This guide will show you how our system supports you when closing out and reconciling events.
These features allow you to:
- Request and receive actualized pickup from hotel contacts within the application
- Get an accurate report on the number of room nights booked verse actualized
- Track your total commission/rebate earned within the application
- Invoice your hotel partners from within the application
How does it work?
Once this new feature is enabled for your organization, you will notice a new option in the left navigation bar labeled, “Pickup Reports." Selecting this option will take you to the list of pickup reports generated for event hotels where the Event Pickup Report setting was enabled prior to the date the event concluded.
When the Event Pickup Report setting is enabled at the event level, all hotels for that event will be set to generate pickup requests post event. If necessary, this setting can be disabled for individual event hotels.
On the day after an event concludes, pickup reports will be automatically generated. Additionally, these pickup reports will be automatically sent to all Hotel Users who currently have access granted on the Users tab of the Event Hotel.
As needed, EventPipe users can add additional contacts to the Users tab. To support the quick turnaround of this post event reconciliation process, automatic reminders are sent periodically over the next 10 days for any report the hotel has not yet submitted. EventPipe Users may also manually resend any pickup report from that specific Pickup Report summary if necessary.
Once a Hotel User inputs the actualized room night quantities and submits the Pickup Report, it will change to the Submitted status.
An EventPipe User must then review and approve the report to move forward to invoicing. At this point, the EventPipe User can generate the invoice by selecting “Generate Invoice”. The EventPipe User will then be prompted to enter the Invoice Number. Allowing you to assign the Invoice Number ensures that invoices generated and sent via EventPipe are in sync with your company’s external accounting software.
Now the Invoice is ready to be sent. This is done from the Invoicing tab of the Pickup Report. The EventPipe User simply clicks “Send Invoice” and enters the email address of the hotel contact responsible for processing invoices. The report can be sent to multiple people through repeating this process - click “Send Invoice”, enter the email, then click “Send”.
Once the invoice is sent, you will await payment. View the Activity Log tab to see when and to whom invoices were sent. Upon receiving payment, you will mark the invoice as paid. Return to the Invoicing tab of the pickup report and click “Mark as Paid.”
What if there is a discrepancy with the values reported by the Hotel?
There may be instances where the EventPipe User has concerns regarding the actualized room night values reported by the hotel. In these cases, the EventPipe user would reach out to the hotel directly to come to terms.
During this time, you can set the status of the PickUp Report to Auditing by clicking “Audit Report” on the Actualized Pickup tab. If, for any reason, changes need to be made to the Actualized Nights, the EventPipe user can do so by using the “Edit Report” option prior to approval.
What if the Hotel does not submit actualized nights?
If the hotel fails to respond with actualized nights, you can proceed with invoicing based on the booked values. This is done by using the “Edit Report” option. Simply input the booked values into the Actualized Nights column. Then check the box “Process In-House” and accept the warning. Now you can approve and complete the invoicing process as usual.
How will Hotel Users access Pickup Reports and Invoices?
Hotel Users are notified by email when a pickup report is generated.
Pickup reports will be accessed by Hotel Users via the EventPipe Hotel Portal.
From the EventPipe Hotel Portal the hotel user will be able to input the actualized room night values, submit the report and print a copy for their records.