Groups & Partners
Group blocks and rooming lists on one side, company and agent accounts on the other — when someone other than the arriving guest is behind a booking.
Most bookings are simple: one guest, one room, one bill. This section covers the two cases where that is not true, because somebody else — an organiser or a partner company — is behind the stay.
A group is a block of rooms held for one piece of business: a wedding party, a tour series, a conference. The property agrees on how many rooms of each type it will hold, by when the names have to arrive, what the rooms cost and who settles the bill. The rooms come out of sale the moment the block is created, names are added afterwards from a rooming list, and the organiser's share of the money collects on a master folio. Groups live under Groups in the sidebar.
A company or agent is a standing relationship rather than one event: a corporate client whose staff stay through the year, a travel agent that sends business at contracted prices, an OTA that collects from the guest and remits later. The partner record carries the contract rates, the billing terms and the money owed, and it is the same record the city ledger invoices. Partners live under Companies & agents in the sidebar.
How the two relate
Both answer the same question — who is actually behind this booking, and who pays for it — and both work by moving charges off the arriving guest's window onto somebody else's. A group routes room and tax to its master folio; a company booking routes its share to a company window billed to that partner's city-ledger account. The mechanics are the folio windows described in Folios.
They are independent, and a single booking can involve both: a tour operator's group is a group block with the operator named on it, while the operator is also a partner record with its own negotiated rates. When a group rate and a negotiated rate both apply to the same booking, the group rate wins — it was agreed for this block.
Key terms
Room block — an allotment: a number of rooms of one room type, on one rate plan, taken out of general sale for a group before anyone is named.
Held — rooms still waiting for a name: blocked, minus released, minus picked up.
Cut-off date — the day by which names must arrive. Anything still held at the end of it goes back on sale automatically.
Rooming list — the organiser's list of names, turned into real reservations drawn from the block.
Master folio — the group's own bill, carrying what the organiser pays.
Partner — a company, travel agent, OTA or other account the property bills after departure instead of collecting at the desk. The record is the city-ledger account.
Billing mode — which charges go on somebody else's window rather than the guest's.
Group bookings
Create a block, work the Groups list and detail page, mark a group definite, release held rooms, cut-off and cancellation.
Rooming lists
Paste the organiser's names, set room type and occupancy per row, fix the rows that fail, and the group rate.
Master folio & group billing
The group's master folio, the two billing modes, and where groups show in Accounting.
Companies & agents
Partner records, types, fields, the list and the detail page's four tabs.
Negotiated rates & company billing
Contract rates per rate plan, who pays, the credit limit check and OTA remittance.
Related
- Creating reservations — the Company / agent select on the booking form
- Receivables & city ledger — chasing what a partner owes
- Folios — windows, routing and the Groups tab
Cancellations and No-shows
Release a hold, cancel a booking or mark a no-show: what each does to inventory, the folio and the channel, and how the fee is decided.
Group Bookings
Block rooms for a wedding, tour series or conference, track pick-up against the block, mark the group definite, release held rooms and handle the cut-off.