The front desk and room plan: occupancy at a glance

A hotel front desk really only needs to know one thing at any moment: which room is free today, which is occupied, which is waiting to be cleaned. The front desk module puts all of it on one room plan screen; booking, check-in and the folio all run from the same screen, so nobody pieces the day together from a separate notebook or a different app.

Occupied, free, needs cleaning, out of order

The room plan lists rooms row by row, by type and floor, and marks each room’s state for the day in color. The front desk sees whether a room is free without calling housekeeping to check, and taking a room out of sale for maintenance is one click. If a tap breaks or the air conditioning needs servicing, blocking that room for a few days drops it from the availability list for that date range automatically — the front desk doesn’t have to remember not to offer it.

Booking and the availability check

When a new request comes in, the front desk enters the room type and date range; the system filters the room plan for available rooms in that window instantly. Once a booking is confirmed, the matching days on the room plan are marked occupied, and the same room is closed to a second booking for the same night.

Booking states: option, block and deposit

Not every request is confirmed the same day. A room held for a group starts as an option; the booking becomes firm once a deposit is paid. The room plan needs to show that difference too: a confirmed booking marks the room occupied, while an option shows in its own color so the front desk knows how long it has before offering that room to someone else. Once the option’s window expires, the room returns automatically to the availability list.

Guest records and repeat stays

When a guest comes back a second time, the front desk shouldn’t have to ask the same questions from scratch. The check-in screen finds a returning guest’s record from their customer card and attaches it to the booking; contact details and past stay notes live on the same card. A first-time guest gets a card opened during check-in, and it’s found again the next time they stay.

Check-in, the folio and extras

When a guest checks in, the booking turns into a check-in and a folio opens. The room rate posts to the folio night by night; extras like the minibar, laundry or a late checkout post to the same folio. The guest sees one account at checkout instead of adding up the room rate and extras separately. A folio can hold more than one guest — in a family room, the parents’ and child’s extras land on one account instead of being tracked apart.

What the night audit does

At the end of the day, the night audit closes out every folio movement for that day: the night’s room charge posts automatically to the next day, any open accounts stay visible, and the day’s total hands off to accounting. A new day cannot open until the night audit runs, which is what stops a day from being billed twice or not at all. It’s usually run by the night shift or by whoever takes over the morning shift; the step itself is short, but skipping it leaves the room plan and the accounting record out of sync the next day.

Example: a 30-room seaside hotel averages 9 check-ins and 11 check-outs a day in summer. When the room plan lived in one notebook and bookings in a separate diary, the front desk spent about 15 minutes at every shift change confirming which rooms had actually cleared — some days the front desk was about to hand a room to a new guest before housekeeping had finished it. After moving the room plan, booking and folio into one screen, the shift handover dropped under five minutes, because whoever takes the next shift already sees the day’s state and housekeeping’s cleaning sign-off the moment they open the screen.

How Rotenta runs the front desk and room plan

1. Room types, floors and room numbers are defined in Settings.
2. The front desk module builds the room plan screen from that definition; every room shows in its own row.
3. Booking checks availability for a room type and date range and opens the reservation for an available room.
4. Once a booking is confirmed, the matching days on the room plan are marked occupied.
5. When a guest checks in, the booking turns into a check-in and a folio opens; the room rate and extras post to it.
6. At day’s end the night audit runs; the day’s folio movements close and hand off to accounting.
7. At checkout the folio closes, and any remaining balance is collected through the invoice.

You can read how housekeeping’s cleaning sign-off works before a room goes back on sale in housekeeping and the accommodation tax, and how the same room is sold across more than one channel in channel management. The booking module’s capacity and date logic is covered in detail on the booking and capacity management module page.

Frequently asked questions

Can I take a room out of sale temporarily on the room plan?

Yes; once a room is marked for maintenance or out of use, it shows on the room plan and booking stops suggesting it.

Does the night audit have to run manually every night?

The night audit is a distinct closing step for the day; it’s expected to run before the next day opens.

If one guest books more than one room, is a single folio enough?

No; each room keeps its own folio, and charges can be moved between rooms when needed.

Can I see the room plan from my phone?

Yes; the room plan and the day’s booking list open on a phone screen too.

Can housekeeping see the room plan, or only the front desk?

Housekeeping updates a room’s cleaning status from its own screen, and that update reflects on the room plan instantly.

You can see what hotel management software covers beyond the front desk on the hotel management software page. To talk through how to set up your front desk, contact us.