SmartHotel
We are happy to announce the release of a new Channel Manager interface: SmartHotel.
Here is more info on the new SmartHotel interface:
We have used an improved technology of detecting the changes to availability and prices. As a result, the changed availability and prices should update in SmartHotel from 2-3 minutes on average to up to 5 minutes maximum. The same applies to the download of bookings. During initial synchronization when the entire database is updated or there is a large volume of changes, the update time can be longer.
Availability
- Mapping of room types (the mapping of specific rooms is not supported) between the two systems. After the completion of the process:
- The system can automatically export Availability (at the Room Type Level) to the channel manager.
- You can set a maximum number of available rooms to be sent for each room type. This way, if the number of available rooms exceeds the maximum set by you, only the amount corresponding to this maximum number of rooms will be sent.
- After Clock PMS+ exports its data to SmartHotel, the latter makes sure this data is sent to each of your activated OTA channels.
- For each room type, you can temporarily (or permanently) stop the availability export. This way you can directly manage the available rooms in SmartHotel, while keeping the mapping of room types for the purposes of the import of bookings.
Rates
- Mapping of rates between the two systems. Rates in both systems are at a Room Type Level, i.e. one rate belongs to a certain room type.
- The currencies of rates are not accounted for, as what is important are the numeric values only. For greater clarity, you are recommended to use one and the same currency in both systems.
- For each rate, you can stop the export of prices and restrictions while keeping the rate mapping for the import of bookings.
Restrictions
- The rate restrictions sent by Clock PMS+ are: Minimum Stay, Maximum Stay, Stop, Closed for Arrival, Closed for Departure.
- In case of no available rooms, Clock PMS+ sends a zero availability for the respective room type and Stop Sell to the related rates. Should free rooms appear eventually, the rate restriction will also be removed.
Booking Import
- Import of new bookings, modifications and cancellations
- The bookings createdin the Channel Managerprior to the date of the interface activation will be ignored to avoid double bookings.
- Upon booking import, a certain deposit amount can be charged to the booking credit card. For this purpose, you can specify the necessary action next to each rate in the mapping. Apart from charging, you can also set tokenization in Adyen. It will check the credit card validity through a zero transaction.
- Please note that SmartHotel does not send the CVV codes of credit cards. If necessary, you can contact your payment gateway to allow credit card transactions without CVV codes.
- Booking extra services. Our interface processes the extra services in bookings. For these services to be charged to folios, you need to select 'Default charge template' in the Channel Manager settings, as well as to make a mapping between the extra service codes received from OTA channels and the charge templates in Clock PMS+. If no mapping is found for the code received, the service will be charged through the default charge template. The service price is retrieved from the data of the received booking. A charge to the amount of the received value is posted.
- We support a mapping of an OTA channel to an agent (or company), allowing you to automatically specify Booking.com as the agent (or company) in all bookings from Booking.com.
- Processing of corporate traveller's Company or third party Agents by IATA/VAT/ID number is NOT supported.
POS Kitchen Monitor - Pins and Colours
We have added a new feature to Kitchen Monitor in the POS - an option to pin orders, as well as to colour them. The pinned orders are always positioned at the top of the order list, and through the colouring option, you can better organise your tasks. You can also unpin and remove the colouring. Click a table (the black field) to select the new features. We have also changed the processing of the completed orders. 3 minutes after their completion, these orders are removed from the list to make space for the orders to be yet completed. The completed orders stay for 3 minutes after their completion, so that you can find them if marked completed by mistake and correct their status.
Quick opening of registration cards for completion, preview or signature by the customer
We have made a small change to help you better organise the process of welcoming guests who can on their own or through your assistance (at the hotel lobby) complete their registration cards, preview the conditions and sign them. The change itself is that we have added a Self Service Portal link to the Quick booking search. Here is how you can take advantage of this change:
- Through a tablet specially prepared for the purposes of the guest welcoming process, log in to the system.
- If you welcome your guests at the lobby bar, ask for a name or booking number. Find the booking from Quick Search in the navigation bar and select the Self Service Portal link. You can give the tablet to the guest or help them register on their own.
- If you welcome your guests at the Reception, find the booking number from the workstation at the Reception and enter it straight into the Quick Search on the tablet. Open the Self Service Portal and pass the tablet to the customer.
- After opening the Self Service Portal on the tablet, the system logs you out, so that the PMS functionality is no longer available to the guest. After finishing with the guest, you can log in to the system again.
- We would like to remind you that the Self Service Portal link is also available on the booking screen in "Functions"
Other
- Guest mailer - a new "After Cancellation" trigger. Now you can set up auto emailing for cancelled/no-show bookings.
- Folio printout view for "Packaged by Dates / Qty" has been improved. The charges from booking packages are grouped in one line despite the quantity of each package element. Example: If you have a package element "Breakfast" set per Guest at 5 Euro and a booking for 2 adults, you will have a charge for the Room (100 eur) and charge for the "Breakfast" (2 x 5 EUR). After the change, you will see a package (grouping is by Print Text) for 110 EUR and qty 1.
- Channel Managers - we have added an option for resetting selected room types and rates. Upon the execution of the option for the given rate or room type, all of its data is passed to the channel again. Please be careful with the use of this functionality for more room types and rates, as it may lead to a larger traffic volume and delay in the communication with channels. Always consult the Channel Manager about the use of this option and apply it only for the rooms/rates actually needing this action.
- We have optimised the work of the Block Pickup Report.
- API - a new Block pickup API endpoint added.
- API - To the booking creation endpoint, we have added a possibility for the existing profile related to the booking to be also passed.
- ОТА Channel Manager - we have optimised the rate mapping screen.
Fixes
- Copy of charges from one Event to another - the copying of the Void reason and the report segment was wrong.
- Quickbooks - a fixed bug with the category mapping and the showing of the subcategories in it.
- Quickbooks - invoices with a space at the beginning or the end of the contractor name caused an error during export.
- Channel Manager - added restrictions against the deletion of the default charge_template and the mapped ones.
- On the virtual room edit, an error appeared.
- A fixed bug related to IdeaS and their rate limit.