Run your day in Kipdown

Today shows who’s arriving and leaving and anything that needs you. Next to it in the menu are “Calendar”, “Bookings”, “Stays and prices” and “Changeovers”. On Today, Bookings and Changeovers there are buttons to “Close dates” and “Add a booking”, and on a phone there’s a “+ Add a booking” button at the bottom of the screen.

Today

The top shows a tile for each stay with how many are booked tonight, such as “12 of 40”, or “Closed tonight”. Use ‹ and › to look at tomorrow or yesterday.

“Needs you” lists what to deal with first: bank transfers to mark as paid, double bookings from other sites, guests arriving today or tomorrow who still owe money, balances that couldn’t be taken, calendars that couldn’t be checked, and emails that couldn’t be sent.

Under “Arriving”, each booking has “Call”, “Email” and “Message”, which opens your phone’s texting app. “Take payment” opens the booking, and the “Arrived” tick marks them in. There are also “Email guests” and “Print the arrivals list”, which gives you a sheet with each guest’s name, where they’re staying, guests, nights, extras, what they still owe, their answers to your questions, phone number and notes. “Leaving” shows who’s going and by what time, and which places have new guests the same day.

The calendar

The calendar shows a “Season”, “2 weeks” or “Month” at a time. Its key shows bookings from “Your website”, bookings “Added here”, bookings from “Other sites”, bookings “Not fully paid”, and “Closed” nights.

With a mouse, you can drag a booking to change its dates or length, or move it to another named place of the same stay. The price stays as it was and the guest isn’t emailed, and you can press “Undo”. You can’t drag on a phone, between different stays, or for bookings from other sites. To move a booking to a different stay, open it and use “Change”.

Click an empty night to “Add a booking”, “Close this night”, or “Email guests here that night”.

A booking’s page

Click any booking to open it. For each stay there’s “Change”, “Cancel this stay”, “Mark as arrived”, and “Move to another” for named places. Under the guest’s details you’ll find “Edit”, “Copy their link” and “Send them a new link”. For money there’s “Record a payment”, “Refund” and “Pay with a gift voucher”. You can also “Email the guest”, “Send the confirmation again” or “Print a receipt”.

“Your notes” are for you, your team and cleaners, and guests never see them. “History” shows everything that’s happened to the booking and who did it. Changes and cancellations explains changing and cancelling.

To find a booking, use the search on “Bookings”, by name, email, phone or reference. You can’t filter the list yet.

Adding a booking taken by phone

1. Press “Add a booking”.
2. Choose the stay, how many, which one if it has named places, the arriving and leaving dates, adults, children and any extras. Use “Add another stay” for up to six stays in one booking.
3. Add the guest’s “Name”, and their phone, email and answers to your questions if you have them.
4. If they’ve paid, tick “They’ve paid already” and enter the amount and how they paid.
5. Choose whether to “Email the guest a confirmation”, then press “Add the booking”.

Kipdown warns you if a booking breaks a stay’s rules, and you can still add it. If the stay is full, “Book it anyway (overbook)” adds it regardless. “Charge a different price” sets your own price.

You can’t take a card payment yourself, and there’s no button to send a payment link. If you’d like a guest to pay online, use “Copy their link” or “Send the confirmation again”. They can pay from their booking page once card payments are on.

Closing dates

Press “Close dates”, or click an empty night on the calendar and choose “Close this night”. Closed dates can’t be booked online, such as when a tent is being repaired or you’re away. You can close a whole stay or one named place.

Can't find what you need? Email hello@kipdown.com and a person will reply.