Link Email Messages to Payment Methods

For internally added reservations, it is now possible to select an email template which will be sent automatically as soon as a payment is entered. This is useful if you want to automatically send a confirmation message to the guest, once a payment has been added to the system.

To set this up, first go to Website Tab, Payment Methods, and edit the method you are using. Select one of your templates to use, check whether to always send this message after a payment, or just after the first payment entered, and set the recipient fields.



Now, when you go to the Payments section when editing a reservation, you will see the messages field pre-selected to the message you set. You also can edit the recipients, if necessary. If you have opted to only have the message sent automatically for the first payment, the next time you load the payment section, the message field will default to "No Message" but you can easily override that setting by selecting a message to send. Additionally, at any time should you not want to send a message, just set the selection to "No Message."



The sent message will appear in the Correspondence History & Queue.

As always, even if you do not add a payment prior to confirming a reservation, you still can send a message manually, by clicking on the Correspondence button and selecting a message to send.

Items For Sale Enhancement

It is now possible to link Items For Sale to specific units. For example, if only certain rooms are pet friendly, you can have the pet item for sale only show if the pet friendly room is selected. Or, another example, if only some houses have an optional hot tub, the hot tub can show as an available item only as long as one unit linked to the hot tub is selected.

To make this setting, go to Website Tab, Items for Sale, and select which units the item is linked to, at the bottom, in Advanced Settings.



Then, on the public page, the item will only appear if one of the linked units has been selected.



These enhancements also affect items for sale shown internally. Now, only items linked to the unit(s) selected will show, and, only items that are restricted to show in a certain date range will show depending on the dates of the reservation.

More Status Options; Keeping Rates on Room Changes

Skip Auto Emails and Exclude From Reports

We've noticed that users are now using the Reservation Status "Don't block the calendar" for uses other than for what it was originally designed for, for cancelled reservations. Since this was originally for cancelled reservations any reservation set to a status which doesn't block the calendar would not have automatic emails sent and also would not be included in most of the reports. But since it can be useful to have real reservations set to statuses that don't block the calendar, we've added two new options, in order to make this a bit more flexible.

You can now set whether or not automatic emails should be sent based on the status. And, you can also set whether or not reservations should be excluded from reports based on the status.



In order to keep things functioning as they have been, all statuses that were previously set to not block the calendar have been updated to have both these new options checked. But if you do have a status where you want autoemails to be sent, you can now go to the Settings Tab, Reservation Status and adjust these settings.

Use Original Rates

Now, when moving a reservation to a different Room/Unit, we have an option whether or not to keep the rates of the originally assigned Room/Unit. By default this box is NOT checked, but if you want to use the original rates check the box before clicking Change. If the box is not checked, then we will pull the rates for the new Room/Unit from the rate plan.

Captcha Option for Gift Certificates

If you find you are receiving spam through your Gift Certificate purchase page, there is now an option to require users to enter a captcha code. We made this an option, because if spam is not a problem on your page, then there is no reason to make your buyers go through this extra step.

Enable this in the Gift Certificates settings page:



Once enabled, buyers will need to enter the captcha code:

Color Code Units; Search by Room/Unit

It is now possible to set the color of the Room/Unit name on the internal calendar. This can be useful for grouping units into different properties, especially for users that are managing many properties with ReservationKey.

The setting can be made at any level - Property/Location or Room/Unit or Fraction. Setting the color at the more specific level overrides a color set at a more general level. For example, a color for a specific fraction will override any color set at the Room/Unit or Property/Location level. If you want all units that are part of the same Property to use the same color, then just set the color at the Property/Location level and all units that are part of that Property/Location will inherit that color setting. Or, overrride the color by setting different colors for specific Rooms/Units.

These settings are in the edit screen. Such, as is seen here, in the Properties/Location screen:



Setting the colors, has this affect on the internal calendar:



And, unrelated to this, you can now search by specific unit, in the Reservations tab:

New Features for Property Managers

For property managers using ReservationKey, it is now easier to create owner reports. The first step is to enter all your owners, in the Settings Tab, Lists.



Next, going to the Properties Tab, and edit each unit, under Rooms/Units. At the bottom, there is a new section for linking the owner to the unit, and for setting your standard commission amount.



In the Reports section, open the Owner's Report. There you can select which columns to show, which fees to include expenses on, whether to include any expense categories, and a few more settings. The commission amount will be based on what you set in the rooms/unit settings. NOTE: the commission can be overriden on a reservation by reservation basis, by adding expenses. Any data saved in the expenses section will replace the standard commission, on this report.



To email the report to the owner, once you have all the settings as you like them, click the Email button. From the email page you can create and save email templates for use in sending the report. You also can preview the report before sending it.

New Option for Displaying Cancellation Policy

In response to requests from users, we have added an option to set whether your cancellation policy should display the full text on the reservation page, instead of being displayed in a popup box. It seems that the credit card companies have become more strict about where the cancellation policy needs to be displayed. Unless it is showing right on the page, immediately above the Make Reservation button, there is a greater chance of the credit card company siding with the buyer in the case of a challenge regarding a charge due to a cancellation.

To set this, first check the box in the Website Tab, Reservation Page settings:



Once this is checked, the full text of the cancellation policy will display on the reservation page.



If you opt to display the full text on the page, then we also will be showing the checkbox for your user to check to indicate their agreement. We hope this helps with fighting back against people that claim not to know about your cancellation policy.

New Internal Availability Search Feature

Now there is a way to search availability internally, for a date range, and select unit(s) from those that are available. In some situations, this may be faster than selecting dates from the Availability Calendar.

Just click the [S] in the Availability Tab.



This brings up the search box, where the arrive/depart dates can be entered, and it is possible to filter by a specific property (only shows if you are managing more than one property in ReservationKey).



After clicking search, the available units will be displayed. Select at least one unit (or select more to add multiple units to one reservation) and then the Add Reservation button will appear. Click it, to continue to the Reservation Details screen to complete the reservation.




One more new feature...

It is now possible to filter by Reservation Status, in the Reservations Tab. Click Show Advanced Search to open the advanced settings.

Happy New Year (and a few new features)!

Just a quick note to say Happy New Year to all of our great clients! Thank you very much for using our software and supporting our business. We have had a great year in 2012, started working with a lot of new users, and are looking forward to a strong 2013. As always, we continue to grow thanks to your referrals and ideas. Many of our best features were thought of by users. Just skimming through the blog and these internal messages, shows how much changed in 2012. And we have lots more ideas for 2013.

Again, thank you for being a ReservationKey client, and have a great 2013!

John


(on the job, at a client meeting in Mexico)


And now, the new features list...

We've added a new report, this one called, Custom Fields Report. It is currently the third one from the bottom of the list of reports. It is a great way to create a list of reservations based on answers to custom fields. First, select the custom field, then select the answer (if a dropdown type) or enter your search criteria.



Over in the Gift Certificates section, we've added the ability to edit existing certificates. Also, when editing, there is now an option to send (or resend) the confirmation message to the buyer.

Quicker Access to Calendar

Now there is another way to directly select which month to jump to on the internal availability calendar. This is useful when you need to go to a month different from the last viewed month, without having to load the calendar first (such as when you are on the Reservation Details screen and need to jump to a different month on the calendar).

Just put your mouse over the [T] link and a menu of months will appear. Previously the [T] was to take you to "Today" only. Clicking the [T] still does that, but now you can also select a month to jump to.

New Features in Email Templates

We've added two new features:
1. Link email templates to specific rooms/units.
2. Set a default From email address.

Most of the additional settings in the templates section have been moved to an expandable Advanced Options section.

Linking Email Templates To Specific Rooms/Units

With this feature, it is possible to set which templates should appear in the Correspondence button list (in the Reservation Details screen). If a template is linked to specific rooms/units, then the template will only show up in the list if the linked rooms/units are part of the reservation. This feature most likely will primarily be used by our property manager users since they often have emails that are specific to the unit (such as a vacation rental) being reserved. Now, instead of having to sort through a list that contains many emails not related to the reservation, the email list only shows the emails pertaining to rooms/units contained in the reservation.



If NO units are selected, then the template is treated as generic and will always show in the Correspondence template selection dropdown field.

Default From Email

When opening the Correspondence window, it is now possible to set what the From field should default to. This is in addition to the To, CC, and BCC fields which were previously user configurable.



We plan to also expand this feature to the Email Schedules, where we will have an option to set a From email address for all of the different triggering events.

New Option For Disabling Online Bookings

Maybe this is the time of year that you want to turn off your online booking page and take a break for a few days. Some innkeepers want to be able to take reservations, but only via phone calls so that they can properly instruct potential guests. Or maybe you have a special message you want to show the guest, and as long as they have read the message, they can continue and make an online booking.

To turn your page off and display a message, go to Website Tab, Reservation Pages, edit, and scroll down to the part for Disable Online Bookings. There, set the start and end dates for the period you want your page to show your offline message. Select a message from one of your templates. If you haven't already created a message for this purpose, be sure to do so in the Website Messages section.

The new features here, are the checkboxes (highlighted in the screenshot below) that allow you to include a Continue button below your message. And also, now a checkbox to hide the Waiting List form in case you don't want to use that form for these disabled periods.



Here is an example, of how one user is using this feature, with the Continue button enabled. The text of the button can be modified using our Custom Text feature.



Individual rooms can also be blocked with the Set As Unavailable on the Rooms/Units page. We have short tutorial videos on how to block rooms and how to un-block rooms.

A Few Upgrades in Gift Certificates

It is now easier than ever to sell gift certificates on your website. Thanks to requests from a few users, we have added a couple of features - ability to collect credit card information instead of using an online payment method, and ability to set the amounts that are displayed, and a new field for buyer phone number.

Setting Custom Amounts

To set which amounts your customers can purchase gift certificates in, just add an amount string in the settings section for your certificates. Such as "100#200#300".




Collecting Credit Card Numbers

Previously an integrated payment method was required (such as PayPal or Authorize.net) for processing the gift certificate purchases. We did this in order to completely automate the process of selling certificates. However, some users have been reluctant to set up PayPal or one of the other integrations just for gift certificate purchases. For those users, it is now possible to use "Offline Payment Method" which works the exact same way as it does with the reservation pages. The buyer enters their credit card details on the gift certificate purchase page and the seller (you) get an email with the first 12 digits of the credit card number. The last four digits are saved with the gift certificate information. The gift certificate is not valid for use until you have charged the buyer's credit card and marked the gift certificate as valid. This way, in case there is a problem with the buyer's credit card the buyer can be contacted to fix this, prior to the gift certificate being usable. We have also added a field for buyer's phone number on the gift certificate page, to hopefully make it easier to contact the buyer, if necessary.

Here's how to set this up:

1. Set the Payment Method to Offline Credit Card
- if you don't already have such a method in your account, go to Payment Methods and add one first


2. Buyer Makes Purchase
- you will receive an email notification containing the first 12 digits of the credit card number
- the email also has a link for retrieving the last four digits


3. Activate the Certificate
- charge the buyer's credit card by matching the card numbers up (from the email and from the retrieval page)
- click the Activate button to activate the gift certificate


It is also possible to retrieve the card digits and activate from within ReservationKey, in the Gift Certificates page.

Click View Certificates Sold:


And click "Mark As Paid"


From this screen, you can also retrieve the last four digits of the card number. Once marked as paid, the Payment Information section will contain the date that you made the change.

More Star Choices For Marking Reservations

A few months ago we added the ability to add a star to a reservation. Now, we have expanded this feature where users can select which stars/symbols are displayed in the Reservation Details screen.

First select stars and symbols under Settings Tab, Preferences:



Now, these stars and units will appear as choices in the Reservation Details screen. Click as many stars or symbols to set or deselect.



The select images will appear on the internal calendar.



Use the stars to indicate whatever you like. Such as one symbol could mean the guest is bringing a pet, another for vegetarian, another for repeat guest, etc.

Enhancements to the Correspondence Window

We've added two new features to the Correspondence window.

It is now possible to add attachments prior to sending an email. Just click the Add link.



Additionally, PDF files can now be created from the contents of the email template, and attached to a message, all with just a few clicks. This is great for being able to dynamically generate PDF documents, where information is pulled into the PDF based on data saved in ReservationKey. An example of how this can be used is for creating rental agreements sent to guests renting vacation rental properties.

Note the new "Send As PDF..." button.



Clicking this button displays an additional field where text to include in the body of the email can be entered. The PDF attachment is created based on text and formatting contained in the original email editor field.



Click "Create PDF and Send" to send the email. The PDF is created and the email is sent. That's all there is to it!

ReservationKey Is Also For Property Managers!

Recently we've seen an uptick in interest in our system from people that manage vacation rental homes, condos, cabins, etc. I'm happy to say the system works great for these type of users, and continues to improve everyday.

Here is a link to a recent recommendation from a property manager user in Miami:
http://www.facebook.com/ReservationKey/posts/561688777190413

And here is an email I recently received from a prospective user that had a huge list of items she is looking for in her new system. It was pretty cool being able to go through this list and check off almost every item as a feature we offer. See below for the complete list and our response.

If you manage short term rentals, definitely consider our product for your needs. Not only do we have a very flexible and full featured product, but we offer it at a great price.
http://reservationkey.com/signup-rk.asp
http://reservationkey.com/pricing.asp

Website
Customizable site - yes, with themes you can customize look and feel
Easy to create microsites/subpages - create as many pages as you need; one for property if you want
Twitter/iframe feeds on front page - you could do this with HTML; not a built in feature, but doable with HTML easy enough
Video capabilities - not sure what you need? Would be easy to embed youtube videos in the property description with HTML
Chat capabilities - not built in; seems like you would add this to your website rather than reservation system; on each of the pages you have for your properties, you embed your reservation page in to an existing page on your website where you also have chat feature
Embed Blog and social media - same
Integrated Website - we provide the reservation system, not a full website
Group page by location with availability calendar - possible
Capability to use Promo Codes - yes we have
Online Bookings - yes
Mapping - could add with html; not a built in feature
Image Gallery - yes we have slideshow
Optimized for Mobile - yes can make a theme specific to mobile ; regular system works well on mobile also
Comments Section - yes we have guestbook
Buy and Sell Gift Cards through site - yes we have
Real time availability - yes, all web based
Web calendar - yes, several reports can be embedded with iframes

Back End
Easy to upload photos - yes
Auto resize photos - yes (as long as file size is less than 800kb)
Weekend pricing - yes can have different rates for each day of the week
Easy to set up rates - pretty easy
Propery Owner Log in - yes, can have individual log ins
Easy to add fees - yes we have section for fees
Multi-user capability - yes , see above
Display multiple screens at same time - not sur ewhat you mean, but prob yes
Currency conversion - not automatic; have to pick one primary currency to display
Occupancy Reports - yes
Process Credit Cards - yes
Create duplicate properties using same settings - can duplicate some sections such as rates, reservation pages
Spell check - no; many browsers have this built in
Easy to read reservation calendar - yes
Ability to hold dates before booking - yes
Ability to transfer held reservations into actual reservations - yes
Ability to send PDF documents - yes; actually just now working on making a cool feature to turn an email template into a PDF and then attach that file to an email; great for generating contracts
Accounting reports - some; export all to csv for greater accounting abilities
Income tracking & stats - yes
Referral tracking - yes
Refund automation - i think so
Travel Insurance - can sell as an item for sale; a percentage of grand total of reservaiton cost
Reservation history - for sure

CRM
Auto reply quotes - yes
Payment notification/alerts - yes
Multi payment schedule - yes
Build email lists - yes
Integrated Email System - somewhat; we have new feature scheduled emails for anniversaries, birthdays, but not full featured email system ; for that use something like Vertical Response or Constant Contact
Waitlist - yes
Send auto payment notification to guests - yes, an automatic email can be set up which includes a link that they can use to pay their remaining balance
Email templates - yes, lots of flexibility here; merge codes, html, etc.
Guests receive auto receipt when booking online - yes

Marketing
Affiliate marketing program - not really
SEO optimization - sort of, but more important is your website is SEO optimized since the reservation pages plug into your site
Book through Facebook - yes, easy to create facebook reservation page using our facebook apps.

Option For Scrollbar at Top of Availability Calendar

For users that manage many units, it is now easier to scroll the internal availability calendar. We've added options in Settings Tab, Preferences, for setting the location of the horizontal scrollbar. It can now be set to Bottom Only, Top Only, Both Top and Bottom, or None.

Top scrollbar:



and bottom:



So, if you find yourself scrolling to the bottom of the window to get to the horizontal scrollbar, consider enabling the scrollbar at the top of the screen. Here is the setting in Preferences:

Easier Linking Settings to Reservation Page(s)

Previously, after adding something such as an Item For Sale, it was necessary to also go into the Reservation Page settings and select which items should show on that Reservation Page. Now, it is possible to select the Reservation Page right from the settings for the item being edited - Items for sale, Themes, Payment Methods, Payment Schedules, Email Schedules, Discount Codes, and Custom Fields.

Just select which Reservation Page(s) should use/show this feature:


And it is still possible to edit everything the old way, through the Reservation Page.


This should make things more intuitive, and be easier than having to remember to go to the Reservation Page settings to enable the page for whatever was added.

New Statistics Report

We've just completed a new report, Monthly/Yearly Statistics. With this report you can quickly see monthly and yearly totals of various categories, such as new reservations, payments, expenses, and emails..



Click on the "++" link in order to drill down and open a window that shows the exact items for that day or month. For example, this image shows a listing of emails that were scheduled to go out in January.



The red bar always shows your biggest entry. At the bottom of the chart there is a summary showing the total and average amounts.