Understanding Member Bookings and Work Weekend Reservations
Explore the process of managing member bookings during the annual work weekend, including invoicing, discounts, and reservation tracking.
In this guide, we'll learn how to manage a member booking that includes an annual work weekend using Eviivo. The work weekend is a unique event where members stay for free in exchange for their labor, requiring a different invoicing approach. We'll explore how to use blocks instead of bookings for these nights to ensure no income is recorded. Additionally, we'll cover how to create an invoice in Eviivo, apply discounts for the work weekend, and manage the booking in both digital and physical records. This process ensures accurate tracking and communication with members.
Let's get started
Let's review a member booking that covers the annual work weekend and a few additional days.
Here is an email chain from Fred Belts. He has decided to take Mrs. Otis from Friday, May 2nd, until Tuesday, May 6th. Friday and Saturday, the 2nd and 3rd, are the annual work weekend. During this time, members can come for free and participate in activities like raking and painting. Therefore, it is invoiced differently than a regular member booking. First, go into Eviivo. I've already pulled up May 2nd and scrolled down to Mrs. Otis.
I've already done this, and I want to note that for two of these nights—the 2nd and the 3rd, which are the work weekend—I am using a block instead of a booking. What do I mean? This is technically a block, not a booking, because it's gray.
For those who have been here for a while, you may remember that we used to use blocks for every booking. It would only appear yellow like this if the booking came through our website.
That has thankfully changed because Steve found reasons to change it. Since then, we've discovered other benefits of making this change. Now, why are we using the block at all? It's because, for that weekend, there is no income.
We're not charging any money for those nights. It goes further than that. There's no intended income, either. It's different in that regard from refunding someone as compensation for something. This is a weekend where we shut the camp down and only have members come up in exchange for work. We block it to ensure there is no perceived income.
In short, I blocked the weekend dates, but booked the 4th and the 5th (again, Eviivo's terminology - sorry it's confusing, it kinda is). This is one of the few times you'll see me do a continuous stay in two parts like that.
It's quite clear from the context what's happening. And in the physical reservation book, it's simply recorded as a four-night booking.
Let's create an invoice.
Let me show you over here. You see that Mrs. Otis:member is automatically put in this field:
Just as it was posted here at the top.
I will have another one of these lines.
The line below, "Member Cabin Fees," shows that Mrs. Otis Member was also populated on that line.
If you know you'll have more than one line, you can save yourself some time.
However, this field above is not important otherwise.
This is to explain why I sometimes skip it in these tutorials and other times use it. In this case, I knew there would be two lines: one for weekend dates and one for weekday rates.
By the way - I usually prefer to go from the top left to the bottom right, working my way across an invoice and down. However, I've skipped ahead, so I'll go back and change the invoice date to the check-in date.
The reservation source is direct. Booking date: March 10, 2025.
The rest of this for a member is set up correctly, so we can skip down to the main sections again.
I will write out the notation.
If you look at any tutorial I've done, you'll notice that if I have an invoice spanning both weekends and weekdays, I list the top line of the invoice by the earliest date. For example, if someone checks in on a Friday, which is a weekend rate, I would list weekend rate first. This isn't crucial, but I'm explaining my reasoning. In this case, we're using a discount code to waive the weekend fee. Since the work weekend is free, we won't charge for those two nights. I prefer having two lines followed by a discount, rather than a disjointed sequence of one line, a discount, and another line. It just looks nicer this way.
That is the method to my madness. I'll copy just the cabin and the date range and place it on the line below.
I'm going to write "work weekend, no charge" in parentheses.
Now onto the rates.
For the first line, we don't use discount codes for the regular member rate.
For Mrs. Otis on a weekend in the spring, this is $215 per night. Divide by four to get $53.75 per night.
The weekday rate is $180 per night, divided by four, which is $45. We now have two weekday rates at $45 each and two weekend rates at $53.75 each.
Below that weekend, come over here. You can use the typing method to pull this up.
Discounts that are 100% off start with 100 instead of the word "discount."
It makes it easier to find them. By typing in 100, you'll see various types of 100% discounts. Most are exchanged for marketing, donations, or work. However, member events have their own, which is the bottom option here.
It automatically types out this notation for us.
Unless something changes, The annual meeting in January and the work weekend in May are the only times we use this discount code. Then, go to the bottom left memo and paste the date range.
Now you can print the invoice. Double-check that everything is correct: ensure your notation is typed correctly, the discount applies to the line above which represents the weekend, and the booking date is in the correct MM/DD/YYYY format for reporting. Also, confirm you selected the correct subclass member for the cabin.
You can now click on the email.
Copy Steve on the email. Go to the body of the email and press CTRL + A on your keyboard to select all elements of the table. Then, press backspace or delete. The third option down is the member reservation confirmation.
As always, leave a couple of blank lines or spaces at the top for signatures.
Click the top line and press the delete key twice to remove the space. Then, fill in the name and type the amount here.
Ensure you've done this correctly. As a member, there should be no tax, and it should be automatic as long as you're using the member's account.
Open Eviivo and verify that you have blocked out the correct dates.
Double-check the physical book to ensure you have blocked out the correct dates.
Additionally, remember the member timesheet needs to be filled out. These are the separate sheets where we log the member's time as related to their share(s). This is transitioning from a physical book to a digital format. Here's a sneak peek. Let me pause and pull it up (super secret location, guarding the secrets, gotta practice good opsec at all times). Okay, here we are.
We are in Google Sheets, where each member has their own spreadsheet. This is not yet complete as a transition project, but here is an example of a finished member's. I want to quickly show you. There are (currently) four tabs or sheets: 2025 Reservations, 2026 Reservations, and WPC Seasons. Click on "2026 Reservations"
The WPC Seasons tab outlines the seasons with their specific dates for each year. For those not yet past the cut-off date, I include the cut-off date so members know, for example, that for spring 2026, they need to submit their request by April 15th of this year.
The last sheet covers member benefits and cut-off dates. It provides detailed information from the member handbook about these dates. Additionally, it includes details about members, the hierarchy of seasons, and their benefits.
This is useful for innkeepers as well.
I will show you how to enter these two. However, when I mentioned that this is finished, I meant the structure is complete. I have not yet transferred the existing bookings into this system. FYI.
Now, when determining which share to use, I did not include the Kirkwood shenanigans, but it's a straight swap in this case: 1 night in Kirkwood for 1 night in Otis. It can be different for other cabins - refer to the member handbook if in need, and god bless your soul...
DIVERSION: FINDING THE MEMBER HANDBOOK
Let me show you something quickly. If you open your file explorer, go to the 2025 innkeeper files, and then access member-related documents, you will find the member handbook. It's in a folder called "handbook."
Press Control + F on your keyboard to open the find or navigation tool. You can type a word, like "Kirkwood." I'll just type "Kirk," and it shows 12 results.
This is very irritating, but I wanted to double-check that I was correct, and I was.
Mrs. Otis is a direct exchange, meaning one night of a Kirkwood share will be like a regular member reservation.
Now that I've verified that, I return to the 2025 reservations sheet.
Thus, I will use one of these Kirkwood shares.
We don't use member benefit nights for the two work weekend nights.Double-click here
These are completely free. We do not charge for them, and they do not count against member time. I will only log the two extra nights he's staying, which are the fourth and fifth, Sunday and Monday.
Pay attention to this part; it's simple but interesting. It shows I've logged two out of seven possible nights for the spring or fall week on his share.
It shows that two nights have been used, and next to it, it indicates there are five nights remaining.
This will be online, and we can share it directly with the members--they will NOT have edit access, only viewing. Once I finish everything, I'll send a message reminding members about this year's cutoffs. I'll include a note saying, "If you want access to how we track your member time, let me know."
Also, hmm...we could note that he'll be here on the 2nd and 3rd, but those are work weekends, so they aren't counted...but nonetheless, for clarity, we could type something off to the side...
I'm still deciding on a few things. Part of me wants to type out the reservation and color-code it with the dates. This would make it easy for members and us to link a stay or identify the cabin.
The term "share" here doesn't mean he's staying in Kirkwood; it means he owns a share of Kirkwood. There's no indication of which cabin the member is staying in, on this sheet - only the nights they're staying. Ultimately, the only important factor is counting the number of nights used. That's the sole intention of the original time sheets.
I think it would be useful to list the reservations here, similar to their notation. For example, I could copy this notation and paste it in front of what I had already typed and then add a parentheses around the note about the work weekend being free.
Hmm...I'll select this text, go up here, and make it orange.
Let me check if these dates can be changed to orange.
Yes, they can.
I'll be honest, that's probably what's going to happen.
It looks really nice and provides extra context and information.
Yeah, I like this idea. Color coding the dates to matching invoice notations on the side somewhere.
Anyway, it's a much better system for tracking member time because members will have direct access to it. This means two things.
First, it's easier for them to visualize what they have available. Second, it helps verify that we're on the same page. They can check it anytime to see their reservations. A detailed guide will follow, but this is just a sneak peek.
DIVERSION'S OVER - BACK TO THE INVOICE!
Oh, uhh, right! The purpose of this guide is to explain work weekend reservations, how we discount those nights, and how we manage reservations for work weekends or annual meetings. It also covers extra nights, which are paid for, and how these factors affect the usage benefit nights available to them.
Oh, I guess we were actually done. Well, the email we sent requested a check for payment, so we'll stick this in the "Open Deposits" folder until the check arrives. Then you're done! Make double certain you booked it in Eviivo and in the reservation book please, and go stretch, enjoy a short walk :)
