Help centre

Every screen has a help page. You can also open it with the Help button at the top of the screen.

• "An import: matching, preview and result" Match your file's columns, check every row in a preview (a dry run), import, and undo the last import if needed.
• A building A building's floors with every unit coloured by occupancy, plus its facilities, security details and history.
• A document View, download, update or replace one document, and see its earlier versions.
• A place to stay Photos, details, house rules, cancellation policy, availability and the booking box for one place.
• AI agents Set up the agents that do routine back-office work, how much each may do on its own, and read the run log.
• AI connections Connect your own AI subscription or a Local AI server, test it, and set a monthly budget.
• AI features Switch each AI feature on or off and choose which connections it uses, in order.
• AI usage AI calls, tokens and estimated cost per feature and connection for each month.
• Accepting an agreement How to read and accept an agreement sent to you.
• Accepting an invitation Joining an organisation from the link in an invitation email.
• Account and team For partners: accept the agreement, upload documents, add payout details and invite your team.
• Add or change a company A company's details, currency, credit limit, days to pay, billing and status.
• Add or change a tenancy The tenant, unit, dates, rent, service charge, deposit, utilities, billing day, notice and yearly increase.
• Add or change a vendor A vendor's name, trades, contact, tax number, rates, payment terms and bank details.
• Add or edit an expense Record a cost with its receipt, split one bill over several units, and mark it settled.
• Adding or editing a booking Enter a stay's property, dates, guest, platform, amounts and payment state; see payments, split parts, channel ids and history.
• Adding or editing a building Enter a building's name, address, location, floors, facilities, security details and manager.
• Adding or editing a listing Describe a listing, choose the units it sells, set its price and stay rules, add photos and publish it.
• Adding or editing a property Enter a property's name, listing title, address, capacity, check-in times, currency and house rules, and offboard or delete it.
• Adding or editing a tax rate Every field of a tax rate - calculation, inclusive or added, what it applies to, place, dates, caps and exemptions.
• Adding or inviting a user Give someone access by email invitation, or create their account with a temporary password.
• Agent inbox Check, change, accept or dismiss what the AI agents prepared for you, and read their briefings.
• Approval request One request for approval: the amount, who asked, the decisions so far, and your decision.
• Approval rules The approval matrix: which money decisions need approval, from which amount, and who approves at each level.
• Approvals Refunds, credit notes, write-offs and other money decisions waiting for you, and the ones you asked for.
• Ask for a refund Ask to pay back part or all of a payment, with a reason.
• Asset One asset's details, servicing schedules, servicing jobs and documents.
• Assets and servicing Equipment that needs regular servicing, and whether its servicing is done, due or overdue.
• Banking Record money each person took out of the bank or paid into it, so cash in hand stays right.
• Beds24 Connect Beds24 to bring in channel bookings, close dates for your own bookings, change prices and answer guests.
• Bill One bill: what is owed, payments made, recording a payment, and cancelling.
• Billing schedule One schedule, the invoices it made, and the next one.
• Billing schedules Invoices that repeat every month, quarter or year.
• Bills to pay Vendor bills and owner payments, how late they are, and payment runs.
• Booking confirmed Your booking reference and what happens next.
• Booking payments The Payments card on a booking: record payments, see the balance due, and who collected and holds the money.
• Booking requests Approve or decline guests asking to book listings that are not instant book.
• Booking website Booking website package - listings, rates and availability, fees, taxes, cancellation policies and reservations, with your own branded booking site.
• Booking website home page The front page of the booking website, where guests start a search.
• Booking widget The search box, calendar or Book now button shown on another website.
• Bookings The list of every stay, with filters by property, platform, status, dates and payment, and CSV or Excel export.
• Bookings settings The Bookings core module: what it includes, its settings (including splitting stays by month), and how other modules build on it.
• Branding Your product name, logos, colours, fonts and document layout, used on every page, email and PDF.
• Buildings The list of your buildings with their floors and number of units.
• Cancellation policies How much guests get back when they cancel, as refund rules by days before arrival.
• Cash in hand How much money each person is holding, worked out from payments, spending, the bank and transfers.
• Cash movements for one person Every movement of money in and out of one person's hands, with a running balance, and changing who holds a payment.
• Change history A complete record of who changed what, when, and the values before and after.
• Channel performance Stays, revenue, commission, cancellations and lead time by channel.
• Check in / out Every check-in and check-out the team has to do, who does it, and what is late.
• Check-in Check a guest in at the desk - occupants, checklist, keys, ID documents, deposit and signature.
• Check-in or check-out task One task: hand it over, tick the checklist, add notes and mark it as done.
• Check-out Check a guest out - inspection, keys returned or lost, meter readings, outstanding charges and the deposit decision.
• Checklists What the team ticks off at check-in and check-out, for all units or one unit.
• Choosing a new password The page you reach from a password reset email, where you set a new password.
• Choosing your own password The page you see after signing in with a temporary password from your administrator.
• Collected report Payments received in a period, by the person who collected them, then each payment.
• Commission Your commission on partner bookings, for everything or for a country, property type, partner or listing.
• Company dashboard One company's stays, invoices, credit, contacts, monthly invoice and statement of account.
• Company income What the company itself earns each month and year to date, after owners' shares, overheads and company costs.
• Concierge chats Read what guests asked the concierge on your booking website and how it answered.
• Confirm your password Why CityLights sometimes asks for your password again before a sensitive change.
• Confirming your booking Enter your details, accept the policy and confirm your booking.
• Contract One contract: its wording, details, sending it to accept online, signing, renewing and ending it.
• Contracts Owner, tenant and company agreements, with their dates, status and reminders.
• Conversation One conversation with a guest: read it, reply on the guest's channel, or mark it as needing no reply.
• Corporate accounts Companies that book stays for their people, with their credit terms and billing.
• Creating an account Create a guest account and confirm your email.
• Customise your dashboard Choose which cards appear on your dashboard and in what order.
• Damage reports Damage found after stays, with photos, an amount to charge and the inventory used up.
• Dashboard Your home screen after signing in, with a summary of your organisation and next steps.
• Data import Upload a CSV or Excel file of properties, bookings or other records, download templates, and see recent imports.
• Documents Every current document across your properties, buildings and other records, soonest expiry first, with filters for type and expiry.
• Documents For owners: documents your property manager has shared with you, such as agreements and certificates.
• Edit a listing For partners: describe your place, set its price, add photos, close dates and send it for approval.
• Editing a message template Change the wording of one email or message, preview it with sample values and send yourself a test.
• Editing a role Name a role and choose exactly which permissions it includes.
• Editing a user Change a person's details and role, reset their password, suspend or restore their access, and see their history.
• Enquiries Questions guests ask from your booking website before they book.
• Enquiry Read a guest's question, reply by email, or send a special offer.
• Enter a bill Record a vendor's bill or an amount due to an owner.
• Exchange rates Currencies you use, monthly rates to your base currency, and your own display currency.
• Expense by category Expenses with categories as rows (grouped, foldable) and properties as columns, with totals both ways.
• Expense categories The grouped categories used for expenses, which ones are fixed, and which stay out of P&L.
• Expense schedules Costs that repeat every month, recorded by themselves on their day; plus copying fixed or chosen expenses.
• Expenses Every cost for your units and the company, with filters, totals and export.
• Extras Add-ons guests choose at checkout, such as airport pickup, breakfast or a cot.
• Fees and taxes Charges added to the nightly price, such as cleaning or pet fees, and the taxes your booking website applies.
• Final monthly report One month's money in one place, each person's cash, and who should pay whom so everyone except the company account ends at zero.
• Finance The Finance package: tax rates, invoices and credit notes, billing schedules, payment verification, receipts, money owed, refunds and approvals.
• Find your match Describe the place you want in your own words and see the places that fit best, with a reason for each.
• Follow-ups Calls, messages and notes with a follow-up date, from every guest, owner, tenant and company timeline.
• Forgot your password Get an email link to choose a new password when you can't remember yours.
• Forgotten password Get a link to choose a new password.
• Front desk Today's arrivals, departures, in-house guests, overdue check-outs and no-shows, with check-in and check-out.
• Front desk and buildings The package with buildings, documents, the multi-calendar, the front desk and security deposits.
• Guest accounts Guests who signed up on your booking website, their trips, and blocking or deleting an account.
• Guest issue One problem a guest reported: read it, open the photos, answer the guest and change the status.
• Guest issues Problems guests reported during their stay, the most serious first.
• Guest profile One guest's details, stay history, tags, preferences, blacklist, merge, and GDPR export and erase.
• Guests Every guest profile, built from bookings, with search, tags and lifetime value.
• Inbox Guest messages from every channel in one place, with conversations waiting for a reply first.
• Income and expenses Income, expenses and result per property for a period, from the ledger.
• Information pages Pages such as About us, How it works and FAQs, written by the team.
• Installing the system The setup wizard that runs once on a new server, from the server check to your first sign-in.
• Inventory What each unit has against what it should have, with shortages highlighted.
• Invoice One invoice or credit note: lines, totals, payments, and how to issue, send, credit, cancel or record a payment.
• Invoices All invoices and credit notes, with what is still to pay.
• Item catalogue The items every unit's stock is counted against.
• Key register Keys, cards and access codes of every unit, with who has them and lost keys.
• Launch your booking site A step-by-step guide to get your first listing ready to book on your own booking website.
• Leave Ask for time off, answer requests, and see who is away.
• Ledger Every ledger account with its balance, the latest entries, manual adjustments and accounts.
• Ledger account One account's entries in a period, with the running balance.
• Legal pages Terms and conditions, privacy policy, cookie policy and legal notice.
• Licence See your licence or trial, when it ends and what it covers, and add or replace it.
• List your property Apply to sell your places on this booking website.
• Listing moderation Approve or send back partner listings, and changes to published ones, before guests see them.
• Listings What guests can book on your booking website, with the units each listing sells, its nightly price and whether it is published.
• Maintenance Repair and maintenance jobs, most urgent first, with their targets.
• Maintenance job One job from report to close: assigning, steps, quote approval, costs, photos and history.
• Maintenance report Open jobs by priority and age, costs by unit and category, response and fix times, targets met and vendor performance.
• Management dashboard The month's key measures against last month, last year and your targets, with a 12-month trend and a PDF or Excel pack.
• Management targets Set a monthly target for each measure on the management dashboard, for the whole portfolio or one property group.
• Managing your booking See, print, update or cancel your booking from the link in your confirmation email.
• Map places Places guests measure distance to, such as the airport, the beach or the town centre.
• Marketplace partners The hosts, hotels and companies that sell through your marketplace, from application to payout.
• Master data Edit the lists behind drop-downs (unit types, platforms, payment methods, ...), the amenity catalogue, and how documents are numbered.
• Message templates The wording of every email and message the system sends, grouped by module, with the channels each is sent on.
• Module settings Change the options of one module, such as reminder times, limits and connection keys.
• Modules Switch features on and off for your organisation, see what each module needs, and open its settings.
• Money For partners: every booking, commission, refund and payout on your account, and your balance.
• Money holders report Who holds the money received, per property and month, grouped by holder.
• Money owed Unpaid invoices by how overdue they are, by customer and one by one, with reminders and write-offs.
• Multi-calendar Tape chart of all units by building and floor, with stays, inquiries, blocks and free nights; create, move and resize bookings, and search for free units.
• My details Your traveller details, password, and downloading or deleting your data.
• My trips Your upcoming, past and cancelled stays.
• New or draft invoice Who to bill, the period, and the lines with tax.
• New or edited schedule Who to bill, how often, from when, and the lines of each invoice.
• New reservation Book a published listing for a guest from the back office, with the same prices and rules as the booking website.
• Notification preferences Choose, for each kind of event, whether you are told in the app, by email, both or not at all.
• Notifications Your list of messages about things that need your attention, such as accepted invitations and module changes.
• Occupancy report Booked, vacant and out-of-order nights, occupancy, average price per night and revenue per available night.
• One person's score Where every point of one person's monthly score came from.
• Online payments Every online payment attempt: paid, started, failed or cancelled, with the provider's reference.
• Operations alerts Checks your operations every few minutes and emails only when something is wrong.
• Owner An owner's details, bank account for payouts, their properties, and the owner portal invitation.
• Owner balances Finalise each month's owner balances, record payments to owners, send statements and lock the month.
• Owner payout rules How each property's profit is shared with its owner.
• Owner portal For owners: how your properties are doing, your statements, what is owed to you, bookings and expenses.
• Owner stay requests Approve or decline owners' requests to block dates at their own properties.
• Owners The people and companies who own the properties you manage.
• Partner One partner: accept their application, check documents, activate, suspend, set money terms and see their account.
• Partner area For partners: getting started, your listings online, upcoming stays and your balance.
• Partner payouts Pay partners what guests paid you, less commission; invoice commission to partners who collect the money themselves.
• Password and sign-in settings Change your password, and turn two-step verification on or off for your own account.
• Paying online How online payment works: you pay on the secure page of the payment provider and come back here.
• Payment providers Connect Stripe, SSLCommerz or bKash so guests can pay online, in test mode first.
• Payment run A batch of bills paid together, after approval.
• Payment schedules When booking website guests pay: in full, a deposit and the balance before arrival, or at the property.
• Payment variance report Bookings where the money collected is more or less than the price.
• Performance Monthly scores from 100 for every employee, a leaderboard and the monthly reward.
• Performance rules The thresholds and points behind every performance score.
• Pivot tables Bookings, nights, revenue or average price per night, with the rows and columns you choose.
• Pre check-in For guests: tell us when you arrive, who is staying, and accept the house rules before you come.
• Pre check-in Send guests their pre check-in link, see their answers and open their identity documents.
• Pricing advisor Recommended prices for free nights, with the reasons, ready to approve and send.
• Profit and loss Income, fees, expenses, profit and what is due to owners per property, for one or more months, with month locks.
• Promotions Promo codes and automatic deals: percent or amount off, or free nights, with conditions and limits.
• Properties The list of every unit you manage, with search and filters by status and group.
• Property groups Group properties by building, area or owner to filter lists and to limit what people can see.
• Rate plans and discounts Several ways to book the same place, and automatic discounts for long stays and early or late bookings.
• Rates Daily, weekend, seasonal, monthly and extra-guest rates per unit, unit type or all units; length-of-stay discounts; and the suggested price on the booking form.
• Rates and availability The nightly price, free units and stay rules for each listing, month by month, with changes by date range and seasonal prices.
• Rates calendar A month of nightly prices and stays per unit; change prices in place and send them to your channel manager.
• Receipt The print view of one money receipt.
• Receipts Numbered money receipts for every payment that counts.
• Refund One refund: its status, and marking it as paid back.
• Refunds Money paid back to guests and customers, from request to paid back.
• Report a problem For guests: tell us if something is wrong during your stay, and follow our answers.
• Report a problem Report something that needs repairing, with photos.
• Reports Every report you can open, as tiles. Each report has filters and exports to CSV, Excel and PDF.
• Reservation One reservation: the stay, the price breakdown, the guest, and how to change, cancel or resend it.
• Reservations Bookings made on your booking website or by your team for a listing, with filters by status, listing and arrival date.
• Reservations For partners: guests booked at your places, with what they paid and the commission.
• Revenue report Nights, revenue and commission by unit, property group, building, stay type or channel.
• Reviews Verified guest reviews: publish or hide them, reply once, and see why a review is waiting.
• Roles and permissions The roles in your organisation, how many people have each, and how roles control what people can do.
• Saved places Lists of places you like, which you can share with a private link.
• Saved replies Answers you send often, ready to pick when replying to a guest.
• Search Find people, help pages and records from any screen.
• Searching for a place to stay Search results with filters and sorting, destination pages and collections.
• Security deposits Deposits per stay (required, received, deducted, refunded) and the liability report of what is held, by unit and holder.
• Settings Your organisation's details, timezone, currency, language and date format, and security and data rules.
• Sign-in log Every sign-in, sign-out and failed sign-in, with time, IP address and browser.
• Signing in How to sign in to CityLights, what to do if you can't, and how the sign-in page protects your account.
• Signing in to your account Sign in with your password, a link we email you, or a code we text to your mobile.
• Site text Change any fixed wording in the system, such as menu names, page titles, buttons, hints and messages.
• Statement of account Every invoice, credit note and payment for one customer, with the running balance.
• Stay requests For owners: ask your property manager to block dates so you can stay at your own property.
• System health Whether background tasks, the database, the licence, disk space and security settings are working, with advice for anything that isn't.
• Tax rates The taxes you charge (VAT, service charge, city tax, withholding) and where, when and on what they apply.
• Tax report Tax you charged, by tax rate, for a period.
• Tenancy One long stay: starting it, invoices, meter readings, notice, move-out and who lives there.
• Tenants Long stays: tenants, their units, monthly charges and when they end.
• Transfers Record money handed from one person to another, so cash in hand stays right. Expense pay-backs are added by themselves.
• Trial balance Every account's balance on a date; total debits equal total credits.
• Two-step verification at sign-in Entering the 6-digit code from your authenticator app, or a recovery code if you lost your phone.
• Users The list of everyone who can sign in to your organisation, their role and status, and pending invitations.
• Vendor One vendor's details, jobs, bills, documents and communication log.
• Vendors Suppliers and contractors you call for maintenance, supplies and services.
• Verify payments Bank transfers, mobile money and other payments waiting to be checked before they count.
• Website Your public booking website: preview, web addresses, featured listings, destinations, words and legal pages.
• Website analytics How guests use your booking website: visitors, listing views, checkouts, bookings, searches and what they could not find.
• Website widget Put a search box, an availability calendar or a Book now button on your own website.
• Withdrawals and deposits report Money taken out of and paid into the bank, per person and one by one, for any months and in one currency.
• Write a contract The parties, dates, amounts, units and wording of a contract.
• Writing a review Tell other guests about your stay with a score and a few words.
• Your booking confirmation and receipt For guests: the details of your stay and the payments you made.
• Your listings For partners: your places on the booking website and where each is in the approval process.
• Your special offer A price we made for you, which you can book in one click.