This screen allows you to determine what is included in the block request and how it should be completed.
If the event uses multiple locales, then you can optionally translate the wording to ensure that the sub-block contact can view the request in their preferred locale.
Select either Rooms per night by hotel, Rooms per night, or Rooms from available free-sell (At this time, this option applies to Early Adopters only). If Rooms per night by hotel is selected, the Hotel Options section will appear and allow you to select which hotels will be made available to each Sub-block Group.
In the Request Criteria and Request Settings sections, turn on the criteria that will be included in the request by selecting the On/Off switch next to the desired criteria and adding the desired options.
The options for Private and Public Block requests are:
Rooms per night by hotel. Responders will be asked to provide their request per night for each hotel you present to them, from the list of hotels added to the event.
Rooms per night. Responders will be asked to provide their total number of rooms per night across all hotels.
An additional option is:
Rooms from available free-sell. (At this time, this option applies to Early Adopters only) Responders will be allowed to request room blocks at hotels and rooms that you select to display, based on rules you determine.
The first two options are similar and discussed below, followed by the last option.
When either Rooms per night by hotel or Rooms per night are selected, the following settings apply.
This section determines most of the content of the request that the contact will respond to.
The following options allow you to define a list of items from which the respondent can choose. By default, the choices include price range, hotel type, and room preferences.
Price Range. Add Price Range to your sub-block request. The contact can optionally provide price preferences. This setting is more commonly used for the Rooms per night option.
Hotel Type. Add your custom Hotel Type. The contact can optionally provide hotel preferences.
NOTE: The hotels you provide are simply a list and are not directly connected to any hotels you may have added to the event. This setting is more commonly used for the Rooms per night option.
Room Preferences. Add Rooms to your sub-block request. The contact can optionally provide room preferences.
NOTE: The rooms you provide are simply a list and are not directly connected to any hotels you may have added to the event.
When you turn ON these options, a new section appears at the bottom of the page.
For each of these options:
If you would like to change the label that is shown to the respondent,
click the pencil (
) icon.
TIP: The Price Range, Hotel Type, and Room Preferences criteria can be customized by clicking on the edit icon. This allows you to gather different criteria than just the defaults.
If multiple locales are used in the event, you can provide translations
by clicking the globe (
) icon.
Adding Preferences:
Enter a label (e.g. Price Range) and then select Add.
TIP: The preferences will be shown the respondent in alphabetical order
To edit a preference, select the pencil icon (), make a change, and then select
the save (
)
To provide translations when multiple locales are used in the
event, select the globe ()
and enter translations for the locales
Turn a preference OFF if you want to effectively hide it from all future respondents. For example, this may be useful if a hotel or room preference is no longer available.
Several other options can be added to the request form.
Max No. of Hotels. Allows the respondent to select a number from 1 to 5 indicating the maximum number of hotels they wish to be assigned to.
Meeting Space. Allows the respondent to select whether or not they will require meeting space. This question will show with a Yes or No answer and ask for a room capacity they need (in persons).
Free-text preferences. Adds a free-text box to the request form for the respondent to add any preferences they may need.
There are several types of instructions that accompany the form.
Customize Instructions. Customize your instructions for the contact to assist them with completing the request. These are shown at the top of the form. Select the edit icon to type in custom instructions. If multiple locales are used in the event, you can provide translations by clicking the globe icon.
Customize Receipt Instructions. Customize instructions that are shown to the contact on submitting their request, and which appear in an automated receipt email. Select the edit icon to type in custom instructions. If multiple locales are used in the event, you can provide translations by clicking the globe icon.
Change organization field label. Allows you to customize the standard label Organization to something more appropriate to your needs (e.g. Team or Company). This label is part of a required field that the contact supplies when they respond.
Close to Web Until Planner Accepts. This setting defaults to ON, in which case all of the sub-blocks associated to the sub-block group are closed to web reservations when you notify the contact of their room allocations. This prevents the contact from making reservations with the attendee website until they select the button Accept room assignment within their notification, which effectively opens the blocks to web reservations. If this setting is turned OFF, then the block sell status is not changed when notification is sent to the contact.
IMPORTANT: If this setting is ON, the Allocation Notification campaign must include the link (provided in the default template) in order for a contact / sub-block group planner to accept their allocation. This link should not be removed or else the block will remain closed unless manually opened by the event organizer.
TIP: Use this setting in conjunction with Event: Inventory Settings to define a Release to Free-Sell date(s) for your sub-blocks. This will ensure that inventory you have sub-blocked is returned to free-sell at some point of your choosing. This date can also be communicated to the contact within the notification email or the Request Allocation email campaign.
The settings for this type of block request are different from the others and are described in this section.
Set Display number of available rooms to Yes if you would like to show what is available to the contact (based on request, hotel, and room level limits) as they are shopping for hotels and rooms on the website. Select No if you just want to show that a night is available but not how many rooms are left.
Under Requests must be approved select Yes if you would like to manually approve any incoming requests for rooms, or No if the contact can obtain a room block automatically after checking out of the requester website. (NOTE: Manual approval (Yes) is not yet available in the early adopter phase, but is a planned feature.)
Use the Change organization field label to decide how the label for "Organization" is displayed to the contact on the Requester Website. For example, you might want to use "Team" (or other wording) instead.
Finally, decide if you want to Require requester to accept room block before reservation open if you want the contact to review policies and explicitly accept their room blocks before they can start creating reservations in those blocks. (NOTE: In the early adopter phase, this option does not yet have any impact, but is a planned feature.)
Use this section to provide tailored wording to your contacts as they use the requester website to secure their room blocks.
Request introduction is shown to contacts just starting to search for hotels/rooms and can be used for any messaging you want them to see. If multiple locales are used in the event, you can provide translations by clicking the globe icon. (NOTE: This message is not shown to contacts on the requester website in the early adopter phase, but may be entered. This feature is coming soon.)
The Confirmation page message is shown to the contact after they have finished requesting room blocks and within the confirmation email. If multiple locales are used in the event, you can provide translations by clicking the globe icon. This message might be used to describe to provide contact information or next steps in the process.
When contacts submit requests for room blocks on the website, a sub-block group is created with the contact as the planner. At the same time, sub-blocks are created by allocating rooms to an attendee type that is newly created for the contact.
By default, the attendee type name comes from what the contacts enter as their organization (e.g. Team Blue, or ABC Technologies).
NOTE: If you need to change an attendee type or sub-block group name, this can be done by after the block request is submitted in the Advanced Options > Attendee Type page and the Planners > Sub-block Group page.
In Create attendee type name you can optionally add a prefix for attendees who are invited to the requester website (e.g. TEAM - ).
TIP: This can be useful to help standardize the names or, if you have multiple housing requests, to help organize the resulting attendee types. For example, you might have a survey of exhibitors with prefix "EXH - " and resulting names like "EXH - ABC Technologies". Or a team survey with prefix "TEAM - " and resulting names like "TEAM-Lexington Lions".
Guarantee type allows you to select the default guarantee type that will be associated with attendees that are created as part of the request (e.g. Credit Card). You can select any plans that are set up in the event.
The remaining options are the same as those shown when adjusting attendee types.