Hotel software: charging to the room

In a hotel restaurant the guest often doesn't pay at the till but has the bill charged to the room. DevyPOS looks up the guest in the hotel software, posts the amount to their guest bill and issues the receipt with the payment method Room – signed like any other receipt.

1. What the integration does

• Find the guest – by room number or name; the till shows room, name, departure date and the booked package.
• Post to the guest bill – the amount appears in the hotel as a line item, for example Restaurant · Order 42, either as one total per tax rate or item by item.
• Allow for packages – breakfast, half board, full board or all inclusive: included items are flagged and, if you wish, not charged.
• Voids – voiding a receipt automatically reverses the posting in the hotel.
• Daily reconciliation – the administration compares the day's room receipts with the postings according to the hotel software.

Supported are Mews and apaleo directly through their interfaces and – via the Fidelio POS interface (FIAS) – Oracle Opera, protel, SIHOT, HS/3 and Gastrodat.

2. Setting up in the administration

Everything you need is under Settings → Hotel software.

1. Under Hotel software choose the system: Mews, apaleo or Fidelio POS interface (FIAS). For FIAS also pick the Vendor (Oracle Opera, protel, SIHOT, HS/3, Gastrodat or Other).
2. Under Access enter the credentials (see below) and Save access. They are stored encrypted and never shown in plain text again.
3. Test connection. On success the hotel's name appears and DevyPOS loads the selection lists (services, accounting categories, tax codes – or the property for apaleo).
4. Under Posting to the guest bill choose the posting target and set the Label on the guest bill (default Restaurant).
5. Finally switch on Offer payment method “Room” at the till. Only then does the payment method appear in the payment dialog.

Mews

The hotel creates an AccessToken for DevyPOS in Mews under Marketplace → Integrations and hands it to you; the partner ID is provided by IT Saar. After Test connection choose the Mews service to post to – an “additional” service of the hotel such as Restaurant or F&B – and optionally an Accounting category. Under Hotel tax codes you can see which code of the hotel is used for each tax rate of the till; the mapping is automatic and can be overridden per rate if the hotel keeps several codes for one rate.

apaleo

The hotel creates a “Simple Client” for DevyPOS in apaleo under Apps (scopes: reservations.read, folios.read, folios.manage, setup.read) and gives you the Client ID and Client secret. After Test connection choose the Hotel (property). Postings go to the main folio of the reservation.

Fidelio POS interface (Opera, protel, SIHOT, HS/3, Gastrodat)

These systems run in the hotel network and accept POS postings through the Fidelio POS interface. The vendor enables it and tells you the address and port in the hotel network and the POS number (P#), plus the Sales outlet (SO) and Posting type (PT) where needed. Enter these values under Access. The connection is maintained by the connector – the same program that drives your printers (see Printers and connector). It has to run on a computer in the hotel network. The hotel continuously reports its checked-in guests to DevyPOS; under Access you can see how many guests are known and whether the connector is connected to the hotel.

3. Packages (breakfast, half board …)

DevyPOS recognises a guest's package from the rate or product name in the hotel – such as Half board, HB, Breakfast, BB, Full board or All inclusive. Under Packages you define for each level which product groups or items are included, for example the product group Breakfast for the breakfast level or the daily menu for half board. Half board includes breakfast, full board both. If your hotel uses its own names, add them under Additional keywords for detection.

With Test guest search you can check without a till whether guests are found and packages are detected correctly.

4. At the till: charging to the room

1. Tap Charge and choose the payment method Room (hotel).
2. Enter the room number or name and tap Search. The till shows the matching checked-in guests with departure date and package.
3. Tap the guest. If room charges are not allowed for them, the till says so and won't let you select them.
4. If the package includes items of the order, the till lists them under Included in the package. With Don't charge included items these items are set to €0.00; the receipt then reads Included (half board).
5. Finish. DevyPOS posts to the hotel first and issues the receipt only after the hotel has confirmed. The receipt reads Payment room 204 (Müller).

If the hotel rejects the posting – because the guest has checked out in the meantime or the connection is missing – the till reports the reason and no receipt is created. Choose another payment method or try again.

5. Voids and daily reconciliation

When a receipt with the payment method Room is voided, DevyPOS automatically reverses the amount in the hotel (see Payment, receipts and voids). Should that exceptionally fail, the void remains valid; the case shows up in the daily reconciliation.

Under Daily reconciliation choose the day and tap Reconcile. You see every room receipt with room, guest, amount and the result compared with the hotel – matches, missing in the hotel, amount differs – as well as postings the hotel knows but DevyPOS doesn't. Failed reversals can be repeated with Repeat reversal or marked as done manually if the hotel has already booked them out.

The log at the bottom of the page records every connection, posting and reversal with time and result – the first place to look when something is missing in the hotel.

This chapter describes DevyPOS in its current version. Individual views may differ in your business because features are enabled per venue.

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