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The front desk

No-shows: marked by the desk, decided by the manager

Marking a no-show charges nothing and tells no OTA. Every one goes on a queue where a manager, the revenue manager or an administrator decides twice — retention, and whether the channel is told — with their name on it.

The owner, on reading an audit line that said *No-show retention charged: ₹4,533* for a booking the desk had meant to let go: *"Whatever no-show is done, it makes the no-show in the system but goes to the admin. The admin decides whether to send the same no-show to the channel manager or not, and which has retention and which has not. That is a separate process from the night audit."*

So marking and deciding are two acts by two people. The desk — or the night audit at four in the morning — marks: the status changes, the room goes back on sale, the reason is recorded, and nothing is charged and no OTA is told. The row goes on this queue with what the policy would have taken.

Operations → No-shows: the queue, each row with what the policy says, the retention pair and the channel pair, and Decide.
Operations → No-shows: the queue, each row with what the policy says, the retention pair and the channel pair, and Decide.

Do this

  1. Operations → No-shows. The number on the tab is how many are waiting. Policy says is what the booking's cancellation policy quoted when it was marked — the amount and the nights it stands for.
  2. Retention — *Charge ₹3,200* puts it on the guest's bill with GST, exactly as quoted; *No retention* lets it go. A waiver needs a reason in the box beside it, and the reason is recorded with your name.
  3. Channel manager — *Tell Booking.com* hands the no-show to the channel manager's next sweep; *Don't tell* leaves the OTA unaware. A booking that did not come from a channel says not a channel booking and asks nothing.
  4. Decide. Both answers go at once, and the row moves to Decided below, which keeps the last thirty days with who decided and when the OTA was told.

A booking with nothing held against it

*nothing held — cannot be charged.* No advance, no card, no company: there is nothing to take the retention from, so the charge is not offered and only *No retention* can be chosen. The policy's figure is still shown, because what the hotel was entitled to is worth knowing even when it cannot collect.

Who may decide

A hotel's manager, its revenue manager, or an administrator. The desk sees no tab at all — it marks, and the decision is somebody else's. A hotel with no revenue manager simply gives nobody that role.

What this changed elsewhere

Cancelling is a different act with its own rules — see Cancelling a booking, which is where marking a no-show is described.

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