Bookings
B&B Manager offers a comprehensive set of tools for managing your bookings, both online and offline. As well as a powerful and intuitive
New Booking Form,
B&B Manager allows you to view your past, current and future bookings in a variety of formats, including a list, a diary and a calendar
Adding a New Booking
One of the most frequent and important tasks you will perform in B&B Manager is adding a new booking to the system. You can do this by clicking on the
New Booking button on the toolbar or by selecting
Bookings & Closures > New Booking from the menu. The booking form is divided into three sections;
Guest Details, Booking Details and Payment Details.
The
Guest Details section allows you to enter the guest name, address, telephone numbers and e-mail, along with any notes you have about the guest
(e.g. are they vegetarian, will they be arriving late). Alternatively, if you are taking a repeat booking, you can click on the
Select button to choose the
guest from the existing guest list, and the details will be populated automatically. Of course, if their details have changed, you can update them in the form and
these changes will be stored in the guest list.
Having filled out the guest details, you now come to the
Booking Details section. Here, you need to first select the arrival date and departure date/number of
nights for the booking. The list of available rooms below this on the right hand side will show only those rooms that are continuously available between these dates.
To add any of these rooms to the booking, click on the room name then on the
Add button to the left of it. You can add as many of the available rooms as you
like to the booking. To remove a room from the booking, click on the room name in the list of chosen rooms then click on the
Remove button. Once you have
selected the required rooms, verify that the number of adults is set to the correct value. B&B Manager will estimate the number of adults as you add and remove
rooms, based on the normal room occupancy but if, for example, you are letting a double room as single occupancy, you will need to override this value manually. Note
that B&B Manager regards an "adult" as anyone who occupies a standard bed and a child as anyone (typically 0-3 yrs) who requires a cot. You can only add children
to the booking if you include one or more rooms that has been marked as offering child facilities (see
Rooms section). In addition, if you have
marked one or more rooms as offering extra bed facilities, you can increase the number of adults in the booking beyond the normal occupancy of the rooms. The cost of
the booking will then automatically be increased by whatever extra bed charge you have set up for the room.
When letting rooms as single occupancy, or adding children in the booking, you may decide not to apply single occupancy rates or to waive any charges you normally
apply for child beds and/or extra beds. You can do this by switching the
Apply single supplement/discount and
Apply extra bed & child bed charges on or off.
Finally, you need to add the
Payment Details for the booking. B&B Manager estimates the price of the booking, based on the length of stay, number of rooms and
guests and the current price points of the rooms you have added to the booking. Additional features such as single occupancy of double/twin rooms, extra bed charges and
child beds are also taken into account. Generally speaking, if you have set your price points correctly, B&B Manager will estimate the correct figure for the total cost of
the booking. However, if the estimated figure is not correct, you can increase or decrease it by clicking on the arrows next to the
Total Price box, or by typing directly
into the box. You may want to calculate the booking cost based purely on the number of guests, or apply a fixed discount or supplement to the price estimate by B&B Manager.
If so, you should click on the Calculator button next to the total cost and enter the appropriate values into the
Adjust Booking Price form. All the arithmetic will then be
done for you.
Having finalised the booking cost, you now need to set the VAT rate for the booking (if you are VAT registered) and the account to which the booking is assigned. This is
automatically set to the account whose accounting period would include the booking dates, but you can override this if you wish to. Finally, you should note whether or not a
deposit has been paid (by ticking the
Deposit Paid box) and, if so, enter the amount of the deposit and the method by which it was paid. Then click on
OK to
finalise the booking. A confirmation screen will show the details of the booking you have added, then the booking will be transferred to the diary and calendar.
Viewing Your Bookings - Room Information
The
Room Information panel on the right hand side of the B&B Manager main screen shows all of your bookings for the next 10 days. You can change the
start date of the diay by clicking on the calendar control and selecting the required date and you can increase the number of days information shown by clicking on the
Next 10 Days
control. Or simply use the
Next Week and
Previous Week button to move through the diary. The scroll bar at the right edge of the diary allows you to view all
the information for the selected dates.
If you want to view or update the details of a booking, simply double-click on the booking in the diary to display the
Booking Details screen. Then make the necessary
amendments and press OK to update the booking. Any changes to the booking details (such as increasing the length of stay) are automatically reflected in the diary.
More information on updating bookings
The Room Calendar
The simplest and most visual way to view your bookings is by using the B&B Manager
Room Calendar. You can view this by clicking on the
Calendar button on the
toolbar or by selecting
Bookings & Closures > Calendar from the menu. The calendar represents bookings as coloured blocks, showing the next weeks bookings for each room
from a specified date. You can alter the start date by pressing the left/right arrow keys on the keyboard, clicking on the
Next Week and
Previous Week
buttons or by selecting the date from the calendar at the top of the screen.
Perhaps the most powerful feature of the
Room Calendar is the ability to move bookings around by "drag and drop". To move a booking, click on the booking and move the
mouse with the button held down. The booking should follow the mouse as you move it, but if you overlap with another booking or move the booking into a room that does not
have enough bed spaces, the booking will turn red to indicate that it cannot be moved there. When you are happy with the new location of the booking, simply release the mouse
button to place it. If you attempt to drop the booking where there is no space, the booking will be returned to it's original location. Don't worry if you make a mistake; simply click
on the
Undo button at the top of the screen to reverse the last change.
There may be occasions on which you need to split a booking; for example, to move a long-term guest out of their normal room for one or two nights. You can do this very easily in
the room calendar, as follows: -
- Click on the booking you wish to split (this should be more than a single-night booking). The Split button at the top of the screen will be enabled.
- Click on the Split button to split the booking and OK the confirmation message.
- The booking is now split into individual nights. Drag and drop the required nights into the new room or rooms.
-
When you are finished, you can optionally re-combine any of the single night bookings in the same room into multiple night bookings by holding down the Ctrl key
and clicking each single-night booking, then clicking on the Join button at the top of the screen.
The calendar also allows you to view which room bookings are part of the same overall booking, by clicking on the
Links button at the top of the screen. The linked room bookings
are then joined by arrows. You can print out the bookings for the currently displayed week by clicking on the
Print button - useful for sticking on your
noticeboard, or keeping next to your phone so you have instant access to your booking information when a prospective guest calls.
Bookings List
You can view a list of your bookings by clicking on the
Bookings button on the toolbar, or by selecting
Bookings & Closures > View Bookings from the menu. The initial view
shows "Recent & Upcoming" bookings, which are all bookings for the past week and the next four weeks. You can change this view by clicking on the drop down menu at the top
the screen. The options include "All bookings", "Last months bookings", "Next 6 months bookings" and so on. As your booking list grows, you may find it easier to locate a booking using
the
Search facility at the top of the screen. Type any part of the guest name or address into the box and click the
Find button; only those bookings containing the specified
text will then be shown. You can return to the full list of bookings by clicking on the
Show All button.
Arrivals & Departures
B&B Manager provides a simple way of viewing impending arrivals and departures. Click on
Bookings & Closures > Arrivals & Departures from the top menu to view all arrivals
for the next 7 days. The list includes the name of the guest who made the booking, the rooms booked, and any notes you have made about the booking. You can double-click any of the
booking information to view the full details of the booking, just as you can from the
Room Information panel on the main screen. To view impending departures, click on the
Departures tab at the top of the screen. This list shows the departures for the next 7 days and includes the guest name and the payment information for the booking, so you can
quickly see who needs to be invoiced at the end of their stay, and the amount they should be charged.
Updating Booking Details
To view or update the details of a booking, either double-click any part of the booking details in the
Room Information panel on the right of the main screen, or click the
Bookings
button to view your bookings list, find the required booking in the list and double-click it. This displays the
Booking Details screen, which is split into five sections, accessed by clicking
on the tabs at the top of the screen.
The
Summary section shows the name of the person who has made the booking, the arrival and departure dates, the number of children and adults, the rooms booked, the total cost of the
booking and the amount paid to date. You can use the
Notes area to add or review notes about the booking, such as arrival time, special requirements, etc. This area also shows the
status of the booking, which when you add a new booking is automatically set to "Confirmed". If a booking has been made which has not, in your view, been confirmed, you should change the
status to "Reserved". When you view your room calendar, all reserved bookings are marked as such, allowing you to see which future guests have not yet confirmed their bookings. The booking
status is also shown in the bookings list accessed by clicking on the
Bookings button. Finally, the summary shows the account to which the booking is assigned, which you can change if
you have set up more than one account.
The
Rooms section shows all the individual room bookings included in the booking. Whilst the most common type of booking may be for one or two people occupying one room, you will
certainly take group bookings spread across two or more rooms. You can add a new room booking by clicking on the
Add button to display the
Room Booking Details screen. Use
this screen to select the arrival and departure dates for the room booking (these do not have to be the same as for other room bookings in the booking), the room to be booked and the number
of adults and children. As you change the arrival and departure dates, the list of rooms changes so that it contains only those rooms that are continuously available between the selected dates.
B&B Manager will not allow you to make a double-booking, which is an important feature of the system.
The
Facilities section shows the individual facility bookings included in the booking. Anything not included in your standard accommodation package can be treated as a facility, including (for
example) evening meals, laundry charges and video/DVD hire. To add a new facility booking, click on the
Add button and enter the facility details. You can either select a facility you have
already set up. setting the quantity (e.g. "3 evening meals") or add a
Non-standard facility, where you type your own description and price of the facility. Generally speaking, fixed price facilities
should be set up in the
Facilities section, whereas one-off or variable charges (such as a bar bill) are best applied as non-standard facilitiies.
Pricing Details
If you change any aspects of a booking, in particular the rooms, facilities or special offers, the total cost of the booking displayed in the
Summary section will be re-calculated based on the
selected room and facility prices, plus any discounts you applied when you first added the booking. If the updated total cost is not correct, you can set the correct value manually using the up/down
arrow buttons or by typing directly into the box.
Cancelling a Booking
It is important when cancelling a booking to remember that a non-refundable deposit may have already been paid. In this case, simply removing the booking from the system would cause
this payment to disappear from the system and make your accounts inaccurate. In this case, rather than removing the booking, you should view the booking details and set the
Status
to "Cancelled". This will maintain a record of the booking, including payments, but will remove the booking from the diary and calendar, and ignore it in when updating room availability in your
website room availability calendar.
Creating Confirmation Letters, Registration Forms & Invoices
As well as storing all your booking information, B&B Manager allows you to create a
Confirmation Letter,
Registration Form and
Invoice for each booking. You
can create any or all of these documents by double-clicking a booking in the
Room Information panel to view the
Booking Details screen, and clicking on the
Confirmation,
Registration Form or
Invoice buttons near the top of the screen. These documents are created in Adobe PDF format, and can be viewed using the freely available Adobe Acrobat
reader. If you do not already have this installed on your computer, it can be obtained from the
Adobe website.
The confirmation letter and invoice provide a full breakdown of the booking cost, including rooms and facilities, payments made to date and the amount still owed. If you are VAT registered, a full
breakdown of the VAT amounts and the net price of the booking are shown. The invoice also shows the payment methods you accept and the name of the payee if you accept cheques. The registration
form automatically fills in any guest details that are already known, leaving blank spaces for information not yet provided, which you can add to your guest records when the guest returns the completed
form.
All of these documents can be customised in B&B Manager's
Hotel Details screen. Among other things, you can use your own header logo or full A4
background, switch your contact details on/off and add your own Terms & Conditions to the forms.
Exporting Bookings to Microsoft Excel
B&B Manager allows you to export your booking information to Microsoft Excel, which is particularly useful if you have a Pocket PC which runs Excel. To export your bookings, select
Bookings & Closures > Export Bookings from the top menu. Then select the start and end dates that you wish to export bookings for and set the filename to export to. The bookings are exported in
XML format, and B&B Manager allows you to view the created file there and then. If you select this option, the select File > Save As ... option from Excel, you can save the booking information
in Microsoft Excel Workbook (XLS) format. The XLS file can be downloaded onto a Pocket PC running Windows and loaded into the Pocket PC version of Excel. This is particularly useful for those
of you who like to have your latest booking information to hand, in case any booking requests are made whilst you are out of the house.