Support Home Property Management System Setup Category & Area Category Category

Category Classifications

The class selected on the category defines its type and will change the options and features available for the category and any areas in it.

The following category classifications are available in RMS:

Accommodation

Accommodation areas are spaces that are used as a resting place or living space in permanent or semi-permanent roofed structures.

Accommodation categories are ordinarily booked per night and have the option to be setup as book by day with options for hourly bookings.

Use this category class for apartments, cabins, dorms, houses, rooms, shared accommodation, units, or other roofed structures.

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Add On

The Add On category class sets areas as extra bookable items that must be booked in conjunction with another category class.

Use this category class for car parks, cots, roll away beds, or any other extra item that requires inventory management.

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Dock

The dock category classification defines the areas as spaces used to berth water vessels and includes additional options to manage the boats or vessels that may be berthed there.

Used by marina properties or properties that include water vessel berthing.

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Facility

Areas in a Facility category are used as event spaces with Event Management or activity spaces that can be booked per hour or per day.

Use this category class for community halls, conference rooms, wedding venues, function venues, tennis courts, squash courts, quad bikes, jet skis, or paddle boats.

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Site

Sites are land allocations used for portable habitats provided by the guest.

Use this category class for powered or unpowered campsites, pitches, or fields available for caravans or tents.

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Ticketing

The ticketing category class is used with Tour Desk to manage tour inventory.

A ticketing category can be used for the venue, vessel, or vehicle with areas as the individual seats or spots that can be booked within that space.

Use ticketing with Tour Desk for venues or vehicles including arenas, concert halls, shuttle buses, tour buses, and theatres.

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Category Options

Category setup includes a wide variety of options and features that can be used for different property types and operational requirements.

Many of the additional options on the category only apply to specific modules, interfaces, or property types and may not apply to your property.

More information on configuration variations and category options not mentioned in this article can be found in Advanced Category Options or the related topic article.

Guest Description

The guest description is an optional field on the category setup that can be used for guest facing correspondence, portals and the RMS Internet Booking Engine to display the category name differently to the actual category description in RMS.

Enterprise customers adding a property prefix to the category description can use the guest description field to nominate what the category is known as in any guest facing area.

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Maximum Occupants Per Area

The value entered as the maximum occupants per area will determine the maximum number of guests a reservation can have in any area from this category.

This option can be used in conjunction with the Default Reservation Options to determine the behaviour on a reservation when the number of guests entered exceeds the cap set on the category.

Based on the reservation option set and the value entered as the cap per area a warning may be displayed on reservation save when the number of guests exceeds the total permitted for an area in that category.

The reservation option selected will determine if RMS will prevent the reservation being saved with a number of guests above the cap or if the user will be warned with an option to proceed anyway.

Use the maximum occupants per area to define the capacity for each individual area in a category.

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Maximum Occupants Per Category

The value entered as the maximum occupancy per category applies collectively to all reservations in the category at any one time irrespective of the number of guests in any one area.

The combination of reservations in any area in the category will be used to determine when the cap is reached and will prevent additional reservations being saved even if the area is physically vacant.

The category cap overrides the area cap and applies across the entire category instead of any one individual area.

Set the maximum occupants per area to define the total number of persons that can occupy any one space in the category or the maximum occupants per category to define a limit that incorporates all areas in the calculation.

Use the maximum occupants per category to define the total capacity permitted in the category at any one time regardless of the individual area capacity or area availability.

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Book by Night vs Book by Day

The booked by option selected on the category will determine the default reservation behaviour and the way reservations are represented in the category or areas.

Book by night can be used for any category class where the reservation duration is overnight where the arrive date and depart date will not be the same date.

A reservation in a category that is setup as book by night will default the depart date to a different date from the arrive date.

Use book by night for accommodation and site category classes that are not rented by the hour or day and will continue through the night to the following day.

Book by day can be used for any category class where the reservation duration is per day, per hour, or part thereof where the arrive date and depart date will most often be the same date.

A reservation in a category that is setup as book by day will default the arrive and depart date to the same date.

Use book by day for dock, facility, or ticketing category classes where time spent in the space is calculated hourly, daily, or will start and end on the same date.

Use either book by day or book by night for the add on category class based on how the extra inventory item is reserved.

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Include on Housekeepers Report

The option to include the category on the Housekeepers Report applies when using Housekeeping in RMS.

A category selected to be included on the Housekeepers Report will be made available for all housekeeping features including reservation housekeeping schedules.

Leave this option unselected if not using Housekeeping or if using Housekeeping and excluding a particular category from housekeeping requirements.

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Book by Category

Book by Category enables creating a reservation in a category without immediately allocating a specific area.

Areas can be allocated any time prior to arrival directly on the reservation, on the Booking Chart, In/Out Movements, or in bulk using the Auto Area Allocation Utility.

When not used an area must always be selected on the reservation at the time of reservation creation.

Book by Category includes options for managing area allocation and the ability to allow overbooking with set limits.

Exclude from Auto Allocation

Areas can be allocated any time prior to arrival directly on the reservation, on the Booking Chart, In/Out Movements, or in bulk using the Auto Area Allocation Utility.

The Auto Area Allocation Utility enables bulk allocating areas to upcoming reservations using a series of selected rules and logic, including guest preferences and allocation priorities.

A category setup as book by category that is excluded from auto allocation will always require manual allocation of an area for any reservations in that category.

Use 'Exclude from Auto Allocation' with book by category to require reservations in a category to be manually allocated an area and never be included in the auto allocation using the utility.

Category Overbooking

Category Overbooking is a feature that is only available when the category is setup as 'Book by Category' to enable creating more reservations in a specific category than can be physically accommodated.

Overbooking limits can be set on the category to manage the maximum number of excess reservations that can be saved in a category above the physical area count with the added option to protect against Property Overbooking.

Allowing one or more categories to be overbooked and using Property Overbooking Protection will limit the total number of reservations at the property to never exceed the total physical capacity at the property.

STR Global Interface

STR Global offer business intelligence tools to provide insights on market and competitor trends.

The interface to STR Global is available to RMS customers at no additional cost.

Once activated RMS will provide two exports to STR each night at the specified times per region.

Region	Time
Americas	12:00 PM UTC
Middle East	11:00 PM UTC
Europe	02:00 AM UTC
Australasia & India	07:00 PM UTC

Only active Categories selected as 'Include in STR Global Interface' with Area Statistics set to 'Yes' are included in the exports.

Accommodation Revenue is Operational Revenue and provided as Nett figures to STR.

Food & Beverage Revenue follows the Operational Revenue calculations for charges where the General Ledger Account Code is allocated to a grouping labelled as 'Food & Beverage' or any common variation of.

The Forward Reservations Export includes all reservations for the next 365 days with the following information:

Unique Property Identifier
Forward Date
Property Available Areas
Property Total Areas Booked
Transient Areas Booked
Group Areas Booked
Property Name
Complimentary & House Reservations

The Historical Data Export is generated for the current date and previous seven days with the following information:

Unique Property Identifier
Data Date
Property Areas Available
Property Areas Sold
Property Accommodation Revenue
Total Revenue
Food & Beverage Revenue
Currency Code
Property Name
Complimentary & House Reservations

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Interconnecting

An Interconnecting Category is used for areas that can be booked individually or combined to create a larger area with different pricing structures.

Use an interconnecting category for dorm-style accommodation, rooms that can be booked separately or combined as a larger space by a connecting door, or holiday house rentals that can be booked as individual rooms sharing spaces with other guests or as the whole house.

Interconnecting area combinations can be configured in multiple ways, with different combinations of the same areas for a wide variety of conjoining accommodation options.

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Reservations and behaviour of interconnecting areas are different to standalone areas.

See Interconnecting Category for more information on interconnecting categories and areas in RMS.

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Setup Category

Have your System Administrator complete the following.

Go to Setup > Category/Area in the side menu of RMS.
Select a Property.
Select the 'Add' icon.
Enter a Category Description.
Optional: Enter a Guest Description.¹
Optional: Enter a Long Description.
Optional: Enter the Maximum Occupants Per Area.²
Optional: Enter the Maximum Occupants Per Category.³
Select a General Ledger Account Code.
Select a Category Class.
Select a Booked By option.
Optional: Select the checkbox 'Include on Housekeepers Report'.⁴
Optional: Select the checkbox 'Use Booking by Category'.⁵
1. Optional: Select the checkbox 'Exclude in Auto Allocation'.⁶
2. Optional: Select the checkbox 'Allow Overbooking' and enter the Category Overbooking Cap.⁷
Optional: Select the checkbox 'Include in STR Global Interface'.⁸
Optional: Navigate to the 'Extra Details' tab.
1. Optional: Select a Grouping.
Save/Exit.
Select the Category Access and choose the 'Apply/Exit' icon.
Continue to Area Setup.

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Additional Information

More information on configuration variations and category options not mentioned in this setup can be found in Advanced Category Options or the related topic article.

An overbooking limit set to '0' will allow infinite overbooking in the category and will require a Maximum Property Oversell or Do Not Overbook Property to manage the overall permitted excess reservations permitted at the property.

'Category' and 'Area' are default System Labels that can be customised and may be named differently in your RMS.

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Access

System Administrators will require Security Profile access to 'Category/Area' to complete this setup.

Go to Setup > Category/Area in the side menu of RMS.

Select a Property.

Select the 'Add' icon.

Enter a Category Description.

Optional: Enter a Guest Description.¹

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The guest description determines the display name of the category for guests and can be used by enterprise customers including a property prefix in the category description.

Optional: Enter a Long Description.

Optional: Enter the Maximum Occupants Per Area.²

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Sets the limit of guests for each area in the category.

Optional: Enter the Maximum Occupants Per Category.³

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Sets the total limit of guests across all reservations for the category at any one time regardless of the individual area limit or the physical availability of the area.

Once the category cap is reached no further reservations can be made in that category for that date unless the number of guests changes or the category cap is removed.

Select a General Ledger Account Code.