The last guest has left. The sheets are at the laundry, the cleaner has had her last pay and the property is quiet for the first time since May. The easiest thing is to lock up and think about it again in March.
Some things, though, are much easier now, while the season is fresh in your mind. Others, if they do not happen now, will catch you in February with a booking that should not have come in or a document that is missing. The list below has 12 points. Most of them take a few minutes each in the Bookmatrix.com PMS, and the rest need a pen and paper.
Reservations and calendar
1. Close the winter dates
If you do not take guests from November to April, close those dates in the calendar. With Bookmatrix.com the restriction goes to every channel at once, Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia and your own website. You do not need to log into each extranet separately. If you only take bookings on some days, say over Christmas, leave only those open.
2. Open 2027
Many guests book their summer during the winter. If your calendar has no rates for 2027, they cannot. Set the seasons, rates, minimum stays and cancellation policies for next year. You enter them once and they go to every channel.
3. Check the 2027 reservations you already have
If bookings for next season have already come in, open them one by one. Right dates, right room, right price, deposit if there is one. A mistake you find in November is one email. The same mistake in July is an angry guest.
Documents and accounts
4. Every stay has its document
Go through the season's reservations and make sure every paid stay has a receipt or invoice and that everything has been sent to myDATA. In Bookmatrix.com documents are issued from the reservation and sent to AADE when they are issued. If you find a mistake, it is cancelled or corrected with a credit note from the same screen.
5. Climate resilience fee
Check that the climate resilience fee has been calculated and issued for every stay. In Bookmatrix.com it is calculated per night and issued as its own document. For how it is calculated and declared, see the article on the climate resilience fee.
6. Open balances
Look for reservations with a balance that never closed: an extra bed that was not charged, a card payment that did not go through. Every guest has a card with their stays, balance, payments and documents, so you can see quickly what is missing. Close anything that is open now, not when your accountant asks for the year's figures. For declarations and deadlines, your accountant has the final word.
Season reports
7. Keep the year's numbers
Occupancy per month, income per channel, arrivals and departures. Run the reports for the whole season and keep them. If you want the data in a file, reservations, guests and documents can be exported at any time.
8. Three questions for next year
With the reports in front of you: which channel brought the most bookings, and which the most income? Which months stayed empty? How many bookings came direct, with no commission? The answers are the rates and restrictions of point 2. If direct bookings were few, read the article on bookings without commission.
Locks, staff and access
9. Smart locks
If you have TTLock locks connected to Bookmatrix.com, open Smart Locks and press Sync Now. Check the battery of each lock and whether it shows "Online via gateway". Revoke the staff codes you no longer need. Guest codes were already deleted at check-out. Decide whether the gateway stays plugged in for the winter: without it you cannot send or delete codes remotely. More on the TTLock integration page.
10. Seasonal staff
Your seasonal cleaner logs in to the housekeeping app with a personal PIN. You change PINs from your dashboard, so do it for anyone who will not work over the winter. The same goes for anyone who had an account in the system just for the season. Before you close, also look at the time per room that was recorded: it tells you how many people you will need in July.
Guest communication
11. Email templates for 2027
Open the templates that go out on their own: booking confirmation, arrival directions, review request. Has anything changed? A new Wi-Fi password, different parking, a new phone number, a new check-in time. Fix them now, in every language, before the first email of the new season goes out with the old details.
12. Your website in winter
Your website works all winter, even if you do not. Make sure the booking engine shows the 2027 rates, the photos are up to date, and the contact phone and email are the ones you will answer in January.
The list at a glance
- Winter dates closed on every channel.
- Rates, seasons and policies for 2027.
- Check of the 2027 reservations.
- A document for every stay, all in myDATA.
- Climate resilience fee for every stay.
- Open balances.
- Season reports.
- Three questions for next year.
- Locks: batteries, gateway, staff codes.
- PINs and accounts of seasonal staff.
- Email templates for 2027.
- Website and booking engine.
Twelve points, one November afternoon. And in March you start where you left off, not from scratch.
Want to start 2027 with everything in one system? Try Bookmatrix.com free for 14 days, with your own rooms and no card, at bookmatrix.com/demo. Or leave your details at bookmatrix.com/form and we will call you on the next working day. You can also call us at +30 2351 151525.