Servicing guest enquiries is an important aspect of electronic communication with guests. Use the Booking Enquiry feature to send personalised offers and special prices to your guests and increase your sales. This versatile tool lets you generate and send an enquiry reply and then create a booking based on the guest enquiry. And all it takes is just a few clicks.
Create a booking enquiry reply
- Open the Rate and Availability screen;
- Click the 'New' button From the Booking Enquiry menu (top right) and fill in the guest's details;
- Check the results for the needed period, room types and rates on the Rate & Availability screen as usual;
- Click the small button (6) next to the 'Book' button for each matching product;
- Fill in the number of rooms (when working with room types only) and click 'Add to Enquiry' (7);
- The number of the added rooms will appear in the 'Edit Rooms' (2) button of the Booking Enquiry menu.
- You can also add rooms for different periods, room types and number of guests.
- By clicking the button with the enquiry number (1) and guest's surname you can check and edit the guest's details or change the enquiry status.
- By clicking the Edit Rooms button (2) you can remove already added rooms.
The Rate & Availability screen remembers your last Booking Enquiry and it will be available to you when you return to this screen.
Click the small drop-down menu button (4) (the rightmost one on the Booking Enquiry menu) and select 'Remove from screen' (5) to clear the active booking enquiry from the screen.
If you have removed a certain booking enquiry from the screen, you can call it back to the screen:
- Open the drop-down menu and select "Booking Enquiry Search";
or
- From the navigation menu, select Booking–>Booking Enquiry Search;
- Find the enquiry and click 'Open on the Rate and Availability screen' to return to it.
Now you can add more rooms or alternatively use any other feature of this screen.
Email or print the enquiry reply
To send a booking enquiry reply, you can use our customisable standard form or build an entirely new custom form with your own design and arrangement (see Custom Booking Enquiry Template for more information).
Here is how you can print or email the reply:
- If you have loaded the enquiry on the "Rate and Availability" screen, click the 'Next' (3) button from the Booking Enquiry menu.
or
- Find the enquiry through the navigation menu Booking ->Booking Enquiry Search and open it;
- Check all the details before clicking the 'Print/Send' button.
- Additionally, you can further customise the email before sending it by adding specific notes above and under the grid with rooms. Click 'Edit' and enter the specific notes. Save.
- When ready with the whole content, send the email.
An archive of all sent emails is maintained. It can be viewed in the Email section of any Booking Enquiry.
Use floating or fixed prices
Floating prices
A Booking Enquiry shows the prices of the rooms at the moment of their adding. These are not fixed prices, but informative ones showing what you have offered the guest. Bookings are created at the current prices. So you will need to check if current prices have changed compared to the ones you sent. Here is how:
- Click the 'Edit Rooms' button (2);
- The system checks the current prices and if it finds a difference in the rate price, the rows containing changes are highlighted, and the new price is shown under the old one;
- If you want to resend the enquiry reply with the new prices, click the 'Recalculate and update prices' button (8). Then send the enquiry reply to the client.
Fixed prices
Alternatively to floating prices, you can choose to use fixed prices. This guarantees that the guest's booking will be created at the prices offered in the enquiry reply no matter how the current prices have changed. Here is how:
- Click the 'Edit Rooms' button (2);
- Fill in the 'Manual Price' field with the price you need to remain fixed and select the currency;
- Save.
Thus entered, the price will be transferred to the 'Manual Price' field of the booking and the guest will be able to book at the offered price.
Create a booking based on the booking enquiry
After receiving an email or telephone call from a guest with a request for a booking based on the enquiry, here are the steps to create the booking:
- Find the guest's enquiry (Bookings->Booking Enquiry Search)
- Open it;
- Click 'Create Booking' (9) button next to the respective room;
- Confirm the guest profile or select/enter a new one and save;
- Click the link of the newly created booking to edit it or send a confirmation.
There a booking will easily be created on the basis of the data from the enquiry reply in a click. Apart from saving time, a client can also take advantage of special prices and packages, if offered.
Booking Enquiry Status and Waiting List
Statuses
By default, all new enquiries receive the 'Active' status upon creation. The status shows if the enquiry is still valid. If bookings are created in relation to an enquiry, its status is automatically changed to 'Closed'. Use the 'Cancelled' status for the dropped enquiries. You can manually change the status of an existing enquiry by:
- Loading the enquiry on the 'Rate and Availability' screen and clicking button with its number (1), then you can reflect the status change (10);
Or
- From the navigation menu, open Booking–>Booking Enquiry Search. Use the filters to find the enquiry. Select the 'Open' button in its row, then click the 'Edit' button in the 'Contact Info' section.
Waiting List
If for the period of the enquiry, you have no availability, but still you want to save it to keep it in case of changes to the availability, you can add it to the waiting list. To this end, when creating the enquiry, tick the checkbox of the “Waiting List” (11) field or mark it at a later stage following the status change steps.
When rooms become available for a certain period, simply check the enquiry waiting list:
- Go to Booking–>Booking Enquiry Search;
- Use the period filter to check the enquiries for a certain period only;
- For the value of the “Waiting List” filter, select “Yes” and load the list.
Upon finding the Waiting list enquiries, follow the steps described above to check the up-to-date prices. Prepare the offer and send it to the customer via email.