Group blocks vs allotments: what is the difference and how to manage both

Two ways to hold rooms without guest names

Both a group block and an allotment reserve inventory for someone who will send names later. The difference is who carries the risk if the rooms are not used.

Group blocks: pickup and attrition

A block of 30 rooms for a conference is a promise, not a sale. What matters is pickup: how many of the 30 have turned into named bookings. The contract usually contains:

• ●A cut-off date, typically 21 to 30 days before arrival, after which unclaimed rooms go back to general sale.
• ●An attrition clause, allowing the group to reduce the block by a percentage (often 10 to 20%) without penalty. Below that, the group pays for the missing rooms.

Track pickup weekly. A block at 40% pickup two weeks before cut-off needs a phone call, not a surprise on arrival day.

Allotments: release dates

An allotment gives a partner a number of rooms per night, for example 5 double rooms every night from May to September, with a release period, say 7 days. Rooms not booked by the partner 7 days before the night go back to the hotel's inventory automatically.

The risk is the opposite of a block: if the release is too short, the hotel is left with rooms it can no longer sell at a good price. Set release periods by season: short in low season, longer in peak.

The mistakes that cost the most

1. Blocks entered as fake bookings. They inflate occupancy reports and hide real availability.
2. Releases done by hand. Somebody forgets, and rooms stay held for a partner who will never fill them.
3. Rooming lists retyped. Twenty names typed from an email is twenty chances of a typo in a passport number.

In FrontDesk

FrontDesk keeps blocks and allotments as inventory, not as fake bookings, releases allotment rooms automatically at the release date and imports rooming lists from a spreadsheet. See the guides on rooming lists and allotment management.