Reservations & Check-In/Out | HotelKey Knowledge Base

Reservations & Check-In / Out

📂 What you will find in this section:

To help front desk agents and reservation teams navigate guest stays from booking to departure, we have organized this section into four key functional areas:

📅 Reservation Creation & Booking Modifications: Step-by-step guides for making standard, walk-in, day-use, recurring, and package bookings, as well as modifying dates, rate overrides, room types, and guest counts.
🛎️ Arrivals & Check-In Workflows: Operational guides for auto/manual room assignments, checking in pre-assigned or unassigned guests, adding pet/stay remarks, attaching packages, and handling corporate IDs.
🔄 In-House Guest & Inventory Management: Best practices for handling room moves (immediate or scheduled), locking rooms ("Do Not Move"), linking multi-room bookings, managing reservation reminders, and flagging DNR profiles.
🚪 Departures & Check-Out Execution: Workflows for express checkout, early departures, processing zero-balance or payment-required check-outs, reversing accidental check-outs ("Undo Check-Out"), and emailing post-stay folios.

📂 Knowledge Base Articles

📅 Reservation Creation & Modifications

Knowledge Base Link	KBA Description
Add Adult / Child Counts	Learn how to update adult and child guest counts on existing reservations to ensure accurate occupancy records and rate recalculations.
Add Extra Guest, Pre-Arrival	Learn how to add extra adult guests to a pre-arrival reservation and capture complete personal contact details, profiles, and billing preferences before guest arrival.
Apply Tax Exempt Status to a Reservation	Learn how to configure tax exemption on guest stays for accurate tax removal across arrival and active reservations.
Auto Room Assignment	Learn how to use the Auto Room Assignment tool on the Arrivals screen to automatically assign optimal available rooms to guest reservations based on custom selection filters.
Cancel a Reservation	Learn how to cancel a reservation, manage cancellation reasons, and process applicable deposit or advance payment refunds.
Corporate ID - Booking a Reservation	Learn how to book reservations using Corporate IDs to apply negotiated business rate plans across direct web, GDS, and front desk channels.
Create a Company Reservation	Learn how to book company reservations with flexible billing, PO tracking, and profile management rules.
Create a Day Use Reservation - Same Day Reservation	Learn how to quickly create a same-day Day Use (zero-night) reservation directly from the PMS front desk interface for immediate guest arrival.
Create a Group Member Reservation from Booking Flow	Learn how to book group member reservations directly from the booking flow to draw room nights from a contracted group block.
Create a Multi-Room Reservation	Learn how to book and manage multi-room reservations for individual or group guest arrivals.
Create a Recurring Reservation	Learn how to create a recurring reservation to automatically book repeating stays across specified daily, weekly, or monthly schedules.
Create a Reservation (Standard & Walk-in)	Learn how to create standard individual and walk-in reservations directly from Grid View or Availability. (Note: Group/Company covered separately.)
Create and Split a Booking for Multiple Rooms	Learn how to create a multi-room booking and split it into separate, individual reservation records for independent billing and guest management.
Day Use (Zero-Night) Reservations	Learn how to book and manage Day Use (zero-night) reservations to monetize room usage during daytime hours without decrementing standard overnight room inventory.
Force Availability and Allow Overbooking	Learn how to use force availability and allow overbooking functions to bypass room or rate restrictions and book stays during limited or sold-out dates.
How to Create a Package Reservation \| How to Attach a Package to an Existing Reservation	Learn how to create new package reservations and attach package add-ons to existing bookings to include bundled services, amenities, and specialized rates.
Modify a Reservation Room Type	Learn how to modify a reservation room type to apply complimentary or paid room upgrades and adjust associated room charges.
Override Rate: Keep Current Rate vs. Use New Rate	Learn how to use the 'Keep Current Rate vs. Use New Rate' prompt during reservation modifications to preserve manual rate overrides when changing room types or stay details.

🛎️ Arrivals & Check-In Workflows

Knowledge Base Link	KBA Description
Add a Pet to a Reservation	Learn how to attach pet details and process associated pet fees on active or pre-arrival bookings.
Add a Stay Remark to a Reservation	Learn how to add stay remarks to a reservation to record specific comments, guest preferences, or operational notes for a particular stay.
Check In a Reservation (pre-assigned and un-assigned)	Learn how to check in guest reservations for both pre-assigned and unassigned rooms, including assigning room numbers on the fly during the check-in process.
Remove or Replace Corporate and Local Company Profiles on Reservations	earn how to update or remove corporate and local company profiles attached to bookings while maintaining proper rate compliance.
Send Email Confirmation	Learn how to generate and dispatch booking confirmation emails to guests for upcoming reservations.
Split Rates on a Folio	Learn how to divide nightly room rates among accompanying guests using equal or custom folio split rules.

🔄 In-House Guest & Inventory Management

Knowledge Base Link	KBA Description
Copy a Reservation - In House and No Show	Learn how to copy an in-house or no-show reservation to duplicate guest profile details, billing preferences, and stay parameters into a new booking.
Do Not Move - Lock and Unlock a Room	Learn how to lock and unlock assigned room numbers on reservations using the 'Do Not Move' feature to prevent unintended room reassignment.
Extend or Shorten a Reservation	Learn how to modify arrival and departure dates on existing guest bookings to manage stay extensions or early departures.
Linked Reservations - Link \| Unlink \| Cancel	Learn how to link, unlink, and cancel connected reservations to manage multi-room bookings, group stays, and shared itineraries efficiently.
Mark a Reservation DNR - Do Not Rent	Learn how to flag guest profiles and reservations with Do Not Rent (DNR) status to prevent unauthorized future bookings and maintain property security rules.
Reminders on a Reservation - Create, View and Close	Learn how to create, view, and close reservation reminders across all guest stay stages—from arrival and check-in to in-house and check-out.
Room Move: Flag Vacated Room as OOO / OOS	Learn how to flag a vacated room as Out of Order (OOO) or Out of Service (OOS) directly within the room move workflow to capture maintenance details and update room availability.
Room Move - In House Reservation	Learn how to perform a room move for an in-house guest to transfer their active stay to a new room number while maintaining booking and folio history.
Schedule Room Move for In-House Reservation	Learn how to schedule a future room move for an in-house guest to pre-assign a target room and automatically place a maintenance hold to secure inventory.
Split Folio and Add Payment After Check In	Learn how to split guest folios and process post-check-in payments to separate room charges, incidental expenses, or routing across multiple payment methods.

🚪 Departures & Check-Out Execution

Knowledge Base Link	KBA Description
Check Out a Reservation - Zero Balance, Refund and Payment	Learn how to check out guest reservations, including processing zero-balance departures, collecting remaining folio balances, and issuing refunds.
Early Check-Out	Learn how to process early guest departures, apply departure fees, and update departure dates.
Email Guest Folio - Post Check Out	Learn how to send post-check-out folios and final billing statements directly to guest email addresses.
Express Checkout	Learn how to use express check-out features to expedite guest departures and automate folio settlement.
Remove Tax Exempt Status from a Reservation	Learn how to remove tax-exempt status from booked or in-house reservations to restore standard tax calculations to the guest folio.
Undo a Check-Out	Learn how to reverse premature or accidental check-outs on the departure date to quickly restore active guest stays.