From HotelTime version 4.6.7, we bring you a revolution in charging no-show and cancellation fees! Increase your revenue and cash flow through responsible billing of cancellation fees for reservations, with a simple process we have prepared for you. You can now charge cancellation fees effortlessly with just a few clicks.
Charging a Cancellation Fee in 3 Steps:
STEP 1 – Select the Method of Charging the Cancellation Fee
STEP 2 – Review and Add Any Missing Details to the Cancellation Fee Document
STEP 3 – Confirm the Creation of the Final Document
System Settings to Ease Your Work
First, in system settings, choose which hotel service you want to use as the default for charging cancellation fees. You can find this in Menu > Settings > Application > Main system setup under the Accounts and Documents tab, titled " Default hotel service for cancellation fees". From the dropdown menu, select the service that the system will offer as the default when creating cancellation fee documents. The selected service must already be set up in the hotel’s service list (Settings > Application > Products and services - hotel).
Then select the user groups that should have permission to charge cancellation fees:
- Report for cancellation fees - allows the user to work with the new report for cancellation fees
- Cancellation fee receipt - allows the user to create a cancellation fee document.
How to Easily Charge Cancellation Fees in HotelTime
You can get an easy overview in the new report specifically designed for charging cancellation fees, accessible via Menu > Reservations > Report for Cancellation Fees. In the displayed list, you will find all room reservations that were cancelled in the specified period and match the applied filters.
The "Group by Reservations" checkbox helps with billing when handling a multi-room reservation that you want to charge all at once.
The " Display already processed reservations" checkbox will show room reservations that have already been billed, giving you a perfect overview of which reservations have already been billed.
STEP 1
Clicking the money symbol at the end of the row brings up a menu offering payment options:
- Available deposit invoices will show if the cancelled reservation is tied to previously issued deposit invoice.
- Available preauthorizations will appear if you use HotelTime's payment solution and there is an unused preauthorization linked to the cancelled reservation.
- Create Card Payment will appear if you use HotelTime's payment solution and the cancelled reservation is linked to a tokenized credit card or a virtual card.
- Waive Cancellation Fee should be selected if no fee is to be charged for the room or multi-room reservation (e.g., the fee was waived for the guest, or it was a duplicate reservation). For reporting purposes, such a reservation is subsequently considered "processed."
- Settle in Document should be selected if a cancellation fee is to be charged for the room or multi-room reservation in the usual way.
A waived cancellation fee can also be billed later by checking the " Display already processed reservations" checkbox in the report filter, and the reservation will appear in the list again.
You can only select one option in the contextual menu.
STEP 2
In step 2, review and, if necessary, edit or add the required details for the cancellation fee document.
The header of the displayed contextual window shows a recap of the room or rooms that are to be charged. Under the "Item" section, the service selected in system settings (see above) will be displayed by default, but you can select another service from the dropdown menu. The amount is automatically calculated based on the price of the room reservation, before deducting any prepayments. If the entire multi-room reservation is charged, extras are added to the total amount due. If only one room is being charged, extras are not automatically added, as they apply to the reservation as a whole. You can add any note to the item or the entire document (text on invoice), which will be displayed on the invoice for the guest.
STEP 3
Step 3 will differ based on the payment method selected in step 1. Possible scenarios are described below.
a) Use Case with Deposit Invoice Applied
If you selected a deposit invoice to be applied in step 1, you will need to confirm, edit, or add information in step 2 to generate the final document. The amount due can be manually overwritten.
The "Deposit" section will show a summary of the deposit invoice selected in the previous step, which will be applied to the final document.
If the prepayment amount matches the requested payment, a closed hotel account or invoice (depending on system settings) will be created, and you will be redirected to the details of the newly created document.
If the deposit amount does not match the requested payment:
- If the deposit amount is less than the payment amount, you will be redirected to complete the payment by any available method.
- If the deposit amount exceeds the payment amount and overpayments are allowed in system settings, you can proceed with your standard hotel procedures; otherwise, the operation cannot be completed (the cancellation fee document will not be created), and the payment amount will need to be adjusted to match the deposit.
b) Use Case with Card Token Payment
If you selected online card payment in step 1, you will need to specify the currency and, if necessary, adjust the amount to be charged from the card before processing the payment. The default currency will always match the currency of the reservation, and the default amount will always match the cost of the room or room reservation. If billing the entire reservation, the amount for all extras will be added to the total room charge. Confirming the payment will create an external online payment, which will then be used to settle the cancellation fee document.
The "Payment" section will show a recap of the external online payment you created, which will be applied to the final document.
The amount payable is automatically filled in based on the payment made and cannot be overwritten. The document will always be issued for the amount charged to the card.
c) Use Case with Available Preauthorization
If you selected an available preauthorization in step 1, you will first need to confirm the amount to be collected. Preauthorization can only be drawn once, up to the maximum amount, by clicking the "Collect Preauthorization" button.
An external payment will then be created from the preauthorization—this process may take several minutes for the payment provider to complete. In the meantime, you can close the window and continue working in the system as usual. Once the operation is confirmed, you will be notified with a pop-up window directly in the application, and you can return to complete the cancellation fee settlement. When you click on the money symbol in the report again, the payment will appear as an "Available External Payments," and you can proceed as described in the previous section (b).
d) Use Case with Settling in Document
If no prepayment or tokenized card is linked to the reservation, you must select the option to settle in the document in step 1. This use case is often associated with manually charging a payment card via the payment terminal.
After creation, you are automatically redirected to the document settlement section, where you can choose the desired available payment method according to standard hotel procedures.
Manual Reservation Cancellation
Once you decide to cancel a room from a reservation or the entire reservation, a context window will appear similar to the one used in charging cancellation fees from the new report for cancellation fees.
If you do not want to charge a cancellation fee when cancelling, or no fee is due, simply close the window by clicking the "X" in the upper-right corner or pressing ESC. The room or room reservation will then be cancelled and will be available in the report for cancellation fees or in the cancelled reservations report as usual.
Do you have any additional questions? Check the FAQs HERE.