Reservation Procedures
Having all of your reservations organized and clearly labeled ahead of time can speed troll and
make balancing easier at the end of the day.
- Keep all documentation in one place. I use a letter sized mailing envelope. Even if you have a nice
spreadsheet for troll bring the envelope to the troll anyway. Looking back at the original documents
mailed to you may help solve questions at troll during the day.
- Put together a legible spreadsheet to keep track of reservations. Include Mundane name, SCA name, fees paid,
check number, sign in column, etc. Have a separate column for each cost. If you have a fee for 2 nights of
lodging include a column for each evening. This will make it much easier for bunk assignments and
calculating total fees.
- Have one row for each person being reserved. If Lord Popular reserves for his entire household use a placeholder
for each person he's paying for, (LP 1, LP2, LP3, etc.) As each one checks in you simply mark them off
as using one of the slots that Lord Popular paid for. Having one line for a household of 20 will make your life
a nightmare when that rush hits on friday night of a weekend event. Especially if they ask for a refund
for the three people who didn't show up.
- Include both mundane and SCA name on the reservation spreadsheet. Some will give you one, the other, or both.
Make life easier on your trolls by allowing them to scan the sheet for either.
- Alphabatize the list before giving it to troll. Don't have troll back up while the trolls scan through
ten pages of reservations.
- Have each reserved person sign in on the reservation sheet. This way you can confirm refunds and/or last minute
transfers. (Lady Cake is attending instead of Lady Pie.)
- Deposit checks frequently. Some people are horible at balancing a checkbook. Save yourself and them a lot of
headaches. Get that money in the bank. It amazes me how many checks I write to SCA groups that float for months
on end.
- Indicate what is payed for and what isn't. Some people reserve for feast but pay for site when they arrive.
Have these people sign the reservation sheet but troll in as walk-ins for paying site fee.
- Don't mix reservations with walk-ins. If someone reserves and adds a feast or other cost at troll include
the additional cost on the walk-in sheet. All activities that are involved with incoming cash should be on a
separate sheet(s). This will make life easier when balancing at end of day.
- Make copies of checks received or otherwise document any information included on check.
- Unpaid reservations are a pain to good book-keeping but sometimes happen. Have a CLEAR method of indicating
which reservations are unpaid. Again, if you are allowing a household to reserve for 20, waste the paper and
include 20 placeholder lines for that household. This will avoid lots of problems should 25 people want
to bunk with that household and your suddenly short 5 bunk spaces and don't know how or why.
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