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Go to SETUP | SETTINGS |MARKETING AND POLICIES to set up payment guarantees, cancellations terms and the messaging that will appear on your website and GDS.

These settings affect what payment terms and required from guests when booking online, the cancellation policies and the terms that will appear to guests when booking. Although most of these are primarily for your website, there are a couple of settings that do effect the Front Desk and GDS Bookings. These fields are labeled with (Front desk) and (GDS). If you are using buuteeq as your interface, then much of this information is controlled in your buuteeq interface.

See Property Profile Website and GDS and System Setup

When you click on Booking Engine Settings,  the screen will appear with the default settings shown below which are available to enable certain features on your Booking Engine. To edit these Settings, click Edit at the lower right of the screen. See image below.

For details on each section and how to Edit the information, see the links below.

 

To see the details of each section, click on the title and a list will expand:


  • Don't ask for Dietary Information – if you serve meals and need to know preferences then tick this box.
  • Don't ask for Special Needs Information – if you want guests to indicate special needs tick this box.
  • Phone number Mandatory – if you require a phone number with every booking tick this box.
  • Address Mandatory - if you require an address with every booking tick this box.
  • Use Sources – Tick this box if you want to turn on the ability for guest to select where they heard about your property.
  • Source mandatory – Tick this box if you want to make it a requirement that the guest selects where they heard about your property.

 


 

If you do not use the GDS, skip to 'Deposit, Confirmation, and Cancellation Policy Message'

 


 

  • Show Room Type Calendars – if you tick this box, a menu appears below the calendar so that guests can see availability for specific Room Types. Useful for properties with many room types, or properties where each room type is a unique room such as a Vacation Rental or a B&B with theme rooms.
  • Number of Guests: Don't prompt for number of guests on enquiry page Every Room Type has a Maximum Capacity. If you prompt for 'the number of guests' on the enquiry page, then results will be limited to Room Types with capacity to match the number of guests. In fact, guests often book several rooms; if you limit the available options to rooms that match the group capacity then you may miss out on bookings. For example, 4 people may prefer to book 2 Double Rooms (max capacity 2) rather than a Family Room (max capacity 4).
  • Show Guest Types – This flag determines if the booking engine exposes Guest Types during the booking process.
  • Use Promo Codes: This must be set to yes to enable the use of Promo codes set up in MyAgents.

  • Room Assignment - This flag determines if online bookings will automatically be assigned a room number when they are made  If checked online bookings will come in with type assignment but not room assignment. (GDS)
  • Allow non Continuous Bookings – This flag tells the booking engine if it should check to make sure a single room is available continuously during the queried method. This flag is unchecked by default as most guests do not wish to change rooms during their stay. When unchecked the booking engine will only show results when there is a room continuously available for the length of stay, on all queries five days and shorter in length.
  • Do not use Multi Lingual Engine – Tick this box if you want to turn off the multi-lingual functionality of the booking engine. See Multi-Lingual Booking Engine
  • Round Bookings to Whole Number – tick this box to round bookings
  • System Theme Color - Changes the background colors of the Enquiry screens used by guests to make bookings. Select from the picker or place in your HEX values.
  • Maximum Book Ahead days - Place a value in this box to allow guest to book x number of days in the future – note, this does not affect GDS and Global Booking Network sites, they can always book 365 days in advance, so place rates for at least these many days if distributing to them.
  • Email notification of web site bookings Remember every new booking will debit availability for future bookings. In addition, the system can send the property notification of bookings by e-mail or SMS. You also have the option to send an automated booking confirmation to the guest.
  • Email booking confirmation to guests

The booking system holds enough information about your property to build a mini-website. This information may be linked to some agent websites. This information is also used to complete listings on GDS websites like Yahoo Travel, Orbitz, Expedia and others. Please complete this information to the best of your ability.

Deposit, Confirmation, and Cancellation Policy Message(GDS) explain in 'your own words' policies for advance deposits, conditions for cancellations and refunds and any special conditions specific to your property. Be sure to tick the box, "Guest Must Agree to Terms", in Booking Engine Settings if you want the guest to confirm they agree to your terms.
*Tip Confirmed Bookings vs. Enquiries - if you are not able to provide immediate confirmation for bookings then you should include a statement in your terms and conditions that 'all bookings must be confirmed before they are final'.
This Policy Message displays on the confirmation screen, phone or fax form, on the Site Profile page and GDS listings, at the bottom of the guest booking confirmation e-mail, and in the guest booking details.

Restrictions – Displays a small message on the first enquiry screen to warn guests of special conditions.
Please note that it is forbidden to place phone numbers, website addresses or e-mail addresses in any description except the 'Thank you for Booking Message'. If you are listed on the GDS, it is forbidden to use html tags.

Site Description (GDS)


Marketing Message (GDS)


Location Description (GDS)


Customer Reviews


Driving Directions (GDS)


Registration Message – not used, please ignore.

 

"Thank you for Booking" Message – this message appears at the top of the automated guest booking confirmation e-mail. This is a good place to include a contact phone number along with a personalized message.

Click on images to enlarge.

 

 

 

 

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