How do I book complimentary rooms in the system?

EventPipe users can book complimentary rooms through the comp booking site feature.

 

Company users are able to:

• Book fully complementary reservations for staff, judges/officials, VIPs and other guests as appropriate.
• To define whether a credit card is required at the time of booking comp room reservations

• To identify which reservations are using comp inventory, and which are traditional public reservations
• Automatic communications with guests are personalized based on whether their booking is comped.

How can I set this up? (Existing events)

• Navigate to your events list at https://app.eventpipe.com/
• Select an event that should incorporate comp rooms
• From the overflow menu in the top right, select “Edit Event”
• In the Hotel Information section, determine whether the “Comp Rooms Credit Card Required” setting should be set to “Required” or “Not required”, then select “Update Event”
  • If “Not required” is selected, reservations booked with comped inventory will not be asked for a credit card at the time of booking. During the checkout process, you are reminded that “At check-in the hotel will require a credit card for incidentals and any non-complimentary nights of stay.”
  • If “Required” is selected, it will be required that credit card information is provided at the time of booking, even though no charges will be due at checkout.

• From the event’s hotel list, select the hotel that comp reservations is being offered
• From the hotel’s Room Blocks tab, select the “Add Comp Room” button
• Enter the details for the comp room block and click “Save Room Block”
  • It is recommended that you enter a value in the “Designated For” field. This will help keep your comp room blocks organized, and will also appear on the comp room booking site.

How can I set this up? (New events)

1. Navigate to your events list at https://app.eventpipe.com/
2. Select “New Event”
3. Fill out the details of your event, noting the newly added “Comp Rooms Credit Card Required” setting
   • If “Not required” is selected, reservations booked with comped inventory will not be asked for a credit card at the time of booking. During the checkout process, you are reminded that “At check-in the hotel will require a credit card for incidentals and any non-complimentary nights of stay.”
   • If “Required” is selected, it will be required that credit card information is provided at the time of booking, even though no charges will be due at checkout.

1. Complete the setup of your event as outlined in https://eventpipe.stonly.com/kb/guide/en/how-to-create-a-new-event-bZNuRdDqGK/Steps/235171
2. From the event’s hotel list, select the hotel that comp reservations is being offered
3. From the hotel’s Room Blocks tab, select the “Add Comp Room” button
4. Enter the details for the comp room block and click “Save Room Block”

• It is recommended that you enter a value in the “Designated For” field. This will help keep your comp room blocks organized, and will also appear on the comp room booking site.

 

How are comp reservations booked?

1. Navigate to your events list at https://app.eventpipe.com/
2. Select an event that has one or more comp room blocks for its hotels
3. From the overflow menu in the top right, select “Book Comp Rooms”
4. You will then be taken to a booking site that specifically makes complimentary reservations only. This comp booking site will only show event hotels that have comp room blocks set-up. 

NOTE: Only Company Users with these roles are allowed to create comp reservations:

• HoCo Admin
• Inventory Manager
• Event Manager

1. From this booking site, you can create complimentary reservations for any event hotel as needed, following the usual booking process.

Will guests booking a comp room be charged any fees?

• Reservations booked through the comp room booking site will not be charged any fees at the time of booking (including reservation and secondary fees)
• The EventPipe cost administered via the reservation fee is also waived for comp reservations.

 

Will users receive any unique communication when booking a comp room?

• The reservation confirmation email sent to guests of a comp reservation will state that their reservation is comped rather than the confirmation email sent to those who book pubic inventory

How does this impact comp rooms created through the RFP workflow?

• Comp room blocks created through the RFP workflow will work seamlessly with the features added by this release. If a comp room block is created through an RFP, the inventory will be bookable via the comp room booking site

How can I tell comp reservations apart from public reservations?

• Comp room reservations will be distinguishable from public room reservations by a “Comp Room” tag on the reservation card

 

How will this information be communicated to my event’s hotels?

• Your contacts at the hotels will receive all of the booking information in the same way they have prior to this feature, through the hotel user portal
• Within their portal, the spreadsheet that is downloaded will contain a new field indicating whether a reservation is for a comp room

 

Other Notes:

• To distinguish the comp room booking site from the public booking site, a banner has been added to the comp room booking site that reads “Hi [User name]! Please be aware that this site is for admin use of NON-PUBLIC Inventory. This is for booking COMPLIMENTARY rooms only.”