Clock PMS Update (4 Aug 2015)

Guest Mailer

An entirely renewed email template module for the automatic or manual sending of emails to booking holders:

• Multiple templates (new). Now you can set multiple email templates for various purposes.
• Multiple languages. Each template has different content in the different languages.
• Auto / Manual Send (new). You can choose to send email templates automatically or manually. The manually sent templates significantly expand the number of tasks to be addressed through this module.
• Auto Send after booking creation (new), before arrival and after departure. The Auto Send option can be linked to the point of: Booking Creation; Arrival Date and Departure Date.
• Time Range (new). To have greater precision when using the Auto Send option, you can set the number of hours after booking creation, arrival or departure, after which an email is to be sent. This way emails can be sent and received during the working hours of the recipient, increasing the chance for these emails to be read.
• Automatic email sending for different booking types (new). Using filters, you can send different emails to:
  • ОТА bookings and Direct bookings. Through the 'ОТА bookings' filter you can set different email templates for ОТА bookings and Direct bookings. This new option is a tool helping you convert ОТА bookers to direct bookers and also retain the loyalty of your direct bookers.
  • Guaranteed and Non-Guaranteed bookings. Use the Guarantee Status to set different email templates concerning bookings that are guaranteed, non-guaranteed, await guarantee or whose period to be guaranteed has expired. Thus you can automate the process of reminding your guests to guarantee their bookings and possible booking cancellation. Use this option in combination with the Guarantee Policies and their 'Guarantee Term (expiration)' setting to fully automate the process.
  • Promotion of Events and Periods. The 'In Hotel from' and 'In Hotel to' filters can be used for the automatic sending of emails to booking holders checking in at your hotel during a certain period. This booking segmentation allows you to promote various upcoming events at your hotel, etc. to your guests. Also you can use the filter for different upsell promotions related to stay extension.
• A wide range of options for email customization (new). The new 'parameters' enable you to insert any information from bookings into an email to a guest: starting from the customized salutation 'Dear Mr. John Smith' and ending with the booking period and number, guest's room, guarantee payments due, etc.
• Rich Text and Full Customization (new). Through the easy-to-use rich text editor you can quickly and effortlessly design your emails. Change fonts, sizes, colours, etc. You can also insert your own images (already posted on the Internet) or links to your or other websites. To have complete and professional customization, insert a ready-to-use HTML email template, created by a designer or email template generator.

Note: For those having used the old pre-arival/post-departure email option. The email content has automatically been transferred to the new module, enabling you to continue using this option.

Guest Mailer Setup

• Go to Other - Settings - Guest Mailer.
• Add a new template through the Add button
• Name the template depending on its purpose.
• For automatic email sending:
  • Select 'On' for the Auto Send field after having filled in all the fields, created the contents of the respective email and having sent it for a test booking manually.
  • In the 'Send on' field, select whether the period for sending emails to start from: Date and Time of Booking Creation; Arrival Date (the default arrival time is 12:00h); Departure Date (the default departure time is 12:00h).
  • In the Time range field, fill in the number of hours from the point chosen above, after which an email is to be sent, e.g.:
    • the number of hours after booking creation, after which an email is to be sent. These emails are sent to expected bookings only.
      Note: If you set a period of 120h (5 days), emails will be sent on the fifth day after the creation of the respective bookings, provided that they are still expected .
    • the number of hours before 12:00 on the arrival date. These emails are only sent for expected bookings. Note: If you set a period of 120h. (5 days), all the bookings, having been created in the last 5 days, will not receive an email, because the moment for sending the emails is missed. Also you are advised not to enter very short periods, if you have early check-in, i.e. if you have check-in from 8:00h, you should not enter a value less that 4h (12:00h minus 4 hours makes 8:00h). Otherwise, all the bookings with early check-in will not receive an email, as the guests will have been checked in prior to the email sending.
    • number of hours after departure (fill in 0, if you desire email sending immediately after departure or enter 24, 48, etc. This way emails will be sent after 1, 2 or more days after departure); Emails will be sent for checked out bookings only.
• If you wish to filter a certain booking type through the auto send option:
  • Use the OTA booking filter. OTA bookings are the ones received through the automatic import of the channel manager. If, for some reason, you have entered an OTA booking manually, you can send the respective emails for it manually.
  • Use the Guarantee status filter. Thus emails will be sent only for bookings having a certain Guarantee status.
  • In the filter, enter the period of stay for the booking.
• Save

Content

Each email template has different content in the different languages. You can fill in the content of emails after their creation.

• Click the 'Templates' button in the email template list.
• The upper part of the list contains the various languages – choose the language
• Fill in the 'E-mail Subject' field
• Click on the 'E-mail Boby Template' field and enter the text to be the content of the email. Format the text as per your requirements. Add an image (already posted on the Internet) or links.
  Note: By default, the field contains an example template with set parameters for salutation and guest name, as well as a link to the Self Service Portal.
• Parameters. You can add parameters to the 'E-mail Boby Template' field. These can be the details of the respective booking, for which the email is sent. The details can be the guest name or any other booking data and amounts.
  • The parameters have special formatting – surrounded by double curly brackets: . The parameters to be used in the Guest Mailer start with booking., e.g. is the booking number, and is the last name of a guest.
  • For a full list of parameters, see: Guest Mailer
• If you have an HTML email template, created by your web designer or generated through another application, you can edit it through the rich text editor:
  • Click the 'Code' button in the upper left corner of the rich text editor.
  • Paste your code
• Save.

! Warning! When switching between languages, the content of the fields is NOT STORED. Click 'Save' before changing to another language.

Manual Email Sending

To manually send an email template for a given booking:

• Open a booking
• Select 'Functions'
• A list of email templates will appear. The email templates already used for manual or automatic email sending will show the time and date of sending.
• Choose the email template to be sent and confirm by clicking ОК.

Self Service Portal – Public Access for ОТА bookers and guests

We have added a new option for accessing the Self Service Portal. It enables the guests, for whom you don't have email addresses or to whom you haven't sent confirmation emails, to access the portal. The access link can be placed on your website or to be in the descriptions of your policies, included in the letters from the OTA portals. Thus OTA bookers can also use the features of your Self Service Portal.

There are two ways for these guests to access the Self Service Portal:

• For expected or checked out bookings, a guest must enter:
  • Their last name
  • Their booking number – it can be the number of the hotel booking or the OTA booking (reference number).
• For checked in bookings:
  • Guest's last name
  • Room number

Setup:

By default, the public access to the Self Service Portal is prohibited. To allow it:

• Go to Other - Settings - Self Service Settings
• Find the 'Enable Self Service Portal Public Access' option in the 'Other settings' and enable it.
• Save.
• Below this setting, you can copy and paste the URL, where the new access link is to be found, as well as an example HTML code for a link to it.

Others

• Rate and Availability - Favourite Rates.Through this new feature you can select your most used rates as 'favourite'. Also you can set the Rate and Availability screen whether to show the Favourite Rates only or all the rates. The new filter can be used in combination with the existing Room Type and Rate Plan filters, i.e. you can see the favourite rates for a room type and rate plan. Setup of the favourite rates for the Rate and Availability screen:
  • Open the Rate and Availability screen

  • Click 'Favourite' in upper right corner

    

  • Choose your favourite rates
  • Save.
  • Tick the Favourite check box to see only these rates on the Rate and Availability screen.
• Auto Room Allocation. We have added a new option for auto room allocation for all new room type bookings. Here is how it works: Applicable to each booking created in the WRS, coming from the channel manager, imported from a file or created by the user, if it is a room type booking, the system will automatically allocate a free room at the moment of booking creation. If there is no available room for the booking period or type, it remains a room type booking (without a room number). The new feature can be enabled from: Other - Settings - Rooms. Click 'Enable' next to 'Auto room allocation is DISABLED' in the lower part of the screen.
• New Tax Mode- 'Tax included in prices, rounding - total'. The new tax calculation mode is for tax-inclusive prices. However, there is a significant difference from the other similar mode (Tax included in prices, rounding – per line). It is about the folio tax amount. Here is comparison of the two tax modes (the old and the new one).
  • In the existing tax mode (Tax included in prices, rounding – per line): The Tax Base is calculated as per the following formula: Total/( 1 + Tax%/100). The resulting amount is rounded to the smallest monetary unit (usually 0.01). For each folio line, the Tax is calculated as PRICE – TAX BASE = TAX. And in the folio total section, the respective amounts are calculated by summing the folio lines. What's specific to this mode is that if you calculate the resulting tax % on the basis of the folio total amount itself, it may differ from the one originally set in the separate lines (e.g., it can become 20.01%). The reason for this is the tax rounding per each line.
  • In the new tax mode (Tax included in prices, rounding - total): The folio Total is calculated by summing the prices of each line. On the basis of the folio's Total, the Tax Base is calculated using the following formula: Total/( 1 + Tax%/100). The resulting amount is rounded to the smallest monetary unit (usually 0.01). The Tax amount is calculated as TOTAL – TAX BASE = TAX AMOUNT. And the Tax Bases of each line are also calculated, as these amounts are rounded in each line. This is the reason for the sum of the net values of the folio lines not to correspond to the folio net amount, calculated on the basis of the folio total amount.
• Booking Edit Screen – a link to Occupancy Forecast. To be able to quickly check if you have available rooms, when a guest requests a change to a booking, we have added an Occupancy Forecast link on the booking edit screen. Here you can enter the period requested by the guest and click the Occupancy Forecast link to check the availability. If there available rooms, go back to the booking edit screen and save the changes.
• Transfer of POS Bills - now the tips are also transferred. When transferring a POS bill, containing a tip, it is also transferred. In the folio, the tip is reflected as an additional charge of the 'surcharge_transfer' revenue group.
• A new document type filter has been added to the Closed Folios Report, the Closed Folios Summary Report, Folio Tax Report (VAT). In addition, these reports can be used as centralised reports, i.e. they can be run for multiple accounts simultaneously.
• Channel Manager – Use of Room Rates. Up until now, the Channel Manager could operate with room type rates only. We have added an option for room rates for the boutique hotels, using room rates. Thus if you use room rates, you can map them to the products in the Channel Manager. In order to switch between the two types of rates – go to the Channel Manager settings and choose room rates or room type rates in the 'Export Rate Field'.
• Channel Manager – a screen has been added to help you see product mappings more clearly. The new screen shows information on how each rate in Clock PMS is mapped to a ParityRate Product. This screen also shows the room types/products on OTA portals linked to this rate. The new screen can be accessed from the channel manager settings - 'View All Mappings' button in the 'Rate Map'.
• Now room names can contain up to 12 characters. Hotels operating with room names instead of room numbers can use this option to set longer room names.
• PMS API – A new booking attribute has been added - 'Balance'. Use it to quickly find a booking amount due without reviewing its folios.

Fixes

• TripConnect – the setting editor could not open, when a rate used in the settings has been deleted.