Check-in and check-out
The Check-In and Check-Out dialogs are where the front desk records a guest's arrival and departure. Each one is a single screen: the time you are recording on the left, everything you need to know before you commit on the right, and one button that says exactly what it will do. Nothing opens a second dialog after you press it.
Check-In dialog
Who can access this: Requires the Bookings permission with Update, and the check-in / check-out views enabled for your role. The buttons appear only when Use check-in / check-out is switched on in your booking settings.
Where you open it
- The Occupancy tab of the Occupancy planner — check a guest or room in from the day's in-house feed.
- The Arrival / Departure list, for the day's arrivals and departures.
- The booking's Guests tab and the Rooms card on the Booking Detail page — per room.
- The booking's action bar — for the whole booking at once.
- The trip guest list, for a vessel departure.
Whether you check in the whole booking or one room at a time depends on Track check-in per room in your booking settings.
What the dialog shows
A strip of five facts runs across the top, so you never have to leave the dialog to check the stay:
| Cell | Check-In | Check-Out |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Arrival — the arrival date and its scheduled time. | Checked in — when the guest actually arrived. |
| 2 | Departure — the departure date and time. | Departure — the departure date and time. |
| 3 | Guests — how many people this check-in covers. | Same. |
| 4 | Unit — the room or cabin name. On a whole-booking check-in it shows the first room with +2 more underneath. | Same. |
| 5 | Stay — the booking's total price, with the number of nights underneath. | Same. |
Below the strip the dialog is two columns. The left column is the decision you are making — the time, and any surcharge it triggers. The right rail is the state of the booking — what is still open, and what is worth knowing.
Note: This replaces the four oversized tiles the old dialog opened with. The same facts are now one compact strip, which is what leaves room for the readiness checklist and the Bills panel beside it.
Setting the arrival or departure time
The time card is the main input. It offers three ways to set the same value, and they all write to the same Date and Time fields:
- Type it. Set Date and Time directly.
- Quick set. One chip for the house's standard arrival or departure time, and a Now 14:37 chip that always carries the current clock time. The chip you are currently on is highlighted.
- Pick a band. Under Arrival time bands (house policy) (or Departure time bands (house policy)) each of your configured bands is a card showing its name, its window, and what it costs — either a price or Included in rate. Clicking a card sets the time to the start of that band.
The chip in the card header tells you where the time you have entered actually landed:
| Chip | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Standard | Inside the normal arrival or departure window. |
| Included in rate | Inside a band that carries no charge. |
| Late check-in surcharge applies | Inside a chargeable band. The band's own name is used, so you may also see Early check-in surcharge applies or similar. |
| Already charged | This band's surcharge is already on the bill from an earlier action. |
| Surcharge waived | Somebody has already decided not to charge it. |
Change the date or the time and the card re-prices itself. You never work the fee out yourself — the price shown on a band card is what will actually be charged for this booking.
Note: The band cards appear only where arrival / departure time bands are configured and switched on. Without them the card is just the date, the time, and the quick-set chips, and nothing is ever charged for arriving early or leaving late.
The surcharge decision
When the time you chose falls in a chargeable band, an amber block appears inside the dialog, directly under the time card. It names the band, shows its window, and shows the amount.
Under Charge to there are three choices:
| Choice | What it does |
|---|---|
| Prepayment bill — Due before arrival | Adds the fee to the booking's prepayment bill. |
| Room onsite bill — Settle at departure | Posts the fee to the room's on-site bill, to be settled with the rest of the extras at departure. |
| Waive — No charge, logged | Charges nothing, and records the decision (see below). |
Nothing is pre-selected, and nothing is posted until you choose. Once you do, the primary button spells the decision out — for example Check in · Prepayment bill €10.00 — so you can see what saving will do before you do it. If you press the button with the question still unanswered, the block is highlighted and the dialog asks you to Choose how to handle the surcharge instead of saving.
Late arrival with the inline surcharge block
This is the change most people notice first. The old separate Surcharge modal that popped up after you pressed Check-In is gone. The decision is now part of the dialog, and saving never opens a second window.
Waiving a surcharge
Choosing Waive reveals Reason (logged in booking history). It is required — you cannot save a waiver without one — and you pick from a fixed list:
- Delayed flight — goodwill
- Returning guest — goodwill
- Manager decision
- Our fault (room not ready)
Because a waiver posts nothing, the reason is the only trace the decision leaves. It is written to the booking's Log tab together with who waived and when.
Tip for managers: This is what makes waived revenue auditable. Filter the booking logs for waivers and the reasons tell you whether you are giving away late check-outs as goodwill, or because rooms are not ready on time — two very different problems.
Waiving a surcharge with a reason
The readiness checklist
The right rail opens with Before you check in (or Before you check out) and a chip summarising the state: All clear, 2 to note, or 1 blocking.
Each row is one thing to look at:
| Row | Check-In | Check-Out |
|---|---|---|
| Prepayment bill | Shows €1,385.00 open or Settled. | Same. |
| Room on-site bill | — | Shows what is still open on the room bill. |
| Guest registration forms | 2 incomplete or All complete. | — |
| Arrival / Departure | Flags a chargeable time band you have not decided on yet. | Same. |
Two levels, and the difference matters:
- To note (amber) — worth seeing, never stops you. Incomplete guest forms and an undecided time band are always only to note: the guest is standing at the desk, and paperwork should not hold up a key.
- Blocking (red) — the primary button is switched off until you clear it or override it. See When something blocks.
Rows with money on them carry a Take payment action, which does the same thing as the button in the Bills panel below.
The Bills panel
Bills lists the two bills a stay can carry — the Prepayment bill and the Room on-site bill — each marked Open or Paid, and closes with Total open or Nothing open.
Take payment behaves differently per bill, on purpose:
- Prepayment bill — the payment dialog opens on top of the check-in dialog. Record the payment, and the bills, the checklist, and the button label all update in place. You never lose your position.
- Room on-site bill — the dialog closes and you land on the booking's On-site tab, which is the screen that owns on-site payments (card fees, part payments, currency conversion). Settle there, then check the guest in or out from the booking.
Note: A booking whose stay is priced in one currency and whose on-site bill is in another shows one panel and one total per currency. Gurita never adds them together and never converts them — an exchange rate nobody chose has no place on money you are about to collect at the desk.
The rest of the dialog
- Guest registration forms (check-in) — one row per guest with their fill rate and the usual actions: open the form, copy its link, print it, create a missing one, and the per-guest No-Show toggle. See No-show.
- On-site charges of this stay (check-out) — the room bill's lines, so you can read what the guest is being asked to pay without leaving. When nothing has been posted it says Nothing posted to the room bill.
- Worth knowing (check-in) — the booking's own comments, so an important note reaches whoever is handing over the key.
Placeholder image03-check-out-dialog.pngCheck-Out dialog with an open on-site bill
When something blocks
A red row switches the primary button off. What you can do about it depends on which direction you are going — and the difference is deliberate.
| Check-in | Check-out | |
|---|---|---|
| When a bill blocks | Only when your company has configured check-in rules. Otherwise an open bill is amber. | Always. An open bill is red every time. |
| Can you proceed anyway? | Yes — tick Check in with the payment still open (logged). | Yes — tick Close with an open balance (logged) — unless your company has configured check-out rules for that bill type, which is a hard stop. |
| A hard stop | Never. | When check-out rules name the bill type: the button stays disabled, no override is offered, and the only way on is to settle the bill. |
Check-in is the time-pressured moment at the desk, so it always leaves an operator a way through. Check-out is the last chance to collect money, so a company that has explicitly asked for a bill to be settled first cannot be talked past it.
When the button is off, the footer tells you why — for example 2 items block this check-out — rather than hiding the button and leaving you guessing.
The override is recorded
Ticking the override is not a way of ignoring the problem quietly. Gurita stores who ticked it, when, and how much was still open at that moment — after any surcharge you accepted in the same action. It shows up in the booking's audit history like any other change.
Warning — behaviour change for existing users. Checking a guest out with an open bill and no check-out rules configured used to save silently. It now requires ticking Close with an open balance (logged) first. Nothing is blocked that was not blocked before; the difference is that the decision is now visible and attributed. If your team checks people out with unpaid extras as a matter of routine, expect the extra tick — and expect it to show up in the log.
Blocked check-in with the override
Requiring bills to be settled first
Two settings decide whether an open bill blocks at all. Each names the bill types it applies to — the prepayment bill, the room on-site bill, or both — and both are empty by default, which means nothing changes until somebody sets them. The check-in rule is normally set for the prepayment bill only.
| Setting | Effect |
|---|---|
| Bill types that must be settled before check-in | New. Blocks check-in on an amount that is due, and offers the logged override. |
| Bill types that must be settled before check-out | Existing. A hard stop with no override. |
"Due" is not the same as "outstanding", and that distinction is the point of the check-in rule. A guest on a payment plan who has paid every deposit that has fallen due so far is not blocked, even though a balance remains for the rest of the stay — nothing is late. A guest with no payment plan is blocked on the whole outstanding amount, because without payment terms everything is due on arrival. The Bills panel still shows the full outstanding balance either way; only the block is narrower.
Note: The check-in rule is enforced by Gurita itself, not just by the dialog. If the balance moves while the dialog is open — a colleague takes a payment, or a deposit falls due — the check-in is refused with Payment required before check-in, the booking is re-read, and the checklist tells you the truth again.
Where to set them: see Booking settings.
Related chapters
- Booking statuses & lifecycle — where check-in sits in the booking's life, and how no-show works.
- The Occupancy planner — the daily arrivals, departures and in-house lists these dialogs open from.
- The Folio & Invoicing — the prepayment bill, on-site charges, and what a surcharge looks like once it is posted.
- Finance — recording the payment the checklist is asking for.
- Booking settings — switching check-in / check-out tracking and the bill rules on.