Location View

Room Charges

Room Charges is where reception settles a hotel guest's room service when they check out. This guide explains how to find what a guest owes, settle it, handle a charge the guest disputes, and check who still owes money at the end of the day.

It is part of Room Service, a Location View feature for hotels. The page only appears for companies whose company type is Room Service Restaurant.

What counts as a room charge#

A guest can pay for room service in three ways. Only one of them is owed at checkout:

• Charge to room — added to the room bill. It is owed until reception settles it here.
• Cash or card terminal — paid to the person who brought the food up. Shown on the bill as Paid on delivery so the guest can see it, but never owed.
• Card online — already paid when the guest ordered.

Cancelled orders are shown on the bill, crossed out, and are never owed. When an order is partly refunded, only the amount left after the refund is owed.

Where to find Room Charges#

• View: Location View (make sure the hotel's location is selected in the header)
• Menu: Operations → Room Service → Room Charges. Clicking Room Service opens this page.

Finding a guest#

Type the room number, or at least two letters of the guest's name, or both. Results appear as you type.

Results are grouped by room and guest surname, so two guests who stayed in the same room one after the other are billed separately. The guest who owes most is listed first and opened on the right.

The guest's bill#

The bill lists every room service order for the guest in the dates you chose, with the date and time, order number and items, status and amount. Below it, the totals show what was settled, what is disputed (not included), what was paid on delivery, and the Amount owed.

A yellow warning means an order charged to the room is still being prepared or delivered. It is included in the amount owed; ask the kitchen to bring it to reception or cancel it.

Settling a guest's bill#

1. Find the guest and check the orders with them.
2. Click Settle balance.
3. Choose how they paid: Added to hotel bill (when the amount goes onto the hotel's own invoice), Card terminal or Cash.
4. Optionally enter a Reference, such as the hotel invoice or receipt number.
5. Click Confirm settlement.

Every open charge on the bill is marked as settled, together with the method, the reference, who settled it and when. With Owes money selected, the guest then drops out of the list.

Settling several accounts together#

When one guest has charges under more than one room, for example after moving rooms, tick the box next to each of their accounts. A panel shows the combined total; choose how they paid and click Settle.

Printing a statement#

Click Print statement to give the guest an itemised statement of their room service: every order with its date, items and amount, and the amount owed.

Disputed charges#

If a guest says they did not order something, did not receive it, or it was wrong, don't settle it with the rest of the bill:

1. On the order's line, click … and choose Dispute charge.
2. Pick the reason (Guest didn't order it, Guest didn't receive it, Wrong items, Quality complaint or Other) and add a note if it helps.
3. Click Mark as disputed. The charge is left out of the amount owed, and you can settle the rest.

A manager then resolves the dispute from the same menu with Resolve dispute: Void the charge if the guest does not pay for the order, or Keep the charge to add it back to the amount owed. Every dispute and decision is kept with the order.

Correcting a settled charge#

If a settlement was recorded by mistake, a manager can choose Reopen charge on the order's line and give the reason. The charge is owed again.

The unsettled report#

At the end of the day, or at any time, leave Room and Guest name empty and keep Show on Owes money. The list then shows every guest who still owes money for room service in the chosen dates, under the heading Unsettled room charges.

• Click Print report for a printed list of rooms, guests, disputed amounts and amounts owed, with the total.
• Watch for the Late charge tag: an order charged to the room after the guest's bill was settled. It may have arrived after they checked out, so settle it separately or contact the guest.

Room charges on orders#

You can also see where a charge stands without opening Room Charges. In Live Orders (Card view and List view) and in the order detail window, orders charged to the room carry a Room bill tag: open, settled, disputed or voided.

Who can do what#

Troubleshooting#