Before we go into the details on how to create a restriction, we first need to decide if this should be a tactical or a strategic one.
Tactical restrictions assist you to effectively revenue manage specific nights where either you want to restrict low value business or distribute high demand over to low-performing shoulder nights.
Strategic restrictions are rate plan level restriction and, generally a restriction inferred from the rate plan definition. Additionally, restrictions in FLYR are applied using a system of buckets. A bucket is a grouping mechanism that allows you to assign specific rate plans to it. Once a restriction is applied to a bucket, it affects all rate plans within that bucket, providing flexibility in managing restrictions across multiple rate plans efficiently.
It is important to remember that FLYR optimizes tactical restrictions. During the optimization, FLYR will account for the strategic restrictions defined for the property and ensures that a less restrictive restriction will never be recommended vs. what you have strategically defined. So, if you want to add a restriction but wish for FLYR to optimize it and potentially recommend to remove it again if deemed necessary, make sure you are creating a tactical restriction. For more details, check out this article.
Create a strategic restriction
Navigate to Configuration > Strategic Restrictions. To create a restriction in FLYR, you can make use of the Add new button in the top right corner.
FLYR currently supports three different restriction types with three possible options. Depending on your PMS capabilities, not all restriction types and options are available.
Restriction Types
Arrival restrictions
Stay restrictions
Departure restrictions
Restriction Type Options - can be applied to each chosen restriction type
Closed
Minimum Length of Stay
Maximum Length of Stay
Next, select whether you wish to make this restriction at the Bucket or Rate Plan level.
Restriction Levels
Bucket
Rate Plan
Finally, choose which inventories and buckets or rate plans you'd like to apply the restriction to. You can select multiple inventories and rate plans at once. But make sure to double-check that you've selected all the right ones.
Hit Create Strategic Restriction and you're done đ You will now see your restriction in the list! Note: If you encounter an error notification mentioning a specific inventory type, it indicates that the restriction was not successfully applied to the entire rate plan. This often suggests that the bucket configuration or rate plan assignment needs to be reviewed.
Create a tactical restriction
Once you have classified your rate plans, you can create a tactical restriction from any of the Optimization tabs by clicking on Actions and selecting New Tactical from the Restrictions section.
Here are the different type of tactical actions are at your disposal:
Arrival LOS - Create or edit an arrival-based LOS restriction
Stay LOS - Create or edit a stay-based LOS restriction
Indicate in the Level selector whether you wish to restrict at the Bucket or Rate Plan level: If you notice that a restriction is only affecting one rate plan, it may be because only that rate plan is assigned to the bucket. To ensure the restriction applies to multiple rate plans, assign the relevant rate plans to the appropriate buckets.
Restriction Levels
Bucket
Rate Plan
Finally, choose which inventories and buckets or rate plans you'd like to apply the restriction to. You can select multiple inventories and buckets or rate plans at once. But make sure to double-check that you've selected all the right ones.
Hit Create Tactical Restriction and you're done đ You will now see your restriction in the table! Note: If you encounter an error notification mentioning a specific inventory type, it indicates that the restriction was not successfully applied to the entire rate plan. This often suggests that the bucket configuration or rate plan assignment needs to be reviewed.
You can also click & drag across multiple buckets, inventories, and date ranges directly on in the table to quickly create a tactical restriction for your selection. The selected dates and inventory types will be automatically pre-filled to assist the creation of restrictions.
Best Practices for Managing Rate Plan Restrictions
Organize Rate Plans Effectively: Use buckets to group rate plans logically based on your business needs.
Regularly Review Assignments: Ensure that all relevant rate plans are assigned to the correct buckets.
Monitor Error Notifications: Pay attention to error messages related to inventory restrictions and address them promptly by reviewing your bucket configurations.
Test Changes: Before applying restrictions broadly, test them on a smaller scale to ensure they work as intended.
