Central Web Reservation System
To meet the needs of hotel chains and groups even better, we have added the Central Web Reservation System add-on to the system. Your guests can use it to see all your hotels or the ones in a certain destination, compare prices and availability, or make a booking through the WRS of the specific hotel.
The Central Web Reservation System (C-WRS) only shows the hotels belonging to one and the same subscription, i.e. guests will only see the group of hotels being part of a certain subscription.
How Does It Work?
- When a guest visits your central web reservation system page, the following form is shown:
- It can be used to fill in either the desired location only, or the location and information of arrivals, nights, the bonus code and number of guests.
- If you fill in the location only, you will be able to view the related hotels with their general information.
- If you fill in the rest of the information, you will also see the available room types and the minimum price for each of them.
- The search form remains in a side panel and guests can easily change the period or view other locations.
- When a hotel is chosen, guests are redirected to its WRS, where they can see all the related products in detail and make a booking.
- The hotel's WRS has a button to get back to the hotel search page and choose another hotel.
Settings
If you have already set the web reservation systems of the individual hotels, the launch of the new central web reservation system will be very quick and easy.
To add a hotel to your central web reservation system, you need:
- Hotel with a set WRS
- To add one hotel location tag at least. The hotel can have multiple location tags depending on how you would like your guests to be able to search for and find your hotels. For example, it can be possible for your guests to find the hotel by three locations tags: Paris, France, Europe. Thus the system provides them with options for a narrower search (Paris) or a wider one (Europe). Enter the location tags (each one in a separate line) for each account - 'Settings' - 'Account info' – 'Location' field situated in the 'CRS' section.
- Done! See below how you can add a gallery and description of each hotel.
You can make the following changes to the settings of your central web reservation system:
- Gallery. For each hotel, you can upload multiple pictures using the WRS settings screen: 'Settings'- 'Web Reservation System': 'Hotel Images' in the 'Images' Section.
- Hotel Description. You can add a multi-lingual description of each hotel. The description can be in a rich text format. Fill in the text in: 'Settings' - 'Languages and Texts' - 'WRS Header/Footer/Translation': 'Hotel Description' field.
- Header and Footer of the C-WRS Page. You can customise your system by entering texts in the upper page part (WRS page title) and also in the lower page part (WRS page footer). Add the texts by going to: 'Settings' - 'Languages and Texts' - 'C-WRS Header/Footer/Other'. Fill in: WRS page title and WRS page footer.
- Languages, Translations and Customisation of Labels.
- The languages set and chosen by you to be 'Public' will be shown on the C-WRS for guests to select from.
- You can translate the labels and change their texts: 'Settings' - 'Languages and Texts' - 'Advanced Labels/Translations' - 'Account' and 'Subscription'. The texts in the Account can be different for each of your hotels and for each of them you have to enter the text individually. The texts in the Subscription are general for all hotels. Entered only once, they apply to all your hotels. Additionally, there are a few texts being specific for the C-WRS only. You can find them in 'Settings' - 'Languages and Texts' - 'C-WRS Header/Footer/Other'
You can open your C-WRS from: 'Navigation' - 'WRS'- 'C-WRS'
The central web reservation system is a paid add-on. For a trial or subscription for this add-on - please get in touch with us.
Rates
Tags
Now you can add multiple tags to each rate to help you find and edit a group of rates faster. For example, you could use a 'Base' tag for all the base rates that are most edited, or a 'Promo' tag for all the current promotions. This will enable you to quickly find and open the group of promotions or the most edited rates only. In addition, in one of the next updates, we will develop the option to use tags on the Rate and Availability screen.
You can add tags for each rate on the rate edit screen:
- The already used tags appear in a list to select from. Click 'Add'. Add more tags, if you wish. Save the rate.
- If you want to enter a new tag – enter its name in the related field. Click 'Add'. Save the rate.
- To remove a tag, click its red 'x' box. Save the rate.
Search
We have entirely changed the rate search screen by adding options for a flexible search and quick rate editing. Here are the changes:
- The screen is divided into two. The left part shows rate plans, as we have preserved the option to edit all the rates of a rate plan. New quick features (buttons next to each rate) have also been added.
- Rate Search by Name and Tag. You can easily search for rates by name (rate name, rate plan name or name of a room type/room), as well as by tag. Apart from being able to type a search text, you can also take advantage of a quick selection button (Tags dropdown menu). This menu contains tags, room types and rate plan names. Thus you can use multiple search criteria by simply choosing them from the dropdown menu.
- Editing Prices for Selected Rates. After finding the desired rates, choose them and click 'Price Table' to open them in a table where you can edit their prices and restrictions. In this price and restriction editor, only the selected rates will be shown. This way the screen looks much more compact and you can easily find the desired days and prices.
- Use the "Set multiple days" button to open the old batch update screen, however, this time, it will show the selected rates only.
- Quick functionsfor Each Rate. Clicking the button next to any of the rates in the list, you will have access to the following quick functions for this rate:
- Price Table – Price and restriction edit screen for the respective rate
- Edit / Tags – Opening a screen for editing the main rate parameters, where you can also add or remove rate tags.
- Package – Use it to edit rate package elements
- Restrictions – Showing rate restrictions screen.
- Remove from WRS / List in WRS – A quick feature for adding (or removing) a rate to (or from) the rate list supported by your WRS.
- Add / Remove STOP restriction – A quick function for starting or stopping the sale of a whole rate (STOP restriction of a rate).
- Delete – Rate deletion.
Others
- Occupancy Adaptable Rates - Adapt by Total Free Rooms. Now there is an option to choose the adaptation criterion for an Occupancy Adaptable Rate: number of available rooms of a room type (old option) or the total number of available rooms in the hotel (new option). The new option can be found on the rate edit screen – the 'Tracking' field.
- Changes to Advanced Translations (for subscriptions with multiple hotels). The greater part of advanced translations (labels and WRS notifications, confirmation, self service portal translations, invoices and registration cards) have been moved to the subscription level. Their transfer to this level means that most of these translations are done only once and they apply to all your accounts (hotel). For example, now it is enough to translate 'arrival' once and the translation will be used in all your accounts in the subscription. Part of advanced translations can still remain applicable only to a certain account - by setting them to refer to this account only. The two groups of translations are edited from one and the same place ( Languages and Texts). Here, next to the group of translations, you can choose Account or Subscription. The existing translation data will be updated and stored.
- Registration card – Only showing room charges owed by the respective guest. The room charge field in a registration card now contains the charges from the booking folio only. For example, if some room charges are moved to a company account, now they do not appear in the guest's registration card. The purpose of this change is to maintain the confidentiality in the relationships with agents, tour operators or companies.
- WRS – An option for guests to enter their addresses. You can set whether the WRS to require the guest's address at the last step in the reservation system. The new setting (Address Required) can be found in the Optional settings' section of WRS settings screen.
- Transfer from POS to PMS.
- Transfers of bills from POS to PMS now take into consideration the tax modes of these two accounts. If they are different, the net or gross amount is transferred. This depends on the specifics of the two tax modes. Please note that in case of different tax modes, there is a possibility for a difference in the total amount owed by a guest due to the different method of calculation and rounding of the tax in each mode.
- Surcharge on Charges Transferred.PMS no longer calculates and adds surcharges to the bills coming from POS. PMS only calculates surcharges for its own charges. The charges transferred from POS to PMS come with their POS surcharge, if any, which is shown as a separate charge in PMS.
- Guest Mailer – Rich Text Parameters. The rich text parameters (for example, a guarantee policy description, hotel policy, etc.) can now be used in the Guest Mailer templates with their complete rich text formatting. To use the rich text format value of a parameter, you need to add '| html' to the parameter. Otherwise, the plain text format will be used. Example: To use the rich text format of the description (translation) of a guarantee policy, the parameter has to look like this: . The parameters supporting rich text are now offered this way by default (in the {p} button menu). To change your old templates, you can delete the old parameter and add it again from the {p} button menu.
- Authorize.net – The credit card screen no longer requires to fill in the address (the fields are shown, but not required). If you want these fields to be required, you can change the Address Verification Service settings on your Authorize.net account edit screen.
- The amount of a required deposit has been added to the booking screen, as well as the amounts of the payments received. Thus you can easily see if a booking has been guaranteed or not.
- New Language column on the Advanced Search Screen.
API
- Booking Create/Update. Support for the new successive notes added.
- DoorKeys API - new documentation.
- Booking To-Dos. New API for reading/creating Self Service Portal To-Dos added to the booking.
Fixes
- DoorKeys API - GUI fixes.
- Occupancy and Charges DMY report - 29.02 fix.
- WRS - guarantee with gift voucher fix.
- New booking - Occupancy forecast link fix.
- Automated guest emails - t_... parameters (t_description, t_salutation, etc.) now uses the right language.
- WRS – The WorldPay payment form is now opened on a new screen for greater compatibility with guests' browsers.