New Features
Composite Meeting Rooms
Meeting spaces that can be divided with movable partitions are a common case in the MICE industry, as they offer flexibility in selling the same area in different configurations. That’s why we have decided to improve the way such spaces are booked, reducing errors and giving you a clear overview of availability.
Here’s more information about the new Composite Meeting Rooms functionality, explained through an example:
Let’s assume that one of your large halls can be divided into three separate rooms - Conf 1, Conf 2, and Conf 3. In addition to being sold individually, these rooms can also be sold in specific combinations, such as Conf 1+2, Conf 2+3, and Conf 1+2+3. These combinations are what we call Composite Meeting Rooms.
To set up composite meeting rooms:
- Create the smallest spaces as standard meeting rooms.
- Define their combinations as composite meeting rooms.
If you are already using virtual hotel rooms, you may notice some similarities. However, unlike virtual hotel rooms, a standard meeting room can be part of multiple composite meeting rooms.
How are composite rooms used?
When used in the calendar, reservations, or templates, there is no difference between standard and composite rooms.
How does the system manage availability?
- Booking an individual room: Automatically blocks all composite rooms that include it.
Example: If Conf 1 is booked, the system will block Conf 1+2 and Conf 1+2+3. Available rooms will be Conf 2, Conf 3, and Conf 2+3.
- Booking a composite room: More complex, as it blocks both the individual rooms it comprises and other composite rooms that include those individual rooms.
Example: Booking Conf 1+2 will block Conf 1 and Conf 2, but also Conf 2+3 and Conf 1+2+3. The only available room will be Conf 3.
Visual indicators in the calendar
- Direct bookings appear in solid colors.
- Indirectly blocked rooms appear shaded.
- Clicking any of these will show the related reservation.
How to add a new Composite Meeting Room
- Go to All Settings -> MICE -> Meeting Room.
- Click the ‘+’ button and select Composite Meeting Room.
- The settings are the same as standard rooms, except for the “Composed of” field, where you must select the individual rooms that make up the composite.
Important: Once created, the “Composed of” field cannot be edited. If a mistake is made, you will need to archive the composite room (via the Active To field) and create a new one.
- Use the Sort Order field to arrange rooms in a logical order—for example, listing composite rooms first, followed by their individual components.
Improvements
Events & Rooming Lists
- City Tax Mode in Rooming List - Now, you can set the City Tax Mode for reservations within the Rooming List, allowing full use of manual prices without rates.
- Rooming List reservations for companies - Previously, Rooming Lists could only create reservations linked to an Event or Block. Now, they can also be used for reservations linked only to a Company.
- Default Transfer Folio in Events - Deposit folios are no longer suggested as default transfer folios, reducing errors.
- Custom Event Templates - Added a new Liquid parameter for event blocks: description. This allows event block descriptions to be included in your BEOs and other documents.
Other Improvements
- Invoices with bilingual company details- You can now store and use your company details in two languages - local and international. Local guests will see company names and addresses in the local language, while foreign guests will see them in an international language (e.g., English). Supported only for standard folio print templates. To configure:
- Go to All Settings -> Documents -> Billing Info.
- Fill in the international fields and save.
- International fields will appear on folios if the print language differs from the billing country.
Example: If the billing country is France, international details will be used when printing a folio in any language other than French.
- Online Check-in formatting fix - Hotel policies now support custom text formatting. If you notice formatting issues, we recommend reformatting your text in the new editor.
- Charges By Rooms report improvements - Added date range filtering for reservations. Improved layout to clearly show which charges belong to which reservation, especially when different guests check in and out at different times.
- Folio ‘By Bookings’ view update - Prepaid advances now appear in a separate section, ensuring the subtotal reflects the total service amount before advance deductions.
Fixes
- Pre-authorization release timing corrected - The system used to release pre-authorizations 24 hours too early. Now, releases occur exactly after the configured period (e.g., if set to 5 days, it will release after 5 days, not 4).
- Self-Service upgrade issue - Fixed an issue where custom badges were not translated during a rate upgrade.
- Credit card transactions issue - In rare cases, simultaneous credit card transactions (a capture and a release on the same pre-authorization) were processed together. Now, only the first transaction will be executed.