This release is all about making everyday hotel operations smoother: at the front desk, in accounting, in rate management, and inside the Booking Engine.
No big buzzwords. Just improvements that actually make your work easier.
1. Reservations & Front Desk
a) Faster actions directly from the calendar
- ● View reservations for this day
- ● View notes for this day
- ● Create a note for this day
As a front desk teams work under pressure. Every extra click slows check-ins, increases queue time, and creates stress. Direct day-based actions reduce friction, speed up access to information, and keep reception focused on guests — not navigation.
b) Cleaning fee visibility in Add Booking
Cleaning fees are now clearly displayed in the booking modal (under Tourism Tax), and the total recalculates automatically. No manual adjustments. No confusion.
Clear cleaning fee display ensures financial transparency, reduces billing errors, and improves trust at check-in and check-out.
c) Longer booking horizon
Maximum booking lead time increased from 36 to 48 months. Yes — you can now sell rooms four years in advance.
Extending the booking window increases long-term revenue opportunities and prevents lost high-value reservations due to system limitations.
2. Payments, Invoicing & Tax
a) City Tax logic based on length of stay
You now have more flexibility to define how city tax is calculated depending on how long the guest stays.
Many municipalities calculate city tax differently depending on stay duration. Flexible tax logic ensures legal compliance, accurate invoicing, and eliminates manual corrections.
b) City Tax in prepayments — your choice
A new toggle in Room Rates → Cancellations & Prepayments allows you to decide whether city tax should be included in the prepayment amount.
Important: If a booking is cancelled or marked as no-show, city tax is always refunded in full — regardless of the cancellation policy.
Prepayment transparency reduces disputes and accounting inconsistencies. Giving hotels control over whether city tax is included improves cash flow management while maintaining regulatory accuracy. Automatic refund logic for cancellations protects both compliance and guest trust.
c) 0.00 invoice positions now recalculate correctly
Want to add complimentary parking, a welcome drink, or a free upgrade? You can now add invoice items with price = 0.00 without affecting totals.
Modern hospitality relies on value-added experiences. Complimentary services should enhance perception — not break accounting. Correct zero-value calculations allow hotels to offer perks without creating reporting or reconciliation errors.
d) New Online Payment Report (HotelFriend Payments)
Hotels using HotelFriend Payments now have access to a new settlement-based online payment report under: Reports → Financial → Online Reports.
Financial clarity is critical for decision-making. A settlement-based report improves reconciliation accuracy, speeds up accounting processes, and gives management real visibility into online payment performance.
3. Room Rates & Pricing
a) Drag & drop sorting for room types and rates
Hoteliers can now adjust the sorting order in the “Overview” menu via drag & drop.
- ● Move a room type → all its rates move with it.
- ● Move a rate → it moves within its room type.
Inventory structure directly impacts usability and strategic pricing control. Intuitive sorting allows revenue managers to prioritize visibility, align display logic with strategy, and maintain operational clarity without technical adjustments.
b) Bulk rate changes — smarter & clearer
The bulk rate modal got a serious upgrade:
- New options: increase %, decrease %, increase €, decrease €
- Clearer UI: you see selected options, price range, and estimated processing time before applying changes.
Transparency before applying changes reduces risk, prevents pricing mistakes, and increases confidence when executing revenue strategies across multiple room types and dates.
4. Booking Engine, BE Pro & Remote Reception
[Booking Engine Pro permission may be required]
a) Smarter calendar behavior for group bookings
The calendar will no longer show red when rooms are actually bookable. Also fixes pricing display issues for children and larger occupancies.
Accurate calendar logic protects booking conversion rates and eliminates unnecessary revenue loss.
b) Standardized booking source logic (BE vs BE Pro)
Prevents incorrect system behavior and improves tracking.
c) Service visibility improvements
All services are now visible in the Booking Engine — even if currently unavailable. Guests can check availability in the service calendar.
d) Safer BE Pro source removal
When deleting a BE Pro source, the system now guides you through proper reassignment and cleanup — avoiding broken links in rates, restrictions, and services.
e) Info Blocks now support BE Pro
You can now decide which information blocks and pages appear on which BE Pro source.
Different sales channels require different messaging. Channel-specific content control allows hotels to optimize communication strategy, improve conversion rates, and tailor positioning without technical workarounds.
5. In-House & Events
[Requires Event Management permission]
a) Free services are now visible in the Booking Engine
Complimentary activities are clearly displayed — great for upselling value.
Perceived value drives conversion. Clearly displaying complimentary services strengthens the overall offer and increases booking confidence without discounting room rates.
b) Sorting added to Event PAX grid
Better structure for managing event participants.
Event management requires structure and precision. Improved sorting enhances operational efficiency, reduces coordination errors, and supports large group handling.
6. Integrations
a) Lightspeed refinement
Improved integration setup modal, clearer instructions, and added split charges support.
Improved configuration and split charge handling reduce accounting friction and ensure accurate financial synchronisation.
b) Channel Manager logs reworked
Now filterable by dates, room types, and room rates to make troubleshooting much easier.
Filterable logs allow faster troubleshooting, protect availability accuracy, and minimise potential overbookings or rate discrepancies.
7. Other Improvements
- ● New “Out of Service Room” button in the Rooms → Out of Service grid.
Faster room status management improves housekeeping coordination and protects guest experience.
- ● In Communication Settings, added a new toggle that enables/disables ALL emails sent by the hotel. This toggle overrides all email automations, and also applies to manually sent emails..
HotelFriend v. 4.25 sharpens operational control across every critical touchpoint — from front desk speed and long-term booking flexibility to tax transparency, rate precision, and Booking Engine reliability. With smarter financial logic, improved source handling, enhanced pricing tools, and stronger integration stability, this update helps hotels reduce friction, protect revenue, eliminate manual corrections, and operate with greater clarity and confidence every single day.
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