Put a bill on a guest's room — and take it back off

If your venue has rooms, staff can put some or all of a bar bill on a guest's room instead of taking it at the till. The hotel adds it to what the guest settles when they check out.

This needs your property system connected first — see Connect your hotel property system.

Put a bill on a room

1. Open the tab.
2. Tap Charge to a room.
3. Find the guest. You'll see the rooms as tiles — your floors if your hotel map is set up, or one Rooms section with every room that has a guest in it if not. Occupied rooms are dark, empty ones are faint. A small green dot means the guest can be charged; a red room is blocked at the hotel or is over a limit — a room over a limit can still be charged (tell reception). Tap the room, or type a guest name or room number in the search box — matching rooms stay dark and the others fade.
4. Check the name with the guest. A room can have two bookings on it — if it does, both names are listed and you tap the one you're serving.
5. Tap Charge Room …, then enter the amount — up to and including the whole bill. Any amount can go on a room.
6. Tap Put on the room.

No hotel map yet? The screen looks the same — the rooms just aren't sorted by floor. The hotel's own accounts (like ADMIN and UNALLOCATED) are never offered either way — see Draw your hotel map.

Guest missing? Tap Check with hotel — someone who checked in this afternoon appears once the hotel has them. The time underneath shows when the list was last updated.

The bill then shows how much is on the room and how much is still to pay. Take the rest however the customer wants. If the room took the whole bill, the tab closes with nothing to pay.

If the till warns that a room is over its limit

Your venue can set a max outstanding bill per room (in the portal, on the Setup tab of Rezcontrol, opened from Marketplace in the sidebar). When what the bar and kitchen have put on a room reaches it, the till shows:

Room 31 is over its £1,000 limit — tell reception.

It's a warning, not a block. You can still put the bill on the room — do it, then let reception know.

The same goes for the hotel's own limit for a guest. If the bill takes them past it you'll see, for example:

£20.00 over the hotel's limit for this guest — tell reception.

Put it on the room and tell reception. The hotel may turn the charge down overnight; if it does, it shows as Refused in the portal on the Room charges tab of Rezcontrol (in the Marketplace). It counts only what's been put on the room through the till, across everyone booked into that room.

If the till can't reach the hotel

You can always still take payment. If the till can't check the hotel — the connection drops, or the hotel system is down — the bill shows:

Couldn't check the hotel just now. If part of this bill is already on a guest's room, check with reception before taking payment.

The till carries on and prices the bill from what it already knows, including anything this till has just put on a room. Card, cash and printing the bill all keep working.

While that message is showing, three things stay switched off until the hotel is back, because each one would move money onto or across a room without being able to check it first:

• putting more of the bill on a room
• splitting the bill
• part-paying the bill

If the guest put part of this bill on their room from a different till, this till may not know about it yet — so when you see the message, a quick check with reception is what stops them being charged twice.

Send one share of a split bill to a room

When a table splits its bill on the till or the card machine, one person can put their share on their room. It works like putting a bill on a room, with three differences:

• The amount is their whole share, and you can't change it.
• If their allowance won't cover the share, you're told before anything is charged, and how much they have left.
• If the hotel can't be reached, the share is taken by card or cash instead. It is never charged to the room without the hotel's answer.

See Splitting a bill on the till for the steps.

Give a guest a free breakfast

If breakfast is included in a guest's stay, you can make their breakfast bill free from the same screen. Nothing is sent to the hotel.

1. Take payment for anything that isn't breakfast first — use Part pay for extras like a newspaper or a bottle of wine. Free breakfast makes everything still left on the bill free.
2. Tap Charge to a room, then tap the guest's room.
3. Check the name with the guest. If two bookings share the room, tap the one you're serving — each booking gets its own breakfast.
4. Tap Free breakfast (under Charge Room …).
5. The till shows Close tab — nothing to pay. Tap Close table.

The bill closes at £0. On the sale it shows as a discount called Free breakfast · Room 13 (with the room number), so your sales reports show no takings for it and the value as a discount. The cash drawer doesn't open.

If the room has already had its free breakfast today

Each booking gets one free breakfast a day. If this booking has already had one today, the till says, for example:

Room 13 already had its free breakfast today at 08:10 — see the bill

Tap see the bill to see the earlier bill: its number, the time, what was on it and what it was worth. Then choose:

• Give it anyway — the till closes this bill free too. It's a reminder, not a block. Your owner sees every free breakfast in the portal, including bookings that had more than one.
• Cancel — go back and take payment the normal way.

If the till can't check (for example the connection drops), it asks you instead: We couldn't check whether Room 13 already had its free breakfast today. You can still give it or cancel.

Your owner can see every free breakfast in the portal under Room charges.

The customer's receipt

When any part of a bill goes on a room, the till prints the customer's receipt by itself as soon as the sale has closed, on the till's receipt printer — you don't need to go to Records. Hand it to the guest to sign.

Each room charge on the receipt has its own block, so the guest has proof of what went on their room and reception can find it later:

Room charge            -£10.50
  Room 12 · Jimmy Choo
  Bill no. D65A6CD5
  Guest signature:

  ____________________________

• Bill no. is the number the hotel sees against that charge on the guest's room bill. Reception can search for it if the guest asks about a charge.
• Hand the guest the receipt to sign on the line if your venue keeps a signed copy.
• If a bill had two charges, for example two guests each putting some on their own room, each charge gets its own block and its own signature line.
• Older receipts, from before this was added, still show just the Room charge amount.
• It prints once per bill. If you need another copy, open Records, find the sale and tap Print receipt.
• If part of the bill was later refunded, in cash or on card, a copy printed from Records shows it: each refund gets its own Cash refund or Card refund row, a line handed back is marked REFUNDED (or REFUNDED 1 of 2 for part of it), and a Total paid row comes last. The room charge blocks print exactly as before. A bill with no refund prints the same as it always has.
• Sales that don't touch a room print nothing automatically, the same as before.

If the receipt doesn't print

Closing the bill never waits for the printer. If the receipt can't print — no printer set up, the printer is off or out of paper — the bill still closes and the till shows Receipt not printed — reprint from Records. Fix the printer, then print it from Records.

If the till was offline when you closed the bill, the receipt prints when the sale reaches Tillable. If that takes more than 15 minutes, the till doesn't print it (the guest has usually gone by then) and shows the same message instead.

Take a charge back off a room

Once anything on the bill is on a room, the tab shows Remove room charge (Off room on smaller screens). Tap it to see every charge from this bill, and Take off the room beside the one you want to undo.

What happens next depends on how far the charge has got:

| Where the charge is | What the till does | | --- | --- | | Still waiting to go to the hotel — usually the same shift | Takes the whole thing back. It never reaches the guest's room bill at all. | | Already at the hotel and confirmed | Takes it back off the room. The guest's room bill will show both the charge and the refund. | | On its way to the hotel, or the hotel never confirmed it | The till cannot undo it, and says so. Reception can adjust the folio. |

Charges go to the hotel overnight, so anything put on a room during service can normally be taken straight back off the same evening.

If the till says it could not tell

Very occasionally the till will say it could not tell whether the charge came off. Do not tap it again — a second attempt could take the money off twice. Check with reception before taking the rest of the bill.

Common questions

Can I put two charges from one tab on the same room? Yes. A guest can put £20 on at 7pm and another £20 on at 9pm from the same tab, and the bill counts both.

Can I take off just part of a charge? No. Each charge comes off whole. If you need a different amount, take the whole charge off and put the right one on.

Is there a most I can put on a room? No. There's no cap on our side, and the hotel's own limit only shows a warning. If the till still says the room is used up, it's talking to an older version of our system — take the rest another way and let reception know.

Where do I set the "over its limit" warning? On Connect your hotel property system, under Max outstanding bill.

Does a free breakfast go on the guest's room bill? No. Nothing is sent to the hotel. The bill closes at £0 on our side and is listed under Free breakfasts on the Room charges page.

Where do I see room charges afterwards? In the portal — see Room charges.