A school books a field trip in February. In April the teacher who made the booking leaves, the district’s business office takes over billing, and someone asks you to “just move the reservation to the district.” It sounds like a one-field edit. In Altru it often isn’t, and how you handle it depends on what has already happened to that reservation.
This guide covers what “changing the patron” actually means on a group reservation, the questions to answer before you touch anything, and the safest ways to make the switch.
First, decide what really needs to change
When someone asks you to “change the patron,” it usually turns out to be one of three different things. Sort out which one you’re dealing with before you edit anything:
- The day-of contact changed. The group is the same organization, but a different person is leading the trip or answering emails. This is usually a contact update, not a patron change.
- The billing party changed. The visit is the same, but a different organization is paying (a district office, a PTA, a sponsor). The patron on the reservation drives revenue, giving history, and statements, so this one matters.
- The reservation was booked under the wrong record. Staff picked a duplicate constituent, the individual instead of the organization, or a similarly named school. This is a data-quality fix.
Only the second and third cases really call for moving the reservation to a different constituent. The first can usually be handled by updating the contact on the reservation or on the organization’s constituent record.
Check whether your Altru allows the edit
Whether the patron can be edited directly on an existing group reservation depends on your Altru version, your security rights, and the reservation’s state. In many setups the patron is effectively locked once the reservation exists, especially after a payment or deposit has posted. Behavior can vary between setups, so test yours rather than assuming either way.
To find out what yours does:
- Open a test reservation (ideally in a sandbox, or one you create and cancel yourself) and look for an edit option on the reservation details that includes the patron or constituent.
- Try it on a reservation with no payments, then on one with a deposit applied. The behavior can differ.
- If the field isn’t editable, confirm with Blackbaud support whether that’s by design for your version or a rights issue on your user role.
If the edit is available and nothing has been paid, changing it directly is usually the cleanest route. Add a note on the reservation explaining who requested the change and when.
When the patron can’t be edited: recreate the reservation
The common workaround is to build a new reservation under the correct constituent and cancel the old one. It’s more work, but the history stays clear. A careful order of operations:
- Record everything on the original. Date, arrival time, itinerary and program items, headcounts by price type, any special pricing or discounts, notes, and payment details.
- Confirm the correct constituent exists. Search carefully for the organization before creating a new record. Adding yet another duplicate is often how this problem starts in the first place.
- Hold capacity before you cancel. Create the new reservation first so you don’t release the program slot, timed entry, or room to someone else in between.
- Handle money deliberately. If a deposit or payment was made, work out with your finance lead how to move it: refund and re-collect, or another approach your bookkeeping prefers. Don’t improvise this one. Revenue posted to the wrong constituent affects their giving and payment history, and may already be in a closed batch.
- Cancel the original and note on it which reservation replaced it. Note the old reservation number on the new one too.
- Resend confirmations from the new reservation so the group has the correct reference number and billing name.
If the real problem is a duplicate record
When a reservation landed on a duplicate of the right organization, think about merging the two constituent records rather than moving the reservation. Depending on how your merge is configured, that may carry the reservation and its revenue onto the surviving record without canceling anything; confirm what your merge process moves (test it in a sandbox or ask Blackbaud support) before relying on it. Merges are hard to undo, so check both records’ addresses, relationships, and memberships before you run it, and follow your organization’s usual merge rules.
Keep it from happening again
- Book groups under the organization, not the person. Teachers and tour operators change jobs; schools and companies don’t move. Record the individual as the contact person instead.
- Ask the billing question at intake. Adding “Who will pay the invoice?” to your inquiry process catches many billing changes before the reservation exists.
- Run a periodic query of upcoming reservations whose patron is an individual rather than an organization. Fix them while they’re still unpaid and easy to change.
- Write down the procedure. A short internal note on when to edit, when to recreate, and who signs off on payment moves saves the next coordinator from guessing.
Quick answers
Will recreating the reservation lose my itinerary?
The new reservation won’t inherit it, which is why you should capture every detail of the original before canceling it.
Can I just change the name on the existing constituent record instead?
Don’t. Renaming one organization’s record to look like another mixes two histories together and causes reporting problems later. Move the reservation or merge true duplicates instead.
