Control Inventory Using Inventory Pools

• To ensure multi-day product inventory is available on a guest's selected days, Inntopia performs a multi-day inventory check during searches and prior to check-out.
• To use multi-day inventory products with inventory pools, you must request the Multi-Day Inventory Controls feature be activated by Inntopia staff for each sales channel in which you plan to use these features.
• When the Multi-day Inventory Controls setting is enabled and the Number of Days is properly set for your multi-day products, the Inntopia system does the following:
  • When performing a search in Inntopia CRS or Inntopia YieldView, the system checks the pooled inventory levels for all days for which the product is valid. For example, the system will only offer a three-day ticket for sale that starts on Dec 1 when there’s sufficient inventory for Dec 1, 2, and 3.
    Show Me Search Result Scenarios

    The following scenarios demonstrate how search results are impacted when Multi-Day Inventory Controls are enabled.

    Scenario 1: Search for Two-Day Ticket Starting on 12/1

    Even though 12/1 has 40 tickets available, the search results will show a quantity of 11 two-day tickets available as that is the lowest amount available for both days of the search criteria.

    Available Inventory
    Product/Day	12/1	12/2	12/3	12/4	12/5
    One-Day Ticket	40	11	5	0	5
    Two-Day Ticket	40	11	5	0	5
    Three-Day Ticket	40	11	5	0	5
    Four-Day Ticket	40	11	5	0	5
    Five-Day Ticket	40	11	5	0	5

    Scenario 2: Search for Three-Day Ticket Starting on 12/1

    Even though 12/1 and 12/2 have 40 and 11 tickets available respectively, the search results will show a quantity of five three-day tickets available as that is the lowest amount available for all three days of the search criteria.

    Available Inventory
    Product/Day	12/1	12/2	12/3	12/4	12/5
    One-Day Ticket	40	11	5	0	5
    Two-Day Ticket	40	11	5	0	5
    Three-Day Ticket	40	11	5	0	5
    Four-Day Ticket	40	11	5	0	5
    Five-Day Ticket	40	11	5	0	5

    Scenario 3: Search for Five-Day Ticket Starting on 12/1

    Even though inventory is available for four of the five days in the search criteria, the search results will not show any five-day tickets available because one of the five days of the search criteria has zero tickets available.

    Available Inventory
    Product/Day	12/1	12/2	12/3	12/4	12/5
    One-Day Ticket	40	11	5	0	5
    Two-Day Ticket	40	11	5	0	5
    Three-Day Ticket	40	11	5	0	5
    Four-Day Ticket	40	11	5	0	5
    Five-Day Ticket	40	11	5	0	5

  • When reserving an itinerary in Inntopia CRS or eComm, the system checks the pooled inventory levels on all days for which the product is valid. For example, if an attempt is made to purchase a three-day ticket starting on Dec 1, but inventory pool is sold out on Dec 1, 2, or 3, the system will display an error.
  • When reserving a product, the system decrements the pooled inventory levels for all days for which the product is valid. For example, reserving a three-day ticket starting on Dec 1 will decrement the pooled inventory levels for Dec 1, 2, and 3.

The following scenarios show one multi-day inventory pool made up of One-, Two-, and Three-Day Adult and Child tickets available over a Number of Days span of three consecutive days with a starting inventory of 2000. (One-day tickets can be included in multi-day inventory.)

Scenario 1: Sell Single, One-Day Adult Ticket Starting on 12/1

With a starting inventory of 2000, even though the sale was for a One-Day Adult ticket, all tickets in the inventory pool for 12/1 are deprecated by one.

Available Inventory
Product/Day	12/1	12/2	12/3
One-Day Adult Ticket	1999	2000	2000
Two-Day Adult Ticket	1999	2000	2000
Three-Day Adult Ticket	1999	2000	2000
One-Day Child Ticket	1999	2000	2000
Two-Day Child Ticket	1999	2000	2000
Three-Day Child Ticket	1999	2000	2000

Scenario 2: Sell Single, Two-Day Child Ticket starting on 12/1

With a starting inventory of 2000, even though the sale was for a Two-Day Child ticket, all tickets in the inventory pool for 12/1 and 12/2 are deprecated by one.

Available Inventory
Product/Day	12/1	12/2	12/3
One-Day Adult Ticket	1999	1999	2000
Two-Day Adult Ticket	1999	1999	2000
Three-Day Adult Ticket	1999	1999	2000
One-Day Child Ticket	1999	1999	2000
Two-Day Child Ticket	1999	1999	2000
Three-Day Child Ticket	1999	1999	2000

Scenario 3: Sell Single, Three-Day Adult Ticket Starting on 12/1

With a starting inventory of 2000, even though the sale was for a Three-Day Adult ticket, all tickets in the inventory pool for 12/1, 12/2, and 12/3 are deprecated by one.

Available Inventory
Product/Day	12/1	12/2	12/3
One-Day Adult Ticket	1999	1999	1999
Two-Day Adult Ticket	1999	1999	1999
Three-Day Adult Ticket	1999	1999	1999
One-Day Child Ticket	1999	1999	1999
Two-Day Child Ticket	1999	1999	1999
Three-Day Child Ticket	1999	1999	1999

Start- and end-time booking restrictions for time-based products in the same inventory pools can (but are not required to) be used to provide a behind-the-scenes time buffer surrounding the actual product start times. This time buffer allows an activity provider time between guests to clean, set up, reorganize, etc. without the risk of double-booking.

For example, your company offers one-hour archery lessons at 8, 9, 10, and 11 am, and 12 pm. The instructor needs approximately one hour before and after each lesson to prepare for the next lesson.

A guest reserves Archery Lesson 9–10 am. Due to the 60-minute booking restriction on either side of the 9 am lesson start time and 10 am end time, availability for Archery Lesson 8 – 9 am, Archery Lesson 10 – 11 am, and Archery Lesson 11 am – 12 pm are deprecated and those products are no longer available to book. The next available lesson becomes Archery Lesson 12 – 1 pm.

Note: To allow availability of sequential time-based products, Inntopia recommends entering end times of one minute before the start time of the subsequent product. For example, Product A starts at 8 am and ends at 8:59 am, Product B starts at 9 am and ends at 9:59 am, Product C starts at 10 am and ends at 10:59 am and so forth.

• Time-based inventory pool products are supported for non-integrated products and one-way integrated products only.
• Inventory and rates for time-based inventory pool products must be entered in Inntopia RMS.
• Since time-based inventory products are pooled and share inventory, inventory only needs to be updated in the Tape Chart for one of the products in the pool. It does not matter to which product inventory is added or updated; however, updating one product will update the inventory for all products in the pool.
• Rates are entered individually for each product and can be different across the products.

If time-based inventory products are cancelled, in some cases, inventory may be over-allocated.

As a best practice to prevent over allocation, enter the Quantity Available booking restriction for each time-based product in an inventory pool. If the pool quantity is increased or decreased in the Tape Chart, you must update each product’s Quantity Available restriction to reflect the change.

For example, if the inventory pool has a quantity of two, set each product’s Quantity Available restriction to two. If the inventory is then increased to four, the Quantity Available of each product must also be increased to four.

Updating inventory for one product in a pool updates the inventory for all products in the inventory pool.

1. To load or reduce individual inventory for a pool:
   1. Open the Tape Chart and, on the Availability tab, highlight the date(s) for which you want to update inventory for any product contained within the pool.
   2. Right click in the highlighted box and in the pop-up box, enter the number that represents the total available inventory of the pool.
2. To bulk load inventory to a pool:
   1. Open the Tape Chart and select the Bulk Load option.
   2. Select any product contained within the pool.
   3. Enter the number that represents the total available inventory of the pool.
      
3. To refresh the display of pooled products in the Tape Chart after an update, click Go. The inventory for all products in the pool is updated.

Note: When adding product inventory to a pool that has existing inventory, the existing inventory does not get merged into a new inventory total; therefore, you must manually update the availability of one of the products within the pool with the new total inventory (existing inventory + new inventory) for that day.

If you do not update the inventory total, the newly added inventory will remain assigned to the individual products rather than the inventory pool.

For example, if your pool has existing adult tickets with an availability of 21 on 12/1 and you add child tickets that have an availability of 15, you must manually update the inventory to 36 for that day.

1. From the Inntopia RMS home page, click the Products tab. The Products page appears with your available products listed in the Products column.
2. In the Products column, find the product you want to work with that is currently associated with an inventory pool and, in the Settings column, click on that product’s drop-down list and click Inventory Pool. The Editing Inventory Pool: <Product Name> window appears listing all the products associated with the same pool as the product you are working with.

3. 

   To remove a product from the pool, click on that product's corresponding Delete icon and in the Are you sure? confirmation box, click OK. The product is removed from the inventory pool and no longer appears in the list.
4. When you are finished removing products, click Close.

You can delete an entire inventory pool which will also remove all products from the pool.

1. From the Inntopia RMS home page, click the Products tab. The Products page appears with your available products listed in the Products column.
2. In the Products column, find the product you want to work with that is currently associated with an inventory pool and, in the Settings column, click on that product’s drop-down list and click Inventory Pool. The Editing Inventory Pool: <Product Name> window appears listing all the products associated with the same pool as the product you are working with.

3. 

   To delete the entire inventory pool, click Delete Group. A warning message appears asking if you are sure you want to delete the entire inventory pool.

   

4. Click OK. The inventory pool is deleted and all products that were previously assigned to it are no longer associated with that inventory pool.

Note: Deleting an inventory pool does not remove its associated products from the Inntopia system nor does it change any inventory levels for each product included in the deleted pool.