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Hotel Guide

This guide covers the two roles built specifically for Room Management: Front Desk and Housekeeping. If you're setting up the module itself (rooms, room types, permissions), see the Hotel Management module reference → instead — this page is about the daily job. If your property also runs the restaurant/bar, see the POS Guide → for ringing up sales — Front Desk isn't a POS role by default, but a manager can grant pos.sell to a Front Desk user on a property where the same person covers both.

As Front Desk​

Your role covers the guest-facing side of the property: bookings, check-in/out, and each guest's running bill. You don't manage rooms/room types, see financial reports, or touch the housekeeping board — that's Housekeeping's job.

Daily workflow​

  1. Log in — you land on the Front Desk (Hotel) Dashboard: today's arrivals (each with a Check In button), departures with each guest's balance, current occupancy, outstanding balances, and quick actions into Reservations, Rooms, and Meals.
  2. Take new bookings as they come in — phone, walk-in, or however your property takes them today.
  3. Check guests in on their arrival date.
  4. Handle guest folio charges through the stay — ad hoc charges, and anything charged to the room from the restaurant.
  5. Settle and check guests out on departure.

Booking a reservation​

  1. Go to Reservations → + New Reservation.
  2. Enter the guest's name and phone, choose a room, and set the check-in/check-out dates and number of guests. If the phone number matches an earlier stay, a "Returning guest" note shows their last visit. The room can't be double-booked for overlapping dates.
  3. Check the Agreed Rate / Night — it's filled in from the room type, but you can change it for this booking.
  4. Choose who's billed — the Guest directly, or a Company for corporate billing (pick an existing company or add one with New Company).
  5. If breakfast, lunch, or dinner is included in the agreed rate (not charged separately), tick the relevant Meals Included boxes — this feeds the kitchen's daily meal-count planning, so don't skip it even though it doesn't affect the bill directly.
  6. If the guest paid a deposit, enter it in Deposit Collected and pick how it was paid. Add the booking source and any notes.
  7. Click Book Reservation. The reservation shows as Booked until check-in, and can be edited only while it's still Booked.

Checking a guest in​

On the guest's arrival date (or early, if they show up ahead of schedule), open their reservation and click Check In — or use Check In next to their name under today's arrivals on your dashboard. This:

  • Flips the room to occupied.
  • Opens a Guest Folio with a room charge already on it (nights × the agreed rate) — you don't need to add that line yourself. Any deposit is already recorded as a payment.

Managing a guest's folio during their stay​

Open the guest's detail page any time during their stay to:

  • Add a charge — laundry, damage, anything not already on the bill (a description and an amount).
  • See charges the restaurant/bar has billed to the room — these appear automatically the moment a Restaurant POS sale is charged to this guest's folio, nothing for you to do.
  • 🧾 Print Bill if the guest wants to see it mid-stay (it can also be saved as PDF or shared via WhatsApp, if your property has that on).

Settling and checking out​

On departure:

  1. Open the guest's folio and confirm the balance.
  2. If the reservation is billed to a company, click Bill to [Company Name] instead of taking payment — this drafts a real invoice against that company's account.
  3. Otherwise, pick a payment method (Cash, M-Pesa, etc.) and click Settle. Settling always pays the full balance with the one method you picked — a folio can't be split across two methods. The payment receipt opens for printing.
  4. Once settled (or billed to company), click Check Out — the button only appears then. The room automatically flips to Dirty — Housekeeping will see it needs attention.

A guest can't be checked out with an open balance and no billing arrangement — settle or bill to company first.

Cancelling or no-showing a reservation​

Open the reservation and choose Cancel or No-Show (only possible before check-in). If a deposit was taken at booking, you'll be asked whether to Refund to Guest or Keep as Cancellation Fee — pick honestly, it's recorded either way. Choosing refund only records the decision; hand the money back the way your property normally does.

As Housekeeping​

Your role is deliberately narrow: the housekeeping board, nothing else. You don't see reservations, guest bills, or reports.

Daily workflow​

  1. Log in — you land straight on the Housekeeping Board, sorted by Today's Priority by default.
  2. Work the highest-priority rooms first — see the badges below.
  3. Update each room's status as you clean it.

Reading the board​

Each room shows its current housekeeping status (Clean / Dirty / Inspected / Out of Order) and, when relevant, a same-day badge pulled from today's reservations:

BadgeWhat it means for you
⚡ Same-Day TurnoverGuest checking out and a new guest arriving today — clean this one first
🚪 Departing TodayGuest checking out today, no one arriving yet — high priority, but not as urgent as a turnover
🛬 Arriving TodayA new guest checks in today — the room should already be Clean/Inspected before they arrive
👤 OccupiedGuest staying, not checking out today — different cleaning needs than a checkout (e.g. a light service, not a full turnover clean)

Use Filter by occupancy (All / Occupied / Vacant) if you want to focus on one or the other, and the Sort dropdown if you need a different order than the default priority sort (e.g. room number or floor while doing a floor-by-floor walkthrough). The search box finds a room by number, floor, type, or known issue, and you can switch between grid and list views.

Updating a room's status​

In grid view, tap one of the status buttons on the room's card — Clean, Dirty, Inspected, or Out of Order; in list view, use the room's status dropdown. Any Known Issues (AC not cooling, door lock sticking) show on the room with a ⚠ — but you can't change them on the board. Report new maintenance problems to your manager, who records them on the Rooms page; don't use the cleanliness status for them.

A room automatically flips to Dirty the moment Front Desk checks a guest out — you don't need to watch for check-outs yourself, they'll show up on the board.

Tips​

  • Meals Included on a booking doesn't charge the guest anything — it's purely so the kitchen knows how many guaranteed breakfasts/lunches/dinners to prepare for. Still tick it accurately even though it "doesn't affect the bill."
  • A folio can't be settled by check-out time if there's an unresolved balance and no company billing set up — sort out billing arrangements as early in the stay as you can, not at the front door on departure day.
  • If a restaurant charge doesn't show up on a guest's folio, check with whoever rang it up at Checkout — it only lands on the folio if Charge to Room was picked for that specific sale, and Checkout only offers guests checked in at the same property as the till.
  • A Same-Day Turnover room is the one that most often causes a delay for an arriving guest — treat it as the priority it's marked as, not just "another dirty room."