Events
We have made the following changes to Events in Clock PMS+:
- A new option added to let you specify the rate of each block. This way the full price of an event can be calculated, including the nights.
- New statuses added to Events for better management of the sales cycle.
- Blocks not accounted for in the Occupancy Forecast (optional).
- New printouts added to Events (Function Sheet and Banquet Event Order), as well as more options for custom templates
- New filters to the Event search
Rates in the Block
For each block (a table row with event-blocked rooms), now you can specify the related rate. In addition, it is also possible to add a few Blocks (rows) for one and the same room type, as in each row you can specify a different rate. For example, you can have two Blocks for Double rooms, with the rooms being charged at a single room rate in the first block, and at a double room rate in the second one. Use the new feature to precisely calculate the room prices for a single event without being necessary to create and manage bookings.
This functionality does not create charges and has no option to give you a report of the expected revenue, but still it is very useful for quick change of blocks, periods and the number of rooms, as the calculation is always based on up-to-date block info. This calculation can be found in the new 'Banquet Event Order' printout, described in a greater detail below.
To use the new feature:
- Click New or Old Event and select 'Block - Edit'.
- To specify a rate for the Block (table row), click the pen icon in the rightmost table column. Choose the respective rate and Save.
- To add a new Block (table row) with another rate – select the '+ Block' button at the bottom. Fill in the room type and rate. Save. Enter the number of rooms as before. Please note that you cannot have two absolutely identical blocks (table rows), i.e. there cannot be two rows for one and the same room type and rate, or two rows for one and the same room type, but not having rates.
New Statuses
We have expanded and re-organised the statuses of the Event, Meeting Room Booking, Catering and Block to better help you at the different stages of the sales process.
Event
On the Event screen, there are two status fields:
- Guarantee Status. This status is responsible for how probable it is for an event to take place, and it also shows its stage in the sales cycle. The statuses are as follows: Allotment, Option, Non-Guaranteed, Guaranteed. Here the new statuses are Allotment and Option. It is important to know that Blocks of such a status are not included in the hotel occupancy.
- Check-in Status. It shows if guests are already at the hotel. The statuses are as follows: Expected, Checked-in, Checked-out, Cancelled, No Show.
We have chosen an implementation with two statuses instead of one to avoid the loss of important information. This way you can also have information of lost business (Cancelled, No Show) and what guarantee status was in this case (Allotment, Option, Non-Guaranteed, Guaranteed).
Block, Meeting Room Booking and Catering
Block, Meeting Room Booking and Catering also have statuses, however, they are a bit different. Their statuses are linked to the Event status, but can also be managed independently. They have two statuses:
- Optional - Yes/No. The elements of the Optional status are included in reports and printouts, but do not participate in the occupancy.
- Cancelled - Yes/No. The cancelled elements are not included in reports and printouts, and do not participate in the occupancy.
Benefits of the New Statuses:
- With the change of the Event status, the status of the Block, Meeting Room Booking and Catering is also automatically changed.
- For example, if you make the Event Optional or Allotment - the Block, Meeting Room Booking and Catering will also immediately become Optional. With this status, they do not participate in the occupancy. Here the greatest impact is on the Block – the rooms contained in the block will not be included in the availability calculations.
- If you specify that the Event is Cancelled or No Show – all of its elements also become Cancelled. In other words, they once again do not participate in the occupancy.
- It is also possible to manage more aspects of the elements.
- For example, an element of a valid Event can be cancelled. If a given Meeting Room Booking, Block or Catering is no longer relevant, it can individually be cancelled. This way you can once again keep the information of the lost business even within the already completed events.
- You can also make a certain element Optional in an already confirmed Event. This way you will have the whole information in the most precise way possible – what has been confirmed and what is optional in the Block.
- There are filters linked to the new statuses to be used in the search of Events and Activities.
- In the Occupancy Forecast, you can get the details of the occupancy from the Blocks - Guarantee and Non-Guarantee.
New Printouts
We have implemented two new major Event printouts - Function Sheet and Banquet Event Order. If you wish to use the old one (Info Invoice), please see below.
- Function Sheet – designed for the internal company organisation of the event. The printout has the following layout, each day of the event is on a separate page. Thus it is easier to see the tasks for the respective date.
- Banquet Event Order – designed for the purposes of correspondence with customers. It contains prices, calculations, and amounts. For a greater customer convenience, it has been implemented as a representation of the event as a whole.
For the two major printouts, we have also created liquid templates. Apart from being able to customise their design, you can use them to build various documents like offers, contracts, etc.
Function Sheet. Click on the image.
To print each of the forms:
- Function Sheet
- Open the Event
- Select "Preview" from the top navigation
- Banquet Event Order
- Open the Event
- Select "Add" from the "Event Document" section
- For "Template" select "Banquet Event Order"; Select "Language"; Apply
- Fill in "Subject" and "Email" and select "Create"
- You can edit the rendered document before saving it. Save.
- Select 'Send' to send the document via email
- Info Invoice
- Same as "Banquet Event Order", but for "Template" select "Info Invoice".
Other Improvements
- Occupancy Forecast - Segments.In the occupancy forecast, we have added an option for seeing the information of the occupied rooms by bookings and blocks by various segments. For the time being, the supported segments are:
- Booking/Reservation Status – the breakdown by this segment allows you to see the occupancy by Guaranteed / Non-guaranteed Bookings and Blocks. For the time being, it is not possible to receive information of the data that is not included in the occupancy like Cancelled/No show Bookings and Optional/Allotment Blocks, but we have planned to make it possible in the future.
- Marketing channel; Marketing source; Marketing segment. You can see the occupancy data by any of these marketing segmentation parameters.
- To select a segment by which to analyse your occupancy, go to 'Occupancy Forecast' and from the 'Segments' drop-down menu choose the desired segmentation approach. The segments will appear under each of the following groups - Bookings and Blocks.
- POS – Transfer by Guest's Name.We have added a new option for the search of guest bookings from the POS when transferring bills from the POS to the PMS. Now you can search bookings by the guest's name in addition to the previously available search by Room. By default, the new feature is not enabled. If you decide that it will be useful for your property and does not pose a risk of misuse or errors, you can enable the feature in the following way:
- Log in to the account of the PMS (Hotel) for which you would like to enable the transfer by guest's name.
- Select Other - Settings - Allow charge transfers.
- Click 'Allow transfer by guest's name'. Save.
- In each POS transferring to this hotel, a new 'Guest' tab will appear on the room selection screen. Select this tab and fill in the name of the guest (e.g. the surname) and click the search icon. Choose the booking from the list.
- Confirmation – extra services.In the confirmation, we have added information of the selected extra services in the booking. Please note that the data is not taken from the charges and the folio of the guest, but from the 'Daily Charges' section of the booking.
- WRS uses this section precisely to specify the extra services selected by the guest. In other words, the Confirmations sent by the WRS will contain information of the extra services selected by the guests.
- Info of the 'Daily Charges' can also be included in your custom confirmation emails. See the sample template of confirmation email to learn more about this..
- Feratel Tourist's tax interface.
- Block Pickup Report – we have added quick Block links as well as a Block status column. Please note that the Blocks of the Optional/Allotment status are not included in the occupancy. In the Block Pickup Report, you can see the number of rooms by such blocks, if you choose: Report type: "PickUp %". If you choose Report type: Availability – for such blocks, you will see 0 rooms because they do not participate in the occupancy and do not actually block rooms.
- We have added two new fields designed for future use, as for the time being they are not used by the System: Settings - Account Info - Location and Settings - Logos / Image Library - Icon image.
Fixes (with this update and hotfixes)
- Trial Balance – it didn't reflect Correctional folios properly
- Channel Managers – marketing_segment was not transferred with the booking import
- The export to Excel has been removed on the Event – Preview screen. The view is very complex and couldn't be exported.
- Availpro – the export didn't start when all elements are included for export.
- The Charge transfer to bookings screen didn't work, if there was even a single booking without a room in the hotel
- Adyen - notifications – now event_code is also taken into account which created problems with some of the rarer payment methods
- Italy Export - some fixes
- During tokenization through Adyen, there was a frequent error - 'The shopper reference has no associated card in Adyen!'
- Adyen – Capture Refunds (pre-authorized) had a wrong PSP
- Channel Managers – it was impossible to disable the tokenization for an individual product
- Passport Images – the error was not visible (e.g. with the images of greater sizes) and the user was unaware of what was happening.
- WRS – the chosen profile language was not taken into account at the last step
- Closed Folio Report – the Company filter didn't work properly in certain situations