Booking your Hotel Reservation

UNI Travelers

Last Updated: Mar 4, 2025

Booking your Hotel Reservation

Before you begin:

The credit card in your Lightning profile will hold your hotel reservation. But you will still need to present a credit card at check-in to charge your room and any incidental expenses.
If you are booking a hotel for a guest, and UNI is paying for only the room and tax, and you will not be present with the guest at check-in to provide your credit card, you will need to contact the hotel directly and request to put a credit card on file. The hotel will provide you with a credit card authorization form. On the form, authorize the card for room and tax. The guest will still need to present a credit card at check-in to pay for any incidental expenses (movies, etc.).

If you are booking a hotel for a guest and UNI is paying for the guest, and you do not want the guest to have to present a credit card at check-in or check-out (e.g. students or VIPs), you will need to contact the hotel directly and request to put a credit card on file. The hotel will provide you with a credit card authorization form. On the form, you must authorize for all charges.

Travelers and/or travel arrangers should not be prepaying hotel rooms unless no other option exists. Hotel deposits equal to one night stay is allowable. All prepaid hotels rooms will require a business justification and pre-approval from a travel specialist before choosing to prepay for hotel rooms.

Travelers and/or travel arrangers should not be prepaying hotel rooms unless no other option exists. Hotel deposits equal to one night stay is allowable. All prepaid hotels rooms will require a business justification and pre-approval from a travel specialist before choosing to prepay for hotel rooms.

**If you are employed by UNI and are booking a hotel reservation in Iowa, please book directly with the hotel and not through Collegiate Travel Planners booking tool. We are able to take advantage of the State of Iowa Rate Agreement at participating hotels. For more information, click here.

Coming Soon: Hotel FAQs

Log into the CTM portal

Please note that even if a Travel Arranger or Travel Assistant will be booking on the traveler’s behalf, your Lightning travel profile must be updated and all required fields completed. A credit card is required for booking.

Review the traveler’s profile, including hotel rewards numbers.

Open the Lightning Booking Tool

To start a reservation, select the New Booking tab at the top.
To view or manage existing reservations, click the Manage Bookings tab

Check the circle buttons to select all the applicable travel services: Flight, Hotel, Car, Rail

Type in the employee traveler name in the Add travelers for this itinerary field.
The employee name will pop-up; select the name to populate the field.

Note: Searching by last name is recommended; employees are listed by their legal first and last names.

Note: If you are traveling together with other employee(s) and you want to reserve for other travelers in your booking session, the other employee(s) must first complete their Lightning profile.

Travel Arrangers: If you want to add other employees to the reservation, type in the name of the next employee and select from the pop-up. You may choose up to 9 travelers who are traveling together on the same itinerary.

Guest Travelers

Travel Arrangers: To add a guest traveler or a student, click the Add guest traveler link. Then complete the required guest traveler detail fields.

Enter the hotel location and the check-in and check-out dates.

Choose the advanced search option if needed.

Spend Authorization Number

Enter the 8-digit spend authorization number (Spend Authorization must be approved)

Click Search

Lightning will search for available hotels

Quoting Hotels (travel arrangers only)

Review the travel preferences given by the traveler.

Select “display/filter” to open display options and refine your search.

Set the price to 150% of the GSA rate.
Set the star rating to 3 stars.

Choose two quote options from these criteria (3 stars or higher) under “Best”.

Choose Hotel

Select the desired hotel based on the traveler’s decision.

Confirm the booking for the traveler

If you later decide you want to add flight or car rental you can do so by clicking the desired service(s) on this page.

Enter Payment Method (if not already loaded from traveler's profile)

Select the Business Purpose for the trip

Review cancellation policy and check-in/check-out instructions

Travel Arrangers: ensure traveler is aware of these!

Review the terms and conditions

Travel Arrangers: ensure traveler is aware of the terms and conditions!

To complete the booking, click the Confirm Booking button. You will receive an email confirmation from ctptravelservices.com.

Next Steps: View your reservations by going to the Lighting home page and click Manage Bookings at the very top.

For questions, please contact Business Operations at 319-273-2162, Option 3 or email obo-hub@uni.edu

Booking your Hotel Reservation

Booking your Hotel Reservation

UNI Travelers

Booking your Hotel Reservation

Before you begin:

Travelers and/or travel arrangers should not be prepaying hotel rooms unless no other option exists. Hotel deposits equal to one night stay is allowable.

All prepaid hotels rooms will require a business justification and pre-approval from a travel specialist before choosing to prepay for hotel rooms.

Travelers and/or travel arrangers should not be prepaying hotel rooms unless no other option exists. Hotel deposits equal to one night stay is allowable.

All prepaid hotels rooms will require a business justification and pre-approval from a travel specialist before choosing to prepay for hotel rooms.

**If you are employed by UNI and are booking a hotel reservation in Iowa, please book directly with the hotel and not through Collegiate Travel Planners booking tool. We are able to take advantage of the State of Iowa Rate Agreement at participating hotels. For more information, click here.

Coming Soon: Hotel FAQs

Log into the CTM portal

Please note that even if a Travel Arranger or Travel Assistant will be booking on the traveler’s behalf, your Lightning travel profile must be updated and all required fields completed. A credit card is required for booking.

Review the traveler’s profile, including hotel rewards numbers.

To start a reservation, select the New Booking tab at the top.To view or manage existing reservations, click the Manage Bookings tab

Check the circle buttons to select all the applicable travel services: Flight, Hotel, Car, Rail

Type in the employee traveler name in the Add travelers for this itinerary field.The employee name will pop-up; select the name to populate the field.

Note: Searching by last name is recommended; employees are listed by their legal first and last names.Note: If you are traveling together with other employee(s) and you want to reserve for other travelers in your booking session, the other employee(s) must first complete their Lightning profile.

Travel Arrangers: If you want to add other employees to the reservation, type in the name of the next employee and select from the pop-up. You may choose up to 9 travelers who are traveling together on the same itinerary.

Guest Travelers

Travel Arrangers: To add a guest traveler or a student, click the Add guest traveler link. Then complete the required guest traveler detail fields.

Spend Authorization Number

Enter the 8-digit spend authorization number (Spend Authorization must be approved)

Click Search

Lightning will search for available hotels

Quoting Hotels (travel arrangers only)

Review the travel preferences given by the traveler.

Select “display/filter” to open display options and refine your search.

Choose two quote options from these criteria (3 stars or higher) under “Best”.

Choose Hotel

Select the desired hotel based on the traveler’s decision.

Confirm the booking for the traveler

If you later decide you want to add flight or car rental you can do so by clicking the desired service(s) on this page.

Enter Payment Method (if not already loaded from traveler's profile)

Select the Business Purpose for the trip

Review cancellation policy and check-in/check-out instructions

Travel Arrangers: ensure traveler is aware of these!

Review the terms and conditions

Travel Arrangers: ensure traveler is aware of the terms and conditions!

To complete the booking, click the Confirm Booking button. You will receive an email confirmation from ctptravelservices.com.

Next Steps: View your reservations by going to the Lighting home page and click Manage Bookings at the very top.

For questions, please contact Business Operations at 319-273-2162, Option 3 or email obo-hub@uni.edu

To start a reservation, select the New Booking tab at the top.
To view or manage existing reservations, click the Manage Bookings tab

Type in the employee traveler name in the Add travelers for this itinerary field.
The employee name will pop-up; select the name to populate the field.

Note: Searching by last name is recommended; employees are listed by their legal first and last names.

Note: If you are traveling together with other employee(s) and you want to reserve for other travelers in your booking session, the other employee(s) must first complete their Lightning profile.