New Features
Customer Display
One of our main goals has always been to ease your communication to guests, enhance the quality of their experience and offer more digital channels of communication to them. Here is why we have been working in a new direction - Customer Display. The purpose of the Customer Display is for the guest to also get access to digital services at the reception desk.
First, let's remind you what “Customer Display” is. Through this feature, you have the option to turn every tablet into a “Customer Display” by mounting it at the reception desk to face guests or leaving it freely at the reception desk. The first feature that can be performed by the Customer Display is to be a “Signature Pad”. Using it, the guest can digitally sign their registration card.
What has been added?
We have made it possible relying on your assistance for a guest to quickly open the Online Check-In app on their smartphone. This is done through a QR code that can be shown on the Customer Display. In addition, there is another case scenario. If, for example, their phone is out of battery and the guest cannot access the Online Check-In, you can use a work tablet to be provided to the guest.
What is coming soon?
We will add one more feature to the Customer Display - an option for guests to quickly get access to the content of their folio and review it on their smartphone. This will also be possible through a QR code on the Customer Display that can be scanned by the guest through their phone.
How to use the new feature?
- For the setup of the Customer Display, you can see Use of a Tablet as a Customer Display
- To show the QR code on the Customer Display to be used by the guest to directly open the Online Check-in app, follow these steps:
- Find the guest's booking and open it.
- Click the “Online Check-In QR“ button in the “Guests" section.
- You will see the QR code. Select the Display where the code is to appear. In the field, the last used Display will be suggested.
- Click the “Show QR Code” button to show the display.
- The QR code will no longer appear on the Display, if you click the Back button.Also, it will automatically disappear in 40 seconds, if you leave it open by accident.
As you also see the QR code, you can use the other case scenario, too - open the Online Check-In app on a work tablet by scanning the QR code. It is not necessary for a work tablet to be registered as a "Customer Display". This can be any device.
Verification of Hotel Email Domain
Upon the last changes by the large email providers like Google, Yahoo, etc., the sending of emails in someone else's name is becoming way more difficult. On one hand, it is a key step in the fight against spam, but on the other hand, it imposes additional requirements and tasks.
The changes in question have directly affected all users sending emails through our service, but in their name, i.e. the ‘from’ address is the hotel email. The users of Custom SMTP servers have not been affected in terms of our service.
At the moment, all users not relying on Custom SMTP, send emails, as the From address is noreply@clock-software.com, and the hotel email is the Reply To one.
We have added an option to once again be able to send emails in your name (i.e. the From address is the hotel email), but to be in compliance with the requirements, you will need to "verify" your domain.
Who can perform this task?
The email verification requires adding a few records to the records of your domain. This can be done by someone having access to records of your domain - a system administrator, web developer or you if having the necessary expertise.
Please note that it is only possible if you own the domain of the hotel email. In other words, the part after @ is a domain of yours. If you use an email under gmail.com, yahoo.com or any other service provider, you don't own this domain and it is not possible to verify it.
What has to be added?
To your domain, three CNAME records have to be added, as they are to be generated by the system regarding the DKIM authentication, required by the Amazon SES services that we use. To obtain these records:
- From the Navigation menu, select Settings->All Settings (new) and find the ‘Hotel email’ setting in the ‘Hotel’ section;
- You will see the current status of the emails sent by you.
- Select 'Use own email as 'From' after domain verification’
- Enter your whole hotel email and then click ’Start Verification’
- You will see the records that are to be added to your domain.
- Upon the addition, return to this screen again and click Finish Verification;
- If everything is successful, the status of your email will change.
Improvements
- Bookings and folios - quick access to the list of all charges in a folio directly from the Booking screen. To quickly review the charges of a given folio and skip unnecessary clicks, click the button in the respective row.
- Folios (new)- we have made improvements to the new folio screen:
- Similar to the Charges screen, we have added info of the amount of folio's charges, payments and balance to the Payments and Pre-Authorizations details. This way, it is easier for you to get an idea of the current state of operations without it being necessary to switch screens.
- On the main Folio screen, we have added info of taxes, as you can use the button in the respective row for a detailed breakdown.
- For your convenience, when working with a large number of terminals in one PMS+ account, we have improved the visualisation of the devices for the Payment and Pre-Authorization operations. The last used terminal is suggested by default to users, and the rest of the account-related ones are accessible through the 'Show all' button.
- To the Print Preview of each folio, we have added a button for sending Folio Emails.
- Folio print:
- The links hidden under text used not to visualise in printouts.
- The text font when printing via the new folio version used to be larger compared to the printing through the old folio version. We have made the necessary changes and they are corrected.
- In the grouped by Dates / Qty and grouped by Qty printouts, we have improved the grouping of charges transferred from the POS.
- Payment-based advance - if your selected charge template has a set print text, it will be transferred to the advance charges by default. If you wish to change this text with another one for the issue of the advance document, you need to enter the new print text in the Additional text field.
- Company Booking Charges by Reference Report - now you can create a new company folio straight from the screen for selection of a Transfer folio in the report. In the events when you don't yet have an open folio or you need a new one, follow these steps:
- Click the bulk edit button;
- click the add button in the dialogue window and then enter the desired name for the new folio and confirm.
In addition, we have added a quick link to the transfer folios. To this end, from the Transfer folio column, select the folio that you would like to review.
- POS - in the discount field, it was possible to enter a value greater than 100%. This is now not allowed.
- Adyen v2 - To the ToDo task created as a result of subsequent failure of a transaction once marked as successful and speculatively closed (e.g. pre-authorization release/capture), we have added additional info - PSP reference of the "parent" transaction. This way it is easier for you to find these transactions in the system of your partner.
- New settings screen (BETA) - OTA (SiteMinder), D-Edge (Availpro)
Fixes
- Liquid parameters related to the account location now show info when a folio email is generated through the new folio screens.
- Payment Autopilot (new) - in the Bookings tab, all guarantee statuses are available for selection.
- Now the emails regarding locked users are sent
Integrations
- LightSpeed POS K-Series- Charge Print Text Configuration Update:
- Feature Enhancement - A new setting has been introduced to let you configure how the hotel transfer charges' print text is displayed. The aim of this addition is to align the integration with your specific needs more closely.
- Configuration Options - Located under Settings -> AppConnector-> LightSpeed POS K-Series- > Settings, users can now use them to edit the business location settings and choose their preferred option for "Print text in imported charges":
- Bill Number (Default) -Charges' print text will include the configured Business Location Name followed by the bill number (e.g., "Italian restaurant/#A123"). This option helps you group items by bill number for a compact print view, leading to a shorter customer invoice.
- Empty - Leaves the print text blank, resulting in each item being listed separately on the invoice, applicable even with the Compact print option.
- Private Analytics- Enhancements:
- New Data Table - We have introduced a table to let you monitor the last data sync status for each data source, indicating whether it has been completed and if there are records pending synchronization. This feature ensures report users are informed about the data's currency.
- Data Quality Improvement - Corrected an issue where deleted room blocks in Clock PMS+ were still being counted in data analyses, potentially affecting data integrity. This fix ensures only current data is represented
Localisations
- German Fiscalization - Addressed a communication error that used to occur under certain conditions. We have implemented changes to prevent future occurrences.