Product Release - 22.01.2019

This release includes the addition of a feature that  allows you take payments automatically, either at the time of booking, or as  partial payments several days prior to the arrival of the guest. There are several  updates to the booking engine and the Events module, new reports were added and  existing ones extended.

Please share this document with any relevant staff  and don’t hesitate to contact us via our help desk should you have any queries  or requests.

Contents

- Automatic Payments

- Payment Card Logos on Booking Engine

- Market and Source for direct bookings

- Fax field removed

- Availability via Booking Engine

- Notes and Room Configuration for Housekeeping

- Print Invoice including additional Info

- Custom fields on Email Confirmation

- Report by Reservation Creation Date

- Edit Service status on room schedule

- Rate Plan Report alteration

- CRM corporates dashboard

- Function sheet update

- Calendars updated

Automatic  Payments

To  set the feature up, log into HOP and click on Administration – Automatic Payments.  Click the “Add” button on the top right of the screen. Type a name (for example  “50% prepayment” or “full payment”), tick the “active” box and then save. After  saving, you’re taken back to the previous screen. You’ll see the Name you typed  in and several icons on the right of it, one in the “active” column, next to it  a red bin icon (delete) and on the very right a “configure” icon. Please click this  wheel icon to configure. On the next screen, please click “+Add Configuration”.  You can choose the Automatic Payment Type as” Days Before Arrival” or “Time of  booking”. If you choose the former, enter a number of “days before arrival”  next, if you selected “time of booking” the “days” field will disappear. The third  field “Percentage to Charge” refers to the amount you want to take – for full  payment, key in 100% for full payment, or a lesser amount for a partial  payment. If you enter a partial value to be taken x days before arrival, for  example “5 days before arrival – 50%” you can add another configuration, for  example “2 days before arrival 50%”, in line with your payment policy.

Next,  click on Administration – Policies. Create a new policy with the “Add” button,  or click on any existing policy to edit it. Below the policy description field,  you now have an “Automated Payment Policy” drop down. Select the right payment  policy and click save. Every rate plan that has this policy attached will now  take automatic payments for any rooms booked with this policy. Please go to  Rates – Rate Plans and check that you have assigned the correct policies to  your rate plans. If everything is as should be, click on Administration –  Property. On top of the page, under “Payment Settings” tick the box “Automatic  Payment Service Active” to activate the feature.

Please be aware that existing bookings will be affected  – for example, if a guest has booked a rooms via the website and has done so  with a rate plan that has a policy which now says “take x% payment on y days  before arrival, the system will charge the Credit Card accordingly.

Payment Card Logos on Booking Engine

You can now determine which Card Logos (for example  Visa, Mastercard) you want to display on your booking engine. Please go to  Administration – Booking Engine. Under “Credit Card Logos” please select the  ones you want to show from the drop down, click “update details” to instantly  make this available on your booking website.

Market and Source for direct bookings

Click on Administration – Booking Engine and scroll  down to the bottom of the page. Under “Default Markets/Sources” you can now  define what market/source a booking will show when it is made on your booking  website. Don’t forget to click “update details” before you leave this page. If  you require more options in the drop down, please go to Administration – Option  sets and add the respective values.

Fax field removed

If you don’t provide a fax number under  Administration – Property – Property Details, the field “Fax” will no longer be  displayed on the booking engine.

Availability via Booking Engine

We have updated the logic of the booking engine.  When a guest searching for availability, the system no longer takes rooms as a  reference, but will instead check the overall availability of your property and  display rooms accordingly. For example, if you search for accommodation for 10  adults via the website, the system will display results that can accommodate 10  adults, rather than looking for a room that fits the search.

Notes and Room Configuration for Housekeeping

Going forward, any notes that you make on a  reservation (RESX level) will be passed on and are visible under Housekeeping –  Room Status (on the arrival day of the guest), the same goes for the room configuration  (for example “double”, “twin”). The information is available if you click on “notes”  in Housekeeping – Room Status and is also included in the pdf download. Please  note that this will only work if the RESX has a room assigned.

Print Invoice including additional Info

We have added a new option to the transactions  screen: Next to the “Print Invoice” button, in the drop down (click the little  arrow pointing down to open it), there is a new option “Print invoice with  additional details” – previously, this was only available on House Accounts, as  of now you also have this option on the transaction screen of room  reservations. The “additional details” refers to any information you may have  typed when logging a transaction in the “additional info” field on the bottom  of the transaction screen.

Custom Fields on Email Confirmations

We have added a number of custom fields (among them “booker  first name”) to the Email Confirmation editor. To edit your Email confirmation,  please click on Administration – Email Templates and select the template you  want to edit by clicking on the name. “Booker First Name” has been added to the  “Custom Field” drop down, just above the text editor.

Report by Reservation Creation Date

This release includes a new report – you will find  it under Reports – Front Desk – Reservations. You can select a time range (from  – to) or search for specific reservations. The report will show you when  reservations were created – you can click on any headers (channel, created on,  created by) to filter your results and download the data as a pdf and csv file.

Edit Service Status on Room Schedule

If you have set up a service status for a room, this  shows under Reservations – Room Schedule. As of this release, you can also edit  a service status on the room schedule: Simply double click the service status  to open it, then you can edit any aspects, like duration and status, don’t  forget to save to apply any changes instantly. 

Rate Plan Report alteration

We’ve updated what is shown on the Rate Plan report following  the request of a member of the HOP family. Please click on Reports – Management  – Rate Plans. We have added a tick box on top of the calendar view “Show  revenue including VAT” – this is set as the default, if you untick the box, the  values will get displayed without VAT added on.

CRM corporates dashboard

We have updated the dashboard of CRM – Corporates,  this now also shows the Accounts Receivable number (if entered in the profile).  This header, as all other headers, can be clicked to sort the results accordingly.

Function Sheet update

We have fixed some minor issues with Event Function  sheets and have included further custom fields you can use in your custom  function sheets (for example “event description”). Regarding how to set up and  use function sheets for events, please refer to the previous release notes.

Calendars updated

Instead of showing “Sunday to Saturday”, we’ve  changed the calendar widgets across the system, a week now starts with Monday  and finishes on Sunday.

0 Votes