How to Create a Group Booking

At the end of this article you will be able to;

• Create the group master information for a standalone group
• Create a group from a function
• Add the rooms
• Adding a deposit
• Add a rate change

It is assumed that you are competent in creating and managing individual room reservations, if not then please see the relevant guide on how to create a reservation.

To Create the Group Master Information

Navigate to Reservations > Group.

This will bring you to the group reservation window. From this screen, you add in all the information required according to your company procedures and then press F3 to save and create a group ID. 

Below is what each field relates to;

• Name: free type the function name. 
• Arrival: choose the group arrival date from the drop-down box.
• Status: choose the status of the group from the drop-down box.
• Departure: choose the departure date from the drop-down box.
• Function: this field will show the function that the group is attached to if applicable.
• Option date:  if you are using the option report add in the option date here.

• Code: this field is used in conjunction with the HART wedding engine, please see the relevant manual.

Customer Info 

This section allows you to add the customer information for the group, if you have not added any information in any of these fields when trying to save the group this will display an error message. These fields are the same as the customer section in an individual reservation screen and are entered in the same way.

• Guest: double-click in this field to bring up the guest wizard to add your guest name.
• Company: Double-click in this field to bring up the company wizard to add the company name.
• Contact: if the company has been set up with a contact already, then you can choose the contact from the drop-down box by clicking in the field. The edit button allows you to edit the contact's information or if required add a new contact to the company.
• Agent: Double-click in the field to bring up the agent wizard to add the agent name. 
• Contact: if the agent has been set up with a contact already then you can choose the contact from the drop-down box by clocking in the field. The edit button allows you to edit the contact's information or if required add a new contact to the agent.
• Host: this is a free type field and for information purposes allows you to add the hostname of the group.

Marketing Info

These fields are used for HART reporting purposes and are to be filled in according to your company procedures.

These fields are the same as the marketing section in an individual reservation screen.

Some of these fields may fill in by default if you add a company or agent to the group depending on the setup of the company or agent. Or by choosing from the drop-down box you can fill in, source, segment, subsegment, Internal staff manager, and how heard fields.

The contact Info is a free type field for information purposes.

Financials & Other Info

Some of these fields are the same as the financials section in an individual reservation screen.

• Coordinator: choose from the drop-down box.
• PO Nr: free type the PO number if applicable.
• Billing notes: choose from the drop-down the billing notes that are applicable to the majority of the group as you would for a standalone reservation.
• Rate plan: Double-click in this field to choose the rate plan as you would for a standalone reservation. The package will drop in automatically.

• People: this is a free type field and will then default the rooms that you add to the number of people you set here. If you do not enter a number here the rooms will default to 2 PAX.

• Discount:  Shows if a discount has been applied when selecting the rate plan.
• Unit: choose the unit from the drop-down if applicable at your hotel.

To create a group from a function.

When in the function booking window press the Group button on the right-hand side, press Yes to proceed with the group creation, the group will then drop into the Group tab of the function.

From here double click in the rate field to choose your rate plan and press F3 or the save icon to save and create the group ID.

Double-click the group ID to bring up the group master window and proceed to fill in all the details as above.

Adding rooms

The group rooms work in a two-step process. Firstly you put on hold the number of rooms and types you need for each date range, and then you will be able to go into the individual bookings themselves.

Navigate to the Stays tab, right-click, and add an entry. Add the arrival and departure date and the number of rooms you need one row at a time.

From the example below you can see we have added:

2x Standard rooms arriving on 2/2/23 and departing on 4/2/22 but the rate will be at a single room price.

1x Deluxe room arriving on 3/2/23 and departing on 4/2/22 but the rate will be at the standard room price.

The room type refers to the physical Room Type the guest will be occupying, and the Sold As relates to the price category the room will be sold out. So in the second row of the example, we are selling 1 Deluxe room but at the rate of a standard room.

If you navigate to the bookings tab this details the individual rooms.

You will see the information among other things for each room type, guest name, arrival and departure dates, status, and rate.

You are able to manage each individual booking as you would normally while still being part of the group. Clicking on the ID number brings up the reservation window of the individual booking, which can then be managed as usual.

All new rooms are initially created under the name Group Member until you have the rooming list. To assign the correct guest name you have two options:

• Open the room booking by double-clicking on the ID, and then search for the guest profile as you would in a normal booking
• Double-click on the Group Member of the room you wish to name, and the profile wizard will come up and allow you to choose the correct profile.

The two boxes at the end of each reservation are as follows:

Sync Rate: If this box is ticked the individual room will follow the group master rate plan and the rates you assign. If this is unticked then the room can be a standalone booking with its own rate plan but still be within the group.

P: Tick this box if you wish the room to show on the Pro forma

Adding a Group deposit 

A deposit for the whole group is added under the deposit tab using the same procedure that you would add a deposit for the room.

Adding a rate change.

There may be a situation where the group needs to change the rate plan throughout their stay. You can add a rate change for the whole group by going to the rate change tab in the main group, right-clicking, adding an entry, and applying the rate plan change as usual.

If you have an individual room that you do not wish the rate change to be applied to, untick the rate sync box for the individual room so that this room will then follow its own rates. 

Or if you have an individual room that needs a rate change untick the rate sync box and add the rate change to the booking in the usual way.

You have now created the group booking, To manage the group booking and read our troubleshooting tips,  please see the How to Manage Group Bookings information guide which includes:

• Managing the group rates and individual bookings within the group 
• Add notes
• Produce a Pro forma
• Produce a Guestlist 
• Use the interactive guest list grid button 
• Know how to move a group
• Know how to copy a group
• Know how to add a group to a function
• Search for an existing group booking
• Troubleshoot a group