Clock PMS+ Update (12 Jun 2019)

Booking Contact Person, Agent and Company Contact Persons

To the Booking screen, we have added an option to specify a Contact Person. This is for the cases when the booking is not made by the guest, but by someone else.

Here is an example of such a case where the new Contact Person option can be very useful: The manager of company X – S. Smith will travel. His executive assistant A. Wallis is organising the booking. In this case, A. Wallis will be the Contact Person and the communication related to the booking will be between the respective hotel and Wallis, but the guest will be S. Smith.

The booking's Contact Person is not mandatory in contrast to the guest. The Contact Person's data should be entered solely in the cases if they are different from the ones of the guests in the booking.

To expand this functionality, now you can add multiple Contact Persons to a Company. Apart from being reference info on the Company screen, you can easily choose Contact Persons in the bookings from ones related to the given Company.

Additionally, now you have an Agent field on the Booking screen. This way, a booking can also have a Company (e.g. Bosch) and an Agent (e.g. TUI). The Agents can be selected from the list of the existing companies. The role of an Agent in a booking is mainly a reference one, i.e. this way, you know which company organises and is responsible for the booking. As a booking's Agent is also a company, the above functionality (Company Contact Persons) is also valid for this Agent. You can choose the Contact Person for a booking among the ones related to the Agent.

We are now working on changing the segmentation reports, so that you can receive information by Companies and Agents.

Here is a detailed list of the new functionalities and changes:

• On the New Booking/Edit screen, apart from Guest, you can now select one more profile – Contact Person. You can search for a profile or create a new one.
• On the New Booking/Edit screen, apart from a Company, you can also choose an Agent. Agents are not separated from Companies and are to be found in the list of companies being common for all Accounts in the Subscription.
• To the Company Edit screen, we have added the Contact Persons of the Company .
• If you have selected a Company and/or Agent for a booking, a Contact Persons button will appear under each of them. Use it to select a Contact Person related to the Company or the Agent. Once selected, this Contact Person will be transferred to the booking.
• In the Guest Profile, you now have two tables of the related booking to separate the bookings the profile is used as a guest from the ones where this profile is used as a Contact Person.
• Search by Contact Person. Apart from the contact details (name, telephone, email), now you can also search bookings by Contact Person details. This option is available in: Quick Search (in the navigation bar); Arrivals; In Hotel; Departures and Advanced Search .
• Search by Agent. In the booking lists (Arrivals, In Hotel, Departures), when a company is selected, the system will search for bookings in which this company is selected as Company or Agent. On the Advanced Search screen, there is a separate Agent filter to help you find the bookings related to the respective agent.
• Creation of multiple bookings with one and the same Contact Person. Choose a Contact Person in the new booking form to be automatically selected in all the copies of the booking (Create multiple).
• Guest Mailer. If a Contact Person is selected for a Booking, all communication will be sent to the selected Contact Person instead of the guest in the booking.
• WRS – we have added a new option for completing a booking: "I'm booking for somebody else". When selected, the entered data (name, telephone, email, etc.) will be added to the booking(s) as a Contact Person, and for each booking the system will additionally require the names of the guests to stay at the property.
• CSV import of bookings – a new Agent field added. Similarly to a Company, Agents can automatically be created with the import of bookings or to be included in a company import file.

Events

We have added new fields to Catering and Meeting Room bookings, as well as a new search layout for Catering and Meeting Room bookings.

Now the following fields can be filled in for both Meeting Room and Catering bookings:

• PAX – Number of guests.
• Event Activity Type. Use it to select the type of the given activity. For example: Banquet, Seminars, Conferences, Wedding, Teambuilding, Anniversary, etc. The list of Event Activity Types can be completed from Settings - MICE - Activity Type
• Activity Setup Style. Through this option you can specify the style of preparation of the Meeting Room or the Restaurant for the respective Event, e.g. THEATRE, CLASSROOM, U-Shape, T-Shape, BANQUET, etc. The Activity Setup Style list can be completed from Settings - MICE - Activity Setup Style
• To the Catering screen, we have added an option for Restaurant selection - the place of rendering the catering services.

We have also made changes to the Search of Event Activities (old Navigation - Events - Search - Meeting Room Bookings).

• A new and clearer search layout added (Details – Compact View) to better visualize the main fields of each activity: Period, Activity Type, Meeting Room/Restaurant, Setup Style and PAX.
• A new Restaurant filter added.
• A new Status filter added. By default, only the valid (uncancelled) activities are now shown.
• Bookings/Catering filter added – Use it to receive separate Booking and Catering lists.
• Activity Type filter added – to search for activities of a certain type.

We are also working on new Event printouts - Function sheet and Banquet Event Order, as well as on the respective parameters to let you build custom templates of these documents.

Other improvements:

• Balanced split of charges. We have added one more functionality to the Split charges screen. You can use it to easily generate invoices of advance and final payments. The essence of the new feature is that it will add positive charges (based on a certain percent of the value) to one or more folios, as well as the same charges, but being negative ones, to the source folio.
  The split charges screen can now also be used for company and event folios apart from the guest folios. To use the feature for Company folios go to the Open Folios section of the Company preview screen and select Split Charges. It is similar with the Event screen – from the Folios section - Split Charges
  Here is how the new functionality works:
  • Select Split Charges from the Booking, Company or Event screens.
  • If necessary, add a new folio through the Add Folio button, as for greater clarity, you can name it, for example 'Deposit Event 01.06.2019'
  • Select the charges to be split from t he source folio and click 'Balanced Split'
  • In the field corresponding to the destination folio (for example 'Deposit Event 01.06.2019'), enter the respective percent of split. If a deposit is to be 50% - enter 50.
  • Select the detail level of the newly split charges from the Detail level field: Details (as many as possible charges), Grouped (average quantity of charges), Summary (as little as possible charges). Please note that the detail level cannot be lower than Revenue group/category and Tax rate. This way, reports are not affected, and it is also ensured that the base of the source folio will be accurate.
  • Complete the 'Additional text' field. For example, enter 'Deposit'. Thus filled in, the full text will be added before the charge name to make its purpose clearer.
  • Select 'Split'
  • The feature will determine what and how many charges (depending of the Detail level) to be created as well as their value (% field) . The charges will be posted with a positive value to the Destination folio and a negative one to to the Source folio. The Destination folio is your deposit folio, and the source folio will reflect the remaining amount to be paid.
• Billing Info – we have added separate fields: City, ZIP and State. If needed, you can you can fill in the fields on the Company or Folio screens screens. These fields have also been added to folio printouts. If using custom printouts, but you would like for these fields to be visible in the custom printouts, you will need to edit custom template printouts.
• Company Export. The Company search screen now has an option to export companies to a csv file.
• Two new liquid parameters added to the Guest Mailer and the rest of the templates: current_user_name and current_date. They will allow you to add the name of the user and the current date (and time) to your emails, offers, documentation, etc..
• POS. In case of Company transfer, the company branch is also visible.
• POS – to the final bill printout, we have added the fiscal codes related to the local fiscalisation (if any).

Channel Manager, Integrations and API

• AvailPro
  Our AvailPro channel manager connection is now certified and pilot testing in a production environment are already underway. Then the interface will be available to all customers. Here are the details of the new interface and the supported features.
  • To configure the interface, you need to have an enabled AvailPro add-on in Clock PMS+ and Hotel Code, Username and Password for XML access to AvailPro.
  • The interface is asynchronous. In other words, the data sent by Clock PMS+ to the channel manager is first received in the base of the channel manager which returns a success or error message and then the channel manager sends the data to the channels. So, in Clock PMS+, you can only see the errors related to the communication to the channel manager while not being able to see the ones related to the communication to the channels. To track errors in the communication to the channels, you will need to contact the Support Centre of AvailPro.
  • Mapping of rates, room types, extra services and companies. The mapping is built in Clock PMS+ with an implemented functionality for the channel manager codes to be loaded for selection on the mapping screen. This way, the risk of mapping errors is significantly reduced. Click the AvailPro Maps button to update the mapping codes.
  • The rate structure in AvailPro is slightly different from the one in Clock PMS+. In Clock, one rate is for one room type, while, in AvailPro, one rate can be for an n number of room types. Therefore in the mapping of rates, you will need to choose: AvailPro Room Type, AvailPro Rate = Clock Rate, as the screen has a tree-like layout to save you the multiple selection of AvailPro Room Type.
  • AvailPro supports derived rates. Derived rates are automatically recognised in the mapping no data of their prices is sent. The mapping is still necessary for the purposes of the booking import.
  • The Room Type structure is the same in both systems.
  • The mapping of companies is built enable the Bookings received Gate A to be mapped to a certain Company in Clock PMS+.
  • At the level of Rate and Company, we have added a setting of the Deposit Auto Payment feature. The setting at the Rate level has priority.
  • Another supported feature is the mapping of extra services part of charge charge templates for the automatic charging of extra services. There is a default charge template to be used in the cases when a code is received which cannot be found in the mapping.
  • The messages exchanged with AvailPro are 4: Bookings, Availability, Prices, Restrictions. Each of them can be either enabled, or enabled. If a message type is disabled, this will allow the complete management of the given type of data in AvailPro.
  • The interval at which data is exchanged with AvailPro is 5 minutes for the time being. In other words, the average time for a change from Clock PMS+ to reach AvailPro is 2:30 minutes though the extent of the change itself (the XML size) is very important.
  • In the event of lack of available rooms, apart from the zero availability, stop-from-sale restriction is also sent.
  • The restrictions sent to AvailPro are: Stop, Closed for Arrival, Closed for Departure, Min Stay, Max Stay.
  • We have also implemented compression of days to periods for quicker communication and lesser size of the communication. It means that consecutive days having the same data in each message are communicated as one line with a period instead of a separate line for each date. Data of one year ahead is sent.
  • The mechanism for automatic stop of the communication after 3 consecutive errors. The most frequent reason for errors in the communication to the channel manager is the mistaken mappings or wrong usernames and passwords. In case of such errors, it is pointless to repeat messages before the fixation of the error. With each error, and email is sent to the hotel, as well as in the cases of stopped communication.
  • Clock PMS+ implements the mechanism of automated change of the password each 6 months thus meeting the PCI DSS requirements. Users are not prompted to do anything, but please note that the initially provided passwords won't be valid after some time due to the above-mentioned password change.
  • The system also supports messages prompting the repeated synchronisation of data on the part of AvailPro to Clock PMS+. For the resending of rate/room type data, please contact AvailPro for more information by creating a synchronisation request in AvailPro. Clock PMS+ checks for such requests each15 minutes, and, if any, they are processed and the requested info of Availability, Prices and Restrictions is resent.
  • In importing bookings, we send confirmation containing the booking number in the channel manager (the reference number in Clock PMS+) instead of the booking number.
• SiteMinder/OTA – We have changed the rate mapping to allow the mapping of one channel manager rate to several PMS rate/room type combinations.
• Italy Export - drop city, zip_code, province from config
• Italian B2B invoice XML export
• Lightspeed – a bug fixed on the config screen
• API – financial date (revenu_date) to the root endpoint of the account.

Fixes:

• We have optimised the Tax Report to eliminate the delays.
• Adyen – the PSP reference has been changed from integer to string.
• A few missing translations added.
• The link to the Charge Control Report from Charge Summary DMY is now only for the selected date.

Marketing Segments on the Event and Company Screens (20 Jun 2019)

We have added Marketing Segments to the event and company screens. This way, these Marketing Segments along with ones on the Booking screen will allow you to have consolidated marketing data of your revenue segmentation. Use the Charge Segmentation Report to retrieve the info you need in terms of revenues by segments.

• Charges directly posted to Company folios are referred to the Marketing Segments selected for the Company.
• Charges posted on the Event, Meeting Room Booking or Catering screens are referred to the Marketing Segment chosen for the Event.
• In creating a booking for a given Event, the Marketing Segments selected for the Event are transferred to the booking. On the booking screen they can be changed or supplemented. As before, charges posted to bookings are referred to the Marketing Segments set in the booking.
• For all charges to have a Marketing Segment, we have added an option to also specify these Marketing Segments in Non-resident client folios. You can choose which Marketing Segments to be used when referring the charges posted to the folios of non-resident guests. To do so, specify the necessary Marketing Segments on the Account Info screen.
• Please note that the changes to Marketing Segments are not chronologically tracked in charges. In other words, if you set or change Marketing Segments on the Company, Event or Booking screen, reports by Marketing Segments run for previous periods will show updated values. You can use this to add Marketing Segment info of your revenues from past periods.