Every department asks for rooms in one place
Each department lead gets a private link to a page holding only their team’s rooms. They add rooms, paste a list, or upload the spreadsheet they already keep — and when a change would cost you something, it lands in your Approvals queue instead of happening quietly.
A department room request portal is a private page where a team’s lead submits the rooms they need for an event. In Blocks, each lead gets their own link with no login, sees only their team’s rooms and the names still owed, and every edit is checked against five rules that decide whether it applies straight away or comes to you to approve.
“Nine departments send me their room needs nine different ways — email bodies, attachments, a text at midnight.”
Every lead works in the same place: their own private link. They can add rooms in a table, paste a list, or upload the spreadsheet their team already keeps, and it all lands against the same event.
“A department quietly changed a room the hotel had already confirmed, and I found out at check-in.”
Once the hotel has a room, a lead’s edit stops applying on its own and becomes a change request in your Approvals queue — with the reason it landed there stated on the card.
“Every year one team asks for twice what they used last year, and I only notice when the invoice arrives.”
Give each department its allotted nights, seeded from last year’s list. The lead sees the allotment on their own page and is told before they save when a room goes over it.
“I do not want department leads seeing each other’s rooms — or seeing what any of it costs.”
A lead’s page shows only their own team’s rooms. Money is off by default and opt-in per lead, so a cost column appears only for the leads you choose to show it to.
What is a department room request portal?
It is a private page where one department lead submits the rooms their team needs for an event, without an account, a password, or access to anything else. You turn department portals on for an event — the choice is one setting per event, and each department can be set to Off, view only, or the full portal — then send each lead their link. What they open is a single page holding every room their team has requested, the guest names still owed, and, if you have opted that lead in, a running cost. They never see another department’s rooms and they never see your whole event. Bigger teams can be split into sub-groups, each with its own link and its own progress, so a production department and its three crews can work in parallel without stepping on each other. A lead who runs the same team across several events gets an event switcher rather than a folder of stale links. And the link stays live while they are using it, so the page they bookmarked in March still works in September.
How do department leads submit room requests without a login?
Three ways, and they choose. They can add rooms one at a time in a table — dates, room type, how many, who is in them. They can paste a list of names straight in. Or they can upload the spreadsheet their team already keeps, in whatever shape it already lives in: Blocks reads every tab, tallies the people and the rooms it found, flags any date it had to fill in or a room type it did not recognise, and shows the lead the whole thing to review before a single row is applied. Where a sheet gives every person their own row and names their roommate in a column, the two rows collapse into one room with two occupants — but only when they name each other and agree on room type, dates and who is paying. Anything less certain is raised as a question rather than merged on a guess, and both people’s notes survive onto the merged room. A lead can also record a hotel preference for their team, which reaches you as advice rather than an instruction, and their guests’ hotel loyalty numbers alongside the names.
Can I stop a department asking for more rooms than they had last year?
Yes — that is what allotments are for. Each department gets a window of dates and a number of allotted nights per room, which you can seed from last year’s list when you build the event from it. The lead sees the window at the top of their own page and an allotment on each row — "Allotted Oct 5 to Oct 9 · 4 nights" — so the limit is visible while they work rather than announced afterwards. When a room they are about to save goes past it, they are told before they save: "2 nights more than allotted — this will need your coordinator’s approval." You can also cap how many rooms a department may request outright, with a "Request more rooms" button that sends the ask to you instead of silently failing. Nothing here blocks a lead from telling you what they need. It changes who decides — the lead asks, you answer, and the record shows both.
What happens when a department changes a room after the hotel has it?
It becomes a change request instead of a change. Five rules decide, and all five are evaluated on every save: the room goes over the department’s allotted nights, the hotel already has that room, the change is past the hotel’s cut-off, it is past your own internal change deadline, or it is a brand-new room. The same rules run in the lead’s dialog and on the server, so the lead is told what will happen before they save rather than discovering it later — the page names the reason in plain words, like "The hotel has confirmed this room" or "Past your change deadline". Everything else applies straight away and is recorded as a receipt, so you can still see it happened. The internal change deadline is your own date, set ahead of the hotel’s cut-off, per event: on and after it, a lead’s edits stop applying on their own. You are never gated by it — your own edits always apply. A lead who adds a room by mistake can withdraw it themselves while it is still undecided, or edit it, and your queue keeps one card for the room rather than a stack.
How do I approve or turn down a department’s change?
In the Approvals queue, grouped by department, one card per request. Each card says which room, why it landed there, what it costs in room nights, the lead’s own note, and who will be emailed — stated before the buttons, not after. The diff is three-way, because two things can move at once: a field that already matches what they asked for is marked "Already done" so approving it changes nothing; a field that moved on your side since they asked is marked "Changed since they asked" and shows all three values — when they asked, what they asked for, and what is there now. Where a field moved on both sides, you pick per field, and nothing is pre-selected. Approve stays disabled until every conflict is answered, because a default choice is an automatic merge wearing your name. Then Approve, Reject, or Send back with a question — a note is required, the lead gets it by email with your question leading, and the row on their page shows it quoted so they can answer. If a coordinator takes the change by phone instead, "Log this as an approved change" puts it in the record so it still shows the department asked.
How do I see which departments still owe me names?
The Requests tab carries a Names Provided count per department — "18 of 24" — so the gap is a number you can read rather than a thread you have to re-read. Send a reminder to one department, or remind everyone behind, and the mail goes out Blocks-branded on your click. A badge in the navigation tells you when changes are waiting on your decision, so the Approvals queue does not need checking on a schedule. And you can ask: "which departments are waiting on my decision?" gets you the list from Ask Blocks, reading the same queue you would. Deciding stays in the tab on purpose — an assistant cannot prove which live values you read on the card, so the approve button belongs to a person. Department leads get their own view of the same gap: a confirm-your-numbers bar on their page, and a progress figure per sub-group, so they can see what is outstanding on their side without asking you.
Frequently asked questions
Each department lead gets a private link to a page holding only their team’s rooms. They add rooms, paste a list, or upload the spreadsheet they already keep — and when a change would cost you something, it lands in your Approvals queue instead of happening quietly.
What is a department room request portal?
Do department leads need a Blocks account?
Can a department lead change a room after the hotel has been sent the list?
Can I limit how many rooms a department requests?
Do department leads see what the rooms cost?
Can departments collect travel details for their people?
Have more questions? Check our glossary of terms or get in touch.
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