Overview
Reservations are a core element of managing your property's inventory. When a reservation is created, a room is held for your guest to prevent others from booking it. The room availability automatically adjusts and your connected channels reflect this new availability, reducing the chance of overbooking.
Reservations can be created by guests (through connected channels or your direct booking engine) or manually through Little Hotelier. All reservations (past, present and future) are displayed on the Calendar.
Managing reservations effectively helps you maintain accurate guest records for future reference and generate detailed reports.
Finding reservations
You can locate reservations in two places in Little Hotelier:
Calendar: Search by check-in or check-out dates
Reservations: Search by reservation details
Find a reservation on the Calendar
The Calendar shows all your reservations (past, present and future). Use the date selector or the navigation arrows at the top to move to the reservation's check-in or check-out dates, then click the reservation to open it.
Search on the Reservations page
To find a reservation via the Reservations page, you can search for the reservation by:
Guest last name
Booking reference
Invoice number
Date type: CheckIn, CheckOut, or BookedOn (the date the reservation was created)
Date from and Date to: search by a date range. You can leave these blank if unknown. Clear both fields when searching by guest name, booking reference, or invoice number to avoid missing results outside the current date range
Status: Confirmed, Checked-in, Checked-out, or Cancelled
Source: booking source (channel)
Click Search to view results. The results on the main Reservations page show details at a glance. Click a reservation to open it and view full details.
Note: the Booked date (the date the reservation was made) only shows in the Booked column on the Reservations page. It is not shown when you click to open a reservation.
View reservation details
To view reservation details, open a reservation from the Calendar or the Reservations page. Its details are organised across these tabs:
Details tab: check-in and check-out dates, length of stay, booking status, pre-check-in status, room type, rate plan, room number, guest numbers, pricing and discounts, primary contact details, source of reservation, and a booking summary showing the room total, extras, taxes, total received and any outstanding balance
Guests tab: additional guests on the reservation, and which guest is set as the primary guest
Inclusions tab: the inclusions that come with the rate plan
Extra items tab: extra selling items added to the reservation
Payments tab: payments, refunds and deposits
Notes tab: internal notes and special requests
Invoices tab: invoices for the reservation
Identifying the booking source from Reservation ID
The Reference or Reservation ID number tells you where the booking came from:
LH: Manual booking created in Little Hotelier
BBN or BB: bookings made via your website's booking engine (Direct Booking). Direct booking reservations start with BBN or BB, for example BBN-BBXXXXXXXXXX or BBXXXXXXXXXXXX.
Channel code: Each channel (OTA) has its own unique code. For example: BDC-XXX for Booking.com or EXP-XXX for Expedia
CHP (Channels Plus): The channel code for Channels Plus reservations is "CHP". For example: "CHP-1a12345-25". For Channels Plus, the Source column also displays "Channels Plus" followed by the channel name the guest booked on (for example, "Channels Plus/Trip.com"). Access Channels Plus reservation details directly in Little Hotelier only, not in the channel's extranet.
Note: Little Hotelier does not have a separate affiliate field. When a standard channel sends a secondary source, it is shown in the Source column after the channel name, for example “Expedia/Hotels.com” (Expedia is the channel, Hotels.com is the affiliate). Not all channels send this. When a channel does not send it, only the channel name is shown, for example “Tourplan”.
Best practices
Regular monitoring: Check Calendar daily, review upcoming arrivals, verify payment statuses
Data accuracy: Double-check all booking details and room assignments
Payment management: Process deposits promptly and keep payment records updated
Important notes:
Always update to Checked-out status when guests depart. This helps you keep track of completed reservations
Room types and room rates cannot be deleted while they still have reservations marked as "Confirmed" or "Checked-in" - even if the guest has already left your property
Reservations cannot be deleted, only cancelled
Cancelled reservations disappear from Calendar but remain accessible in Reservations
Room becomes available for new bookings after cancellation
Cancelled reservations disappear from Calendar but remain accessible in Reservations
Room becomes available for new bookings after cancellation
Reservation payment details cannot be printed, due to PCI compliance requirements