Home → Arctic Reservations → Group Mode Reservations → Creating A Group Mode Reservation
14.1. Creating A Group Mode Reservation
Arctic Reservations has powerful Group Mode Reservation features that help simplify tracking large group reservations and keeping everything organized. Using the Group Mode for a reservation you can bill each individual guest or sets of guests separately, keep everyone on the same trip with ease, hold spaces for a particularly large group and keep track of the group's and the individual's Reservation Details. It also has a great "Guest Interface" that will allow the group coordinator to invite others to join their reservation, remind them to complete their registration forms and see who has paid and who has not. Arctic will also send emails to the group coordinator letting them know when other guests have added to their reservation.
Using the Group Mode Reservation feature is fairly simple and straightforward.
To create a "Group Mode Reservation", you will begin in the same way that you create a standard "New Reservation" by going to the "Reservation" Menu and then choosing "Create" as shown here:
This will bring up the "Create New Reservation" page where you can select your customer and the trip by clicking the "Select Person" and the "Select Trip" buttons respectively.
For this exercise, we will assume that the customer who is initiating the group reservation or group coordinator is a new customer. When you click the "Select Person" button it will display the "Select Person" page.
Since we are assuming this is a new customer, choose the "Create Person" button on the "Select Person" page as shown here:
This is will open the "Create New Person" page where you will enter the group coordinator's contact information. If this is a church group or corporate group you may want to also fill in the "Company" name field if you do not normally use it.
Once you have completed the group coordinator's customer record, click "Submit" at the bottom of the "Create Person" page. Arctic will create a new customer record for the Person database and enter the group coordinator's name in the "Select Person Field" on the "Create New Reservation" page.
Now you can choose the trip the group coordinator would like to book for their group by clicking the "Select Trip" button. This will bring up the "Calendar" page where you can navigate through to find the trip and dates that the group coordinator is interested in. (For more information on the "Calendar" page in the "Select Trip" portion of creating a reservation, please see the New Reservation Guide.)
Once you have found the trip that your group coordinator is interested in you can choose it by clicking the name of the trip on the "Calendar" page as shown here:
Arctic will return to the "Create New Reservation" page and enter the trip selection in the "Select Trip Field" on the "Create New Reservation" page.
Now you have the group coordinator's name in the "Select Person Field" and the trip they want in the "Select Trip Field" as shown here:
Now you are ready to enter the reservation information for the group coordinator. You will enter only the number of guests the group coordinator wishes to pay for themselves in the guest composition box as shown here:
You will continue to complete the "Create New Reservation" page as you would for a normal "New Reservation" entering the number of guests the group coordinator wishes to pay for personally; any add-ons that may be associated with the trip (again remember you are only entering the reservation details for the group coordinator, only reserve the add-ons the guests they are paying for will need and the "Notes"
After you have entered any applicable notes for the group coordinator's reservation, click the "Group Mode" box as shown here:
The next step is where you will finally tell Arctic that this is a group that will be making multiple reservations and/or paying in multiple invoices. In the "Group Mode" field you will choose "Yes, use multiple reservations and/or multiple invoices" as shown here:
After you have chosen, the "Yes, use multiple reservations and/or multiple invoices", Arctic will make all of the pricing displayed for the trip and the add-ons editable as shown here:
If you edit the pricing, you will be setting the pricing for the group. This pricing will only apply to guests in this specific group. It will not be available to other guests or the guests of a different group reservation. If you want to suppress, a particular pricing level for the group then you would delete the price for the pricing level you don't want available for the group and leave the field blank as shown here:
Do not enter 0.00 for the price of the pricing level you want to supress for the group. This will actually make that pricing level free for the group and they will be able to select that pricing level.
If you want to comp the group leader's trip or give the group leader a special rate, you will click the green "+Add Custom Pricing Level" button and enter the price for the group leader as shown here:
Any custom pricing levels that you create for the group leader will not be availale for the rest of the group. Only the "standard" trip pricing levels that you offer and have edited for the group will be available for the other group members.
In addition to making the price levels editable choosing "Yes, multiple reservations and/or multiple invoices" in the "Group Mode Box" will cause Arctic to display the following fields in the "Group Mode" box:
As you can see, Arctic has added a fields where you can enter the total number of guests, a "Group Name" for the reservation, whether the reservation can grow, invoice options and an option to hold the total number of spots needed until a certain date.
When entering the number of total guests for the group make sure this includes the group coordinator's guests from above. This field should be the total number of guests for the entire group including those guests the group coordinator is paying for personally.
For the Group Name, it is always best to use either an organization name, family name, or party name, for example, "Sesame Street Gang". This will make it easier to locate the correct group reservation when you need to add a guest to the reservation. You can use the group coordinator's name is you wish but it makes it a little more difficult to find the reservation later when adding other guests to it.
The "Can Grow" field is another great tool for the Group Mode Reservation. Arctic automatically selects "Yes, Reservation Can Grow Beyond Total Number of Guests (above)" from the "Can Grow" drop down menu, which will allow the group size to grow beyond the total number of spaces that have been reserved for it. If you want to limit the number of spaces a single group can take on any particular launch you would choose "No, Only the Number of Guests Specified Above Can Book" from the "Can Grow" drop down menu. For instance, if you find that trips run smoother if there are no single groups over 12 on any particular trip you can assign the group the 12 spaces (if the group coordinator thinks they will need that many) and then specify that the group can not grow. This will keep the group from being able to book more than the 12 spots reserved for them online. If they decide that they would like more spots, Arctic will allow them to submit an inquiry for the additional spaces they want and you can decide if you are willing to accommodate the additional guests. They will be forced to make an inquiry whether or not the trip their group has chosen is full or still has spaces available because you have chosen the "No, Only the Number Of Guests Specified Above Can Book" option.
On the other hand, if you can accomodate large groups and the group coordinator expects that there may be more interest than the original 12 guests, you would leave the "Yes, Reservation Can Grow Beyond Total Number of Guests (above)" option selected so that Arctic will allow the group to allocate more than the 12 spaces originally reserved for it. Arctic will not allow the group to book more spaces than are available for the trip when they are booking online so you do not have to worry about the group over-booking the trip if this option is selected. However, Arctic, will allow your staff to book more spaces than are available for the trip if you decide you can accommodate a few more guests than you are offering online. If the group takes all of the available spaces that were left over and above the 12 originally booked for the group and all of the other space that was available for the trip but needs a couple more they will not be able to add these themselves online. However they will be able to make an inquiry that will allow you and your staff to decide if you can accommodate the additional guests or not. If you can,Arctic will allow you to add them to the group reservation. (Arctic will advise you that you are going over the number of openings originally allotted for the trip so that you do not accidentally do this.)
The "Invoice" field, allows you to choose whether the guests get a seperate invoice for each reservation or whether the group coordinator will pay for the entire group but the guests will register separately.
The "Hold Until" feature is a great feature for being able to give your group coordinator a deadline by which their group members need to make their reservations in order to be guaranteed a spot on the trip. This doesn't mean that a tardy group member will not be able to add to the reservation after the "Hold Until" date but that you are no longer holding a spot specifically for them. This way if your group coordinator drastically overshot on the number of group members that were actually going to be able to come for the trip you can still give yourself time to sell the unused spaces.
Now that you have completed all of the fields in the "Group Mode" box, you can continue with the reservation. If the group is using a Booking Agent you can enter the booking agent in the "Booking Agent" box then click "Submit" to save the reservation. If they are not using a Booking Agent, you can skip the "Booking Agent" box and click "Submit" to save the reservation.
Once you click "Submit" you are taken to the "View Reservation" page as shown here:
Notice that the summary lists how many confirmed guests in how many reservations, the number of additional spots being held, the date they are being held until and how many total additional spots the group can take over and above the total number being held.
There is also an online reservation link that you can email to the group coordinator that they can forward to their group members that will allow the group members to make their reservations online through the "My Module" portal. This is also included if you select the "Email Reservation Details" option from the "Actions" drop down menu next each reservation. (This link is only included with this email if the email template you choose has the "Group Booking Link" variable in the template. For more information regarding email templates, please see the "Email Templates" guide.)
You can also utilize the buttons next to each guest as you would in a "New Reservation" to add customer contact details, complete their registration forms, or email them reservation details.
In the next section, we will discuss how to add a reservation to a group reservation.