The two questions Folios and Groups solve:
1. How do you split a bill?
Situation 1: Guest checks out and wants their friend to pay for 1 night of the stay
Situation 2: Guest is traveling for business and requires a statement of charges that do not include personal charges
Situation 3: Guest made a reservation through an OTA, paid for the room already through the OTA, and now needs a bill to reflect only the additional charges accrued.
2. How do you manage a group reservation?
Situation 1: A company wants to make a reservation for each of their employees and wants to pay for all the charges.
Situation 2: A company wants to make a reservation for each of their employees and wants to pay for only the room charges. Employees will pay for additional charges, such as food.
Situation 3: A couple want to book their wedding at your business, pay for the event, and have guests pay for their own room and charges.
The solution is folios!
What is a folio?
A list of transactions associated to the guest during their stay. These transactions can consist of both charges incurred (daily room charges, etc) and payments made. A folio is used to generate a final bill to the guest during check out.
Why are folios important?
They allow us to simply answer the two questions shown earlier:
1. How do you split a bill?
Answer: Create a new folio and move the transaction over to that folio.
2. How do you manage a group reservation?
Answer: Create a folio for the group, and move any charges into this folio that need to be paid by the group point of contact.
What's Changed?
ThinkReservations now supports:
The concept of folios
The ability to move transactions across folios
Ability to create group reservations and have a group folio
Group blocks
Quick Guide: Group Blocks & Room Allocations
Group Blocks allow you to hold a specific set of rooms for an event (like a wedding or conference) and make them bookable both internally and online.
1. Choose Your Allocation Type:
Allocation by Room: Holds specific, physical rooms (e.g., Room 101 and Room 102). Best for unique properties, custom cabins, or full property buyouts.
Allocation by Room Type: Holds a specific quantity of a room type (e.g., 5 King Rooms), letting you assign the physical rooms closer to arrival. Best for standardized hotel-style inventory.
2. Set Key Safeguards:
Group Code: A custom code guests enter on your online booking engine to access the held rooms.
Cutoff Date: An optional date where any unbooked rooms in the block are automatically released back to the public so you don't lose out on last-minute bookings.
3. How Bookings Are Made:
Internally: Staff can book directly into the block by clicking New Reservation and choosing the group under the Special Rates dropdown.
Online: Guests visit your booking engine, select their dates, and enter the Group Block Code under Special Rates.