Allotment block

A set of rooms held back in the PMS for a group, an event or a contracted partner, so general availability cannot sell them.

A block is normally defined as a number of rooms of a given room type, held between two dates, against a rate. Rooms inside the block are picked up one at a time as individual members of the group book, and whatever is left releases back to general availability on a cut-off date you set.

Two things to watch. Holding by room type means you have reserved a count, not specific rooms, so a group that cares which rooms it gets still needs manual assignment. And a block left to release too late is unsold inventory you could have sold to someone else, so the cut-off date matters as much as the block itself.

Some systems now let a block be held against named room units rather than only by room type, which gives the group the rooms it asked for at the cost of a tighter constraint on your availability.