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Clock PMS+ Update (16 Jun 2020)

Modified on: Mon, 26 Sep, 2022 at 9:25 AM

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Web Reservation System for Companies and Agents.

The Web Reservation System can now be used not only by individual customers, but also by companies and agents. To this end, we have added a new field at the first step of the booking process in the WRS - "Company/Agent Code". In this field, the individual code of each company or agent can be entered. As a result, the WRS will only visualise the rates associated with the respective company or agent.

  • The results in the Calendar will also comply with the entered parameters at the first step in the WRS. 
  • This way, the company itself can create bookings in accordance with the prices agreed with your hotel. 
  • At the end of the booking process, you have the option to specify if you wish to use the data of an already existing Contact person of the respective company or agent for the data of the guest in the booking or to make a booking for another person. 
  • Upon the creation of the booking in the PMS, the company or the agent, as well as the contact person (if any) are automatically completed in the booking. This new feature allows you to clearly distinct the received bookings. Below you will also find info of the changes related to the management of company rates through tags.

Settings:

To each company, we have added a new WRS section. The Access code and Role fields should be completed, so that the respective company or agent can have access to the Web Reservation System. Each company screen should contain the special rates of this company.

Rate Tags for Companies and Company Agreement Expiration

The old functionality that managed which rates were available for use by a company allowed a thorough control, but, on the other hand, it was very intricate, especially when working with many companies while having many hotels. Therefore we have introduced changes that will beyond any doubt be very useful for you.

We have added an option for adding one or more rate tags to the companies in Clock PMS+. This way, the company can use all rates having this tag. Here is one practical example: You have standard prices for companies depending on their turnover, e.g. Level 1 companies and Level 2 companies. Each level has 6 different rates for the different room types. With the new feature you can set the rates of each tag level (respectively Level 1 companies and Level 2 companies). So in each company, you have an agreement with, you can add the specific tag instead of adding each rate applicable to the company. In a click, you will set 6 rates to be used by the company.

The feature is even more useful, if you have multiple hotels. In this case, the addition of a tag to the company will make it possible for the company to use all rates related to this tag in each of your hotels. This is how easy it is to manage the agreement of this company across your chain of hotels. This way, the tags used in one hotel now can be offered for use in the other hotels, too. In other words, tags can now be used at the hotel chain level.

If you prefer to use the functionality in the reverse direction, you can name rate tags after companies (e.g. 'Coca-Cola', 'Bosch', etc.) and add them to the respective rates.

The change to the tags of the rates is immediately reflected in the company-rate relation, i.e. if a tag already used by companies is added to a rate, this will mean that this rate will immediately be included in the agreements of the companies having this tag. It is all the same with the case when a tag is removed from a rate, then this rate will be excluded in all company-rate relations. The old feature for connecting a company to a specific rate has been preserved and can be combined with the new one, i.e. a company can have both rate tags and specifically related rates.  

For more precise management of the agreements with companies, we have added one more field - "Rate validity date". You can enter the date until which the agreement on special prices for a company is valid. After this validity date, the special rates related to this company will no longer be offered in the WRS or on the Rate and Availability screen. If this date is not entered, such rates will always be offered.

For Rates: The rate tags for each rate are set from the rate edit screen - 'Settings' - 'Rate Plan' - 'Edit/Tags' dropdown menu. Each rate can have one or multiple tags.

For Companies:  The rate tags are set from the company screen's Rates section by clicking the Add Rate Tag button. Each company can have one or multiple rate tags. The new validity date option is set from the company edit screen.

Online Check-In Improvements

We have made multiple improvements to the Online Check-In process to make it more functional, convenient and traceable.

  • We have bound the Self Service Portal and the Online Check-In. This way, you can provide an easier and more comfortable experience for your guests. In the Self Service Portal, now you can add a link (button) to access the online check-in. To this end, there is a new setting. You know that the online check-in is performed through a kiosk app. To bind the Self Service Portal and the online check-in, in the Self Service Portal settings, you need to select the 'Kiosk' specially created for the online check-in process. This setting in the Self Service Portal is 'Online check-in' - 'Kiosk'.
  • Quick online check-in access link from emails sent to guests. We have added a new parameter to the Guest Mailer through which you add a direct link to the online check-in. With this secure link, no PIN is required. This way, yet another obstacle to the online check-in process has been removed resulting in greater conversion.
  • We have added a new booking status showing if the guest has passed the online check-in procedure. This way, the staff at the reception can better know at which stage of the check-in  process and the data verification the guest is. The new status can be seen on the Arrivals list (see the icon description) as well as on the booking screen (straight after the booking status in the upper left part of the screen). If for some reason you need the guest to pass the online check-in procedure again, you can restore this status to its initial state. This is done from the Booking screen, namely the Functions dropdown menu - Restore online check-in.
  • New 'Guest credit card required' option. If enabled, this setting will require the guest to enter a credit card of their own to complete the online check-in process. The card will be required in the events when the booking has no such guest card, or the available card in the booking is an OTA virtual OTA card. Additionally, the feature allows the guest to change the card used for payments. In other words, there might be an already entered guest card, and the guest may select not to use it as a main card for payments, but to add another one. At the back office, both guest cards, the initially added card and the newly added one, are visible.
  • Bill payment. Now you can change the behaviour of the online check-in procedure in terms of whether the guest is required to pay their bill or not. The option is called "Pay at check-in". You can find it next to the Kiosk specially created for the online check-in process (on the Kiosk settings screen).
  • Room allocation. We have changed the online check-in procedure and it no longer allocates rooms. Please note that if the Mobile Key support option is active, the old behaviour will be preserved and a room number will always be automatically allocated, as it is necessary for the mobile key issue feature itself.

    We would like to remind you that if you find an issue with the guest data, now there is an option for removing the online check-in status of a booking and sending an email to the guest asking them to go through the online check-in process again. Next we will once again talk about the card verification.
  • To-Dos. With each online check-in, a new To-Do is added. This way, you can organise a guest data verification process immediately upon the online check-in. The new To-Dos are grouped in a new To-Do channel. To see these To-Dos on the To-Dos screen, you need to select the new Online check-in channel from the To-Do Channels settings screen.
  • Verified. You can mark each registration card as "Verified" (on the Registration Card edit screen). We have added a clear visualisation (icon) showing which cards are verified (the Registration card section in the booking) and whether all cards from the booking are verified (the Arrivals screen).
  • Photo IDs and image recognition. Due to the fact that the passport image recognition (if it is actually a passport image) doesn't work properly for the ID documents of some countries, we have added a new setting allowing you to switch off this feature. The new option is "Required. No image recognition". If selected, the guest is required to provide a Photo ID, but no additional verification is performed whether it is a real Photo ID. Instead, the provided image is directly added. This way, the possible error that the image doesn't show a real passport is avoided. Such an error used to confuse guests.

Occupancy/Revenue Forecast and Pace Report

We have added a new report that:

  • Can provide a forecast of the block revenue of the Event, along with the rest of the revenue.
  • Can compare the data of occupancy and revenue in terms of a past date compared to the current state.

Here is how the new report works:

Each night after the end of the financial day, the system will automatically make a snapshot of the data of occupancy and revenue for 365 days ahead. This snapshot of the occupancy and revenue is saved for the current date. This action is repeated for each past date. This way, you have accumulation of the info of how the occupancy and revenue are changing over the time.

Here is a practical example:

  • Let's assume that today is 01 Jan 2020. Upon the end of the financial day, the system will automatically generate info of the expected occupancy and revenue for each day from 01 Jan 2020 to 01 Jan 2021 and will save this info. This will repeat with each past day.
  • Let's say that one year has passed and it is already 01 Jan 2021. We have accumulated info of progress of the occupancy and revenue for one year. On the basis of the accumulated information, we can compare two reports:
    • For example, we can run one report for the coming summer (e.g. 01 Jul 2021 - 01 Aug 2021) without entering a snapshot date in the report.
    • We can run another report for the same period from the last year  (01 Jul 2020 - 01 Aug 2020) and enter the following snapshot date: 01 Jan 2020.
    • If we compare the two reports, we will get an idea of what we can expect this year.
  • Please note the history data starts accumulating upon the release of this Clock PMS+ update.

Here are the parameters and data in the report:

  • From/To date. The period for which we wish to see the data of the occupancy and the expected revenue.
  • Currency. In what currency the revenue is to be recalculated.
  • Value type. With this option, you can choose if the values shown should include the tax or not.
  • Group by. It is the method of grouping the days of the examined period - by days, weeks or months.
  • Snapshot date:
    • If you left the field empty, you get the report for the specified period from today's point of view, i.e. what you will see the data at the current moment for this period.
    • If you fill in a past date, you will get the data for the desired period, as this data was in the snapshot on this past date, as well as the data from a past point of view, so that you can compare all this data more easily. Considering the fact that the snapshot for each date contains the data for 365 days, you will not be able to see the examined period from a date that is older than 365 days.
  • Occupancy forecast:
    • Capacity of the hotel
    • Bookings -  rooms occupied by bookings;
    • Blocks - rooms blocked by Events of the Guaranteed and Non-guaranteed statuses. Pickup rooms are not included. Only the rest of the block is counted;
    • Opt. Blocks - rooms blocked by Events of the Optional or Allotment status. Typically not taken from the inventory. As above, only the rest of the block is counted.
    • Free rooms in the hotel
  • Revenue forecast:
    • Bookings - booking-related charges;
    • Blocks - calculation of the potential revenue from guaranteed/non-guaranteed blocks, based on remaining pickup and rate in the block. The forecast is made on a daily basis and the amount doesn't reflect the changes made today.
    • The same as above in terms of Optional/Allotment Blocks;
    • All other charges in folios, including Event, Meeting Room bookings, Catering, External client folios, etc;
    • ADR. The ADR forecast is based on charges with room/package including calculations for Block and Opt.Block. This summary revenue forecast is divided by all expected room nights including the optional/allotment blocks.

OTHER IMPROVEMENTS

  • Companies - a default folio setting. You can more precisely control where the charges related to a given company are to be transferred to by choosing a default folio for each of them, as it will be used by default for the automatic transfers from bookings (Transfer rate charges to Company/Agent). With the manual transfers, the default folio selected will come up first on the list of open folios. The new setting can be found in the Default folio section on the edit screen of each company.
  • POS - New default document type setting. You can set a default document type that is to be used by default each time you close a bill. To do so, select the respective document type from the Default closed folio document type field of the Documents section on the Tax Settings screen. If necessary, you can close the bill through another document type by choosing what type it should be from the Billing To/Invoice button situated on the billing screen itself.
  • A new Bednights column added in the Occupancy and Charges Report.
  • Self Service Portal - On the Check your bill screen, a Self Checkout button has been added. Through it, the guest can check out immediately upon the bill payment (in the events when this is allowed).
  • We have improved the document closing form by making the buttons larger and more convenient for use. This change has been applied to both the booking screen and the folio screen. Click the Close button and then select the desired document type through which you would like to issue. We have introduced an additional sorting on the booking screen, arranging the folios, as follows:
    • The open folios are arranged consecutively, as the last one added is at the top.
    • the closed folios are respectively arranged in accordance with the order of their closing.
  • Booking note retention period. Set the period for which booking notes are to be kept, as upon the expiration of this period booking notes will automatically be deleted from the system. This feature can be very useful when abiding by the requirements for personal data like the ones under the GDPR. To set a retention period, please, in the Booking note retention period field of the Booking fields section, fill in the number of months for which your booking notes are to be kept.
  • ОТА - in the export log, you can find a reference to the xml messages sent to our partners. So, if a check on their part is necessary, the message can be downloaded and sent for analysis. An Echo Token to each individual export message has also been added to the screen.
  • OTA - up till now, the only method of work was through WSDL. A new option for working with a specific endpoint has been added. If you need such a setting, please contact the Support Team of Clock.

INTEGRATIONS

  • Lightspeed - an option has been added to the interface settings for specifying the connection between the Lightspeed payment subtype and the Clock PMS+ payment subtype. Please note that due to the specifics of Lightspeed,  the payment subtype is to be manually entered by you in a manner identical to the Lightspeed settings.
  • LightSpeed - a new method of the interface activation added, so that it can be done by the user straight from Clock PMS+. Learn more from the LightSpeed Restaurant POS (Series L) interface  article.
  • LightSpeed - a bug fixed causing accounts not to be transferred to Clock PMS+ during the daily transfer, if these accounts had a hotel transfer as a method of payment, but they were eventually paid through another method of payment.

FIXES

  • POS - Kitchen monitor requires at least one kitchen in order to be opened.
  • Charge Control Report - you can track all charges without a specific revenue category selected by filtering the results through the "---" option from the dropdown menu.
  • The deposit calculation sometimes used to generate errors resulting in inaccessibility of the bookings in the system for processing.
  • Arrivals/Departures Summary Report - it didn't properly account for Rooms, when run with the grouping by week and month selected.

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