Don’t let a crisis bring your event management down!
You can’t get away from the fact that sometimes things just don’t go to plan. Weather conditions change, political situation alter, epidemic circumstances, like Coronavirus, arise… You need to understand how changes like these might affect your industry and how to deal with them in the best possible way. Whilst I’m not a medical specialist, nor am I a politician, what I can do is suggest some quick and simple processes that may help with managing bookings within Kx in the event of a ‘Critical Cancellation’.
This blog post has been written by our Commercial Product Specialist, Lisa Mills. During her 15 years with Kinetic, Lisa has gathered a breadth of both industry and Kx knowledge which she loves sharing with our customers. Lisa's role has developed from a Commercial Kx Trainer to a key team member of our new cloud-based platform - Kinetic Pulse. When Lisa says she knows what she's talking about, she definitely does!
The first step I would take is to ensure your Terms and Conditions and Cancellation Policies are up to date and clear in relation to cancellation charges. Additional headlines can be added to your proposal, booking contract and invoicing templates for any key related terms; these headlines can be added by editing the template yourselves (if you have the correct level of access) or by requesting the change via our support team.
If any of your current Terms & Conditions have been changed in light of the critical situation, it’s recommended to send a database-wide mailing to all future event contacts to highlight this change. If you are using the SMTP Document Store, you can send out T&Cs as a PDF document, alongside your emailed booking contract. Please ensure the related documents are the latest copy and correct version and that they can be accessed by all users of Kx.
The next configuration step I would recommend is to add a cancellation reason specific to the critical situation or ‘Force Majeure’; this way when your forecasted income decreases you will be able to apportion the reduction directly to any ‘Critical Cancellations’, as opposed to other standard booking cancellations. Reports such as the ‘Lost Business Report’ and ‘Turndown Analysis’ in KxMarketing will then allow you to identify and justify the percentage and value of cancelled bookings by relating it purely to this reason.
From a process perspective, it’s important that if any bookings are cancelled, the correct procedure is followed, in order to ensure that all charges attached to that booking are removed. When a booking is cancelled, you’ll have an option to create a cancellation quote – if you select ‘No’ as there will be no charges related to that booking, then it’s key to remove any quotes from that booking after the cancellation.
An active quote on a future booking can still appear in some forecast reports if the event status of ‘Cancelled’ is not specifically excluded from the report, therefore it’s important to remove any quotes that no longer have any potential to be recognised as revenue.
In order to view what the potential value of this cancelled booking was for future analysis reporting requirements, the following steps need to be followed:
Change the Event Status to ‘Cancelled’
Select the correct ‘Cancellation Reason’ and save the event
Go to the ‘Quotes’ screen of the event and make a note of the ‘Total Quote Value’
Remove the quotes from the ‘Quotes’ screen
Go back to the ‘Details’ screen of the event and click on the magnifying glass icon to the right of the ‘Cancellation Reason’
In the detail box that pops up enter the ‘Total Quote Value’ into the financial breakdown fields, enter any additional notes that may be relevant and click save
This value will then be the related cancelled value of the event without impacting any financial reports
For further details and screenshots of this best practice cancellation process, please search on the knowledge base or contact the training team and a guide can be sent out to you.
If there is any concern that a guest has been unwell while staying at your venue, please ensure that there is a procedure in place to identify the relevant bedroom – it’s recommended to use the ‘Rejected’ bedroom status for this in order that a complete clean and disinfect process can be carried out to minimise the risk of further instances. This will identify any bedrooms that require attention prior to allocating a new guest. If you use KxB&B or Bedbooker, it’s also key to ensure that the bedroom in question is marked as ‘out-of-service’ or removed from online stock, in order to avoid selling prior to a cleaning being carried out.
If a booking needs to be postponed or moved rather than cancelled, I would recommend that rather than just amending the dates you should use the ‘Copy Event’ feature and then the first date can be cancelled, with the correct ‘Cancellation Reason’ being selected. The ‘Enquiry Source’ for the new event could be something similar to ‘Moved to a new date’. This will again allow you to report and analyse the impact on your monthly forecast and occupancy levels.
If you have any questions on the operational best practice procedure related to a ‘Critical Cancellation’ or require further explanation on anything I have mentioned in this blog, please do not hesitate to reach out to myself or to any member of the team and we will be more than happy to help.