Stayntouch PMS Manage Group Blocks
Navigate to Groups > Manage Groups.
You can also modify the search to reflect certain group statuses.
Or even date ranges.
Let's review how to manage a group block, starting with the features available on the group Summary screen after the group block is saved. If your hotel has custom rate rules and restriction features enabled, your screen may look a little different, with some features moved to a new Rate Info tab. We will cover that in a different article.
On the Summary tab, you can select the DEMOGRAPHICS button to add or edit demographics. These tend to be considered very important for accurate revenue reporting. Make sure to click the green SAVE button after making any changes.
You can also click the SEND CONFIRMATION button to send or re-send a group confirmation email. This is a helpful way to share what is currently held in the group block as well as a detail of estimated room charges and deposits paid. The subject, header, and footer can be customized in Settings > Hotel & Staff > Stationery for each hold status.
Select the Include rooming list checkbox to include a simple rooming list on the confirmation email. There are other ways to pull or send a more traditional PDF or CSV rooming list, which are reviewed in the group Rooming List training article if you do not want to send it as part of this email.
When you are ready, press the green SEND button to send the group confirmation email.
Back on the group Summary tab, you can add or view actions for the group by selecting the ACTIONS button. This adds actions for the group block and not to individual group reservations.
Click the green NEW ACTION button in the top right corner of the popup to create and schedule a new action.
Assign the action to a department using the dropdown.
The DUE DATE will default to the start date of the group block, and the TIME DUE will round up to the nearest current time, but these can be changed.
Add a clear note indicating the purpose and information needed to complete the action.
Then press the green POST ACTION button. The action is now set, and in the future can be edited, marked as complete, or deleted from the group Summary screen or from the Actions Manager.
Click the X in the top left corner to return back to the group Summary.
With an action now set and not yet marked as complete, the ACTIONS section appears in red.
When all actions are complete, this section will update to green text and icons.
Next, let's review how to ADD BILLING INFORMATION via this blue button. This functionality is used when the group is covering some or all of the charges for the reservations. Setting up billing information will ensure that those covered charges will be automatically moved from the individual reservation's bill to the group master account.
Here, the entity will always be set to the group block account, which is automatically created when a group block is made. The group account acts as a master folio. It does not need to be checked in or checked out, and simply exists in an open status until it is marked as closed.
You can specify a date range for which the routing applies if it is not applicable for the entire group block's stay dates.
While not required, you can also choose to add a payment method here that will be saved for future use on the group block's master account.
Or, you can choose to split charges amongst accompanying guests by clicking the SPLIT ALL CHARGES BY 50% checkbox.
Furthermore, under the DETAILS section, you can choose which billing groups, if any, will be covered by the group by selecting its checkbox.
In addition to, or instead of a billing group, you can toggle over to CHARGE CODES to search for and select specific charge codes that will be covered by the group.
At any time, you can release all held rooms that are not picked up by clicking the RELEASE NOW button and following the prompt to RELEASE ROOMS.
Another way that you can quickly release rooms for a specific date, rather than for the entire group stay dates, is to navigate to the availability toggle in the top right corner.
Then, use the dropdown in the top left to select Groups.
Let's continue on the group Summary page. You can attach add-ons to the group by clicking the ADD-ONS button. If added, they will be set as Add to price and added to every reservation.
By default, you'll notice that the HIDE RATE toggle is on. It can be toggled off, and generally should be turned off if guests are responsible for paying for their own rooms. If this remains on, guests will not see their rate on stationery accessed from the stay card, like a confirmation email or registration card, or on the Stayntouch Guest Kiosk or Stayntouch Guest Mobility screens.
The TAX EXEMPT toggle can be enabled to make the entire group block exempt from certain taxes when this is applicable. The tax exempt type is selected from the dropdown, and the Tax Exempt Reference text section can be used to note details about the tax exempt documents.
If your property uses Stayntouch Guest Kiosk, toggling on the BYPASS CC GUARANTEE option will ensure that when group members check in at the kiosk, they are not required to provide a credit card for incidentals.
Let's review how to attach a company card or travel agent card to a group block. Underneath the group name in the top gray header, you can see a company building icon on the left and a travel agent globe icon on the right. Click the desired field and start to type in the entity name.
In this example, you can tell the company card has been successfully attached because the company icon now appears in the top right hand side of the group header. With the company attached, the stays for this group block will be counted in the company's production statistics and you can use any payment methods on file in the company wallet. It will also associate the company with all reservations within the group. This is useful because any notes or alerts set at the company level will appear on those group reservations.
This icon is a clickable button that will take you to the company card details. When done, click the button in the top left corner to navigate back to the group block.
After selecting the correct travel agent card, we can see that the travel agent icon appears on the far righthand side of the group header.
If the travel agent is set to be commissionable, commission can also be calculated for the group block and will appear on the normal commissions module as commissions to pay. You can update the commission amount on the group block if it differs from the default of the travel agent. You can also toggle COMMISSION off so that commissions owed will not be calculated.
The Rooming List tab of a group block displays all reservations made within the group block, and is where you can input a rooming list. Since there are a lot of functionalities to review here, we've created a separate Rooming List training article.
As previously mentioned, a group account is created by default for all group blocks when they are made. The details can be found on the Account tab.
The name is reflective of the name of the group block at the time it was made. It can be changed, if desired, by clicking on and overwriting the text.
The account number is defined by the system but can also be changed if you need to update it. For example, if your POS requires that accounts start in a 9 to send charges to them, you could update that here.
You can see the balance of the transactions posted so far in the balance section, and balance details will give you more information.
The status of the account is open by default. You can close it if you do not wish to use it or are finished with it by updating the status via the dropdown.
The Notes section on the Account tab is intended for account specific notes. Notes placed here are only viewable on the Account tab.
You can easily access the account outside of the group block, too. Navigate to the menu and then click Front Desk > Accounts.
By default, the system is set to show accounts with non-zero balances. If your account does not have an open balance, deselect Non-Zero Balance.
Both accounts and groups have a Transactions tab.
In this example, no deposit payments or charges have been posted yet, so the bill appears clear with a zero balance. If you need to manually post charges, such as banquet charges not posted in a POS, click the orange ADD CHARGE button.
The AMOUNT TO PAY defaults to the current balance of the account. However, if you are posting a deposit or partial payment, simply overwrite the AMOUNT TO PAY field with the actual amount of the payment.
To pull a copy of the invoice for the client, click the blue document button.
The bill layout defaults to the one set in your hotel's stationery settings. Most commonly, it is a detailed bill, which would show actually posted charges line-by-line. You would use these for a detailed invoice after the group's charges have posted.
The summary options are helpful to consolidate a very long detailed bill for a large or long group into a more condensed format.
The ProForma Invoice layout is used prior to a group's arrival to review a day-by-day summarized breakdown of the room, tax, and add-on charges based on the held rooms before they have actually posted.
The email defaults to the client contact email on the Summary tab, but can be overwritten. The language can be updated if your property is using multi-language functionality. You can either email the invoice from the PMS directly, in which case the email will come from the primary hotel email, or you can print or print to save as PDF.
Within every group block, there is an Activity Log tab where you can review all changes to the block.
If you wish, you can print it.
You can sort the Activity Log entries by USER NAME, DATE & TIME, or ACTION type by clicking on their appropriate header.
You can find it in the bottom right corner.
You can also delete it by clicking the red trash icon.
