Bookings and the calendar

Group bookings

Many rooms under one name, created together and cancellable together.

A group is many rooms under one name — a wedding, a conference, a crew. Make one from the Groups tab on the Operations screen, or from the calendar.

Do this

Group name — "Sharma Wedding", "Infosys offsite". It prints on every booking in the group.
Cut-off date — rooms nobody has picked up by this date are released for sale. Leave it blank and they are held until arrival.
The rooms — one line per room type: the plan, arrival, departure, how many rooms, how many people in each.
+ Another room type — a second line, for a group that needs both deluxe and standard.
Create the group. One booking per room is made, all under the group's code.

Groups already in house or coming are listed beneath, each with Rooms (every booking in it) and Cancel all.

A group needs a name and somebody it is booked under.
Every line books a room type between two dates for a number of rooms. Several lines with different types and dates are normal.
If availability is short, it refuses with the numbers — "3 rooms free, 5 asked for". A manager may override that — and only as far as the overbooking allowance set for that room type. Where no allowance is set, nothing sells past the last room.
Each line becomes ordinary bookings, so they check in and bill exactly like any other. The group is the thread that ties them.
Cancelling the group cancels its bookings together, with one reason. Individual rooms can still be cancelled on their own.

Billing is per booking unless you set the group to bill to one company or one folio. Decide that before the first arrival, not on departure morning.

More in Bookings and the calendar

Reading the calendarRooms down the side, dates across the top, and four things worth knowing about the colours. Blocking a room from the chartRight-click a room, say why, from which night to which, and who is blocking it. The channel is told; the chart draws it; a booking into it is refused. Making a bookingNew booking, or click an empty square on the chart. What each field is for. A booking the desk may hold and a manager confirmsAn OTA booking, or one billed to a company or an agent, is held by the desk for 30 minutes — or confirmed there and then with a manager's own login. Bookings that have no room yetEvery live booking with no room number, from any source, is drawn on the chart and listed beside it — and dragged onto a room. Taking a group at your own deskA party needing rooms of more than one kind — a wedding, an offsite, a tour — is taken from the calendar as ONE group: a line per room type, one contact, one code over all of it. Who is paying for a bookingOn a booking typed by hand, the payer — guest, company, travel agent or OTA — can be corrected. The bill moves with it. Where the price comes fromThe rate plan sets the price. Who may change it is a separate question with a deliberate answer. Changing the rate on a bookingAnybody at the desk may name the rate until the guest checks out; after that only an administrator, and it is a tax note. An OTA rate is never changed here. Changing a bookingDates, room, guest and rate can all be amended. Some changes are refused, and some can be overridden. Cancelling, and no-showsBoth need a reason from the list, and both leave the record standing. Holding a room, and the guest pay linkA time-boxed hold with a link the guest can pay on. It releases itself if they do not. Putting a stay in another guest's nameOnly an administrator. Any status, before or after check-out. The booking and its bills carry the new guest; the invoice number, the charges and the tax do not move. A room with more people than it sleepsMoving a party of four into a room that sleeps three is allowed: the picker warns, asks once, does it, and records who said yes. Day use: a room sold for the day, not the nightA guest who arrives in the morning and leaves in the evening and never sleeps in the room. It reserves nothing, holds no room until the desk hands over a key, and the same room can serve two day guests and still take its overnight guest. Booking the same stay againBook again copies a stay for a returning guest, and tells you what the price would be now. Moving a guest to another roomDrag the bar on the chart, or use Move room. It asks for a reason and refuses for good ones. UpgradesMove a guest up a grade, priced or complimentary, with the reason recorded. Messaging a guestTemplates render the message; a person sends it. Nothing goes out on its own.