Managing Existing Reservation Linking

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The Linked Reservation Examples in the previous section all dealt with adding new reservations and linking them as they are added. This section covers linking and unlinking reservations that have already been made, or changing the type of linkage.

Changing the linking method

Sometimes the linking method is changed for you (after a prompt to confirm it) -- for instance if you change the dates on a reservation that has others synchronized with it, they you will be asked if you want to change the dates of the synchronized ones also. If you answer 'No', then it must make them sub-members. Likewise if you change the Customer when linked as a synchronized or sub-member, then if the others aren't changed also then they can only be linked as non-synchronized.

You can also make changes manually if needed. This is done by right-clicking on the reservation of interest on the Rack or other tab view. Note that you must select the 'child' reservation of interest, since the action will change how that reservation is linked to its 'parent'. In the right-click menu, go to Linked Reservations, and then select the appropriate "Make this a ... reservation" option, e.g. Make this a Sub-member reservation.

There are some restrictions, depending on the situation:

•Both Synchronized and Sub-member links can be changed to Non-Synchronized.

•Only Sub-members can be changed to Synchronized, and only if they have the same dates. Some other fields must also be equal also (e.g. the Status), but if those are different then you will be prompted to change the child's fields to match the parent before changing it to Synchronized. (In order to change a Non-synchronized to synchronized, change it to a Sub-member first, then to Synchronized.)

•Any Synchronized link can be changed to a Sub-member.

•A Non-synchronized link can only be changed to a Sub-member if it's under the same Customer.

Important: When you change the link type, it may also change where transactions go. For instance, if you change a Non-synchronized reservation to a Sub-member, any transactions that were on that reservation must be moved to the linked master (which will be done automatically).

Linking existing reservations (version 11.0 or later)

If you have reservations that were created separately and now want to link them together, e.g. for combined billing, then that's possible starting in version 11.0. (Prior to v11, there was no way to link existing reservations.)

This is done by right-clicking on the reservation of interest on the Rack or other tab view. Note that you must start by selecting the reservation that you want to be made a 'child' of another reservation -- i.e. how you want it to be 'linked to' another reservation. In the right-click menu, go to Linked Reservations, and then select the appropriate "Link this reservation to another..." option, e.g. Link this reservation to another, as Sub-member.

Note that you can only do this with 'top-level' reservations, e.g. reservations that are not already linked as children to another reservation. It can have children of its own, which it will still have after linking, so you can build a new 'tree' from the bottom up if needed.

You will then be shown a list of possible 'parent' reservations for this reservation to link to, if any exist. For instance if you're linking as a Sub-member, it will only show ones for the same customer. For Synchronized, they must have the same dates. For Non-Synchronized, the normal "Find Reservation" dialog is used, since they can have any customer, but it will start by showing the customers with the same last name.

Select the desired reservation to link to, and click "Link to the selected reservation" (or in the case of Non-synchronized, just click "Use").

Important: When you link reservations as Sub-member or Synchronized, it will change where transactions go. Any transactions that were on the reservation (now linked as a child) must be moved to the new linked master (which will be done automatically).

Unlinking reservations (version 11.0 or later)

While changing the linking method to Non-synchronized separates reservations functionally (separate billing, changes, etc), you may need to completely unlink it -- for example, so you can link it to a different reservation. In versions prior to 11, the only way to unlink a reservation was to Cancel it, which forced an unlink.

This can now be done by right-clicking on the reservation of interest on the Rack or other tab view. In the right-click menu, go to Linked Reservations, and then select the appropriate "Unlink ..." option:

Unlink this reservation from its parent (keeping any 'children' linked to it) -- this will simply "prune" the reservation from whatever link tree it was part of -- unlinking it from its parent, but keeping any others linked directly to it as children.

Unlink this reservation from all others -- this will make it a completely separate reservation, no longer linked to anyone. If it had any children linked to it, those will be linked to the previous parent of this reservation, moving them "up the tree".

Note that this action may result in a change in where transactions for this reservation must go -- e.g. it will now be a "linked master" (or individual) reservation, so it must have the transactions for it. If it was previously a Synchronized or Sub-member reservation, then its previous linked master should have the transactions for this site removed.