Hotel booking actions: create, change, cancel and front desk

This article gives step-by-step instructions: create a booking, change it, cancel it, plus actions on an existing booking and the daily front desk lists. Check-in and check-out are covered in Check a guest in and out at the front desk; moving by drag, relocating and splitting a stay — in Moving, relocating and splitting a stay. Prices, restrictions and cancellation policies are covered in Hotel rates.

Who: a front desk employee or administrator with access to the location's bookings. Money reports are visible only with the "Hotel money" right or to the owner — this is noted in the relevant sections.

Open a booking card#

1. Open Rooms and go to the Calendar tab.
2. Select a booking bar. The booking card opens on the right, with the guest's name in its title, for example Reservation — Anna Petrova.

The card is a single scrolling column of blocks: status, payments and guarantee, the stay bill, Pre-arrival form, payer, Option, the guest, date, room and rate fields, Group, check-in and cancellation buttons, early check-in and late check-out, upsells and tasks, and Booking log at the very bottom. The card header has a change history button.

Selecting an empty calendar cell opens a new booking form, not a card.

Create a booking from an empty cell#

1. Open Rooms → the Calendar tab and press an empty cell of the room on the check-in date. The New reservation form opens on the right. Another way in is 📅 Book the room in the room properties on the floor plan.
2. Enter the Guest name (required), Phone and Email.
3. Check Check-in and Check-out. If check-out is not after check-in, the form moves it forward itself — a booking always has at least one night.
4. Check the Room. The list shows specific rooms.
5. If the hotel has rate plans, choose the Rate plan (or No rate plan). The form fills the Rate per night field with the room type's base rate. As long as you leave the field untouched, nights are priced by the rate plan and seasons — the same way as the Total line. A price you type into the field yourself is saved on the booking as a manual price for every night.
6. Enter the Guests: Adults, Children (+ Child and each child's age) and Extra beds. Supplements for children and extra beds are calculated by the rate plan — choose a rate plan to include them in the total.
7. Choose the Source: Walk-in / admin, Phone, Direct (guest), OTA or Website. If needed — Notes, early check-in and late check-out, option, segment, company contract, Group.
8. Check the line below the form: {n} nights and Total: {amount} (with seasonal rates — a range "{min}–{max} per night").
9. Press Create reservation. You will see "Reservation created".

How to check: a bar appears on the calendar for the right dates and room. The booking card shows Sold for {amount} — the night prices fixed at the moment of sale. Nights are charged at these prices even if you change the price list later.

If it is not created:

Do not create a second booking instead of changing the first one: the old one will keep occupying the room.

Assign a room to a booking sold by room type#

Bookings from sales channels (OTAs) and from a room block can arrive without a specific room — only the room type is sold. They have no bar on the calendar: they are gathered above the calendar in the Sold by room type — no room assigned yet strip, next to a counter "arriving today or overdue: {n}".

1. Press Show in this strip.
2. Next to the booking, press Assign a room. The system picks a free room of that type for the whole stay — you will see "Room assigned", and the booking appears on the calendar.
3. "Could not assign a room — no free room of this type" — on some night there is no free room of this type left: move another booking or assign a room later.

You do not have to assign a room in advance: when such a booking is checked in, the system picks a free room itself.

A booking without a room still takes up the room type: when selling, each night is checked against the type quota, which includes bookings with and without a room, block remainders and rooms out of order. Selling "a type without a room" from the front desk is not possible — the new booking form offers only specific rooms.

Pick a room to match the guest's wishes#

The guest asked for a high floor, a sea view or step-free access — you can choose the room by room features instead of the first free one.

First, mark the features of your rooms once:

1. "Hotel settings" → the "Rooms & types" tab, the "Room features" block.
2. Next to a room, press "Edit" and tick its features: "Location in the building" (low or high floor, near or away from the elevator, quiet room), "View", "Layout" (balcony, connecting rooms, smoking allowed), "Accessibility" (step-free access, roll-in shower, grab bars, wide doorway, visual alarm). Press "Save".
3. Anything missing from the list goes to "Your features" — for example, "Baby cot fits". Removing your own feature removes it from all rooms.

Accessibility features are stated by the hotel: the system does not check whether a room meets building or accessibility standards. Room prices do not depend on features.

To pick a room for a booking without a room:

1. In the Sold by room type — no room assigned yet strip, press "Pick" next to the booking.
2. If the booking has a note, it is shown at the top of the window. Tick the features the guest asked for.
3. Rooms of the sold type are split into three lists: "Free and matching", "Free, without some of the features" (with what is missing) and "Not available for these dates" (taken by another booking or out of order).
4. Press "Assign" next to a matching room. You will see "Room assigned", and the booking appears on the calendar.
5. A room without some of the features is assigned only with a second press: "Assign" → the warning "This room does not have: …" → "Assign anyway". Make sure the guest agrees first.

If the room was taken in the meantime, the window shows "Could not assign the room" and refreshes the list.

What picking does not do: it does not read wishes from the note text or the guest profile (tick them yourself), it does not assign rooms on its own, and features are not used by Assign a room or by channel sales.

Change the dates, room or price of a booking#

1. Open the booking card.
2. Change Check-in, Check-out, Room, the guests or Rate per night.
3. If the night price of an already sold booking changes, fill in Reason for the rate change — without it the change is not saved ("Explain why the nightly rate changes").
4. Press Save. You will see "Reservation updated". There is no confirmation window.

What the system checks: overlap with another booking, whether the room is occupied right now, whether the room is off sale, the type quota and rate plan restrictions (they can be overridden only with a reason). A refusal is shown in the card with the same conflict block as when creating.

How the price changes: nights already sold keep their price, and added nights are priced at current prices. While you edit the dates, the Total line in the card counts all nights at today's prices, so check Sold for after saving.

Limits:

• The Room can be changed in the card only while the booking is not checked in. A checked-in guest is moved from the board: "The guest is already checked in — move them from the board." — see Relocation.
• For a checked-in guest the check-in date cannot be changed — only the check-out (extend or shorten the stay).
• A night of a business day that is already closed cannot be removed from the stay: "This night belongs to a business day that is already closed — it cannot be removed from the stay. Post a correction today instead."
• Changing the room type does not re-price the sold nights.

A quicker way to move a booking is to drag its bar on the calendar, see Moving, relocating and splitting a stay.

Add a room to an existing booking#

Several rooms for one guest, company or tour operator are combined into a group: each room has its own booking, and the group links them with shared dates, a payer and group actions. Adding a room means creating another booking in that group.

From the group panel:

1. Above the calendar, in the Groups in this window strip, select the group. The group panel opens, with the group name in its title, for example Group — Vostok Travel.
2. Select ＋ Add a room. A booking form opens with the group already selected and the group's shared dates.
3. Choose the room: the first room in the list is filled in by default, so check it. Enter the guests and rate plan.
4. Select Create reservation.

If there is no group yet. Open the card of the first booking, choose + New group… in the Group field and enter a name (tour operator, company, event). Then add rooms as above, or choose this group in the Group field when creating the next bookings.

How to check: the number of rooms grows in the group panel, and each room has its own bar on the calendar.

If it won't save: "Room is already booked for these dates" — the room overlaps another booking (the message shows the guest and dates); "Room is occupied right now" — a guest is staying in the room. Choose another room.

The group panel also offers Rename group, Move the whole group, Group payer, Check in and Cancel all booked rooms (checked-in guests are not affected).

Moving the dates of the whole group, the common payer and checking in group guests are covered in detail in Several bookings in one group.

Hold a room as an option until a deadline#

An option is an unpaid booking that holds a room until an agreed deadline — the guest is still deciding, or a company needs approval. The room is occupied on those dates just as with a regular booking.

A new booking as an option:

1. Create a booking as usual and turn on Hold as an option (no payment until the deadline) in the form.
2. Hold until (hotel time) — the deadline. By default it is tomorrow at 18:00; it cannot be less than 5 minutes away or later than the arrival day.
3. Remind the desk — how long before the deadline to create a reminder: off, 30 minutes, 1 hour, 2 hours (default), 4 hours or 1 day.
4. Save the booking. The calendar bar shows a ⏳ mark with the tooltip "Option until …".

An existing booking can be turned into an option with the Hold as an option link in its card. Only a booking with the "booked" status, not checked in and not from the website or an OTA can become an option.

The guest confirmed: in the card's ⏳ Option block, select Guest confirmed. The booking becomes a regular one with no re-entry — you'll see "Booking confirmed". Need more time? Select Extend, set a new deadline and select Save deadline. To release the room before the deadline, cancel the booking.

What happens when the deadline passes#

You don't need to watch deadlines manually. The server checks options every 15 minutes:

• at reminder time the front desk gets a task on the task board;
• if the deadline passes without confirmation, the booking is cancelled automatically, the room goes back on sale on the website and in iCal, and the front desk gets a task; the card shows "Option released 12.11 18:00: the deadline passed without confirmation.";
• if the booking already has a payment or guarantee, it is confirmed instead of released.

An option cannot be confirmed after it has been released: if the room is still free, reinstate the booking with ↩ Reinstate booking in the card. The guest receives no email about the option deadline: tell them yourself.

A guest who couldn't get a room can be added to the 🕒 Waitlist above the calendar: when a suitable room becomes free, the front desk gets a task, and a staff member creates the booking. More about options and the waitlist: Option until a deadline and the waitlist.

Cancel a booking with a reason#

1. Open the booking card and select Cancel reservation. The button is available for bookings with the "booked" status.
2. The Cancel booking — Anna Petrova window (with your guest's name) opens with a calculation based on the rate plan's terms, for example By policy: 120.00, and the basis — non-refundable rate, late cancellation, custom penalty or no penalty; for a flexible plan you'll see until when cancellation is free.
3. Penalty — the amount to keep. It cannot exceed the policy amount; 0 means no penalty.
4. If you lower the penalty, fill in Reason for a lower penalty — the cancellation won't save without it.
5. Cancellation reason — optional, up to 200 characters. It is shown in the card and the log.
6. Select Cancel booking. You'll see "Reservation cancelled".

A penalty above zero goes to a separate penalty bill (minus anything already kept from an online payment). If the penalty calculation fails to load, you can still cancel the booking and decide the penalty later with Decide penalty in the cancelled booking's card. The same card has ↩ Reinstate booking, which requires a reason.

Split stay. Cancellation, no-show and the penalty are handled in the first part: before cancelling, the second part is merged back into the first, and the penalty is calculated on the whole stay.

No-show. If the guest didn't arrive, use No-show in the card: the same penalty window opens, confirmed with Mark no-show. It is available only from the arrival day. If "Mark no-shows automatically" is on in the stay rules, overdue bookings are marked automatically with no penalty; otherwise the board gets "Possible no-show — decide at the front desk".

View the booking log#

Booking log is at the bottom of the booking card.

1. Open the card and scroll down.
2. At the top you see who changed the booking last, for example "Last change: Irina". Below are entries from newest to oldest: time, action, author, status change, changed fields, amount and reason. Five entries are shown; the rest are under the Show all button with the entry count, for example "Show all (12)".

Actions include created, edited, nightly rate changed, cancelled, marked as no-show, reinstated, penalty decided, checked in, checked out, moved to another room and others. The author is a staff member by name, "system", "auto no-show", the guest or a channel.

The log only shows actions: you cannot undo anything from it.

Change history in the card header is a different tool: a list of saved versions of the booking. Show this state opens an old version for viewing; Roll back to this version restores the room, dates, guest name and contacts, notes, number of guests and nightly rate. A rollback does not change the booking status: a cancelled booking is brought back with Reinstate booking.

Print a registration card#

If the guest has filled in the pre-arrival form:

1. Open the booking card, block Pre-arrival form.
2. Select 🖨 Registration card. The personal data is revealed for printing (this is recorded in the access log), then the print window opens.
3. If the browser blocked the window, allow pop-ups for the admin panel and select the button again.

The card contains: name, phone, email, citizenship, identity document, date of birth, address, the property and room, arrival and departure dates, expected arrival time, accompanying guests, the date the form was sent, a line "documents checked by staff (name, signature)" and the guest's signature — drawn in the form, or a blank line for a signature on paper. The revealed data is not stored anywhere.

If there is no form: the 🧳 Guests tab → the guest's row → Registration card. This card is shorter: it contains only the data held in the guest profile.

A registration card is not an accommodation contract and does not submit data to the authorities. For Russian hotels, migration registration is handled separately — see the Hotel article.

Post a deposit or a received payment to the room bill#

If the guest has paid before check-out, post the money to the room bill at the till — it reduces the amount due at check-out.

1. A shift must be open on the till.
2. In Open tabs, find the room bill and select ➕ (Folio operations).
3. Choose Deposit, enter the Amount and the method — Cash or Card.
4. Select Apply. You'll see "Operation posted", and the bill balance goes down.

The receipt is issued when the bill is closed; at Russian locations whose cash register supports advance receipts, an advance receipt is printed right away and offset when the bill is closed. This window has no "bank transfer" or "paid by channel" method and no field for a payment reference; a payment collected by an OTA is only displayed in the card's channel block.

View arrivals and departures for a date#

1. Open Rooms → the 📊 Reports tab → Front desk ("Arrivals, departures and in-house").
2. Choose a Date or select Today / Tomorrow. "Today" uses the hotel's time zone.
3. Switch between lists: Arrivals, Departures, In house, Without a room — each shows a count.
4. For paper, select Print (A4) (prints the open list); for a spreadsheet, CSV. An empty list cannot be printed.

Columns: room and type, guest and group, number of guests, check-in, check-out, nights, status (expected, checked in, checked out; badges "option until …" and "form received"), notes and the bill balance — visible to the owner and to staff with the "Hotel money" right or with access to the Rooms section.

What the lists include: cancelled bookings and no-shows are excluded. Departures shows only guests who are checked in or already checked out: a booking whose guest never checked in does not appear among departures. "Without a room" lists room-type bookings that have not been assigned a specific room yet. A list longer than 2,000 rows is cut off.

The report is available to the owner and to staff with access to the hotel front desk, night audit, the Rooms section or the "Hotel money" right.

Compare revenue and nights by segment and source#

Market segments (individual, corporate, groups…) and booking sources (website, phone, OTA, walk-in…) are off by default.

Turn them on:

1. Hotel settings → Sales channels → Market segments and booking sources.
2. Turn on Use market segments — a starter set appears that you can edit (Add, Hidden).
3. In Default rules, set a segment and source by rate plan, company, group and channel — bookings without an explicit choice are then tagged automatically. If needed, turn on Segment is required at the front desk.
4. Select Save.

After that the booking card gets a Segment and source block.

The report: 📊 Reports → Segments ("Revenue by segment and source").

1. Set Stay dates from and to — the current month by default, at most 366 days.
2. Two tables — By segment and By source: bookings, room-nights, revenue, ADR, revenue share and a "Total" row. Bookings without tagging are collected in the "No segment" row.
3. Export — CSV (segments) or XLSX (three sheets: segments, sources, on the books).

Revenue here is room revenue at sold prices, not folio payments: upsells, minibar and discounts are not included. Cancelled bookings and no-shows are not counted. Bookings made before segments were turned on stay "No segment". The report is available with the "Hotel money" right or to the owner.

Related articles#

• Check a guest in and out at the front desk
• Moving, relocating and splitting a stay
• Several bookings in one group
• Option until a deadline and the waitlist
• Hotel: Rooms, PMS and Guest Service
• Hotel rates: seasons, rate plans, restrictions and cancellation
• Point of sale (POS)
• Shift task board — option and no-show reminders

FAQ#

Why is a channel booking not shown on the calendar?#

Most likely it was sold by room type without a room. Find it in the Sold by room type — no room assigned yet strip above the calendar and press Assign a room.

Will the booking price change if I change the rate plan or seasonal prices?#

No. Night prices are fixed in the booking at the moment of sale. New prices apply only to added nights and new bookings.

Can I sell a room despite a stop-sale or a minimum stay?#

Yes, with the Sell anyway, despite the restriction button and a required reason. The booking card keeps the mark "Sold despite the restriction".

How do I bring back a cancelled booking?#

In the card of the cancelled booking — ↩ Reinstate booking with a required reason. The room must still be free on those dates.