Page History

Section

Column
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

your 'default' Guarantee, Deposit, Cancellation and Lead Time settings and to enter Policy and Marketing messages.

The Guarantee/Deposit term settings determine the deposit or guarantee required from guests when booking online, and 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.

period and terms. To setup the Deposit amount required for your bookings, go to the Guarantee Section below.

The 'default' Deposit and Cancellation Policies listed at top of the Marketing Messages display automatically to customers on your website as the Deposit and Cancellation Policies which the guests must accept to complete the booking. They also display on the "BookingCenter Default Confirmation Letter" (if selected) which is automatically sent when guest makes a booking on your website. See detail below, the fields used on Booking Engine and Default Confirmation Letter are marked in red with (Booking Engine) . To see where these policies display on your Booking Engine, see Booking Engine | Policies

Other Marketing Messages are are optional fields that can inserted into your Letters using merge fields which means the information will automatically appear.

NOTE: If you are using an OTA Direct Connection (Booking.com, Expedia, etc.) and/or a XML or partner Booking Engine (such as Odysys, BookingSuite, Easy InnKeeping, etc) as your interface, then marketing and policies are controlled in the extranet or interface of the connection.

To edit Marketing and Policies

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, make changes and then click save. See

image

instructions below.

Column

width	30%

Panel

borderColor	#559ADE
bgColor	#F0F0F0
titleColor	#ffffff
borderWidth	1
titleBGColor	#559ADE
title	Settings Tab

Page Tree

root	Settings Tab

Guarantee/Deposit and Cancellation Terms/Marketing Messages. (Click on the Title of each section to expand and show details)

Section

Expand

title	Guarantee

Anchor

	guarantee
	guarantee

Bookings at my property require may require a

Booking Deposit

(Booking Engine and Front Desk Bookings) - This setting determines the guarantee or deposit required for bookings made at the Front Desk (manually entered) and for online bookings taken on your website or via OTA/GDS channels. For example, if you only require a valid credi card at time of booking, then choose "Credit Card Guarantee". If you require a 1 night deposit, then choose "1 Night Deposit".

No deposit: Does not require any deposit or Credit Card Guarantee.
Credit card guarantee: Checking this box will require the guest to enter valid credit card information when booking. If you require a deposit, then use this information to make deposit in the Guest Folio.
1-night deposit: this setting will automatically calculate a deposit of 1 Night (Rate of first nighto f stay)
Percentage deposit of %: Enter a percentage amount of deposit. For example, if you require 50% deposit, then enter 50.
Flat Deposit Amount: such as a $100 deposit to guarantee the booking.

Expand

title	Lead Times

Guests must confirm at least (days in advance)
Minimum Booking Lead Time (hours in advance) (Booking Engine) Enter your minimum booking lead time in HOURS (24 hr increments). For example, 24 hours = 1 day, 48 hours = 2 days , etc.
Note, for any OTA that you have a direct relationship with - Booking.com, Expedia, Priceline, etc - this value will NOT ‘flow over’ to the OTA. The only systems that this "Minimum Booking Lead Time“ can seamlessly is the BookingCenter Booking Engine/GDS/Pegasus systems. All OTAs and other travel systems you have a direct contract with MUST be setup to enforce your Minimum Booking Lead Time policy in the system itself. For example, if you have a contract with Booking.com, you must set your Minimum Booking Lead Time in Booking.com, as BookingCenter will not send these values. We always recommend to TEST the OTAs setting for after requesting it from your market manager, as that will prove it was set properly.

Expand

title	Cancellations

The cancellation policy of your property will take as a 'default' the one set in the Marketing and Policy area. This can be used for all channels of distribution and apply to all rates and rooms, to maintain simplicity. But some properties wish for specific deposit and cancellation policies that become allocated to specific Agent channels (such as a 'special' on your website; or your GDS bookings to a local company; or the 'non-cancellable' rates assigned to Expedia and/or Expedia, and these unique policies are supported via .

Cancellation Policy (Booking Engine and in Merge Fields)– First choose the time period of the cancellation policy in either hours or days prior to or after arrival. You can also choose no cancellation policy or always a cancellation policy.
- For example, "if not cancelled X hours prior to arrival" is chosen, then the number entered would be calculated in hours.
Cancellation Type: Choose "Number of Nights", "Flat Rate" or "Percentage
Allow cancellations within the penalty period – Do you want to allow cancellations within the cancellation period you have set. Typcially this is set to No.
where X is (hours / days / time): Choose the penalty period in hours or days for your cancellation policy.
Cancellation Amount: Enter the amount of your cancellation fee based on the "Cancellation Type" you have chosen. For example, if you chose "Number of Nights", and need a 1 Night Deposit as a cancellation fee, then enter 1. If your cancellation is $50, then choose "Flat Rate" in Cancellation Type and enter 50.

An example of a Cancellation policy might be:

If your booking is not canceled at least 24 hours prior to your scheduled arrival, you will be charged a $100 cancellation fee. This fee will be billed to the credit card you used to guarantee your booking.

The Guest agrees to this when booking, and the property is therefore protected against a 'chargeback' when/if the cancellation occurs within the period - in the case of the example above, within 24 hours of arrival.

If using Self Cancellation, then one can either use the 'default' policy set in the Marketing and Policy area or create specific deposit and cancellation policies in the 'Cancellation Policies' area that become allocated to Rates, then to specific Agent channels. Read about the Self Cancellation process here.

Image Added

Expand

title	Smoking

Smoking Policy: Choose the type of Smoking Policy you have.

Expand

title	Pets

Pet Policy: Choose the type of Pet Policy you have.

Messaging

These fields are used to display your Policies and Marketing messages. Some of the fields are required and will display automatically on the Bookng Engine

Other Marketing Messages are are optonal fields that can inserted into your Letters using merge fields which means the information will automatically appear. The fields used on Booking Engine and Default Confirmation Letter are marked in red with (Booking Engine) .

The Deposit and Confirmation Policy Message, Cancellation and Privacy Policies listed display automatically to customers on your website as the Deposit and Cancellation Policies which the guests must accept to complete the booking. They also display on the "BookingCenter Default Confirmation Letter" (if selected) which is automatically sent when guest makes a booking on your website. if you have chosen the setting "Guest Must Agree to Terms" in Booking Engine Settings. If you want the policies displayed and require the guest to accepat, then you must make sure this setting is checked.

Deposit and Confirmation Policy Message (Booking Engine) – Explain in 'your own words' the policies for advance deposits, or guarantee requirements and any other special conditions specific to your property.

Cancellation Policy Message(Booking Engine) - Explain in 'your own words' the cancellation policy, terms and penatlies.

Restrictions: (shows page 1 on Booking Engine) Restrictions (Booking Engine)

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

Section Column

width	70%

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

Expand

title	Booking Guarantee

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.

Expand

title	Lead Times

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

Expand

title	Cancellations

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.

Expand

title	Smoking

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

Expand

title	Messaging

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 (Booking Engine) - Displays on the first page of Booking Engine Template 01 and 02 "Hotel Description" option.

Marketing Message (Booking Engine) - Displays on the first page of Booking Engine Template 01 and 02 "Hotel Description" option.

Privacy Policy (Booking Engine) - Displays on the first page of Booking Engine Template 01 and 02 "Hotel Description" option.

Location Description - Optional field that can be inserted in as a merge field in Letters.

Customer Reviews - Optional field that can be inserted in as a merge field in Letters.

Driving Directions - Optional field that can be inserted in as a merge field in Letters.

Registration Message – Optional field that can be inserted in as a merge field in Letters.

Site Description (GDS)

Marketing Message (GDS) Location Description (GDS) Customer Reviews Driving Directions (GDS) Registration Message – not used, please ignore.