Setting a hotel up

Counting a room as another category for a few days

When something about a room changes for a while — a balcony shut, a lift out, a view gone — the room can be counted as a different category for stated nights and go back to its own on the night after.

There are two different things here, and the screen keeps them apart on purpose.

Moving a room for good

Setup → Rooms → the room → the Category box, then Save. The room is that category from now on and stays that way. It keeps everything — its bookings, its bills, its housekeeping history — because it is the same room. This is refused while a live booking is standing on it: that stay was sold and priced as the category the room is in today, and a permanent move would leave it filed under a category nobody sold.

Counting it as another category for a few nights

Underneath the Category box is Count as another category for a while. Choose the category, the first and last night, and say why — "balcony shut", "lift out", "connecting door sealed". On the night after the last one the room is its own category again, with nothing to remember and nobody to remind.

The room's own category never changes. What changes is what it counts as on those nights: the chart, the availability the desk sees, the report, the revenue engine and what the OTAs are told all count it in the other category for exactly those nights, and in its own for every other night — including the ones already behind you.

It needs an end date

There is no "until further notice". A room that is temporarily something with no date to stop being it is a permanent move typed by somebody who did not mean one — and if it turns out the balcony is still shut on Friday, write the same category again with the later date and the window simply extends. If it opens early, press End it now and the room is its own category again from today; the nights it did cover stay on the record.

What it asks about

Neither of these stops you. Both are recorded with your login, the time, your IP and your machine.

A guest is in the room. Nothing about their stay moves — same room, same rate, same bill, same category on their booking. They are simply in a room being counted as something else for a few nights. The desk is told which booking it is so nobody promises them a balcony.
The category you are taking the room out of has sold every room it has. Taking one out leaves it short and somebody will have to be moved or upgraded. You are shown which nights before you say yes.

What it refuses

A night that has already been counted. The night audit has closed those days as they were.
No reason. The reason is what the next person reads when they decide whether it still applies.
A second window of a different category across the same nights.
Anyone but a manager. What category a room is in is an inventory act, the same right as taking a room out of the inventory.

What this room has been

History on the same panel lists both kinds for that room: every dated window with its reason and who wrote it, and every permanent move since the hotel was set up.

More in Setting a hotel up

Opening a hotel: the whole thing in orderSix phases from the GST certificate to the first night audit, and what each one needs. Getting the hotel group signed upWhat Asar does, what the hotel does, and why nobody here chooses your password. After the wizard: making the hotel actually readyThe wizard makes a hotel that exists. This is what makes it one that can trade. Setting the restaurant up, in the order it has to be doneGST groups and stations before dishes, dishes before tables. Backwards means rebuilding the menu. The first real dayOne booking end to end before you rely on it, then the three daily habits. The month after openingFour things to read on a schedule, and the one that changes on its own. Adding a hotel: the five stepsOne wizard, five steps, and the hotel exists. Everything after it is adjustable. Room types and real room numbersThe type sets the price. The numbers are the rooms a guest is actually given. Room categories and room numbersAdding a category, putting rooms in it, moving a room, and taking one out of the inventory. Rates, plans and the cancellation policyA rate per type and date, and the rules that go with selling it. Adding and changing rate plansCreating a plan, what the meal codes mean, pricing one plan off another, and what stops you retiring one. Closing a date, minimum stay and stop sellThe five rules that decide whether a night may be sold, how to set them, and how to lift one. Rates run out — the check that is not about configurationA hotel that was ready in August stops being sellable in February. Load rates further ahead. Changing a room's numberA room keeps its bookings, bills and history when its number changes. A guest in the room does not stop it. Seasons — a date range that prices differentlySetting a peak or a lean period once instead of typing a hundred nights. Moving a room to another category, and what is waiting on youA room can change category even with bookings ahead of it. Each of those bookings waits for a manager: upgrade it free, upgrade and charge, or release the room. Going live: the readiness checksEleven or so checks per hotel, and what each one means it cannot do yet. The rate sheetEvery room type, every plan, every night, with the rooms still free above them. It opens on All plans. The onboarding boardEvery hotel in the group at once, and what each is still missing. One number and the gaps — the derived rate sheetPrice the cheapest room once; every other room type and plan is a gap on top. Type what you want in hand and be shown the rate to push. Invoice numbers: where they start and how they countHotel details has a box for the next invoice number — type it the way your accountant writes it, 27ACP01, and every bill after counts up. The system's own bill number stays beside it as the internal record. Only an administrator; never rewound over a bill already issued. Lists and reasonsEighteen short lists your staff pick from, and why free text was worse. GST registrations — one per state, and every rule with a dateThe registration is the unit of filing: one GSTIN per state per legal entity, its kind, its dates, its e-invoice threshold; which hotel invoices under it; the HSN/SAC master with dated rates and the condition in words.