Take a deposit

A reservation shows the deposit it asks for, worked out from the hotel’s settings: at the lodge, one night. Taking it before the guest arrives secures the booking; Kila holds the money for the guest and takes it off the bill at check-out.

Steps

1. Open the reservation

   On Hotel › Front desk, an arrival with a deposit still to pay says Deposit KES … to take. Tap the guest’s name. The reservation shows the Deposit asked (2) and a Take deposit button (1). For a reservation further ahead, find it with the search or under Hotel › Reservations.

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2. Tap Take deposit and check the amount

   Kila says what happens to the money: “Held on Moses Okello’s account and used on the folio at check-out.” The Amount (3) starts at the deposit still to take; change it if the guest pays part.

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3. Choose how they pay

   Cash, M-Pesa, Card or Bank. For M-Pesa paid to your till or paybill, choose Enter the M-Pesa code and type the code (4); Send a prompt sends the prompt to their phone instead, where prompts are set up. Until Kila’s M-Pesa connection is live (Integrations and API says Prompts not connected), Kila sends no prompt and says “M-Pesa prompts are not connected to Safaricom yet”: enter the code instead. See Take M-Pesa.

4. Tap Record deposit

   Kila says Payment recorded, with the amount and the receipt, such as KES 11,000.00 received by M-Pesa. Receipt PAY-000310. The money counts on your desk shift.

5. Check that it is held

   Deposit held (6) shows the amount, the folio has a Deposit line, and the reservation’s guarantee reads Deposit paid. Until there are charges to set it against, Guest to pay shows the deposit as money in hand, with a minus.

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Good to know

At check-out the deposit is used first: the check-out shows Deposit held (used first), and the guest pays only what is left. At the lodge a one-night stay with its deposit paid checks out with nothing more to pay.

What if

The guest is already in the house

Open their folio and choose More › Take a deposit. It works the same way.

The reservation is cancelled

Cancelling does not give the deposit back by itself. Kila says so when you cancel, for example: “The deposit of KES 11,000.00 stays on the guest’s account.” On the arrival day, the plan’s cancellation terms apply too (“Inside the free cancellation period: the first night …”).

The booking came from the hotel’s booking page

The guest was asked to pay the deposit by M-Pesa as they booked, and the reservation is held for a short time only: see Take bookings on your booking page.

Related

• Take a reservation: where the deposit asked comes from.
• Check a guest out: the deposit used at the end.
• Post charges and take payments on the folio: payments during the stay.

Next: when the guest arrives, check them in.