When we perform a system update to MyPMS we are often times updating
many files including web content and javascript. If your browser
doesn't automatically check for new updates you may still be using a
cached copy and experience problems or quirks.
If ...
The first step in making a 'Direct bill' relationship with a Company
is creating a Company record in the Setup area. Go to SETUP |
RELATIONSHIPS | COMPANIES. This creates the Company relationship,
extends credit to the Company, opens an AR Account and app...
HOW DO I UNDERSTAND THE MESSAGE STRUCTURE OF THE MICROS 2700/3700/4700
INTERFACE THAT WE UTILIZE FOR POSTINGS FROM AIREUS AND OTHER CLOUD POS
SYSTEMS?
The following message types are utilized in IP-based interface
communication based on the MICROS class...
MYPMS FOLIO - TOP HELP ARTICLES
This page highlights the Top Help Articles users have found to be most
usefull when working with the MyPMS Folio Screen:
KNOWLEDGEBASE ARTICLES:
Room Rent wasn't posted, How do I manually charge Room Rent?
[https://su...
Latitude and Longitude - if you upload your property to the Global
Booking systems, then you must enter your property's Latitude and
Longitude. This will indicate your location by many trael systems and
is also used to create a list of Airports in the ...
MYPMS EDIT TAB - TOP HELP ARTICLES
This page highlights the Top Help Articles users have found to be most
usefull when working with the MyPMS Edit Screen:
KNOWLEDGEBASE ARTICLES:
MOVING OR EDITING A BOOKING BETWEEN ROOMS, TYPES, OR DATES
[https://su...
MYPMS FOLIO - TOP HELP ARTICLES
This page highlights the Top Help Articles users have found to be most
usefull when working with the MyPMS Night Audit Screen:
Knowledgebase Articles:
MANAGER'S REPORTANDTHE NIGHT AUDIT SUMMARY OF FOLIO POSTINGS SENT...
MYPMS RATES - TOP HELP ARTICLES
This page highlights the Top Help Articles users have found to be most
usefull when working with the MyPMS Rate Setup Screens:
Knowledgebase Articles & Documentation:
How do I add new Rate Plans?
(Single Parent Rate)
[h...
If an XML developer sends the CVV2 in the xml message, BookingCenter
will use it to transact the deposit. However, it would be advantageous
only if a Site were using MyCard (Payment Gateway product) to actually
process a deposit at time of booking. If not...
In order to accommodate a custom report, you will have to format what
fields you want and how you would like them laid out. A 'prose'
description, such as a written summary, is not adequate for designing
a custom report. What does work is a visual descrip...
There is no way to 'Add a Direct Bill Payment' to a House Account
folio at this time (we are working on it, though). In the meantime, if
your House Account charges need to be Direct Billed to a Company for
payment later on, here is what we recommend:
Cr...
When you unlink a reservation from a group, the group booking data is
no longer linked to the booking. The booking details will remain the
with the Individual after it is unlinked.
To unlink an individual booking from a Group booking, follow these
steps...
Because the A/R (accounts receivables area) will allow multiple
payments to a "DB:" to be posted to a _SINGLE FOLIO_, the A/R is a
'dynamic' statement.
If these payments are posted 'along the way', the A/R will reference a
folio that may have additional...
There are three ways to make a booking. All three open to same NEW
BOOKING window. For step-by-step instructions, go to the online manual
at New Booking
[https://docs.bookingcenter.com/display/MYPMS/New+Booking]
* Booking By Inquiry
* Booking By Av...
The Folio is a powerful and flexible tool for applying charges and
payments to a customer's bill. Each Individual and Group booking has a
Folio Tab in the Booking Screen. All Charges and Payments will appear
in the Primary Folio and can be modified easily...
When implementing an XML interface, there is a setting that a property
can choose to 'automatically assign a room' to an online booking or
not. This choice can have ramification to an XML developer, so read
the article on this choice at:
https://support.b...
WEBINAR RECORDING - JULY 9, 2014
TAKE THE NEXT STEP IN GLOBAL DISTRIBUTION. GET MORE OUT OF YOUR OTA
CHANNELS!
The BookingCenter Contract Rates Program facilitates a direct
connection for preferred placement on major OTA search engines like
Booking.co...
Individual Letters: Customize your letters with Merge Fields
To create or edit any letter, go to SETUP | PARAMETERS | LETTERS. See
Add Letters
[https://docs.bookingcenter.com/display/MYPMS/Add+or+Edit+Letters] and
Customize and Edit Letters
[https://sup...
WHY DO I SEE MULTIPLE AUTHORIZATIONS IN MANAGE CREDIT CARDS, WHEN
USING MYCARD, AND HOW DOES THIS AFFECT MY GUEST?
Properties will notice that often times, when using MyCard, that the
Manage Credit Card screen shows multiple authorizations, as well as
t...
Learn how to use functions and features, get tips on Bookings and
Rate management and learn strategies for managing your online
bookings. We are continually adding tutorials to our YouTube channel,
so check back frequently for new additions.
Visit yout...
MyPMS Custom Letters
CREATING AND EDITING LETTERS
* Default Letters
[https://docs.bookingcenter.com/display/MYPMS/Default+Letters]
* eSign - Digital Document Signing
[https://docs.bookingcenter.com/display/MYPMS/eSign+-+Digital+Document+Signing]
...
REPORTS- TOP HELP ARTICLES
This page highlights the Top Help Articles users have found to be most
usefull when working with the Reports:
KNOWLEDGEBASE ARTICLES:
What types of Accounting Reports does MyPMS provide?
[https://support.bookingcenter.com/...
All group bookings must have at least a Soft or a Hard Allocation, for
at least one Room Rype, for each day of the group. Room Type
allocation is set up during the group booking process in the Group
Booking Wizard, but can be edited at any time in the Edi...
When a room is marked as Out of Order status, the room will not be
offered as an available room to be assigned for reservations or
check-ins for the effective dates. Additionally, the room will not be
counted in your occupancy statistics. The room will be...
BookingCenter provides an API_ _(Application Programming Interface)
to interact with our Property management Systems and our Central
Reservation Service. The XML we provide allows us, or your developer,
to create your own unique 'wrapper' (or 'web service...
The Booking Engine can be enabled to display a drop-down menu so that
your visitors can select a specifc Room Type to see a calendar of
availabilty for that Type.
For Desktop users, choose _Parameters_|_ Internet Configurations_ |
_Online Config_ and th...
There times when a user wants to charge an Item and write their own
_description_ for the charge at time of entry. Thus, you should set up
a MISC Inventory Item to use for this feature.
To use the MISC Inventory Items feature Effectively
Setup up:
1. MI...
BookingCenter supports a remote system sending a CRM Guest ID to the
individual BookingCenter 'Booking Engine' or a Portal Booking Engine
to requests.bookingcenter.com to pass off a CRM guest identifier and
pick it up with the booking message when/if the ...
Each night that Night Audit runs, there is an email generated by
BookingCenter that is titled "CHARGE FOLIO RESULTS
FOR". This email lists the in-house rooms, guest names,
and amount charged to each folio via the 'Charge Folios' proces...
_OTA Contract Rates: What things are controlled in the MyPMS and what
things are still controlled in the extranet?_
When your property decides to interface your OTA (Online Travel Agent)
extranet with their BookingCenter PMS system, there are several
co...
_OTA Contract Rates: Your Role as the Property Between an OTA and
BookingCenter_
Upon starting and maintaining a relationship with your OTA Contract
Rate program and BookingCenter, here are a few things that will help
you understand your role in the con...
BookingCenter supports a feature called "Maximum Book Ahead Days"
(it's set in the Setup area under Settings | Booking Engine Settings)
to dis-allow an online booker from booking more than x days in the
future (though not less than 365). Keep in mind, thi...
DOES BOOKINGCENTER PROVIDE AN EMV DEVICE AND SERVICE FOR
'DIP/TAP/SWIPE'?
Yes! We have details on how you can enroll and sign up to receive an
EMV terminal on this page:
https://www.bookingcenter.com/interfaces-and-modules/mycard/
[https://www.bookin...
Since OS X Mountain Lion, the Mac defaults to preventing applications
from unidentified developers or sources from being launched. You'll
discover the message in OS X 10.8 when you try to launch BookingCenter
for the first time. You'll get an alert dialog...
Booking.com changed the way they send email addresses for guests who
book rooms at your hotels. They used to send the actual guest email
adddress (such as me@gmail.com), and now they send an 'alias' email
address that looks like this:
200158071-qu9v.4kqw....
WHAT IS THE GROUP BOOKING ENGINE?
The Group Booking Engine is an online booking engine that offers a
central location for individuals to book a room as part of a Group
Reservation. By logging in to a secured area, bookings can be viewed
and added to a gr...
Some customers send Letters (such as Confirmation Letters, Group
Contracts, Registration Letters, etc) to email addresses where the
email 'bounces; or is not received by the guest.
The most common cause of this is more strict email sending policies
are S...
The Tape Chart has a variety of powerful features that make managing
booking and availability easy and efficient. To learn more about the
Tape Chart Functions, see Tape Chart
[https://docs.bookingcenter.com/display/MYPMS/Tape+Chart] in the MyPMS
User Manu...
BookingCenter maintains a certified, 2-way complete PMS interface to
the SynXis CRS and the Sabre Hospitality systems, based on the HTNG
OTA certification spec. Each year we have to update the certification
with Sabre, and we use this location to post our...
FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS ABOUT THE BOOKINGCENTER-EXPEDIA DIRECT
CONNECTION
HOW DO I GET STARTED WITH MY EXPEDIA DIRECT CONNECTION?
If you DO NOT have an account with Expedia, go to Expedia | New
Account Setup
[https://docs.bookingcenter.com/display/...
PLEASE SEE THESE TOP HELP ARTICLES FOR THE EXPEDIA DIRECTION
CONNECTION WITH BOOKINGCENTER PMS PRODUCTS.
-------------------------
SETUP AND ACTIVATION
*
If you DO NOT have an account with Expedia, go to Expedia | New
Account Setup
[https://docs.bo...
We have noticed a few key occurrences where your rates on the Mr and
Mrs Smith retail site may appear to be incorrect or not matching
within MyPMS.
This is likely due to three key factors that are specific to Mr and
Mrs Smith and are as follows:
* Th...
Can I sell in a foreign currency via Booking.com?
There are a number of properties outside the United States that do, or
wish to, sell in US dollars. For example, you can sell and are set-up
for USD within BookingCenter, but are located in Argentina. So...
There are many questions around minimum length of stay (minLOS)
requirements and how this works within the product and the various
distribution channels. This often stems from the key difference
between a "stay through" minimum length of stay and an "arri...
Prep Work Before Installing a BookingCenter Call Accounting System
Get to know the layout of the PBX to server to LAN lines. Does it have
two DB9 (typical serial PC port connectors)? Usually, older PBX
systems will be configured with a DB25 connector an...
The American Express credit card can only be used to authorize and pay
bookings with durations less than 100 days if the property is set up
as a Lodging account (most BookingCenter customers are). This is a
technical limitation in the AX specification, as...
If you receive a reservation from Booking.com and it has no credit
card information, this is because of a setting within the Booking.com
extranet.
If you wish to disable this feature, please login to your Booking.com
extranet and you will be able to edi...
How can I participate in the Travelzoo program?
_The Travelzoo Hotel Platform was introduced to complement their
current product mix, and more importantly to further support their
hotel partners throughout the year. They recently launched the new
Travel...
When we activate a BookingCenter property, we add the main user to the
'company' so that that user can login to
https://support.bookingcenter.com [https://support.bookingcenter.com]
and 'Submit a Ticket' to our support staff and track issues with
answers....
Bookingcenter provides an API (application programmable interface) for
marketing systems that perform loyalty tracking. This allows our
customers to work with numerous 'loyalty' systems as well as their
own. Basically, all Bookings get posted to an outsid...
The 'paying' of a Direct Bill (whether the folios have been placed
into a Statement or are in 'un-statemented invoices') is intended to
be made by a qualified accounting person _AFTER_ the charges and
payments have been finalized with the Company offered ...
Apple consistently tightens up its quarantine provisions (what they
call 'Gatekeeper') in order to stop malicious software from being
downloaded and installed on a Mac. if you can't open your
BookingCenter Desktop Mac OS X download, because of an error (u...
UnionPay is a credit and debit card provided by Chinese banks. It is
similar to Visa or MasterCard. In the world outside of China, this
card type rides on the Discover platform. Thus, in order to use it, a
BookingCenter customer would:
1) need to be set...
With the release of High Sierra (OS X version 10.13), Apple is no
longer distributing the 'Legacy Java' needed to run Desktop PMS. There
will be an error presented at launch and you need to click the 'More
Info' button to be taken to Apple's web page at:
...
When entering a Request, the form will ask you for a Booking Number.
This is the number, often called a 'Confirmation Number', given to you
when making your booking. This number may have been generated by a
Travel Agency - such as Booking.com or Expedia. ...
When an XML query for availability is returned to the client, the
available rates may/not have a Restriction to prevent them from being
booked, or else being booked requires some contingency to be met. The
XML array will return what we refer to as a 'Rest...
There are many times when a property wishes to use a Complimentary or
Free Rate in a Booking. There are ways to do this, but we usually
recommend the approach that gives the best tracking analysis of Comp
Rooms.
Best apporach: Create a rate plan you ca...
Properties can place many tax values on their RENT Item (rate applied
as a Charge nightly). BookingCenter rounds most currencies to the
third decimal point, to leave a 2-decimal value. We follow the
generally-accepted norms in how rounding occurs: .005 up...
FAILED AUTHORIZATIONS USING XML WITH PAYMENT PROCESSING
If a Site is using MyCard (TSYS, Vital, Visanet, or Authorizenet) as
payment gateway, _AND_ the Site is set to take 'Online Deposits' (ie,
some money is needed before confirming a booking) _AND_ a ...
You may have a website domain name you wish to promote that is not the
'base URL' for your Concierge site, which will usually be something
like: https://Hotel.BookingCenter.com/demo
[https://Hotel.BookingCenter.com/demo]
Instead, you may want to market ...
BookingCenter has 4 Booking Engine Templates that meet ADA (American
with Disability Access) Compliance. This means our templates meet the
highest standards of ADA Compliance using World Wide Web Consortium's
(W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines
[ht...
Manage and prepare for OVER bookings from Networks such as OTAs and
GDS'
All BookingCenter systems have a Room, a Room Type, and Rate called
OVER. None of these can be edited or deleted, as the Central
Reservation Service uses these to assign any
If you are developing an XML solution for an Owner(s) of Unit(s) that
is part of an OWNER CHANNEL PROGRAM
(https://www.bookingcenter.com/nontraditional/
[https://www.bookingcenter.com/nontraditional/]), then you will need
to have a few concepts clearly un...
If a customer request their "Right to be Forgotten", we send them to
the Property who _may_ had a booking with them, and that property can
remove them, as documented in the Privacy Page below. Thus, the right
can be retrieved via the place the Guest made ...
With the release of Self Checkin
[https://www.bookingcenter.com/selfcheckin/] and eSign
[https://www.bookingcenter.com/esign-digital-document-signing/], it is
possible to send your Guests to https://mybooking.bookingcenter.com
[https://docs.bookingcenter....
When a developer wishes to CANCEL an existing booking, they should use
the "Cancel Booking" message using the OTA standard endpoint
"OTA_HotelResCancelPort" specification. This allows the developer to
also record the cancellation by offering these fields ...
If a developer wishes to use the XML Web Service to save an Item (or
multiple Items) with a booking, then they must use an Item ID that is
_ALREADY ENTERED INTO THE PMS_. While the PMS allows a User to write
an 'extended description' and save when applyin...
If one wished to Place a Cleaning or Meal Plan fee(s) into a Rate
(common requests from our customers), there are a few ways to do it:
* If the Cleaning fee is for _TRACKING PURPOSES ONLY_, and is
already embedded into the Rate, then the easiest way i...
When developing the MyGuest API, please make sure the base url
includes the partial url api. Thus, the base url for the dev
environment should be https://manage-dev.bookingcenter.com/api/
[https://manage-dev.bookingcenter.com/api/] and for the production
...
BookingCenter supports a wide range of EMV devices for use with MyPMS,
as you can view here
[http://www.bookingcenter.com/point-of-sale-hardware-and-forms/].
The question of which device to get is based on pesonal preferences
and how you will use it. Fo...
In certain tax jurisdictions, there are different tax rates throughout
the year. This often takes place is locales where an occupancy tax
will be higher during peak tourist seasons.
The example below is based on an occupancy tax rate that is 11% from
Ju...
When a Booking Engine wishes to work with the BookingCenter APIs to
Query Rates & Availability and Save Bookings, they usually use the
following APIs:
1) Connect to the 'PMS/CRS' and RETRIEVE HOTEL RATES AND AVAILABILITY,
with specifics for finding whic...
BookingCenter has been working with Long Term Stay properties for over
20 years and has some great tools for managing the unique needs of
Long Term Stay guests.
Here are a few common questions when managing these types of bookings:
* Rates - We have...
To get started with receiving an EMV terminal that can work for swipe,
dip, and tap, please visit: https://lp.tsys.com/partner/bookingcenter/
[https://lp.tsys.com/partner/bookingcenter/] and enroll now. Due to
the COVID-19 fears around hospitality, hotels...
If you are using the "Reservation request" feature of airbnb, and a
guest made a reservation request prior to making the booking, Airbnb
_holds_ that room availability for 24hrs. This gives the guest a
booking _if they_ confirm within that 24 hour time pe...
Sometimes Booking.com sends a fax or email to you when we can't pick
up the message. These events usually happen due to network congestion
or errors on Booking.com's side. We see them once in awhile, and there
is nothing we can do about this, as Booking.c...
We receive notice from customers who state that the MyPMS is going
slow, when we show no prpblems nor other customers report any slow
downs. There can be many reaosns for this, but the easiest ways to
reolve this are the following (in terms of simplicity ...
Properties are required by some public health jurisdictions to survey
their Guests prior to welcoming them. Below are the typical approaches
to these needs and how our tools can assist:
The most common approach to including a 'pre-arrival' survey is to
...
Your tax authority might alter the tax rate at a certain date in the
future. Here is how you adjust your tax rate properly. As taxes will
only apply when a guest STAYS AT THE PROPERTY, and MyPMS will post
taxes during the Night Audit process, we recommend...
When you place different guest names, but a _SHARED EMAIL_ (such as
frontdesk@myhotel.com) when submitting a request, despite submitting
active in-house guest information such as room, name, and confirmation
number, why does each Request keeps coming up w...
EMV devices are network devices that must be on the same subnet as
the machines that will connect to the EMV device(s). Thus, your Mac,
PC, ipad, tablet, etc must all be on the same network as the EMV
device. For this reason, nearly all installations mak...
Kiosk and Mobile Hardware Ideas
In an effort to further secure your virtual front desk, we have
outlined some options to assist in _locking _down your Kiosk for the
self check-in process. We don't recomemnd these products or vendors,
but these are links...
With the COVID reality, a number of properties are utilizing the Out
of Order (OOO) functionality to space out guests and rooms.
BookingCenter sends all OOO updates to all sites, but please note that
what may appear to be an overbooking for a room set as ...
This wireless device has some issues you should be aware of:
1) When the device 'updates' and downloads a new 'application' (which
occurs whenever card issuing changes happen, which is often) the
'wi-fi' method for connecting needs to be re-set. Thus, y...
Preventing Credit Card Fraud and Phishing Attempts.
Below are some 'best practices' we recommend, all easy to accomplish.
* The best way to prevent fraudulent use of credit card data is to
_STORE THE LEAST AMOUNT NEEDED_. While it's hard to manage a...
BookingCenter's supported EMV device
[https://www.bookingcenter.com/point-of-sale-hardware-and-forms/]s use
manual batch processes. We do not support 'auto batching' for EMV
MyCard [https://docs.bookingcenter.com/display/MYPMS/MyCard+EMV] to
avoid the nee...
Booking.com currently has an email policy where properties are not
able to send emails that include third party links. Therefore, if you
send a follow-up confirmation email to a Booking.com guest that
includes a internal link on your website, this email w...
Booking.com has a feature called 'auto replenish'. With the
auto-replenishment feature is set to Yes (or activated), when a
reservation is canceled in Booking.com, the canceled room or unit
immediately becomes available. We do not recommend having this fe...
We wish to start by helping you transfer existing folios or stay overs
so the system is ready for hose one(s) we know about pre-training.
Please refer to this KB article:
https://support.bookingcenter.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/249
[https:/...
To get each of your Users familiar with the system, it is best if they
spend some time _SELF-LEARNING BASIC OPERATIONS_ so BookingCenter can
focus on-site training on more complex issues. To this end, we
recommend asking your staff to follow the Training ...
We have had requests from customers who wish to automate the delivery
of Lock Codes
[https://docs.bookingcenter.com/display/MYPMS/Keys+and+Room+Access+Options]
to be sent using Auto Letters, as opposed to Self Checkin. This is
usually done to reduce cost...
When using MYCARD EMV devices, your credit card transactions are sent
to the device from the BookingCenter software. The device then acts as
a mini server connecting and sending the transactions to TSYS/Global
Payments to complete your batch settlement. I...
We have a number of articles that can help with exporting data from
BookingCenter if you wish to leave our service.
The first and most comprehensive is the use the Search Bookings
function under the BOOKINGS TAB in the Front Desk. See Search Bookings
[h...
The email fields in our Desktop PMS, Channel Manager, and MyPMS
systems we support for BOOKINGS, SUPPORT, and BILLING notificartions
are intended to be _single_ email addresses only.
There are times when customers need these to go to multiple email
addr...
If you see a maintenance screen when trying to load a BookingCentrer
web page, click FORCE REFRESH on your browser to see if it's a 'stale'
page from an older event. Our maintenance messages are normally no
more than a few minutes, yet if a 'stale' browse...
When a property participates in a 'Merchant Model' program, the credit
card provided with the booking will be issued by the OTA, or merchant,
such as Expedia or Booking.com. Thus, you are guaranteed to get paid,
but the card will not be the card of the Gu...
There are times when a property must migrate from one MyPMS profile to
a new one, usually do to a sale or ownership transfer. Thus, the old
property (SiteOld) becomes a new one (SiteNew). The steps to do this
are as follows:
GET STARTED
Contact Bookin...
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