Checkout, and the packed lunches have vanished from memory
A couple of walkers stayed three nights. On two mornings they had packed lunches. On one evening they had supper, and a bottle of wine. Their dog stayed too. At checkout, you add up the room, remember the dog charge, and ask how they would like to pay. After they have gone, you remember the wine. Later still, the second packed lunch.
It is not a big amount each time. But it happens most weeks, and over a season it adds up to a lot of sandwiches you made for nothing. You have tried a notepad on the kitchen wall. It works when you remember to write on it.
Why extras slip through
Hotels have tills and staff who ring things up. In a guest house, the owner makes the packed lunch at seven, serves supper at seven in the evening, and handles checkout the next morning, in between everything else.
- Extras are ordered in conversation: at breakfast, on the stairs, by text.
- Your booking system has room for extras, but adding them needs a laptop and several clicks.
- The notepad in the kitchen and the booking system are not connected.
- Guests who prepaid through an OTA still owe for extras, which is easy to forget.
- Tomorrow's packed lunch orders are on scraps of paper, if anywhere.
What forgotten extras cost
Food and drink you have paid for and given away without meaning to. Your time making things for nothing. Awkward emails or calls after checkout, asking for money the guest thought was settled, which few owners want to make.
It also costs a little in the kitchen. Without a list of tomorrow's packed lunches, you are asking at breakfast and making sandwiches in a rush, or making one too few because someone mentioned it in passing.
Evening meals are the hardest. A guest mentions at breakfast that they would love supper tonight, you say yes, and by the evening you have cooked for them, served them, cleared up and gone to bed. The meal is never written down anywhere, because the only moment you thought about the bill was the moment you said yes. Multiply that by a season of walkers and it is a lot of suppers.
Prepaid bookings make it worse. When a guest has paid for the room through Booking.com before arriving, there is no bill to settle at checkout, so nothing prompts you to ask about the extras. They say thank you, you wave them off, and only later do you remember the wine.
How we build an extras tab on your phone
- Your extras are set up once, with your prices: packed lunch, evening meal, wine by the bottle, dog charge, late checkout, drying room, whatever you offer.
- On your phone, you see today's rooms. Tapping a room and an item adds it, in two taps. Quantities and notes can be added if needed.
- Guests can order packed lunches and evening meals themselves from the breakfast or room link, which adds them automatically.
- Each extra is added to the guest's bill in your booking system where it allows, or kept on a running tab you can see.
- At checkout, you see the full bill, including extras for guests who prepaid the room through an OTA.
- Each evening, you get a list of tomorrow's packed lunches and evening meals, with any dietary notes.
| Item | How it is added | Where it ends up |
|---|---|---|
| Packed lunch | Guest orders from link, or you tap | Bill, and tomorrow's lunch list |
| Evening meal | Guest orders, or you tap | Bill, and the evening's cooking list |
| Bottle of wine | You tap when you serve it | Bill |
| Dog charge | Added from the booking | Bill |
If your booking system already has a simple way to add extras from a phone, we set that up rather than building something separate.
Checkout, with everything on the bill
The walkers come down to check out. You open their bill: three nights, two packed lunches, one supper, one bottle of wine, the dog. They pay. Nothing to remember afterwards.
Last night, the list showed three packed lunches for this morning, one gluten free. You made them before breakfast, calmly.
Are extras going uncharged?
- You remember extras after guests have left.
- Packed lunch orders are on scraps of paper or in your head.
- OTA guests who prepaid leave without paying for extras.
- Adding extras to your booking system is fiddly.
- You make packed lunches in a rush at breakfast.