PMS users only
You can either create a new booking with multiple rooms or add (or remove) additional rooms at a later date.
Additional features are ...
- Different rooms can comprise different date ranges within the same booking.
- Prices can be on a per room rate basis or a total group booking price (please see the Fixed Price Group Booking information below for more details).
- The booking can be paid by multiple payments and/or invoices .
Any rooms currently in the booking are shown in the Rooms section.
You will also see an Add Rooms section below this which enables you to add additional rooms to the booking as shown in Step 2 below.
- Click New Booking (in the Bookings section in the menu) and add the Lead Guest details.
- Go into the Rooms tab (step by step instructions below).
Select the dates of the booking by clicking on the date field and selecting the date on the mini calendar.
Different rooms can have different arrival and/or departure dates to other rooms within the same booking.
If you want to create a group booking with split dates, you will need to select all the rooms for one date range and accept those rooms before adding the other units with the other dates.
If you attempt to change the dates before accepting the rooms, then the change of date would apply to all selected rooms. If any selected rooms are no longer available with the new date range, they will be shown with a red background to indicate that they are not available for the new dates and will not be added to the booking if the Accept button is clicked.
Select to book by Room Type or Unit
Select the Room/Unit Type required and the available units will automatically appear in the table.
Once you've chosen the Room/Unit Type you can select the rate to use if it's not pre-selected. If you want to charge the group a fixed price instead of the total of the individual room prices, please see the information in the Fixed Price Group Booking section above.
- You can add units by either individually ticking the required units in the list or by entering the number required in the No. Req. field which will then automatically select the required number for you.
- Type in how many guests will be in each unit (which then allows iBex to check occupancy numbers and calculate the suggested rates), and then the price (if you want to override what the suggested amount is).
Click the Accept button and the selected units will be added to the booking and shown in the Rooms section at the top of the screen.
The available units in the Add Rooms section will then refresh (with the ticked units now being removed from this section) enabling you to add different Room/Unit types if required.
You can either add more rooms to the booking (by going to Step 3) or continue with the booking process as usual (for example, add extra's, notes, deposit, and either Book, Create a Quote, or Create a Held Room or Pencil in a Booking).
When you add several rooms to a booking, iBex will automatically name the additional rooms the same as the Lead Guest name followed by a number.
You can update the guest name any time after you have accepted the room to be added to the booking.
Just click on the Room name in the Room Column and amend as necessary.
iBex can charge group bookings either by individual room charges or as a whole where the group is charged a total price which is split evenly between all rooms (regardless of which room type is used).
This is set by selecting the Calculate Price By option.
Instructions
- Follow the usual steps to make a group booking as shown in the Step by Step Instructions.
- At any time, select the Grouped Total Price option.
This will remove the option to enter an actual room rate for each selected unit and once you Accept your selection, there will be a Rooms Grouped Total field to fill in as shown. - Enter the amount that you want to charge the group.
- Save Rooms and continue with your booking as normal.
In order for iBex to charge a total price, it divides the total amount entered between all the rooms in the booking. If you do not already have a ''fixed rate'' set up in your iBex system, just follow these instructions if you feel it's necessary. 1. Select New Rate (in the Rates & min stays section of the menu) . You now need to set which rooms types and which selling groups can use this rate by ticking the necessary cells in the Room Types/Selling Groups Mappings tab.
If you forget this - no problem, just click Edit rooms again and update before clicking Save.
iBex uses the Group Price value that you enter to reverse calculate the required room rates so that the total room price matches the group price entered. If standard nightly rates are used, then this can cause rounding errors.
For example, say you booked 3 rooms for a total of $100.
In that case, each room would be calculated as being $33.33 each or $99.99 when added. There is a 1c rounding error.
iBex attempts to minimise the error by making the last room equal to the group total price less the sum of all but the last room. This would make the last room 33.34 thereby ensuring no rounding error. However, that might not work for multi night bookings where the room price is equal to the room rate x the number of nights and could introduce rounding errors again. In that case, it is strongly suggested that “fixed” rate types are defined and used for group bookings as a fixed rate is independent of the number of nights.
For example, an event over say 2 nights could be entered as a fixed rate.
If the event cost $200 then the fixed rate will be set up as $200 whereas a nightly rate will be set to $100/night of a 2 night event. A fixed rate will guarantee no rounding errors for fixed price group bookings.
2. Name it say “Group Rate Only” to differentiate from your normal nightly rates and have the iBex name as “Groups” .
3. Charge Units as Fixed from the drop down option .
4. Set tax as applicable .
5. Enter the max number of Base Guests to the maximum number of guests that can stay in your biggest room and leave 0 in the Additional guests field .
6. In the Linked Rates section, set it to be Default Rate Value .
7. In the Advanced Rules section, set as applicable but ensure that Package Rate is set as No and that the Available for Online Bookings is set as No .
8. Save the rate details.
Please click here if you need more help with creating a new rate.
Once you have clicked Save, the Group rate will become an option when a unit is selected.