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Reservations and the tape chart

A reservation is one booking; each line is one unit for a range of nights with its rate plan, board, guests and guarantee. The tape chart shows every unit and every night — drag a stay to another unit or day, click a gap to book it.

For:Reservations agentFront-office agentEvents coordinator

Where:Reservations › Reservations · Reservations › Tape Chart · Reservations › Group Blocks

The tape chart: every unit, every night; drag a stay to another unit or day.
The tape chart: every unit, every night; drag a stay to another unit or day.
A reservation: who, terms, one line per unit stay, the estimated total with fees and VAT.
A reservation: who, terms, one line per unit stay, the estimated total with fees and VAT.

Before you start

Unit types and units exist under Property.
At least one rate plan under Rates (the default plan is pre-selected).
Booking policies under Rates › Configuration decide guarantees, cancellation and no-show fees.

How to

Take a reservation

  1. Reservations › Reservations › New.
  2. Pick the lead guest, or create one exactly as the ID reads (four-part name for Egyptians, ID number).
  3. Company, agent or OTA? Choose the account — its rate plan, segment and source fill in.
  4. Add one line per unit: type, arrival, departure, adults, children. The nightly price and the estimated total with fees and VAT appear.
  5. Choose the guarantee (card, deposit, company account) and Confirm. Availability and restrictions are checked; a problem stops the confirmation and says why.
  6. Send the confirmation by e-mail (the PDF is attached).
A hold with no guarantee is released automatically at the hold time on the policy.

Assign units on the tape chart

  1. Reservations › Tape Chart.
  2. Unassigned stays appear at the top; drag one onto a unit row on its arrival day.
  3. Drag a bar to another unit or another start day; the length stays the same. An in-house stay keeps its arrival date.
  4. Click a bar to open the stay, click an empty cell to start a booking for that unit and night.
The number above each unit type is the availability that day; red means the type is full.

Block units for a group

  1. Reservations › Group Blocks › New: dates, organiser or account, rate plan, cut-off date.
  2. Add the blocks: unit type, night, quantity. Make Definite — availability is checked.
  3. Rooming List creates the stays (one per unit or one reservation with several lines); name the guests now or later.
  4. Unpicked units go back to the house at the cut-off, or press Release Unpicked.

Cancel, no-show, reinstate

  1. Cancel opens a wizard with the policy fee; waive it or charge it — a charged fee posts to the folio and keeps the deposit.
  2. No-show marks the stays and posts the no-show fee per policy; the night audit does this on its own for arrivals that never came.
  3. Reinstate puts a cancelled or no-show reservation back to draft.

Questions the desk asks

Why can I not confirm?

The unit type has no availability for one of the nights, a restriction applies (minimum stay, closed to arrival, stop-sell), or the guest is blacklisted. The message names the night and the rule.

Where do I see who sent the booking?

Source (website, phone, Booking.com…) and Segment (leisure, corporate, tour operator…) on the reservation; the dashboards chart both.

See also: Rate plans, rates, restrictions and allotments Front desk: arrivals, in house, departures Folios, charges, payments and the city ledger

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