This month, we are launching exciting product updates in Lemax. Learn about the details below (available from September 24th, 2026).
Support Fixed Release Date on Contract Level
What’s new
You can now define a Release Date directly on the Contract level – the deadline by which unused (unbooked) allotment is returned to the hotel.
The release date can be set as a
- fixed (absolute) calendar date (new) or,
- relative offset in days before arrival
Only one rule is active per contract.
The resulting Release Date is then shown on allotment reservation items, on the Reservation items grid, in the Availability tooltip, and on the Operations report.
The newly defined Release Date plugs into the existing release calculation.
Please contact support@lemax.net for additional information for advisory services on how this update could be set up for your instance, or if you have any additional inquiries.
Problem being solved
Tour operators often work with pre-purchased seasonal hotel allotments that carry a fixed release date – the deadline by which unused rooms must be returned to the hotel.
Until now, Lemax handled allotment release only as a relative number of days before arrival, entered on the price list schedule and used only in the background. It was not visible or reportable. There was no way to record a fixed calendar release date (for example, 31 March) on the contract, and no way for operations to see or filter which allotments are due to be released.
Benefit for the users
- Record a hard, fixed calendar release date on the contract (e.g. 31 March), not just a relative offset.
- See the resolved Release Date directly on allotment reservation items and on the Reservation items grid.
- Filter the Operations report by Release Date range to find allotments approaching release and act in time.
- See the contract’s release rule at a glance — on the Contracts grid and in the Availability tooltip.
- Change the release date in one place (on the contract) when renegotiating more time with the hotel.
How it works
Item 1 – Release Date rule on the contract
A new Release Date tab on the contract, where you define the release rule: a fixed absolute date (new) or a relative offset in days before arrival. Only one rule is active at a time — activating one deactivates the others; there are no periods and no mixing. A fixed active rule overrides the relative release on the rooms; if no rule is active, items fall back to the relative release on the price list schedule (which always has at least 0, so there is always a computed date).
Item 2 – Release Date on reservation items
When an allotment item is created (regular or OPS), the system computes its Release Date from the active contract rule, resolves it to an absolute calendar date, and stores it (read-only) on the item.
It is shown only for allotment items — on-request items show no date.
It is refreshed on both manual and automatic recalculation, including when a dummy/estimate contract is replaced with the real hotel.
Item 3 – Visibility: grids and Availability tooltip
The Release Date appears as a column on the Reservation items grid.
The Contracts grid gets a Release date rule column showing the active rule (a fixed calendar date, or “X days before arrival”). The Availability tooltip surfaces the contract’s release rule – a new Fixed release date row for a fixed rule, and the existing Release period (days) row for a relative one.
Item 4 – Operations report
The Operations report gets a Release Date column and a date-range filter, so operations can list which allotments are due. On-request items display no data.
Item 5 – Booking flow (allotment consumption)
The release date plugs into the existing release calculation: if a booking falls within the release period (on or after the item’s release date), it does not consume the contract’s allotment – the same behaviour as the relative release today. The fixed date only changes how the release date is defined (an absolute date instead of days before arrival); the release mechanism itself is unchanged.
