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Overview
The Cloudbeds Group Management module is a powerful tool that empowers hoteliers to improve their Group and Contracted Corporate business capabilities. This Cloudbeds PMS feature optimizes the booking process for a wide range of group events, including corporate gatherings, weddings, and travel agency and wholesaler bookings.
Its key advantages include:
- Streamlined booking and simplified payments: It reduces the complexity of handling groups by addressing challenges such as handling reservations, processing payments, and blocking availability for group and corporate clients.
- Flexible Rate setting: It enhances profitability through customizable rate agreements tailored for large groups.
- Comprehensive revenue and data management: It enables detailed tracking of group booking income and consolidates guest and reservation information under a unified company profile for better oversight and less administrative hassle.
In simple words:
🫤 Without the Groups module, reservations are listed on the Reservations page. If several reservations are part of one group, there’s no way to nest them under 1 group, have 1 common folio, or block availability for the specific group.
😎 With the Groups module, the reservations that belong to one group can be added to the Group Account, where you can create a Group Folio, block availability for future reservations within this group, and track information about the group (revenue, number of stays, etc.).
Group Management in action
In Cloudbeds, we understand the intricacies of managing group accommodations, including individual payment options, negotiated rates, and guaranteed room availability.
Below are examples of different groups that can be accommodated using the Groups module functionality to ensure an optimized booking process and happier guests.
A wedding party of 20 people staying at the property for a single weekend.
- The bride and groom will pay for 10 of these people, but the other 10 will need to pay independently.
- These guests will need a way to create their own reservations (typically by either navigating to a URL or calling the property with a group ID or group name).
- Each reservation could likewise have its own arrival and departure dates (not all of them will stay and leave on the same date).
- Since the wedding party is reserving 20 rooms, they may be eligible for a discount. Therefore, each guest must indicate that they belong to this group to receive the special rate.
Dewey Corporation frequently sends its employees to the North Pole for training.
- The company has a special deal with North Pole Hotel with pre-negotiated rates.
- Whenever an employee travels to the North Pole, the employee creates a reservation at this hotel for the dates that the employee is traveling. The company covers all room costs, but the employee is responsible for all the entertainment costs.
A travel agent resells rooms at my property at a markup price.
- This travel agent sends me guests frequently, so you agreed to give this travel agent 2 guaranteed rooms every day over the next 2 years.
- The travel agent is responsible for paying for these rooms regardless of whether there is a reservation unless the travel agent informs you at least 7 days in advance that they don’t need this room inventory.
Scrooge Co. has an annual New Year’s Eve party at the property and reserves rooms for the employees to stay in.
- This is a yearly event, and all the employees can only stay one night.
- The availability is blocked before any reservations are added.
How to navigate the Groups page
Access Groups
- Click on Menu
- Go to Groups
Group Profile details
Group Profiles are used to identify related reservations and indicate they belong to the same group. Learn more about them here.
In the Group Profile page, you can filter the list of group profiles by:
- Search: View a specific group profile by entering its name or code. Leave the field blank to see a complete list of all your group profiles.
- Date Created
- Check-in Date and Check-out Date
- Stay Date
- Type: Select all or choose any of the options: Group, Company, Travel Agent, and Wholesaler
- Account Status: Select all or choose Open or Closed.
In the table, you can check the following information about the group:
- Group code (always starts with "g")
- Group name
- Group type (can be several)
- Earliest check-in (the earliest check-in date of reservations added to the group)
- Latest check-out (the latest check-out date of reservations added to the group)
- Status (open or closed)
- Gear icon (edit or remove the group profile)
The Group Profiles page features multiple sections that allow you to efficiently oversee group activity.
- To access the group profile header (group profile formulas), tabs, and information table, simply click on the hyperlinked name of the group profile.
On the group profile page, you can:
- Open/Close the group account.
- Under the Actions menu, you can generate/email invoices, email/print folios, and compose messages.
- Check the Group Profile header for information about group type, the number of reservations linked, etc.
- Check group Balance Due
- Access group profile tabs
Header (Group Profile formulas)
The Group Profile header includes the following information:
- Type: Group, Company, Travel Agent, and Wholesaler
- Reservations: The total number of reservations created within the Definite Blocks and any existing reservations linked to the Group. Canceled and No-Show reservations are not included in this calculation.
Reservations with the status Confirmation Pending are included in the calculations and treated the same way as Confirmed bookings.
- Guests: Total number of guests listed within the reservations assigned to this Group account. Canceled and No-Show reservations are not included in this calculation.
- Nights Booked: Total nights multiplied by the number of rooms in the reservations assigned to this Group account. Canceled and No-Show reservations are not included in this calculation.
- Nights Available: The number of nights to be sold combined from all definite allotment blocks.
- ADR: Average Daily Rate = “Room Revenue” / (“Nights Booked” + “Nights Available”).
- Room Revenue: The sum of daily room rates from each allotted room in all definite allotment blocks and daily room rates from all reservations directly linked to the group profile. Canceled and No-Show reservations are not included in this calculation.
Group Profile tabs
The Group Profile tabs include the following information:
a. Reservation: Check, create, edit, link, or unlink group reservations.
You can filter the list by:
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- Search: View a specific group profile by entering its name or code. Leave the field blank to see a complete list of all your reservations.
- Date Booked
- Check-in Date and Check-out Date
- Stay Date
- Status: Select all or specify the type of reservations you want to see
- Room Types: Select all or specify the room category you want to see
- Source: Select all or specify the channels from which the reservation came
- Allotment Blocks: N/A or specify the allotment block
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After applying the filters, the table will show a list of reservations. Many fields are either self-explanatory or the same as the filters; here are some honorable mentions:
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- ID: Click the hyperlinked reservation ID or confirmation code to be redirected to the Reservation Details page.
- First Name and Last Name: Name of the primary guest (booker)
- Room Number(s): Room(s) assigned to the reservation, displaying room abbreviations and unit numbers as they appear on the calendar. The cell will say N/A (not applicable) if no rooms are assigned.
- Total Price: This is the reservation Balance due.
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b. Allotment Blocks: Check, create, or edit allotment blocks for groups.
c. Folios: Add payments, refund, and add or adjust charges.
d. Group Profile: Check and edit group profile details and add and edit contacts.
e. Pickup: See what inventory has been allocated and how many rooms have been picked up in a specific period.
Check out the Allotment Blocks article to learn more about reviewing the pickup of allotment blocks.
f. Credit Cards: Check, add, and authorize credit cards.
g. Notes: Track important information, contact details, policies, etc.
h. Documents: Find the generated invoices.
Manage Allotment Blocks
A group Allotment Block is an availability block for specified dates. It is not mandatory to create these blocks for each Group Profile since the main functionality of a group profile is to track business from a specific company and route charges from reservations to a group folio.
However, they can be useful for guaranteeing a specific previously agreed-upon number of rooms for a group or offering a special group rate without blocking availability.
Learn more about Allotment blocks' main actions here.
How to get started with the Group functionality
- Create a Group Profile
- Create a Contact for a Group Profile
- Add a credit card to a Group Profile
- Create an Allotment Block within a Group Profile
- Share an Allotment Block Booking Engine URL with the Group Contact
- Add/Link Reservations to a Group
- Add notes to a Group Profile, Allotment Block, Reservations or Guests
- Review the Allotment Blocks Pickup
- View transactions routed from Reservations and manage Group Folio
- Generate and email Group invoices to guests
- Access and use the Group Reports
Comments
Guest folios are left with a balance after the folio is routed to a group. Payment is made on the group folio leaving the balance on the guest folio. How to correct this?
Hello, Rcampbell!
Thank you so much for reaching out.
Please contact our Support Team directly for further and dedicated assistance with this request.
Kind regards!
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