Maximising availability through opportunities

Updated 1 month ago | 8 min read time
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Loading enough availability on our platform can help make sure you’re visible in as many guest searches as possible, which is essential to getting more bookings. We also share regular advice on actions you can take to maximise your availability.

What’s in this article

  1. Actionable advice to maximise availability
  2. Availability opportunities
  3. Where can I find these opportunities?

Actionable advice to maximise availability

We regularly scan the inventory on our platform and check for specific information, such as the last date you have rates and availability loaded for, or whether your rooms or units are open and bookable on certain dates. We use this data to advise you on specific actions – or ‘opportunities’ – that you can take to improve your property’s availability on our platform. These can lead to greater visibility in traveller searches and ultimately more bookings.

Go to your Opportunity Centre

Availability opportunities

Below is an overview of all the availability opportunities, as well as examples of when they arise and what action you should take.

  1. Property-level opportunities – these help make sure your property is available for bookings, by reminding you to add availability for future dates. Not taking action can have an adverse impact on your property’s overall visibility on our platform.
Example 1 Property may soon become unbookable and may be missing from guest searches for future dates
Message

Act now – your property will be unavailable for bookings in less than X days [X = 30, 90, 365]
Why does this happen?

Your property doesn’t have any rates and availability loaded beyond a certain date falling within this book window. This means guests cannot book your property for stays beyond this date.
Action required If you’re a connected partner, update your property’s availability for at least X days – and ideally for the next 365 days – via your Connectivity provider’s platform.
Action required If you only use the extranet, update your availability for future dates using the Bulk Edit tool from the List view calendar (under the Rates & Availability tab). You can also quickly replicate your existing rooms, rates, prices or restrictions for the next 365 days on the Copy Yearly Rates page (also under the Rates & Availability tab).
 
Example 2 Property is already unbookable and missing from all guest searches
Message

You are unavailable for bookings – add more availability right away
Why does this happen?

Your property doesn’t have any rates and availability loaded for any dates in the next 365 days. This means guests can’t search for or book your property on our platform.
Action required If you’re a connected partner, immediately add/update availability for at least one room-type for the next 365 days via your Connectivity provider’s platform.
Action required If you only use the extranet, update your availability for future dates using the Bulk Edit tool from the List view calendar (under the Rates & Availability tab). You can also quickly replicate your existing rooms, rates, prices or restrictions for the next 365 days on the Copy Yearly Rates page (also under the Rates & Availability tab).
 
  1. Opportunities to optimise your availability for specific dates – these are designed to help maximise your chances of capturing demand by alerting you when one or more of your rooms or units is missing from potential traveller searches. This can be due to a lack of inventory or to restrictions. These opportunities aren’t generated for your property as a whole, but rather for specific rooms or units and for specific dates. By taking action on these opportunities as soon as your rooms or units become eligible for them, you can continually optimise your existing inventory on our platform to capture upcoming demand and generate more bookings.
 
Example 3 There are upcoming high-priority dates where we see demand rising, but you don’t have sufficient availability to capture this
Message

The most popular dates in your area/your city
Why does this happen?

Your most popular rooms aren’t available on our platform for one or more of these high-priority dates. You could be losing out on potential bookings due to this.
Action required If you’re a connected partner, add at least one room to sell for the specified rooms and dates via your Connectivity provider’s platform.
Action required If you only use the extranet, you can see the eligible rooms and dates highlighted as part of the opportunity in Opportunity Centre. Clicking on ‘Take Action’ allows you to directly edit the inventory and prices of these rooms for the highlighted dates.
 
Example 4 Guests can’t find your property on certain dates because of the length-of-stay restrictions you’ve applied
Message

Update your minimum length of stay restriction to become visible to guests
Why does this happen?

The value of the minimum length of stay restriction applied on all rates for a room is greater than the number of consecutive available nights. For example, you’ve set an LOS restriction of three nights, but the room is only available for two. In this scenario, the room is completely unbookable.
Action required If you’re a connected partner, reduce or remove the restrictions for at least one active rate for the specified room and date via your Connectivity provider’s platform.
Action required If you only use the extranet, you can see the eligible rooms and dates highlighted as part of the opportunity in Opportunity Centre. Clicking on ‘Take Action’ shows you what lengths of stay are blocked and lets you directly edit the minimum LOS restrictions for these rooms and dates.

Where can I find these opportunities?

You can find opportunities in the Opportunity Centre in the extranet, as well as on the Availability Optimisation page. We’ll show you opportunities on these pages whenever your property becomes eligible for them.

If you work with a Connectivity provider and they’ve implemented our Opportunities API, you’ll see opportunities on their platform as well. You should always take the required action on your Connectivity provider’s platform, as the data from your provider will usually overwrite any changes you make to your availability in the Booking.com extranet or on the Pulse app. If you’d like to know more about this, we recommend checking with your provider.

Read this article if you’d like to learn more about how pricing and availability can bring you more business.

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