Managing bookings
Bookings from your booking engine and channels appear in Areca on their own. Bookings taken by phone, by email or at the desk you add yourself.
Add a booking
Click Create booking in the top bar, or select nights in the calendar and choose Create reservation. From the calendar, the dates and rooms are already filled in.
- Stay details: check-in and check-out dates, adults and children.
- Booker info: the guest's name and contact details, or Choose existing guest.
- Pick a room and rate plan from Available rooms. Pick more than one for a group.
- Optionally Take payment, and set the Booking method, Tags and Notes.
- Click Create booking.
If the stay breaks a rate plan restriction, such as a minimum stay, Areca lists what is wrong. Choose Go back and fix or Save anyway.
The booking panel
Click a booking in the calendar or the bookings list to open it in a side panel. Minimize keeps it in a small tab at the bottom while you look at something else. Open in new tab shows it on its own page.
At the top you see the status with the next action, such as Check-in, the Stay details, the balance, tags and a note for your team. Below are the tabs:
| Tab | What is there |
|---|---|
| Rooms | Booked rooms, rate plans and the Price breakdown per night. |
| Guests | Everyone staying, with contact and document details. |
| Billing | Payments, city tax and invoices. See Payments and Invoices. |
| Sales | Extras sold to the guest. See POS and extra sales. |
| History | Every change: who made it and when. |
| Channel name | Only on bookings from channels. |
More actions has Send email to guest, Change currency and Archive booking.
Change a booking
- Dates or number of guests: click Edit in Stay details. The stay is priced again for the new dates. A room that is not free for the whole new stay keeps its own dates and price.
- Rooms: on the Rooms tab, click Edit rooms to add or remove a room. A booking without a room shows Assign room.
- Move to another room: drag the booking in the calendar, or right-click it and choose Move booking. When the price changes, choose Keep current price or Use new price.
- Extend: right-click in the calendar and choose Extend reservation.
- Price: open Price breakdown on the Rooms tab and change any night. A price set by hand stays until the dates change.
- Currency: More actions > Change currency. Nights and extras already paid keep their value. Open ones are priced again in the new currency. You need an exchange rate in financial settings first.
Every change is saved on the History tab.
Guests on a booking
On the Guests tab, click Add guest or Edit guests, fill in their details and place each guest in a room, or a bed in a shared room. A booking with guests not placed anywhere shows a warning.
Which details you record is set in guest fields.
Check-in and check-out
Check-in: open the booking and click Check-in. Areca asks for any details your property requires before check-in, such as a document number, and shows the Note for reception from Settings > Property. You can take a payment in the same step.
Check-out: click Check-out. If there is a balance left, click Charge instantly to record the full balance as paid, or Take payment to choose the amount and account.
Statuses
| Status | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Confirmed | The booking is made. Shown as Arriving on the day of check-in. |
| Checked in | The guest has arrived. |
| Checked out | The guest has left. |
| Cancelled | The guest cancelled. |
| No show | The guest did not arrive. |
| Archived | Made by mistake. Bookings are never deleted. |
Change the status from the status menu at the top of the booking, or right-click the booking in the calendar and choose Change status. Cancel booking and Archive booking are in the booking's actions.
Cancelled and no-show bookings leave the calendar, so the rooms can be sold again. Find them in the bookings list with the Status filter.
Email the guest
Send confirmation email sends or resends the booking confirmation. Areca shows the address it goes to, and you can Edit before sending. To send confirmations on their own when a booking is created, set them up in Settings > Guest emails.
Tags
Tags are labels that help staff spot bookings at a glance, such as "VIP" or "Late arrival". Create them in Settings > Tags with a Name and Color, then click Add tag on a booking.
Booking methods
The booking method records where a booking came from: the booking engine, a channel, phone, email or walk-in. Built-in methods are set on their own. Add your own, such as "Travel agent", in Settings > Booking methods.
Booking methods are used in the bookings list filters, the Revenue by source report and the tax settings.
Who can do what
Each action, such as changing a price, cancelling or editing a checked-out booking, is a separate permission. See Staff accounts.