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Clock PMS+ Update (30 Oct 2017)

Modified on: Mon, 26 Sep, 2022 at 11:26 AM

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Kiosk

Checkout

We have added a new option to our Kiosk – the Checkout feature. Through it, guests can check out on their own and timely notify the Housekeeping department of their departure. All of this significantly shortens the time for the preparation of the room for the next guests. Furthermore, it allows your customers to pay their bill, if not paid yet, of course.

We would like to remind you that Clock Kiosk can require the payment of the hotel bill at check-in, however, if the guest has unpaid extra services, the same will be able to pay them when leaving the hotel.

The checkout feature is similar to the one on the Self Service Portal, so that guests have the same experience, no matter if the Self Service Portal or the Kiosk is used.

To activate the new functionality, go to: "Settings" – "Kiosks" and select "Allow checkout".

Mobile Keys

For the check-in and room key issuing, we have added an option for guests to receive a mobile key. In other words, they will be able to open the room door using a special smartphone application. It should only be installed on their smartphones. Clock Kiosk now has QR codes to make the installation even easier. A guest is only required to enter their mobile phone number to receive this mobile key.

The new feature is part of the planned comprehensive support of mobile keys, which will also be extended to the Self Service Portal where guests will be able to have mobile keys issued prior to their arrival.

The mobile key functionality has to be supported by your room access system. For the time being, it is only supported for the Salto system, but soon other interfaces will be added, too.

You can also build your own interface to the system through our 'DoorKey API'.

Other

  • Auto logout at the last page. After finishing the check-in, we have added an automatic timer of 15 seconds to the last page in the Kiosk. With the elapsing of these seconds, the system logs out the user. This change has been inspired by the many reported cases of guests leaving the kiosk without logging out and thus creating inconvenience for the next guest.

POS - Kitchen Instructions

Clock POS now has an option for sending instructions to the kitchen. The existing one, "Notes", has been preserved, but it refers to order comments and couldn’t be used without an order. The new functionality allows you to add instructions or a command at any time which then to be printed or shown on the selected printers or kitchen monitors. The instructions have a completion status for more efficient communication between waiters and the kitchen. For example, waiters can use this option to send a notification for the start of the preparation of the next meal, as well as to check if it is ready.

You can set a preliminary list of commands to be sent for greater efficiency and ease. Furthermore, you can enter your own text. For the time being, the preliminary list of instructions can be found by going to: "Management" - "POS Settings", however, it will be moved with the next update.

To send an instruction to the kitchen:

  • Select a table from the main screen.
  • Click the Instructions button
  • Choose the kitchens to receive the instructions.
  • Use one of the standard instructions or enter your own one
  • Send.

You can see the instruction status – pending or completed. It can be changed to completed from the kitchen monitor.

Please note that if you open a new bill (for an empty table), send an instruction and then add items to the bill, the instruction will be printed, however, it will not be possible to track its status, as the empty bill will be archived after leaving the charging screen.

Central WRS

Theme and Custom CSS

We have added the option for the selection of a theme and CSS to our Central Web Reservation System (C-WRS). Please note that through the C-WRS you can show all your properties on one page along with the respective availability and minimum rates. The users can search by region or destination, as well as by other criteria. With these changes, you can customise the layout and design of the C-WRS to meet your corporate identity.

To change a theme or custom CSS files:

  • On the main hotel selection screen, (click the ‘eject’ screen, if you have accessed a certain hotel), select "Central Reservation System".
  • Click "Gear" icon to access the settings screen.
  • Select one of the standard themes or 'None', if you wish to use entirely your design.
  • You can upload up to 2 own CSS files.

Deep Links

Now you can build deep links to your Central Reservation System being similar to the ones to the Web Reservation System (WRS). Use deep links to better integrate your C-WRS with your site. For example, you can place links to specific destination/regions or links containing a certain type of hotels only. It is also possible to integrate your own widget for quick search.

For the time being, we haven’t prepared an editor for the quick building of links, but your web designer can create links using the following parameters:

  • search[arrival]
  • search[nights]
  • search[location]
  • search[adult_count]
  • search[children_count]
  • search[bonus_code]

Example of a parameterized URL to the first page:

https://sky-eu1.clock-software.com/wrs/YOUR_SUBSCRIPTION_ID/searches/new?language=en&search[arrival]=2017-11-01&search[nights]=2&search[location]=London&search[adult_count]=1&search[children_count]=1&search[bonus_code]=BONUS

Example of a parameterized URL to the second page: (hotel list):

https://sky-eu1.clock-software.com/wrs/YOUR_SUBSCRIPTION_ID/searches/products?language=en&search[arrival]=2017-11-01&search[nights]=2&search[location]=London&search[adult_count]=1&search[children_count]=1&search[bonus_code]=BONUS

Other Improvements

  • A new report - "Housekeeping Summary" and totals on the Room Plan screen. We have added totals of the different statuses on the Room Plan screen. Select the icon next to a room type to see the statuses and the number of rooms for each status. You can see the totals below – the same icon in the footer. The whole information is available in the "Housekeeping" section of the new report "Housekeeping Summary".
  • Quick change of dates on the "Arrival" and "Departure" screens. On both screens, after the date itself we have added buttons for a quick change of the date by one day forward or back.
  • Booking edit – the Marketing channel and Marketing Segment fields are now drop-down menus of predefined values to select from. In other words, it is no longer possible to be freely completed. The free entering of values led to many user-made mistakes. The same refers to the Revenue Category fields for charges and charge templates.
  • On the multiple booking edit screen, we have added a new email column. This way when creating a booking for multiple rooms, you will be able to create a profile for each of them entering an individual email. However, it is not possible to search for profiles and transfer data on this screen.
  • Self Service Portal Links. So far you could set a "More Info" URL. Very often it is not enough. Here is why we have added an option for multiple links, as you can also enter text and define a button style for each of these links. The Self Service Portal styles are: "list-group-item" and "list-group-item active". Test the others styles, too, and choose the most suitable for you. Furthermore, you can use your own style predefined in a custom CSS file.
  • RoomCloud - Inbox – we have added a column with the reference number of the booking for quick check.
  • Use of tokenized cards in Clock PMS for payment via the Adyen Gateway, giving greater flexibility when different payment instruments are used. The tokenized cards in Clock PMS have the following advantage – the complete card details are available to you to also enter them through your terminal. And the benefit of the tokenized cards in Adyen is the dynamic validation through an actual transaction for EUR 0 or 1. Select the tokenization that better suits your needs.
    To use the tokenized card in Clock PMS:
    • Open a booking folio
    • Click the "Credit Card" button in the "Payments" section
    • Fill in the amount and click the button corresponding to the tokenized card ("Pay with ...").
    • Confirm the operation.
  • Please note that this operation requires a special setting and right on part of Adyen. Please, contact Adyen, if you receive the "Refused (010 Not allowed)!" error code.
  • Booking – when adding a credit card (Clock PMS tokenization), the card number is verified by the checksum which prevents the typing errors. The verification by the checksum validates whether the card numbers complies with the common standards and is a basic control check of the entered data. Please note that this does not mean the card is real or active. If you prefer to be sure of the card validity, use the Adyen tokenization.
  • The rate log now records the changes to rate restrictions, too.
  • A new control report - "Failed credit card transactions". Now you can find a log of the transactions with rejected credit cards, as well as the related errors. To access it, go to "Reports" - "Control" section
  • In the "Payments Report", a new "Through a payment gateway only" filter has been added. Use this filter for easier comparison of amounts and payments in Clock PMS against the ones in the payment service provider. The report also give information of the reference number of each transaction.
  • Closed Folio Report – the balance sum has been added to the report total
  • Folio Fast Search – if the search results are too many, they are divided into separate pages to speed up the report.
  • A new fiscalization setting. It is called "Folio printing to start after fiscalization" and you can find it in "Settings" - "Tax Settings". This setting refers to the cases of fiscalization when a certain code or number from the fiscal interface has to appear on the printout. If "On" selected, at the folio closing, the system will wait for the fiscalization-related fields to be filled in before opening the folio print screen. This way you can be sure that the mandatory attributes will be present on the printout. The setting can also be used in combination with the API where the special fiscalization fields are also available for updating.
  • Contract Rates – a new feature added for charging City Tax. For each contract rate, you can choose if city tax is to be charged or not.

API

  • A new occupamcy_forecast endpoint added. It allows the information from the "Availability" - "Occupancy Forecast" screen to be also accessible via the API. The endpoint provides summarized information of occupancy and how it is formed – by days and room types, as well as the respective total.
  • Booking – a new "rate_price_calculation" field added. It contains information of the initial price calculation for the selected rate for each day of a guest stay. This field also gives you a reliable history of the prices at which the bookings have been created.
  • Booking – a new "ota?" field added for easier differentiation between the bookings received from OTAs and the rest of the bookings. The reservations imported by the channel manager have the following value: "true".

Fixes

  • The Register no longer contains fields whose columns were doubled on the Register screen.
  • Events – The Change log did not account for when an event is created or edited.
  • POS – the editing of multiple items at once required the tax % entering
  • RoomCloud – import of bookings. The communication errors were visible in the inbox, but they resembled bookings
  • RoomCloud. In the last version, the supplements are charged once (for the arrival date), without the amount being multiplied by the number of nights or guests, and now have a correct source.
  • Booking – the manually chosen city tax mode did not work properly if the rate contained city tax.
  • Guarantee Policy – the filter now contains all revenue groups.
  • Occupancy and Charges – fixed bug causing an error in certain cases of groupings by room type in combination with virtual rooms
  • Booking – when "Route rate charges to Company/Event" selected, the setting "Allow charge transfer" didn’t work on the Company screen
  • Rarely and only in certain events of multiple requests at the same time, it was possible for an invoice number to be skipped.
  • It was possible for catering to be deleted despite the existence of related charges .
  • Booking – in cases of coexistent rates and manual prices, it was possible for room charges to be fewer than the number of nights.
  • Advanced Search – the csv export didn’t work.
  • ParityRate – the new status didn’t appear in the documents ( 4 - Rejected ), and now it is processed as cancellation
  • When data migrated from ParityRate to RoomCloud, the errors from the old channel manager remained on the screen.

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