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Front Desk

Quick Reference

Where everything lives, what every word means

August 13, 202611 min read

The lookup section. Where to find each setting, what every status and colour means, the words the hotel industry uses, and the fixed limits worth knowing. Keep this one open while you learn your way around.

Where do I do each thing?

I want toGo to
See who is arriving todayFront Desk → Calendar
Take a booking or a walk-inAdd Booking, from any Front Desk view
Find one reservationFront Desk → List, search box
Check who owes me moneyFront Desk → List → Payments
Change prices for a date rangeFront Desk → Inventory
Set a minimum stayFront Desk → Inventory
Block a room for maintenanceCalendar — click the empty cell
Assign a room to an OTA bookingCalendar — the Unallocated lane
See who changed somethingOperations → Activity
Leave a note for the next shiftOperations → Notes
Know how many breakfastsOperations → Breakfast
Answer a guest message from an OTAFront Desk → Channels
Read my reviewsFront Desk → Channels
Add a room or room typeFront Desk Settings → Rooms & Rate Plans
Change a rateFront Desk Settings → Rooms & Rate Plans
Set cancellation termsFront Desk Settings → Rooms & Rate Plans → rate plan
Set up taxesFront Desk Settings → Tax Management
Connect Booking.com or ExpediaFront Desk Settings → Channel Management
Turn on my Booking EngineFront Desk Settings → Channel Management → Booking Engine card
Change my hotel photos and descriptionFront Desk Settings → Property Profile
Sell airport transfersFront Desk Settings → Extra Services
Create a discount codeFront Desk Settings → Promo codes
Change my confirmation emailFront Desk Settings → Email Templates
Choose who gets told about bookingsFront Desk Settings → Notifications
See occupancy, ADR and RevPAROverview or Statistics, on the Dashboard
See price recommendationsPricing, on the Dashboard
See occupancy, RevPAR and ADRDashboard → Overview
Compare this year to lastDashboard → Overview, turn on Compare
See what to chargeDashboard → Pricing
Let Amiqa price for meDashboard → Pricing → Autopilot
Find quiet dates to fillDashboard → Pricing, look for purple
Read what guests are sayingDashboard → Satisfaction
Add a team memberDashboard → Account Settings → Employees
Change my passwordDashboard → Account Settings → Change Password
Change my planDashboard → Account Settings → Subscription
Update my cardDashboard → Account Settings → Billing

What are the Settings tabs?

There are two Settings areas, and they hold completely different things. Both are reached from Settings in the sidebar, which opens a sub-list.

Settings → Front Desk — what you sell. Eight tabs, in this order:

  1. Rooms & Rate Plans — room types, rooms, rates, rate groups, cancellation policies
  2. Tax Management — your taxes
  3. Channel Management — OTAs and your Booking Engine
  4. Property Profile — how your hotel appears to guests
  5. Extra Services — add-ons guests can buy
  6. Promo codes — discount codes
  7. Email Templates — your guest emails
  8. Notifications — who on your team gets told

Rooms and rates share one tab now. Old links to the separate Room Management and Rate Plans pages still bring you to the merged screen.

Settings → Account — you, your team and your plan. Six tabs:

  1. Account — your own profile and contact details
  2. Employees — your team and what each person can do
  3. Change Password — your password
  4. Hotel Details — your hotel's info and the contact guests see
  5. Billing — your card and billing details
  6. Subscription — your plan

The quick way to tell them apart: if it is about what you sell — rooms, prices, taxes, channels — it is Front Desk Settings. If it is about who you are, who works with you, or what you pay — it is Account Settings.

What are all the booking statuses?

StatusColourWhat it means
TentativeSky blueA hold. Not confirmed, but the room is off sale everywhere
UpcomingAmberConfirmed, guest expected
Checked inGreenGuest is in the hotel
Checked outPurpleStay complete
CanceledGreyCancelled, room back on sale
No showDark redNever arrived, room released
BlockedRedNot a booking — maintenance or private use

Plus two markings that are not statuses:

  • Peach diagonal stripes — an unallocated booking waiting for a room
  • Status-coloured stripes with a House label — a house account stay

Which booking status changes are allowed?

FromTo
TentativeUpcoming
UpcomingChecked In · No Show
Checked InChecked Out · Upcoming
Checked OutChecked In
No ShowUpcoming
CanceledFinal — cannot be changed

Nearly everything is reversible. Cancellation is the only final status, though the booking itself can be restored.

Two rules the system enforces: you cannot check in before the arrival date, and you cannot mark a no-show before it either.

What are all the payment statuses?

StatusMeaning
UnpaidNothing received
PartialSome in, balance outstanding
PaidSettled
OverpaidMore received than owed
PendingPayment in progress
RefundedMoney returned
Card on fileCard stored but not charged

What do these Amiqa terms mean?

ADR — Average Daily Rate. Your room revenue divided by the rooms you sold. What you actually achieved per occupied room.

ARI — Availability, Rates, Inventory. The three things a channel manager keeps in step between your Front Desk and each OTA.

Baseline — a room type's default selling price, used on any date with no rate group painted on it.

Booker — the person who made the reservation, who may not be the guest staying.

Card on file — a guest's card is stored securely but not charged. Also called vaulted.

Cancellation snapshot — the cancellation terms copied onto a booking when it was made. It never changes, even if you later edit the policy.

Closed to Arrival — no check-ins allowed on that date.

Closed to Departure — no checkouts allowed on that date.

Derived rate — a rate calculated automatically from a primary rate using modifiers.

Direct booking — a booking that came to you rather than through an OTA. No commission.

House Account — a non-commercial stay: owner, staff or complimentary. Counts in occupancy, excluded from revenue, ADR and RevPAR.

Modifier — the amount by which a derived rate differs from the primary rate.

Occupancy — the share of your rooms occupied over a period.

OTA — Online Travel Agency. Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb.

Paint — dragging across dates in Inventory to apply a rate group to them.

Primary rate — the anchor price in a rate group. The others are derived from it.

Promo code — a discount code that works on your own booking site.

Rate group — a pricing strategy for a period, holding a primary rate plus derived rates. A season, effectively.

Rate plan — one way of selling a room: with breakfast or without, refundable or not.

RevPAR — Revenue Per Available Room. Room revenue divided by all your rooms, sold or not. The number that reflects both price and occupancy, and the best single measure of how you are doing.

Stop Sell — take a date off sale without deleting anything.

Storefront label — the guest-facing name and description of a rate group on your booking site, separate from its internal name.

Tentative — a hold. The room is off sale on every channel, but nothing is confirmed.

Unallocated — an OTA booking made for a room type, waiting for you to assign a specific room.

What is fixed and cannot be changed?

Worth knowing so you plan around it rather than looking for a setting.

ThingValue
Pets per room1
Team membersUnlimited, included on every plan
InfantAges 0 to 2
ChildAges 3 and over
Room held during online payment15 minutes
Shortest bookable stay on your site1 night
Longest bookable stay on your site30 nights
Booking lead time on your siteSame-day bookings allowed
Guest cards deleted after checkout7 days
Card verification code valid for5 minutes
Activity log history3 days
Minimum search characters — bookings3
Minimum search characters — guests2
Hero image minimum width1200 pixels

What are the text and file size limits?

FieldLimit
Hotel description5,000 characters
Check-in policy2,000 characters
Check-out policy2,000 characters
Terms & conditions10,000 characters
Contact link label64 characters
Promo code32 characters
Custom note tag30 characters
Storefront slug3 to 32 characters, lowercase letters, numbers and hyphens
Hero imageAt least 1200 px wide, max 10 MB, JPEG/PNG/WebP
Room type photosPNG or JPG, max 10 MB each
Hotel logoMax 10 MB, around 512 × 512 px
Email logoUp to 400 × 120 px, max 2 MB
Email bannerUp to 1200 × 400 px, max 2 MB
Extra service photoMax 5 MB

What should I check every day?

Morning, five minutes

  • Operations → Activity — what happened overnight
  • Operations → Notes — anything left for you
  • Calendar — today's arrivals and departures
  • Today's Summary — anything unallocated to assign
  • Channels → unanswered guest messages

During the day

  • Record payments as they happen
  • Note anything the next shift needs, with a room tag
  • Set a reminder for anything you promised a guest

Evening, five minutes

  • Payments → does Collected match your till and terminal
  • Overdue — anything new to chase
  • Operations → Breakfast — tomorrow's count to the kitchen
  • Tomorrow's arrivals — anyone arriving with a balance
  • A note for whoever is next, even if it is "quiet night"

Weekly

  • Tentative holds — confirm or release them
  • Inventory — are your rates right for the next few weeks
  • New reviews

Monthly

  • Channels → what each channel earned after commission
  • Payment Reports → your collection rate
  • Inventory → paint the season ahead

Something looks wrong. What do I check first?

Sign out and back in. It refreshes everything between the Dashboard and the Front Desk, and settles most surprises.

Then, by symptom:

SymptomUsual cause
A room is not selling on an OTARoom type not mapped, or a stop sell
A new room type is not selling anywhereNeeds mapping on each channel
My booking site shows no availabilityA room must be free for every night; check minimum stay
Prices are wrong on a dateCheck which rate group is painted, and any override
Guest-facing names look internalWrite storefront labels on your rate groups
An extra is not on my booking siteIts Booking engine toggle is off
Pets are missing from my booking siteRoom type must allow the size and the rate plan needs a fee
A guest got no confirmationBooking is still tentative, or has no email address
Payment on my site failsRe-enter the four Tilopay credentials, then test
Breakfast numbers look lowThe breakfast flag is not being set on bookings
Someone changed somethingOperations → Activity, last 72 hours

Still stuck? Support at the bottom of the sidebar, without leaving your screen. Have the date, the room and the guest name ready.

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