Note: You can see a banner flagging this, as in the screenshot above. 

 

For example, if you create:  

  • A restriction that shares the same conditions as an existing one, the summary screen shows the restriction(s) marked with 'No changes'.  

 

  • A restriction with no exceptions takes priority over existing restrictions with exceptions.  

    • Mews flags this on the summary screen, and the system directs you to delete any existing Close to stay restrictions without exceptions that block the restriction you are creating.  

 

If you want to create a new restriction with exception of Minimum advance of 2 days, but not affect an existing Close to stay restriction without exceptions, you can: 

  1. Follow the steps to create a new restriction and select the dates you want it to apply.  
  2. In the Exceptions section, enter a Minimum advance of 2 days.  
  3. Click Continue.  
  4. On the summary screen, you can see that your original Closed to stay restriction without exceptions remains unchanged, and the system creates your new restriction with the exception.  
  5. Click Create restrictions. 

 

This creates your new restriction with a Minimum advance of 2 days and does not affect the original Closed to stay without exceptions, as you can see below. This is an illustration of how restrictions without exceptions take priority over restrictions with exceptions.  

 

 

You can learn more about managing restrictions in Mews Operations here. 

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