When we import a booking from an Online Travel Agent like BCOM or Expedia, we create an internal "look up" where we can match the OTA's own booking reference with our own.
OTA Reference | Caterbook Reference |
1234567890 | 3765 |
1234098765 | 4291 |
If the OTA then sends us a message to modify (or cancel) that booking, we can deal with it.
In the case where a booking has been imported from a different software platform, or has had to be manually input due to a booking falling over to delivery by email or fax, we don't have that look up ability because the booking wasn't imported via the usual interface.
When this happens you'll see a notice on the Recent Activity panel of the Dashboard, and also will receive an email like the one below.
If you click, drag and Copy the booking reference you can then search on this to see if it was a legacy import from a previous system. Go to Bookings / Booking search and paste the reference into the search box.
On clicking Search Caterbook may find the booking reference exported in the notes from your old system. If not, you would need to go to the OTA extranet and search for the booking by reference there.
Either way, you would need to go to the OTA's extranet to check what has changed about this booking. It might be the dates are different or, more commonly, that it has been cancelled.
Opening the booking in Caterbook would then allow you to modify the dates or cancel it accordingly.
It's important to understand that these bookings do need to be updated or cancelled promptly.
When a booking is cancelled at BCOM or EXP, they may well replenish availability at their side and take a booking for the newly opened dates. This can lead to instances of double bookings if not resolved quickly.