Requires a Bookalet Agent account
The Bookalet Agent account provides a means of issuing Owner Invoices to inform Owners how much revenue they have earned minus the Agent’s commissions and costs.
These reports can be run for Owners with a single bookable as well as Owners with multiple bookables. The Agent can also specify the date period for which the invoice covers. Prior to running an Owner Invoice, the Agent will need to configure the property with prices, extras costs and commission levels.
Setting Commission Levels:
First navigate to the Bookables section in the Bookalet management console. Click the Edit button alongside the bookable you wish to edit. Scroll down to the section entitled Agent Options
In the Commission % for agent/online bookings box, add the % you wish to charge your Owner’s for this property.
Some Agents also charge a lesser commission for bookings added by the Owner. Put the percentage in the box next to Commission % for owner bookings. Leave blank if you don’t charge commission on Owner bookings. The commission rate used for a booking will be the rate set here when the booking was added.
At its most basic level, you are now in a position to calculate the commission due on any booking processed through the Bookalet system. However, in real life there are complications such as optional extras, mandatory extras and miscellaneous costs to be considered when calculating commission. Sometimes the extras are provided by the property owners and commission won’t be charged. Sometimes commission will be charged and sometimes services are provided by the Agent and therefore the cost of providing any service needs to be recouped.
Optional and Mandatory Extras:
Optional extras and mandatory extras are also added in the Bookables section of the Bookalet system.
When editing a bookable, navigate to Extras from the ‘Manage bookable’ menu . You’ll see from the graphic below we have added 3 optional extras; a charge for a dog, a charge for a welcome pack and a charge for a Z bed. You can specify the maximum number available.
When making a booking, a guest has the option of selecting these extras which in turn, will add the cost of the extra to the total rental cost. Mandatory extras can also be added to the bookable and as the name suggests, this extra will automatically be added to every booking.
Some Agencies also add a Booking Fee to every booking. This can be in the form of a fixed sum or a % of the booking. If you don’t charge a Booking Fee leave this box blank.
How Extras and Booking Fees are Reflected in the Booking Detail:
When a booking is made and extras (optional or mandatory) have been added, these are reflected in the booking detail and are included in the Rental amount. Any Booking fee is shown as a separate line, as indeed is any Breakage deposit charged:
In the example shown above, payment of the Deposit was made on 23rd November with the Balance also being paid on the same day. This will make it easier for us to see how the Owner Statement report works.
Before running an Owner Statement report, you will need to decide what extras are being provided by the Agent and therefore chargeable back to the owner and what Extras are to be commissionable. This is done in the Owners > List Owners > Costs section.
If you remember, we added the Extras and associated costs in the Bookables section. The Extras Cost to guest is pulled in from this Bookable page. If the Extra is provided by the Agent, the “Provided by Agent” box should be checked and a “Cost to owner” should be added. You can edit each line if there is a cost to the Agent which needs to be recouped. If you check the box “Provided by the Agent” in the Owner Statement, a charge will be made.
If the Commission box is checked, commission will be charged on the extra provided. If not checked the Owner is not charged commission on this revenue.
The Owner Statement Report:
So, if we run an invoice report for a single booking (as above) all paid for on 23rd Nov 2017, we get the following:
In our example, the total cost of the Booking was £1150. £165 was requested as a Deposit payment and a further £985 as a Balance payment.
The Deposit payment was £165 and commission is charged at 20% on this = £33 + VAT
The Payment received column for the Balance payment is £785 which is the Balance – Booking Fee.
The Payment excl. Extras is calculated as: Balance Payment Received – Booking Fee – Breakage deposit – Any Extras on which commission is not payable (in our example Cleaning at £50 and Dog at £20)
That is £985 – £200 – £125 – £70 = £590.
20% Commission is charged on £590 = £118 + VAT
The Balance Payment to Owner is The Balance payment received – Booking Fee – Breakage deposit – Commission or £985 – £200 – £125 – £118 – £23.60 = £518.40
Also, as the Cleaning and Welcome pack have been provided by the Agent, these also need to be added to the invoice.
If the cleaning is not an optional extra but still provided by the Agent, rather than adding it under extras, you can add it under Services. A line will then be added for each booking.
Similarly, if you as the Agent have to call out a plumber (or like) then you can add a Miscellaneous charge which will again be added to the invoice.
NB The total “Payment to Owner” is the sum of the “Payment to Owner” column. It can also be calculated by taking the total payments – any breakage deposit – any commissions.
Version 1.3 07/01/2022