Contracting to Contract Signed
When you've identified the winning hotel from the proposals received and you are ready to award the booking, here's some answers to our most common questions!
💡 New to contracting entirely? Start with our step-by-step walkthrough: Awarding The Booking (Contracting to Contract Signed)
What happens when I click "Begin Contracting"?
What happens when I click "Begin Contracting"?
When you click Begin Contracting on a hotel's proposal, a few things happen immediately:
The RFP status updates to Contracting in your dashboard
The hotel's proposal is locked into the contracting stage — they can no longer edit their submission
If you chose to decline other proposals, those hotels receive a decline notification email with the reason(s) you selected.
If you need to rescind the decline, we would recommend reaching out to the hotel to ensure their proposal is still an option!
If you chose "I may select other proposals," all other proposals stay active
This means that the hotels continue to see 'Proposal Submitted' on their end and will likely reach out for updates if the status remains unchanged.
Important: Clicking "Begin Contracting" does not finalize your RFP. You must also complete the Contract Signed step once your contract is executed. Both steps are required to close the RFP in HopSkip and move them from your active dashboard.
The hotel never submitted a proposal through HopSkip — what do I do?
The hotel never submitted a proposal through HopSkip — what do I do?
If a hotel negotiated and contracted with you outside of HopSkip (by email, phone, or direct communication), you have two options:
Option 1 — Get the hotel to submit their proposal through HopSkip (preferred)
This keeps your RFP reporting accurate and sets the hotel up for success on future RFPs. We have ready-made copy/paste response templates you can send directly to the hotel to redirect them to the platform in our Planner Adoption Toolkit:
You can also CC our support team directly on your email thread with the hotel (help@myhopskip.com) if they're giving pushback and we'll jump in to help get them into the platform correctly.
Option 2 — Request a manual proposal entry from HopSkip
If the hotel is truly unable or unwilling to submit via HopSkip and you have a signed or near-final contract in hand, our team can manually enter the proposal on the hotel's behalf so that your RFP can be properly closed out. Here's how:
Reach out to us via chat or email us at help@myhopskip.com
Attach or forward the executed contract or the hotel's proposal details
Allow approximately 48 business hours for our team to complete the entry *to the best of our ability based on the doc/pdf provided
Once done, you'll be able to proceed through the Contracting and Contract Signed steps as normal and we'll follow up with the hotel to realign for future opportunities.
⚠️ Note: We can only manually enter a proposal if you are able to provide the hotel's actual proposal details or a signed contract. The sooner you loop us in when the hotel tries to submit outside of Hopskip, the sooner we can funnel them to the correct behavior!
Where does the actual contract negotiation happen?
Where does the actual contract negotiation happen?
HopSkip facilitates the RFP and proposal process — but the final contract negotiation (redlines, addenda, signature) happens outside of the platform, directly between you and the hotel.
Once you and the hotel have reached a finalized, signed agreement, you must return to HopSkip to complete the Mark as Contract Signed step. This is what officially closes the RFP in your dashboard and moves it to your table view history.
Both steps matter: "Begin Contracting" + "Mark as Contract Signed" are both required. Stopping after just the first step will leave your RFP stuck in a Contracting status and exclude it from your completed history and reporting- it can also be ocnfusing for the hotels.
I accidentally declined proposals I meant to contract — can this be fixed?
I accidentally declined proposals I meant to contract — can this be fixed?
Yes! Accidentally declining proposals is a recoverable situation — but it does require our team to fix on the backend. Reach out to us immediately via chat and share the RFP ID so we can restore the proposal(s) to their previous status if it was declined within the last hour.
If it was declined more than 1 hour ago, please reach out to the hotel to ensure their proposal is still an option and then loop us into the thread at help@myhopskip.com. We can then help adjust the status!
To avoid this in the future, when the prompt appears asking how you'd like to handle other proposals:
Choose "I may select other proposals" if you think the deal may fall through
Only select "Decline all other proposals now" when you are certain you won't be contracting any of the remaining hotels
How do I access and download the hotel's attachments from their proposal?
How do I access and download the hotel's attachments from their proposal?
Hotels can include documents (contracts, BEOs, addenda, etc.) as attachments in their proposal response. Here's how to find and download them once you're in the contracting stage:
Quick steps:
Click into the RFP and open the contracted hotel's proposal
Navigate to the Attachments tab within the proposal
Click the download icon next to the file — your browser will begin the download automatically
Check your device's Downloads folder if the file doesn't open immediately (it won't always prompt you to "Save As")
Don't see any attachments? The hotel may not have included any in their proposal submission. You can request them directly via the Message tab within the RFP.
Can I contract multiple hotels on the same RFP?
Can I contract multiple hotels on the same RFP?
Yes — HopSkip supports contracting more than one hotel on a single RFP. This is common for:
City-wide groups that need room blocks split across multiple properties
Multi-hotel events where overflow or alternates are contracted simultaneously
When beginning contracting on your first hotel, select "I may select other proposals" instead of declining all others.
You can then return to the Proposal Tracker and begin contracting on a second (or third) hotel the same way. Each hotel will have its own contracting and contract signed flow.
Room block tip: If you're splitting a room block across properties, make sure you set this up in your Room Block tab when building the original RFP. This allows hotels to propose on their portion of the block accurately.
My contracted/signed RFP disappeared from my dashboard — where did it go?
My contracted/signed RFP disappeared from my dashboard — where did it go?
Once an RFP is marked as Contract Signed, it moves out of your active card/list view and into your Table View history. It hasn't been deleted — it's just been archived as a completed booking.
To find it: from your RFP Dashboard, toggle to Table View using the "View by" button in the top right corner, then use the search bar to locate the RFP by name or code.
Still need help?
Our support team is available Monday–Friday, 8am–8pm EST. Reach us via the chat icon in the bottom right corner of your HopSkip account, or email us at help@myhopskip.com.