Yes, I had to stop using the availability blocks as our Front Desk and reservations teams would get so confused as to why it should plenty of rooms on the timeline and not on the availability screen.

Yes please, especially for availability blocks with status "confirmed". Blocks should have a dedicated color.

Availability Blocks:

1. Can these please - in some way - simply be visible in the Timeline?

2. Can this system please be adopted and clarified so that the terms - re e.g. which actor has responsibility/liability - become more understandable and consistent (re: free (or “Inquired”), “Picked-up”, “Optional” and “Confirmed” stages - respective “Guest”, “Companion”, “Customer”, “Company”, “Travel Agency”, “Booker” etc.)?

Background:

1. Hoteliers typically work with a timeline to get a quick clear overview re which rooms are:
(a) free (or merely “Inquired” = not blocked);
(b) “Optionally” booked (= blocked for public reservations);
(c) “Confirmed”.
Currently, only at the very late stage, merely when having been “Picked-up”, such reservations show in the Timeline (not shown at the “Optional” or even “Confirmed” stages). If only visible in the new, separate, “Availability Blocks” universe, viable overview will become impossible. The result will be confusion, double bookings etc. OR that the new system simply rather cannot be implemented.

2. The question is then to have an understandable terminology re the different:
(a) stages and (b) actors.

Three different typical group booking scenarios occur.

(i) The “Corporate” scenario:
A company is created. That company (legal entity, e.g. “ConfCo Ltd”) is RESPONSIBLE all the way through for the whole initial availability block, payment, cancellations etc. (i.e. regardless of if the MD or Donald Duck is entered as the contact person – him merely acting on behalf of ConfCo Ltd).

(ii) The “Private” scenario:
The initial Booker (often not a company but instead an individual e.g. a bridegroom) is merely responsible for creating a block in the system and maybe for rooming lists etc. Yet, it is then for each individual guest who reserves (“Picks up”) each particular room to be RESPONSIBLE for correctly selecting, paying, cancelling etc.

(iii) The “Agent” scenario:
This is very similar to the “Private” scenario. A travel agent or event agency (legal entity or individual) is registered in Mews and then merely responsible for creating a block in the system and maybe for rooming lists etc. Yet, it is then occasionally the principal among the guests (e.g. bridegroom) being responsible in some way, maybe for some deposit/minimum spend etc., but often simply for each individual guest who reserves (“Picks up”) each particular room to be RESPONSIBLE for correctly selecting, paying, cancelling etc.

The above, with merely the normal Timeline and Mews “manual”/old group booking methods, results in many different communication and interpretation issues. With the new special “Availability Blocks” system and terms, it become even more complex and confusing. Different methods are used to try to clarify to the different actors which responsibilities they have.
A general method concerning the STATUS of the rooms is to create a “cut-off” date. This would typically simple be a deadline for: 100% refund, payment and remaining rooms block release.
Then, concerning different actors’ RESPONSIBILITIES, there are also, even before now also introducing the “Picked-up” status etc. different concepts to try to clarify this. Below could be an example of the different actors’ responsibilities in an “Agent” scenario:
- Booker: notifies hotel per offer confirmation which guests shall have the Suites.
- Depositor: provides deposit, repayable per group check-out, presuming group stay exceeded deposit.
- Guest: reserves and pays each Room through direct hotel contact.

Not really clear why Mews now installed both “Optional” (why? understandably not possible to even create a Booking link or send a quote?) and “Confirmed” – whereby Confirmed is still for some reason not visible in Timeline – and then also the 3rd category “Picked up”.
We are then apparently forced to immediately create a “Confirmed” Availability Block to even be able to send a Booking Engine Link to the client company. Then those rooms are however not confirmed at all but merely optional, invisible in Timeline and available to be (individually) legally confirmed – which legal confirmation is now instead called “Picked up” (as opposed to normal Mews Timeline speech = “Confirmed”).
The fact that a company has agreed to block 10 rooms and then 1 room of that is “picked-up” by/for an individual, could hardly switch the initial legal obligation from a “Corporate” scenario; i.e. change the responsibility from the company to that individual. Alternatively, the new Mews Availability Blocks setup now intends to result in that each individual should opt (“pick”) each respective blocked room and thereby also be obliged to pay for it individually?
In other words, there are two different aspects there:
(a) “pick-up” (understandably meani