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FIRST RESORT TIPS AND TRICKS -
October
2008 |
I. Changes to the Customer Site Configuration
-
Change Company
Owner Booking E-mail Address:
Enter your company’s email address that will receive the Owner
Booking emails.
-
Send WebLink
Reservation Confirmation Email:
Yes/No switch for emails to be sent
guest upon booking.
-
Send OwnerLink
Reservation Confirmation Email:
Yes/No switch for emails to be sent
owner bookings.
-
Send Reservation
Confirmation Email to PMC:
Yes/No switch for emails to be sent
to you upon booking.
-
Send Sockets/PPDT
Down Email: Yes/No switch
for emails to be sent to you upon your sockets going down.
-
Owner Rewards:
This allows you to send your properties to ICE and join their Owner
Rewards program. Click on the Owner
Rewards link to get further information.
Changes
to Website Text
WebLink now has a
spot for Web Companies like Blue Tent, Blizzard, VDS, or the client
themselves to add tracking scripts to the WebLink pages. The actual
script code and/or language are solely dependant upon the tracking
program that is utilized for your web site and is not supplied or
supported by Instant Software.
-
Web Memo Header
Script: Use this field to
add tracking scripts to the Header of ISILink & WebLink pages.
-
Web Memo Script:
Use this field to add tracking scripts just before the close BODY
tag of ISILink & WebLink pages.
-
Confirmation Page
Memo Header Script: Use
this field to add tracking scripts to the Header of ISILink &
WebLink confirmation page.
-
Confirmation Page
Memo Script: Use this
field to add tracking scripts just before the close BODY tag of
ISILink & WebLink confirmation page.
-
StayUSA
Reservation Agreement:
This space is setting up a separate Reservation agreement when using
StayUSA. Much like the regular agreement field, this field is
intended for you to include information about your terms and
conditions of reservation, additional charges and fees that may be
applicable, and any additional information that you may wish to
advise the guest of at the time of making the reservation.
Changes
to General Configuration
Activate Credit Card
Usage For Channel Partners and Web Companies:
Once you have checked the “Credit Cards required in XML box” and have
submitted this choice, you will get this new link. Clicking on this Link
we bring up a new screen that allows you to make credit cards mandatory
for each Channel Partner you wish to apply that rule to. The default is
that if you require it in the XML then it is required for all Channel
Partners and Web Companies until you select to not have it be required.
It looks like this:
Credit Card Required
for TA on Reservation Form:
Use this
option to require your TA’s to enter a Credit Card prior to booking a
stay.
Require # of Adults
and # of Children:
This option gives you
three choices about mandates the guest to enter a number for both adults
and children:
-
None:
Adults and children are NOT required.
-
Required on
the Reservation Page:
Choose this selection to require the guest to enter the number of
adults and children when booking on the personal information page.
Failure to enter these fields will generate an error message should
the guest not comply. This will then bring back a quoted rate that
includes per person pricing.
-
Required on
the Quote Page:
Choose this selection to require the entry of the number of adults
and children on the final booking page. This will generate an error
message should the guest not comply. This choice should only be made
if you are interested in the number of adults and children but do
not user per person pricing.
When you have
activated the number of Adults and children, WebLink can now test the
total that the guest puts in vs. the occupancy that has been entered on
the individual property occupancy number. If the guest exceeds the
occupancy number they will get the following message:
Changes to WebLink
There are three new
options to this screen:
Require CSA Insurance:
Check this box to make it mandatory for the guest to purchase CSA Travel
Insurance with each reservation.
Display Text of Rate Label
As: This allows
you to explain what the amount displayed on the availability summary
equals. For Avmain users, this amount is the Rack Rate for the unit.
Default for Travel Agent:
This field allows the PM Company to create an internal Travel Agent
Transaction on every booking.
Changes to
Main Search Feature
There is a new “Sort
WebLink Search Results by” Option: Usage
This option then turns on
a new set of controls at the bottom of the Customer Site Configuration
Page.
New Item
Rotation Period Setup
This new feature allows
you to match your Rotation settings in your particular Instant Software
product:
Rotation Period Starts
From: Set this
date to match the start of the rotation in your software.
Include Owner Bookings:
Set this to include owner bookings in the rotation.
Include Other
Unavailability:
Set this to include other items (Work Orders, Softblocks etc) in the
rotation.
Allow season based usage
tracking: Set
this box to allow you to set seasonal rotation (see below).
New Item Rotation Period Season Setup
This option allows you to
set up usage rotation to match the seasons in your software.
II.
Channel Partner Configuration
To get here, Go to
the bottom of the Main Menu and click on the Channel Partner
Configuration link.
The Channel Partner
Configuration link on the menu is used to configure two items that are
used by Channel Partners and web developers:
·
It is used to configure
the rate structure passed to them in the custom XML Feed.
·
It is used to allow the
Channel Partners to pass their IATA number back to the client during a
booking.
To see what is
enabled for each company, select the Channel Partner or developer from
the drop down menu (-- Select RescoName --) and wait for the page to
load.
Once loaded, your
previous choices, if any, will be displayed. By default, all check boxes
are checked, so all forms of pricing are sent unless the user turns them
off buy un-checking the boxes.
Next if you wish the
Channel Partner or developer to pass their IATA number back in the
booking process, click the check box next to "Send IATA Number in
Booking".
Click Submit to save
your changes
III. Changes to OwnerLink Configuration
Changes to
General Information
Additional Request:
This feature allows you to ask another question of the Owners when they
are booking.
Show Additional Request:
This activates the question asked in #5 above on the Owner Booking
Screen.
# Of Advanced Days
Required for Booking:
The number of days will
determine how many days from today that an owner can do an owner booking
through WebLink. This prevents the problem where the homeowner does a
late booking and the PM Company is already closed and not there to pass
out keys nor do an inspection first.
Changes to
Rental Information
Display Guest Names:
Use this pull
down list to choose one of the following four ways to display the Guest
Names: Full Guest Names, Guest Last Name, Guest First Name or Do Not
Display Any Guest Name
IV. New Item - Guest Reviews
How to get here: By
clicking on “Guest Review” on the main page of your WebLink Admin Page.
Click Here to Learn More
About Guest Reviews:
Click on this link to see what the Guest Review System is.
Select Properties:
Click on this link to share your properties with Guest Review:
Instant Software and
FlipKey have integrated ISILink and the FlipKey Guest Review technology
to provide a completely FREE, seamless, and real-time service. You
simply activate your properties, select one of three levels of
automation and your guests receive invitations to post a review
automatically. It is highly recommend participating and suggest you
activate all your properties. You can automatically check/uncheck all
properties by clicking the top checkbox in the grey area, or you can
select the properties individually. Once properties are selected, click
Save Changes.
Flipkey Control Panel:
Click on this link to go directly to your FlipKey Control Panel:
V. Changes to WebLink for Guest Reviews
Changes
to WebLink portion of Customer Configuration
Show Property
Reviews? This
activates Guest Review System on Search Results:
Changes
to WebLink Search Results and Availability Summary
Search Results Sort by:
This new
feature allows the guest to change the Search Results by the listed
choice. The choice of Rating will then sort Search Results by the units
with the highest number of stars at the top and then descending to the
lowest number of stars.
New Feature on the Search
Results Screen:
The Guest can see what the
average ranking is by the number of stars just to the left of the
“rental pricing”
New Feature on the
Availability Summary Screen:
The Guest can see a new
section called Reviews. It will display the average ranking and the link
to that takes you to the Guest Review Screen for that unit:
VI. Property Maintenance
The following
section contains new features that you may not see when you go to the
Property Maintenance section of your WebLink administrative pages. This
is because your software may have internal settings to control the
feature. Please review your Property Maintenance screens to review which
booking rules you may use.
This area allows you to
create records for every time period you need to set a minimum number of
nights for in your business. If all your properties have the same
minimum number of nights for the entire year, you should use the setting
on the WebLink section of the Customer Site Configuration Page.
COID Level Turn Day
This area allows you to
create records for every time period you need to set a specific turn day
for this unit. If all your properties have the same Turn Day for the
entire year, you should use the setting on the WebLink section of the
Customer Site Configuration Page. If you have set an individual turn day
for each property for all web reservations in the Property
Maintenance>Edit screen it will apply unless you create new periods and
turn days as displayed below. Any settings in the Turn Day section will
take priority over all other settings
Both of the New COID
Level Items also appear as you edit an individual Property. You will see
a column for “Apply Level” and the two choices are COID and Property.
This is what it looks like:
VII. Update ISILink
Changes (For First Resort Clients only)
Information
Paragraph:
This area has been created to give you control of updating ISILink after
you have added or made changes to your units (at P-A-P), rates (at
S-R-E) or owner statements (P-S-S). Below are the
NEW PROCEDURES to follow:
Step 1:
Click on the link for
Update ISILink from the Main Menu.
Step 2:
Next choose which item or
items (Units, Rates, or Agents or Statements) you wish to update. At the
same time you choose an item, the Harvest Log will then display the
history of prior harvest
Harvest Logs:
After you have clicked on
an item for harvest, and click Update, the system will begin the update
and will let you know the results of your upload for each type of
Harvest. The Update ISILink screen will automatically refresh itself
every 60 seconds and will update you on the status of your harvest: if
the upload was successful or not, and how many files were uploaded. You
no longer need to wait until the harvest is complete; you can close your
browser and then check back in later and the status of the harvest you
triggered will be displayed. Below is a sample of the log:
If you happen to try to
start another harvest too quickly, you will get the following message:
When
it is completed you will get a message that looks something like the
following:
The system will then add
the same piece of information at the top of the harvest log:
Back to October 2008 Insider Newsletter
