Introduction Manual First Steps Reservation overview Invoice overview Accounting Journal Settings Users Room Categories Rooms Guest categories Prices Tourist tax / accommodation levy Subsidiaries Reservation Origin Reservation Status Templates Online Booking Automations

Guest categories

Guest categories form the foundation for age-based pricing, occupancy rules, and tourism statistics. They describe which kinds of guests are counted per reservation — adults, children, infants, or special groups — and which price modifiers and accommodation levies apply to each.

Overview

A guest category describes a group of persons within a reservation. Each category is assigned to a statistical group (adult, child, infant, or other), defines whether the person counts towards bed capacity, and serves as the reference for price modifiers and accommodation levies.

Overview of guest categories with example entries

Typical use cases supported by guest categories:

  • Age-based pricing — for example free for children up to 3 years, a reduced rate from 3 to 15 years, and the full price from 16 onwards
  • Infants in a cot that do not count towards bed capacity
  • Special groups for statistics (non-liable or exempt persons)
  • Differentiated accommodation levies per type of guest

Creating guest categories

The section is available under Settings → Guest categories . Each category provides the following fields:

  • Name – display name, for example “Adults”, “Child 6–16”, or “Infant”
  • Short name – compact label for tables and reports (ADL, C6-16, INF)
  • Statistical group – assigns the category to one of the four groups adult , child , infant , or other . Drives the statistics, the online booking, and the “at least one adult” rule.
  • Minimum age / maximum age – informational; used in online booking to map children to the matching category by entered age
  • Counts towards occupancy – disable for guests that should not count towards bed capacity (for example an infant in a travel cot)
  • Subsidiaries – multi-select; leaving the field empty makes the category available in all subsidiaries
  • Sort order – controls the display order in forms
  • Active – inactive categories are no longer offered for new bookings but remain visible in existing ones

Guest counts per reservation

Instead of a single person count, each reservation holds a small table with one counter per guest category. The total number of persons is derived automatically from the sum of all categories that count towards occupancy.

The following figure shows the table when creating or editing a reservation:

Guest counts table per category in the reservation form

Example: 2 adults + 1 child 6–16 + 1 infant yields four guests, three of which count towards bed capacity (the infant does not). On the invoice, the categories appear separately with their respective rates.

“At least one adult” rule

By default every reservation must contain at least one person from an adult category. This rule prevents accidental bookings consisting solely of children or infants.

In the internal reservation management the rule can be overridden per booking, for example for supervised youth groups. The option Allow booking without adult companion appears as soon as no adult is counted.

In online booking an adult is mandatory. No exception is possible there.

Price modifiers per category

Directly below the category list, the price modifiers area is available. A price modifier defines, per guest category, a surcharge or discount on the base room price – without multiplying the price master per category.

Overview of price modifiers with example entries
Modifier types
  • Surcharge (amount) – for example +10 € per night per child
  • Discount (percent) – for example −50 % off the adult rate for children
  • Flat rate per night – replaces the per-head share with a fixed amount (for example 15 € flat for Child 6–16)
  • Free – the category pays nothing (for example infants)
When a modifier applies

A modifier is applied only when all of the following conditions are met:

  1. The room price is calculated per person . Flat prices per room or per reservation have no corresponding reference value and are not modified.
  2. The category counts towards occupancy . Non-occupying categories (for example infants) are not included in the room price anyway.
  3. The category is not an adult category – adults form the base rate the modifier refers to.
  4. The night of stay falls within the modifier's validity window (optionally restricted per season) and the entry is active.

On the invoice, the modifier appears as its own transparent line. In the accounting journal it nets against the room account, so only a single revenue line per account and tax rate is generated there.

Guest categories in online booking

In the online booking form, guests select the number of adults and the number of children. An age field appears per child – the age is transferred in the background to the matching guest category.

Categories with statistical group other are not shown in the online booking form – they are an internal concept for reports. The “at least one adult” rule prevents submission as long as no adult is selected.