By Ziyara.io Last updated October 13, 2026
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The Madinah hotel confirmed fourteen rooms in October. In January your operator forwards a short message: the release date passed on the 5th, the six rooms you had not named went back to the hotel, and anything new is at today's rate. Nobody did anything wrong. The date was in the agreement — second page, one line, in nobody's calendar.
Hotels and flights are the two largest costs in an Umrah package, and the hotel is the one with the most dates attached. Most of what goes wrong with them is not a bad hotel. It is a term nobody read twice.
The short answer: an allotment is a number of rooms held for you at an agreed rate until a release date. Before that date you can hand rooms back; after it you either own them or lose them, depending on what you signed. Know which of the three arrangements you have, put its dates where your team sees them every day, and never sell a room type the contract does not contain.
Three ways to hold rooms
| Arrangement | What you get | What you risk |
|---|---|---|
| Allotment | Rooms held at an agreed rate until a release date; what you have not confirmed by then goes back | Rooms disappear on the release date if nobody acted |
| Guaranteed block (commitment) | The rooms are yours for the dates, filled or not — often at a better rate | You pay for empty beds |
| Free sale / on request | You book room by room as pilgrims register, at the rate of the day | No guarantee of rooms or of price in the busy weeks |
Many agencies mix them: a small guaranteed block for the pilgrims they are sure of, an allotment on top for the rest. What matters is that everyone selling the package knows which rooms are which.
Why an Umrah group is harder than a holiday group
Two hotels in a row. The nights in Makkah and Madinah have to connect. Check-out in one city and check-in in the other belong to the same day, with a transfer of several hours between them.
The room mix is decided late. You contract quads, triples and doubles months ahead. Your pilgrims decide who shares with whom in the last weeks, and shared rooms stay single-gender unless a family takes one (see rooming lists for Umrah and Hajj groups).
The hotel comes before the visa. Since 10 June 2025, Umrah visas are issued only after the accommodation has been documented on Nusuk Masar, and the hotel has to be licensed by the Saudi Ministry of Tourism. An unlicensed apartment is not an option for visa holders, whatever it costs. The order of work is in Nusuk rules for Umrah agencies.
You are often one step away from the contract. In many cases the agreement is between your Saudi operator and the hotel, and you hold your rooms through the operator. Ask to see the terms that bind you, not a summary of them.
Nine terms to get in writing
- Dates and nights per hotel, with check-in and check-out times, and what happens when the flight lands at dawn.
- Rooms by type — how many quads, triples and doubles — and until when the mix may change.
- The rate per room per night, its currency, and what it includes: taxes and fees, breakfast or half board.
- The release date: the day unconfirmed rooms go back. Ask whether it is one date or several steps.
- Deposits and payment dates, and which of them are refundable.
- How many rooms you may hand back without a charge, and until when.
- Cancellation charges after the release date.
- The rooming list deadline, and until when a name can still be changed.
- What the hotel owes you if it cannot honour the booking: a hotel of the same class at the same distance, and a named person on site.
Add two things you will be glad to have later: the distance from the Haram as the hotel states it, and the confirmation number for your file.
An empty room costs more than you think
Take the example group from our pricing guides: 45 pilgrims, six nights in Makkah and four in Madinah. A group that size rarely fits into quads alone. With six quads, five triples and three doubles it needs fourteen rooms in each city.
| Amount | |
|---|---|
| One quad left empty for the whole trip (6 nights at €120, 4 nights at €100) | €1,120 |
| Margin on one pilgrim in the same example | €158.80 |
| Margin lost by turning away four pilgrims | €635.20 |
One unused quad costs more than the margin on seven pilgrims. Turning four pilgrims away because you held one room too few costs €635. With these numbers, holding too many rooms is the more expensive mistake — as long as extra rooms can still be found later, which in the busy weeks is exactly what you cannot count on. Run it with your own rates; the Umrah package cost calculator does the per-room arithmetic.
Work the dates backwards
| When | What has to happen |
|---|---|
| 12–10 weeks before departure | Hotel options and their terms in writing; deposit dates matched to your pilgrims' installments |
| 8–6 weeks | Rooms confirmed and registered by the account holder, which the visas depend on |
| On the release date | Compare registrations with rooms held: hand back, add or change the mix |
| 2 weeks | Rooming list by name sent to both hotels |
| Arrival | Confirmation numbers and the hotel contact with the group leader |
The dangerous combination is a release date that falls before your own registration closes. If the contract says rooms return on 5 January and your early-bird price runs until the 15th, one of those two dates has to move.
Deposits follow the same logic. A hotel payment due three weeks before your pilgrims' second installment is a cash gap, not a pricing problem; managing installments and payments shows how to date the installments around it.
Where Ziyara fits — and where it does not
Ziyara keeps the rooms you hold next to the pilgrims who will sleep in them. Each hotel has its city, stars and distance; rooms are added per group with their bed counts, and occupancy is live as pilgrims are assigned. The group page lists every hotel stay with check-in, check-out, board, number of rooms and the hotel's confirmation number. A release date or a deposit goes in as a task with a due date, beside the standard departure checklist, and on the Professional plan a hotel invoice recorded as unpaid stays visible as a supplier bill until you pay it.
What it does not do: Ziyara has no allotment contracts, does not count down to a release date by itself and is not connected to hotel reservation systems. The contract stays between you, your operator and the hotel. What you get is one place where rooms, names and dates agree. The rest of the evaluation is in the buyer's guide to Umrah & Hajj agency software, and prices are on the pricing page.
Frequently asked questions
What is a hotel allotment?
A number of rooms a hotel holds for you at an agreed rate until a release date. Rooms you have not confirmed by that date go back to the hotel, on the terms you agreed.
What is a release date?
The day on which unconfirmed rooms in an allotment return to the hotel. After it, more rooms depend on availability and on the rate of the day, so it belongs in your calendar on the day you sign.
How many rooms does a group of 45 pilgrims need?
It depends on the room types your pilgrims book. Forty-five people in quads alone would need twelve rooms; with six quads, five triples and three doubles it is fourteen in each city. Count rooms from registrations, not from the number of pilgrims.
Can Umrah pilgrims stay in an apartment instead of a hotel?
For an Umrah visa arranged through a service provider, the accommodation has to be licensed by the Saudi Ministry of Tourism and documented on Nusuk Masar before the visa is issued. Ask your operator before you offer anything else.
Should a new agency take a guaranteed block?
Only for the number of pilgrims it is certain to bring. A guaranteed block is paid for whether the beds are filled or not, so most new agencies start with an allotment or with rooms on request and commit to more once they know how their groups fill.
Sources
This guide was written with the help of AI tools. If you spot a mistake, please write to us at info@ziyara.io
