3rd party bookings

3rd party bookings are bookings that are made on behalf of other lodges or services i.e. you may book neighbouring lodges or activities and you need a way to keep track of them. You can set up a process in ResRequest to record these bookings whilst still distinguishing them from your own property’s stock. These third party components may be part of a shared property itinerary with your own properties or they may form the whole booking.

How to set up third party components

Third party components are generally added as extras. In order to add these to bookings, they need to be set up on the Extras code table. An extra is linked to a property and an Extra category. Third party extras unrelated to any property (i.e. which do not need to be displayed on lodge reports) should be set up as ‘Not property specific’. The Extra category indicates which type of extra is being set up. Categories are also great ways to group extras for easy user selections. See the Extras section under System Admin for more on how to set up extras.

There is no general rule or generic setup to follow for setting up 3rd party extras. However, it is good practice to include the service provider for ease of reporting. It is important that the extras are categorised in such a way that they are easy to find and use.

Multiple 3rd party lodges

If there are multiple 3rd party lodges that you book, there are different setup scenarios that you may decide to use. Deciding on what approach to take comes down to the volumes of 3rd party bookings you’re making and personal preference.

You may prefer to

1. Set up each lodge as a Category, with the different room types as the extras, e.g.
   
   Beach Lodge (Extra Category)
   Std Room (Extra)
   Luxury Room (Extra)
   Executive Room (Extra)
   
   Bush Lodge (Extra Category)
   Std Room (Extra)
   Family Room (Extra)
2. Alternatively, you could have one extra per lodge, which is a general ‘room’, as opposed to listing all the room types, e.g.Accommodation (Extra Category)
   Beach Lodge – room (Extra)
   Bush Lodge – room (Extra)

Third party bookings with shared itineraries

Your own properties are already set up as separate properties with specific room types so create an itinerary from the Availability Calendar for your own property which will display on the Details tab and then add the third party booking as an Extra on the booking.

Extras can be added to a booking when the booking is created from the Availability Calendar or after booking creation on the Extras tab of the booking record. During this process, the Extra’s attributes are recorded. Attributes available are dependent on the Category linked to the Extra, for example: ETA and ETD can be recorded on Travel extras linked to bookings. See the Extras tutorial to learn how to easily add Extras.

Remember to set the correct dates of the Extras of third party accommodations and the ETA and ETD for third party services as these details will be important for the guests.

Third party bookings forming the whole booking

ResRequest requires at least one accommodation item to be included in the reservation. For bookings including only the third party property or service, a fictitious property and room type must be created and a generic rate for $0.00 must be set up for this room type. When a third party booking is made, you can create an itinerary with this fictitious room, spanning the travel dates of the booking. Third party Extras will then be added as per normal.

For more on how to create a property see the Business Structure section.

Can you have a separate invoice with the details and logo of the 3rd party?

The 3rd party Extras can be set up on a separate folio (as with the standard Extras), however, the logo and invoicing information which is linked to the billing/invoicing unit (of the client) will apply.