Product Update v4.36: Smarter Arrival Emails, Clearer Payments & Smoother Front Desk Workflows
Product Update v4.36 makes everyday hotel operations clearer and more reliable. This release improves communication for last-minute arrivals, keeps City Tax intact when room prices are adjusted, makes outstanding payments easier to understand, refines German terminology across the system, and removes several small workflow interruptions for front desk teams.
1. Reservations & Front Desk
City Tax now stays in place when using a Custom price
Adjusting a reservation price no longer means having to restore the City Tax manually.
When you switch a room rate to Custom price in the Edit Reservation modal, the existing City Tax remains attached to the reservation and is also preserved in Charges.
- ● The existing City Tax stays unchanged when switching to Custom price.
- ● The tax is displayed next to the Custom price field.
- ● Switching back to a regular room rate recalculates the City Tax according to its configuration.
- ● A new hint explains how the room price and City Tax are distributed across the nights of the stay.
This makes manual price adjustments safer and faster, especially when reception teams need to modify rates without changing the tax itself.
Clearer payment information at a glance
We have also refined the payment block so that outstanding amounts are easier to understand.
The previous Balance value is now shown as Amount Due, while the German interface uses Offener Betrag.
- ● Amounts due are always displayed as positive values.
- ● €0.00 is shown in green when nothing remains to be paid.
- ● Outstanding amounts are highlighted in yellow.
- ● If a guest has paid more than the reservation total, the system displays a clear overpayment message.
The result is a more straightforward payment overview, helping staff immediately understand whether a reservation is fully paid, still has an amount due, or has been overpaid.
More reliable action menus
Three-dot action menus across reservation cards and other system views are now easier to use.
Previously, a menu could sometimes close while the cursor was moving from the action icon to one of its options. The interaction area has been improved so menus remain accessible while an action is being selected.
This small change removes unnecessary clicks from frequently used workflows.
Cleaner reservation status selection in German
The reservation status dropdown has also been refined for longer German labels.
Status options now remain properly aligned regardless of label length, resulting in a cleaner and more consistent interface for German-speaking teams.
2. German Language & Terminology
We have reviewed and improved German wording throughout HotelFriend to make terminology clearer and more consistent for everyday hotel operations.
Updates appear across system views, email templates, PDFs, widgets, and reports.
Among the changes:
- ● Gebühren → Posten
- ● Buchungsbeschränkungen → Restriktionen
- ● Due In / Due Out → Anreise erwartet / Abreise erwartet
- ● Herkunftsland → Adresse where the field refers to the guest address
- ● Hotel/Booking Tags → Reservation Tags / Reservierungs-Tags
- ● Balance / Einzahlung → Amount Due / Offener Betrag
- ● Channel manager → Channel Manager
Guest type terminology has also been refined to Private guest / Company in English and Privatgast / Firma in German.
These updates make the interface more natural for German-speaking users and help keep terminology consistent across different parts of the platform.
3. Communication & Automations
Send arrival emails immediately for same-day bookings
Arrival communication is now more reliable for last-minute reservations.
A new optional setting is available for the Before Guest Arrival and Email about Self Check-in automations:
“Send email immediately if the sending time has already passed.”
When enabled, the email is sent immediately if:
- ● the guest is checking in today, and
- ● the reservation is created after the originally configured sending time.
The same logic applies when an existing reservation is changed so that its check-in date becomes today.
For example, if your Self Check-in email is normally scheduled for 2 PM and a guest books at 5 PM for arrival that same evening, HotelFriend can now send the message immediately instead of missing the automation window.
This is particularly useful for self-service properties where guests rely on arrival instructions, access information, or door codes before reaching the hotel.
The option is disabled by default, so your existing automation behaviour remains unchanged unless you choose to activate it.
Clearer feedback when sending emails to multiple contacts
Bulk email sending now makes it much easier to spot contacts without an email address.
When guests or companies are selected for an email:
- ● contacts without an email address are clearly identified instead of being silently excluded;
- ● a notification shows which contacts cannot receive the message;
- ● the Selected field provides a clear warning before sending;
- ● companies are displayed with both their name and email address for easier identification.
This gives hotel teams better visibility over their recipient list and reduces the risk of assuming that a message was sent to someone who could not receive it.
4. Events
Smoother Event Type validation
We have refined validation in Event fields and Event schedule fields.
Opening the Type selector no longer causes the form layout to resize unexpectedly or moves the page away from the section you are working on.
The improvement keeps event setup stable and easier to navigate, particularly when creating or editing more detailed event configurations.
With Product Update v4.36, HotelFriend continues to remove small but time-consuming obstacles from everyday hotel operations. Front desk teams get clearer payment information and safer price adjustments, last-minute guests can receive important arrival information automatically, and German-speaking users benefit from more consistent terminology throughout the platform.
Together, these improvements make routine work faster, clearer, and easier to manage.