Front desk Live

A discount on the bill is a decision with a name on it

The folio's fourth tab: a percentage or an amount off the whole bill, the room, the food or one line, the GST reduced with it, a reason from the hotel's list and a name on every line — a manager above the hotel's limit. And a small leftover forgiven at the door, under a ceiling, recorded.

A reduction that cannot be recorded is recorded as something else — a short till, a payment that never happened, a void of a charge that was right. The restaurant has had a proper discount since its till was built; the room bill now has the same.

On the bill

The whole bill, the room, food and beverage, everything else, or one line; a percentage or a rupee amount; the reason from the hotel's own list; approved by yourself up to the hotel's limit and by a manager above it. It lands as an allowance per tax slab with the reason and the name on every line and on the booking's history, and the GST comes back with it — a discount shown on the invoice before it is issued reduces the value of supply, and the return files what the invoice printed. The room's slab is not re-read. A price for the nights still to come is a rate change, not a discount, and the tab says so.

At the door

A guest owes ₹150 and has their bags in hand. Up to the hotel's ceiling — ₹500 unless changed — the desk waives it at check-out with a reason, as an allowance against their name; above it, a manager. No tax is touched: a goodwill reduction after the supply is the hotel's cost. A bill in credit is the opposite question, retain or refund, asked in the same click.

The limits are the hotel's

Both ceilings are on the hotel's details, set by the account administrator: the rupees the desk may waive, the share of a bill the desk may discount. A hotel that wants a manager for every rupee leaves them at zero; that is a row, not a release.

More on Front desk

The booking chartRooms down the side, nights across the top, every stay drawn as a bar — the one screen a front desk lives on, with the price and the rules on it. Taking a bookingA room, a rate and a guest in under thirty seconds — quoted first, so the price the desk says is the price the system takes. Check-inThe guest, their ID and the room in one screen; the bill that is already open is the bill; and a room is free the moment the last guest has left. The registration cardThe GRC the guest signs, on the hotel's own paper, drawn from the booking and reprintable. The folioOne stay, one bill — or several windows on it when the company pays the room and the guest pays their own dinner. The GST invoiceA tax invoice with the right slab, the CGST/SGST split, the buyer's GSTIN when there is one, and a QR code anyone downstream can verify. Check-outSettle, or bill to a company, or — for a small balance — waive it at the door with a reason and a name. The bill is still there after the guest has gone. Credit and debit notesAn issued invoice is never edited. A wrong value goes down by a credit note and up by a debit note — separate, numbered, pointing at the original. Room move and upgradeMove a stay to another room, or up a category, from the chart, with the reason and the person written on the move. No-shows and cancellationsA policy on every booking, a retention charge the audit applies, and a charge the hotel cannot collect is not posted as if it could. Group bookingsOne booking, many rooms, a rooming list, and each room checked in and billed on its own or on the master. The guest recordOne guest is one row across every hotel. A shared email is not a person, and the guest who is already booked is not booked again. Corrections by the administratorThe administrator can correct any booking — audited, in house, departed, billed — and the log is the price. Room blocks and closed datesRight-click a room to block it, with a reason, a range and a name; close a date for the whole hotel; and the channels are told in the same minute. Arrivals and departuresWho is expected, who has not arrived, who has not left — with the rate and how they pay, because the desk asked for those two columns. Money owedEvery balance somebody has to chase, in one panel — and a payment link that is chased until somebody knows what happened to it. Every change says who made itThe booking's own timeline: taken, changed, moved, checked in, billed — each with a person, a time and a machine. A full room is a question, not a wallThe owner's standing rule — refuse only for money; otherwise say what you see, ask once, and write down who said yes. The clock on the door has a priceEarly check-in and late check-out as the hotel's own policy — as many bands per side as it wants, in hours from the door time, each a percentage of the night or a flat amount. The desk posts; a manager waives with a reason; the list of who was charged or waived is a report. A mistake made today is undone todayUndo on the card walks back what the desk did — a check-in, a payment, a charge, a cancellation — as a stack, until the night audit closes the day. A cancelled booking is put back from Find. A bill closed at zero is reopened by an administrator to void, refund and close again. Every one recorded.