Front desk
Front desk guide, part 1: signing in and finding your way
Accept your invitation, learn what the front desk screen shows and what each menu item is for, and keep your own account safe.
By The Xenia team · · 3 min read
This is part 1 of 4 of the Xenia front desk guide: 1. Signing in · 2. Bookings and guests · 3. The guest's bill · 4. The stay, check-out and your shift.
This guide is for the person at the front desk: the one who checks guests in, keeps their bills right, takes the money and hands over to the next shift. It uses a made-up hotel, Sunrise Hotel in Lagos, so none of the guests or figures is real. Your hotel's owner or manager sets up the rooms and rates first (the owner setup guide covers that); you only need to know how to use them.
Accept your invitation
The owner invites you by email with the Front Desk role. Open the email and follow its link. The page names the hotel and your role. Add your first and last name, your phone number with the country code, and a password of at least 10 characters with upper and lower case letters and a number. Agree to the terms and choose Create account and join.
Your front desk screen
You land on Front desk. It is the page to leave open all day. Across the top are four counts for today: Vacant, In house, Reserved and Out of service. Under them are three lists:
Arriving: reservations waiting for their guest today.
Leaving: guests due to check out today.
In the house: everyone staying now, with the room and the date they leave. Choose a name to open their booking.
The orange Walk-in button, at the top right, checks in a guest who turns up without a reservation (part 2).
The menu
The menu shows only what your role may use. If something you need is missing, ask the owner. The ones you will use most:
Front desk and Room board: who is where, and which rooms are clean.
Bookings and Reservations: guests staying now, and guests coming later.
Guests: everyone who has stayed, with what they owe.
Folios: find any guest's bill.
Cashier shifts: open your shift before you take money, and close it when you hand over.
Work orders: repairs on rooms.
Approvals: requests you have asked a manager to allow.
Notifications: messages for you.
Security: your own password and two-step sign-in.
Keep your account safe
Every booking, charge and payment you make carries your name, so keep your sign-in to yourself. Never share it, even with a manager. Open Security to see unusual sign-ins to your account, change your password, and turn on two-step sign-in. With it, Xenia asks for a code from an app on your phone after your password, so a stolen password is not enough.
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Door cards guide, part 2: add the bridge in Xenia and set up your rooms
Sign in, add a lock bridge to get its one-time code, and set the building, floor and area of each room so the locks can find it.
See your own hotel in Xenia
Start free for 14 days with no card. Add your rooms, invite your staff, and watch the money in one place.