Dashboard
We have added a Dashboard containing the most important operational data related to the servicing of guests and the status of your hotel.
Here is the data included in the Dashboard:
- To-Dos - the summary number of your To-Dos, as well as the overdue ones.
- Arrivals - summary info of the number of expected and arrived bookings.
- Departures - summary info of departures and checked-out bookings.
- Registration - summary info of the registration cards of expected and arrived guests that are not filled in.
- Billing - summary info of outstanding bills of expected bookings and departures.
- Feedback - summary info of the average feedback rating from all reviews, as well as from the today's ones, as a rating that is greater than 3 is considered positive.
- Housekeeping - summary info of the number of rooms by housekeeping statuses.
- Occupancy - graphics of the overall occupancy for the next 7 days and comparison to the occupancy of the last year.
- 7 days - info of each day of arrivals, departure and 'In Hotel' - rooms and guests.
The Dashboard data is automatically refreshed each hour or with the clicking of the Current Data button. You can find links to the Dashboard on the Home page: the icon before the hotel name, and in the navigation bar's Other menu.
Virtual credit cards and Guest Mailer
We have added a few features to facilitate the processing of virtual credit cards coming from the channels:
- Recognition of whether a credit card is a virtual one or not for SiteMinder, Room Cloud and D-Edge. We would like to point out that the recognition is performed by indirect indications and data in XMLs and is different for each channel.
- Credit card's Origin field: OTA/Guest. The field can also be edited and filled in by users on the Credit card edit screen. It is visible on the Booking screen - next to the credit card.
- A new field in the automated Guest Mailer. You can use it to solve situations related to credit cards. For example, you can send emails to guests only having a virtual credit card and ask them to enter an additional card in the Self Service Portal. The new filterhas the following values:
- No Card. No credit cards for the booking.
- Guest Only. The booking has only cards designated as "Guest".
- OTA Only. The booking has only cards designated as ОТА.
- Guest and OTA. The booking has cards of both designations: Guest and OTA.
Booking - Rate Availability and a new right
For the booking save and edit, we have added an additional control check: "Rate Availability Control". It shows if the booking data (period, room/room type, adults and children) match the validity of the selected rate. In other words, if you run the Rate Availability screen with these parameters - the selected rate should be green.The check is performed both on booking creation and edit. On booking edit, the check is only made if there are changes to some of the related parameters (rate, period, room/room type, adults and children.
We have added a new "Booking: Rate Availability Control Override" right. The users having been granted this right can create and edit bookings without the "Rate Availability Control" check being performed. The right has automatically been granted to all users who already have "Booking: Create or Edit". If you are planning to revoke this right from some users, you need to also consider the following possible effect: for example, booking stay edit (also valid for the rest of the parameters), the system may not allow the operation, if there are no more free rooms or there are changes to the conditions related to rate restrictions and occupancy. Such an outcome is possible because at the moment of the change, the booking is NO LONGER available (green) due to the new parameters. In this case, the assistance of a user with the "Booking: Rate Availability Control Override" will be required.
Folio - Hide in the Self Service Portal option
A new "Hide in the Self Service Portal" option added to the folio. It is found on the folio edit screen (click the Currency/Name/Notes button in the 'Billing to' section of the folio to access it). If chosen, the folio will not be available for review and payment in the Self Service Portal, the web check-in and the kiosk.
Self Service and Kiosk - company invoices without the use of a VAT number/Company ID
For the countries where it is not typical for users to know the VAT number/Company ID of their company, we have made a change that will ease the issue of company invoices from the Self Service Portal, the Kiosk, the Web Check-in. Until now, the company invoice issue was available solely upon the entry of a VAT number/Company ID. We have also added an option to so by searching for a company name, too. To activate this new functionality, select the "Allow Company search by name" option in the Self Service Portal settings. Please note that the activation of this option allows the end users to double company profiles, as a unique identifier such as the VAT number is no longer used. It is up to you to assess the benefits and disadvantages of this option activation.
Events - a new more accessible BEO template and further customization options
The existing example we provided for BEO customisation showed how you can make a full customisation. But it was very complex and could not be used in the Rich Text editor for this reason.
To let you use your company style on the BEO printout without needing to be an expert on the complex BEO logic, we have added a new example. In contrast to the old one, the new one can directly be edited in the Rich Text editor. It is possible because we have changed all tables in the template with standard ones which cannot be edited, but considerably simplify the template. You can see the new example template by going to "Settings" - "Event Document Templates" - "New or Edit" - "Apply your design examples" section. Apart from the BEO example, you can also find an Info Invoice example. The parameters of the ready-to-use tables are: activities_table_html, rooms_table_html, other_charges_table_html, както и info_invoice_table_html.
For the users relying on our standard Event printouts - BEO, Info Invoice and Function sheet, we have added an option for translation (or change) of the labels of these printouts into any language. It can be done from Settings - Languages and Texts - Language - Event Document/Translation. In this relation, we would like to remind you that you can place logo, header, footer or any other texts on our standard printout from the following section: Event Document Name/Header/Footer Translations.
Other improvements
- New Rate Restriction - Min/Max Stay on Arrival. The new restriction is activated only, if the booking is to arrive on the date for which the restriction is. Here is an example. Min stay on arrival = 5 nights on 10.05.2020 is set to the rate. It means that if the booking arrives on 10.05, its minimum number of nights should be 5, but if it arrives on 09.05 - there are no restrictions. We would like to point out the difference from the existing "Min Stay" restriction - it is only activated, if it somehow overlaps the date in question. In the above case, it wouldn't allow the arrival on 09.05 for 2, 3 or 4 nights, because 10.05 is overlapped and at least 5 nights are required for a booking.
- A new option for the calculation of the deposit amount based on the number of nights. The existing calculation was based on the average night price, i.e. if the deposit required 1, 2 or 3 nights, for example, they would be calculated by multiplying the average night price by 1, 2, or 3. Through the new "Average daily price" option (if switched off), instead by the average price as before, the deposit will be calculated based on the actual price of the first, second and the third night, i.e. if they have different prices, the actual night price will be taken, and not the average one.
- A new filter added to the Advanced Search - "Paid". You can use it to find outstanding or paid bookings. The paid bookings also include the overpaid ones, i.e. the ones having a negative balance.
- To the WRS, we have added a new translatable rich text field: "Additional custom HTML content". To add content go to "Settings" - "Languages and Texts" - "Web Booking Engine Translations" - "Additional custom HTML content". The added content will appear on the last ("Thank you") page of the WRS. This field can be used for adding content or links to useful websites or services to redirect your guests to.
- Authorize.net - on payment, the credit card type is now included the payment subtype.
- We have made a change to the posting of the folio surcharge. Now it can be added with the date of the first charge instead of the today's date which led to the transfer of folios from the Deposit ledger to the Guest ledger due to a charge with today's date (the surcharge itself).
- Links to the Housekeeping Report - now they lead by default to the new report. For the users still wishing to use the old one, there is a link to it in the upper part of the new report.
Fixes
- Profile merge screen - the country, title and birth_country fields didn't offer the right values.
- It wasn't possible to void a folio containing a zero-valued surcharge and currency differing from the folio one.
- From the Room edit screen, it wasn't possible to create a room type.
- We have fixed a temporary mailing issue causing certain emails and confirmations to have no css styles attached.
- We have fixed the issue related to the Channel manager due to which in certain situations the new Resend option couldn't be used.