Checkout at eleven, spa charges found at four
A couple staying two nights have a massage each and lunch in the spa on Saturday, charged to their room. The spa receptionist writes the charges on a slip, which goes to the front office at the end of the day. On Sunday morning the couple check out at 10:45. At 16:00 the front office finds the slip under a stack of paperwork. The couple have gone. Someone now has to email them, explain, and ask for card details, or write the charge off.
In the same week, a treatment is posted twice because the spa entered it and the front office entered the slip as well.
Two systems, a paper slip in between
Spa booking systems and hotel property management systems are often from different suppliers and bought at different times. Some spa systems have interfaces to common hotel systems, which need setting up and paying for. Many hotels never did it, or the interface broke after an upgrade.
- Room charges are recorded on paper or in a spreadsheet and posted later.
- The spa cannot check whether a room is still in house or has a charging limit.
- Non-resident guests are occasionally charged to rooms by mistake.
- Double posting happens when both sides enter the same charge.
- Treatment packages included in a room rate are hard to separate from paid extras.
Lost income and awkward emails
Charges missed at checkout are often never recovered, or recovered after an uncomfortable email. Double postings lead to disputes on the bill. Staff time goes into chasing slips. The spa's revenue in the hotel's reports is understated or muddled with room revenue, which makes it hard to judge the spa's performance.
How we connect the spa to the hotel bill
- We check what your spa system and hotel property management system already support. If a proper interface exists, we set it up and test it. If not, we build a connection through their APIs.
- When a resident books or charges to a room, the spa checks the room is in house, the name matches and charging is allowed.
- Charges post to the room folio at the moment of checkout from the spa, with the treatment or item described clearly.
- Packages included in the room rate are marked as such, so only extras are charged.
- Anything that cannot post, such as a room that has already checked out, goes to an exceptions list for the front office the same day.
- Each night, spa charges and hotel postings are compared, and any difference is listed.
| Situation | With paper slips | With the connection |
|---|---|---|
| Treatment charged to room | Slip walked to front office | Posted at spa checkout |
| Guest checks out early | Charge found later | Posted before they reach the desk |
| Room not in house | Not checked | Blocked at spa desk |
| Package included in rate | Guesswork | Marked included, extras charged |
One bill at checkout
Residents' spa charges are on the folio before they reach the front desk. The front office stops chasing paper. The nightly comparison catches the rare failure the same day, while the guest is still in the building. Management reports show spa revenue clearly, separate from rooms and food.
Spa staff also stop acting as a second front office. They no longer need to phone reception to ask whether a room is still occupied, and residents who want to charge a last-minute scalp massage to their room can do it on the morning of departure without anyone worrying about whether the slip will make it across the building in time.
Is this your hotel spa?
- Spa room charges are walked or emailed to the front office.
- Charges are found after guests have checked out.
- Some treatments are posted twice.
- The spa cannot see whether a room is still in house.
- Spa revenue is hard to separate in hotel reports.