Making Group Reservations

GuestPoint® streamlines the process of managing groups, starting with the creation of a Group Reservation.

There are a number of ways you can make new group bookings. To create a Group Reservation, either:

1. While holding the Shift key down use the mouse to select multiple rooms for the dates required. This is the easiest way because GuestPoint® will fill in dates, nights and room types for you allowing you to skip steps later. If the dates are all the same, GuestPoint® will think this is just a multi-room booking, not a Group booking, so you will need to click ‘Switch To Group Reservation’ in the top right hand corner 

2. Click ‘New Reservation’ from the top left of the Reservation Plan, the click ‘Switch To Group Reservation’ when the Reservation Card opens and set the number of rooms required

3. Double click on a cell in a room type on the Reservation Plan and click ‘Switch To Group Reservation’ and set the number of rooms required

Once you do any of these options, GuestPoint® will open the Group Reservation Card.

Step 1 – Dates & Room

For a group, the dates reflect the primary group booking dates, e.g. the first check-in date to the last check-out date; the number of nights and number of rooms. You can mark this group reservation as tentative by selecting ‘Tentative Reservation’ and this reservation will appear with shading on the Reservation Plan.

Step 2 – Group Contact

Put in the Group Contact details. If the company has stayed before the auto search will give you matches to choose from. If this is the first time a guest for this company has stayed GuestPoint® will remember the company details for next time. Complete the contact’s name, again auto search will show matches if the contact has been entered previously. You can also click ’Search’ and find the contact by name, phone number, email etc…

Step 3 – Rates

You can apply a Group Discount, if relevant, to the group. GuestPoint® also allows you to apply a discount to individual rooms. If you want to change the charge for each room in the Group.

Reservation you can specify an amount to be applied to all of the rooms in the booking by entering the amount and clicking ‘Set Rate’.

TIP: You can setup a default Group Rate which GuestPoint® will automatically apply to all group bookings you make. Rates are set up within the Setup Book on the Management tab.

Each room has fields available where you can adjust the check-in and check-out dates and allocate the room types and rates if you need to. You can also set the number of Adults and Children in each room. If you know the guest names of the group members you can add them in by clicking the arrow beneath Room 1, Room 2 etc...

If you don’t know the names at the time of making the reservation, GuestPoint® makes it easy for you to edit the reservation and add them later, the most convenient is using the Group Check-in tab. 

Step 4 – Additional Information

Complete the company and contact details. If the company or group contact are repeat guests, this information is automatically filled in for you if selected from the list of suggestions.

Select your Booking Source (e.g. Telephone or Walk In) and if applicable, select an Agent. Agents are online booking channels (e.g. Wotif, booking.com) or travel agents (e.g. Corporate Traveller). When a reservation is linked to an Agent, charges can be invoiced directly to the agent.

You can also record any booking notes (e.g. quiet rooms requested). These notes will appear on the confirmation document.

With GuestPoint® Premium you have the option of having Profile fields related to the reservation, e.g. Reason for Stay

Step 5 – Automatic Charges Policy

Automatic charges are the nightly room charge and any pre-selected Extras (e.g. breakfast). GuestPoint® posts these charges for you and you can select which account you want the charges sent to by selecting the automatic charge policy for this reservation from the drop down list. For Groups, you have additional Charges Policies of All Charges to Group, Room Charges To Group and Room and Meal Charges To Group

Step 6 – Payment

When making a new group reservation, GuestPoint® offers you 4 ways to secure the booking:

1. Request a deposit and a due date. You can then use the Deposit Follow Up on the Management tab to keep track of deposits due

2. You can enter a Purchase Order number which will appear on the Room Account

3. Add a credit card into the Credit Card Vault by clicking ‘Add Card to Vault’ button

4. Go to the Group Account tab and click ‘Make Payment’

Non refundable reservations are flagged by selecting the Non Refundable checkbox. GuestPoint® will prompt you to confirm the refund payment for non refundable bookings if you wish to process a refund for these reservations.

You can print the booking confirmation for this group or easily email the confirmation by clicking ‘Email button’, this opens the Email Services screen.

You can also create a Pre-Stay Invoice for the group

Click ‘Save’ and the group booking is complete

GuestPoint® makes it very easy to identify group bookings. The blue squares in the corners indicate these reservations belong to a group and these remain visible in the Reservation Plan even after the group members have checked-in. If you double click on a reservation belonging to a Group Reservation, GuestPoint® will display the Group Reservation Card. However, if the guest has checked-in, GuestPoint® opens the individual’s Reservation Card when you double click on the Reservation. This is very helpful as you may want to access specific guest details once they have checked-in. You can always access the Group Reservation Card by right-clicking on any group member and selecting ‘Edit Group Reservation’ from the Express Action menu.

TIP: The Linked Rooms tab in the Reservation Card will give you quick access to other group members. You can go into any group member’s Room Account tab and access the Group account from the Accounts drop down list.

TIP: If you want to see the Group name on the Reservation Plan, change the “View” mode to ‘Group/Company’.

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