help wanted: morning no-show release that frees inventory without revenue ghosts (base-19)

[telivity-otaip]

Why hotels care

ops/harden/vignettes/base-19-no-show-morning-release.md:

A guaranteed/no-show reservation didn’t arrive. House needs the room for a walk-in; desk/NA must release inventory without ghosting revenue policy blindly.

BLOCKER if inventory stays stuck "arriving" all day. Hotels also hate the opposite: releasing the room while deposit/cancellation policy money disappears.

Money policy / deposit settlement on cancel & no-show already shipped (see build plan / money-policy work). This issue is about the operator-safe morning path: obvious action, correct inventory, policy-applied revenue, audit trail.

Current state (code anchors)

• Reservation status machine + no-show transitions (verify current API verbs in OpenAPI /docs)
• PolicyService / deposit settlement on no-show
• Front-desk + reservations dashboard surfaces
• Vignette base-19 severity model

What we need

1. Desk/NA "No-show & release" action that:
   • Transitions reservation per existing state machine
   • Applies deposit/cancellation policy (no silent skip)
   • Frees physical + channel inventory the same way a cancel/no-show already should
2. Clear UI copy: expected penalty / deposit action before confirm
3. Staff-visible audit + webhook (reservation.no_show or existing event — don’t invent names if one exists)
4. Harden vignette update: delight path scripted
5. Tests: inventory available for walk-in after release; folio/deposit outcome matches policy

Open questions (front office / revenue)

• Morning batch no-show for all residual arrivals — desired, or always one-by-one?
• Guaranteed vs non-guaranteed: different confirm modals?
• Should channel cancel ACK failure block inventory release or warn?

Do not invent new penalty math — call PolicyService / settlement already in tree.

Acceptance criteria

• One desk action completes no-show + inventory free + policy settlement
• Preview of money impact before confirm
• Walk-in can take the room immediately after
• Vitest + base-19 vignette path updated
• Multi-tenant propertyId on every query

How to contribute

Front-office managers: comment your morning no-show SOP. Engineers: map existing API → single desk UX; fill gaps only where the state machine lacks an atomic path.

Search keywords: no-show, release inventory, walk-in, deposit forfeiture, cancellation policy, front desk, night auditor, hotel PMS