01 — Overview
A hotel runs on small facts being right at the right time. Is the room clean? Who is arriving? Which rate was promised? What does the guest owe, including last night's dinner? When these answers live in different notebooks and phone calls, the front desk spends its day finding out.
A mid-size hotel with a restaurant and a banquet hall took bookings on the phone, at the desk and online. Housekeeping told the front desk by phone when a room was ready, restaurant bills were carried to the desk on paper, and rate plans were kept in notebooks.
The hotel moved to cloudeStay, our hotel and property management platform. The front desk now has a single live view of the property, and every guest's bill is built in one place.
02 — The Challenge
The front desk spent its day finding out, instead of welcoming guests
The staff were friendly and experienced, but the information they needed was scattered. The main difficulties were:
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Bookings from the phone, the desk and online were written in different places, so double bookings were a risk
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Group bookings, holds, changes and cancellations were hard to follow
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Housekeeping and the front desk depended on phone calls to know which rooms were ready
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Seasonal rates, weekend prices, corporate contracts and packages were kept in notebooks
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Restaurant and room-service bills reached the room bill late, or were missed
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Guest ID documents were copied and filed by hand
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Advance deposits and no-shows were tracked in separate notes
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GST invoices and split bills took time at check-out
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The owner could not easily see occupancy and income without long calculations
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Banquet halls and events were booked separately from rooms
03 — The Solution
One system from the first enquiry to the final bill
We set up the reservation desk, front office, housekeeping and billing with night audit first. Banquet and events, the channel manager and guest messaging can be added when the hotel needs them. The demo was prepared with the hotel's own room types and rate plans.
Key highlights
- ✓An availability calendar with group bookings, holds, changes and cancellations
- ✓Enquiries, confirmations, advance deposits and no-show handling
- ✓Check-in, room assignment, ID capture, early arrival and late check-out
- ✓Arrival and departure lists, room moves and guest history
- ✓A room status board showing clean, dirty, inspected and out-of-order rooms, with cleaning assignments and maintenance blocks
- ✓Rate plans for seasons, weekends, corporate contracts and packages
- ✓A bill for every guest with room charges, restaurant postings, extras and GST-compliant invoices
- ✓Room service and in-house dining posted straight onto the guest's bill
- ✓Split billing, city ledger and many ways to settle
- ✓A night audit at the end of every day
- ✓Online bookings in the same availability chart as walk-ins
- ✓Reports on occupancy, average room rate, income per room, where bookings come from and the day's audit
- ✓Hall availability, event bookings, menu packages and event billing
- ✓Rate and room sync with online travel agents and the hotel's booking engine
- ✓Booking confirmation, pre-arrival and check-out messages by SMS or WhatsApp
04 — Our Approach
What We Did Differently
01
The front desk always knows which room is ready
The room status board is shared between housekeeping and the desk, so a clean room is marked as soon as it is inspected, and nobody has to call.
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Restaurant charges land on the guest's bill by themselves
Room service and in-house dining are posted straight onto the bill. When the hotel's restaurant also runs cloudeDhaba, the two systems work well together.
03
We set it up with the hotel's own room types and rate plans
The demo showed the hotel's real rooms and prices, not a sample hotel, so the team could judge it on their own business.
04
Built for the size of the property
The same system suits a guest house that wants simple, compliant billing and a resort with packages, banquets and several places where guests spend money.
05 — The Impact
From phone calls and notebooks to a single live view of the hotel
The front desk can now see arrivals, room status and each guest's bill in one place, and the owner can read the hotel's results from a report.
- ✓A single availability chart for phone, desk and online bookings
- ✓A live room status board shared with housekeeping
- ✓One bill per guest, carrying room, restaurant and extra charges
- ✓GST-compliant invoices and split billing at check-out
- ✓Occupancy and income reports, and a night audit every day
- ✓Banquet and event bookings alongside room bookings
- ✓Guests who receive confirmations and reminders on their phones
What's next
With this foundation, the hotel can connect online travel agents through the channel manager, send guest messages automatically, and bring more properties under the same system.
