Release Notes - February 2023

This release brings new MyPMS enhancements to the self check-in and -out system, as well as a new Self Cancellation feature that supports custom cancellation policies.

Self Check-out

• The Self Check-out system can be used either with or without Self Check-in. The basic 'setup' concepts are similar to those for Self Check-in, in that the property can Setup the time, exemptions, and default Letters to deliver email and/or SMS messages to trigger the Guest to 'Check Out Online'.
• Add-on sales for either/or Self Check-in and Self Check-out have also been enhanced.
• The ability for a Housekeeper to be notified - automatically - via the Housekeeping app has also been implemented so that Housekeeping services can target either the schedule assigned at day's beginning, or act immediately upon actual Check-outs and Self Check-outs.  Learn more booingabout the Housekeeping App here.
• Additional background can be found at: https://docs.bookingcenter.com/display/MYPMS/Self+Check-out+System

Self Cancellation of Bookings in MyBookings

• When a Guest accesses their booking, they can cancel it if it's within the 'Policy' period and for a fee (if required by the Policy). The benefit of allowing Self Cancellation is to free availability in order to re-sell the room, and collect a fee automatically.
• The beauty of the 'Self Cancellation' system assures that the property gets whatever fee is due from the Guest enabling this important feature to occur automatically. The policy settings are described in detail in the Marketing And Policies under the 'Cancellations' area. 
• Create as many as desired and ask BookingCenter Support to allocate these unique Policies to the types of bookings you wish, such as your Booking Engine or your Kiosk.
• Only customers who are using the Mobile and/or Kiosk-based Self Check-in feature can utilize the Self Cancellation' system.
• Additional detail can be found at: https://docs.bookingcenter.com/display/MYPMS/Self+Cancellation+of+Bookings+in+MyBookings

MyPMS

• Within MyPMS, with these new cancellation policies, the system will now display the cancellation message associated with each reservation. This pop-up window will display and will outline the specific cancellation policy associated so can be clearly communicated to the guest by your staff.
• We also have a new ‘Cancel Policy’ button, for all completed, cancelled or active reservations, for users to view the cancellation policy associated with the reservation
• We added a self check-out icon to the Tape Chart when a booking is self-checked out, similar to how Self Check-in icons work.
• The Admin Housekeeping page has been updated to better color code rooms.

Booking Engine

• Added currency to each page of the booking engine
• When a property wishes to query a specific room type, the specific room type is highlighted, but will also display other available rooms (based on the query)
• Added a Content Security Policy (CSP) to each customer's 'web tracking' code in order to provide greater security and stop phishing attacks. This is an added layer of security that helps to detect and mitigate certain types of attacks, including Cross-Site Scripting (XSS), phishing, and data injection attacks. 

Google Hotels

BookingCenter is now a certified partner with Google Hotels.  This works like a connection with Airbnb, Expedia, or Booking.com. BookingCenter synchronizes your rates, restrictions, and availability in real time with Google Hotels, and anytime a reservation is made, it will seamlessly import back into your BookingCenter software and be trackable via your PMS reporting. The Google Hotels program utilizes your current BookingCenter booking engine.  If interested, please reach out to our sales department.

System Enhancements

BookingCenter continues to update our backend infrastructure.

This release brings new MyPMS enhancements to the user login as well as to Group Bookings. With Group bookings, you are now able to check-in all reservations within a group by clicking a single button. BookingCenter is also a certified on the Google Hotels interface which allow real-time bookings from a Google search for your property. We have also updated the Expedia (and Booking.com) interface to better accommodate OTA tax remittance. A detailed summary is included below.

Enhancements – MyPMS and Group Bookings

Group Booking

• The Group Booking module now offers the option to “Mass check-in” or check-in all bookings associated with a Group. This allows a more efficient flow to check-in all guests for a large group checking into the property.  Note, this button only appears when the Group Booking arrival date is the same as 'today's' System Date.  And this process will bypass (ie, these events will not happen, as these are controlled on a booking-by-booking basis that this button bypasses) all programmed events that take place during manual Check-in, such as: authorize at checkin; setting a Guest Service device to on/off; triggering a Door Lock code or key to be created; issuing a WebHook or API command.
• Added a ‘Rate of the Day’ to each room type when creating a new Group to expedite the group booking creation process.

MyPMS

• Within MyPMS, we have implemented a new user landing page default setting. At the User level, you can now choose what page MyPMS will automatically load/go to first when you login. The options include those below and you can learn more here:
  • Front Desk
  • Tape Chart
  • Housekeeping
  • Booking By Availability
  • House Accounts
• On the Default Rates Page, you are now able to segment rate plans into either Active or Inactive status
• On the ‘Search Bookings’ page, you can now exclude status ‘Cancelled’ on the search booking results
• On the Tape Chart, we now display the first 15 characters of the Out-of-Order (OOO) message
• Added new colors to the various buttons within MyPMS. This allows for a clearer breakdown of each button.

Security

• We have removed the challenge question and answers on the User detail page and from the ‘Forgot Password’

Self Check-In Enhancements

• We added a self check-in icon to the Tape Chart when a booking is self-checked in

Self Check-out

• Self check-out letters added to MyPMS, allowing you to select SMS and emails and define which time(s) each will be set.
• We added a self check-out icon to the Tape Chart so its visually clear to your staff when a booking has 'self-checked out's opposed to having it manually occur.

Owners Area

• If the Owner has an active Lock system, they can view the Door Entry Instructions for the booking, which is handy for sending to their guests.  Learn more here.

Google Hotels

BookingCenter is now a certified partner with Google Hotels. There have been some properties that are live on the pilot program, and we are now rolling this valuable OTA channel to all interested properties.  This works just like a connection with Airbnb, Expedia, or Booking.com. BookingCenter synchronizes your rates, restrictions, and availability in real time with Google Hotels and anytime a reservation is made, it will seamlessly import back into your BookingCenter software. The program is like TripAdvisor's "Instant Booking", where booking uses your Booking Engine and becomes a 'direct booking' to you, so you can cancel, modify, enforce (or not) your deposit and cancellation policies without any concern for Google.  Contact Sales to get started with the Google Hotels program for unlimited bookings without any advertising purchase required by Google.  Note, your property must be a registered Google Hotel, which is free, to enable this feature.

Distribution Tax Remittance (Primarily Expedia Collect)

BookingCenter supports Expedia Collect in certain jurisdictions where Expedia is responsible for tax remittance. Properties can work directly with BookingCenter to confirm which taxes Expedia will remit and what taxes the property are responsible to remit. BookingCenter supports all combinations of tax remittance for Expedia Collect reservations.  

Whistle Interface 

Whistle is an interactive messaging platform that uses SMS and 'push notifications' to engage customers.  It can be used as an alternative to the SMS features built-into BookingCenter, or to supplement them for the unique approaches Whistle uses.  A customer would sign up for Whistle, and then the PMS would keep the Whistle up-to-date with any new, cancelled, or modified bookings and/or Guest information. 

System Enhancements

BookingCenter continues to update our back-end infrastructure.

Bug Fixes

• When Deleting a Letter, the system now Checks if the Letter is Set as a Default Letter
  • We will prevent the deletion if this is the case
• Updated Maidsheets to Display S/O Room when running in HTML
• Updated merge field projected taxes
• Updated tax exempt setting for Group Bookings and the 3rd+ taxes
• Multi Room Booking with Different Guest Counts fixed on Booking Engine
• Fixed the N/A display showing on the Tape Chart for dates less than 18 months in the future
• Updated Occupancy Forecast Report Revenue to ignore Room Assignment
• Add the 'Cancel' Logging for Expedia and GDS bookings to match what is done for the Booking.com channel

This release brings new Security Enhancements to prevent fraud and ‘phishing’ attempts, 2 new types of rates: We added ‘Add On’ and ‘UpSell’ processes to both Self Check-in and Check-out;  Long Term Rates (for properties who provide Long Term rates for every x days) and ‘Included Item’ in a rate for easing package construction and participating in cleaning fee programs with both Airbnb and VRBO;  some major enhancements to our Booking Engines; improved Cancellation management and reporting; new Hardware; and several bug fixes.

Major Enhancements

Rate Type Additions

1. Long Term rates: Available in MyPMS only (they cannot be booked via OTA/GDS/Booking Engines) allows charging for intervals based on days or calendar months.  Days make an entry from the Cost field for each '#of days' the booking lasts; Months make an entry from the Cost field for each 'calendar' date the booking lasts. More details, and examples, here.
2. Items Include in a rate: A rate that can be sold that includes an Inventory Item with the rate. You must first create the Item to be sold with the rate, and make are the taxes applied to that Item are accurate. Then add that Item to the Rate, and choose whether to Add the Item Cost to the rate or not, and if the Item should recur each x days.. More details, and examples, here.

Security

Hacking and ‘phishing’ continue to plague the digital world, so BookingCenter has tightened security in our services areas and provided tools how you can protect your Users and property.  Included for each User, you can now set the  Country: This allows a manager to set a restriction for a user to only login via the Country where the User should be logging in; Country Login Allow: This allows a manager to enforce that the Country set above is where the User is actually logging in. Choices are only 'the Country' or 'all Countries'.  BookingCenter enforces this via a subscription to an IP service that attempts to take the IP address from the request and verify it is likely in the country where the User has been set.  While not perfect, this helps avoid 'phishing' and fraudulent logins, Allow VPN: For Users who use VPNs to access services from differing locales (thus IP address verification is intentionally being circumvented) this setting can allow an exception for this specific user.  Learn more about tightening security for your Users here.

Booking Engine

• We have added the ability to track better the Google Analytics in general (add 6 new variables tracked over booking), but specifically enhanced the TripAdvisor tracking ability.
• If you are allow ‘same day booking’ (ie, a guest can book ‘today’ for an arrival ‘today’) you can now the set the Booking Lead Time to stop booking at ‘x hours’ before arrival. For example, if your default arrival time is 3 pm and you choose Booking Lead Time is 2 hrs, then no more online bookings to your Booking Engine will occur after 1 pm.  Some OTAs have participate similar features.
• Added the ability to use the ‘Promo’ flag to set a specific Room or Rate as a ‘promotion’ to draw attention to it.
• To enhance ADA compliance, we added Inventory Images to have description fields that can be read by a machine, so that Packages and rates with their Included Items can be easily read by Guests with visual disabilities.

Self Check-in Enhancements

• Enable Guest(s) to cancel based on settings you control  in the Self Check-in area; as well as provide greater control of cancellations in general to run reports on whether Bookings were cancelled by Guests (eg during Self Checkin, at Airbnb, Expedia, etc) or the property directly.  Learn more about cancellations here.
• Added the ability to upload Documents (such as COVID vaccinations or test results) and Images (such as Guests taking pics of themselves or images for maintenance tasks) as part of the eSign process.
• When a Guest signs an eSign we now can track - and log on each booking - from which area of the system it was signed, to differentiate between Self Check-in vs via Auto Letters or a Kiosk.
• We have added the ability for users of ‘keyless’ Self Check-in to display the ‘Lock Code’ and the ‘Room Entry Message’ on the ‘checked in page’ of the Self Checkin system.
• If your property uses ‘auto Pre-Authorization’ for arriving guests (up to 4 days in the future) and there is a failure to obtain an auth for the arriving booking, a MyGuest ticket will be created so a manager can focus on this booking and update the payment or cancel the booking, thus freeing up the room.

Self Check-out is now available to all customers who are using Self Check-in.  More details here.

‘UpSell’ add-on Items during both the Self Check-in and Self Check-out process, with documentation and pictures of how this works here.

Dashboard and KPI Additions

We added a new element to the general Dashboard to count how many Vacant Rooms exist and link directly to the daily Vacant Room report for details.

We added a new Front Desk Widget called “Booking production 

Taxes

• Added the ability for the Owners Statement to show specific taxes collected per Owner booking for ease of tax reporting
• We added the ability to make Tax Exempt on multiple taxes when making a booking.
• We now support 'Date Based' Taxes within MyPMS and our Channel Manager to define what tax(s) are 'Date Based' to be in effect for a specified time and thus quoted when they apply. Tax jurisdictions are beginning to alter when they charge some taxes - and not others - and this can now be automated.

MyGuest 

• There has been confusion when a request was made with an email that existed, but did not match the name - did we update their Guest record?  Either decision has pros and cons, but we simplified it so that if a Guest makes a request using an email address, we use that Guest record to link to that request even if the name is a bit different. We use the new ‘name’ to display on the Request Ticket, so that the Guest sees all matching.  This creates less duplicate records, though is not perfect we’re all aware.
• We now allow managers to define which data collection fields (name, room number, email, etc) are required for their ‘request templates’.

System Enhancements

BookingCenter has put in place new hardware to both speed up and secure our infrastructure, as well as provide fast backup and transition services in the event of a major disaster.

Bug Fixes

• Fixed a bug where user of the Booking Engine Template 1-4 were not correctly tracking from TripAdvisor listings
• The Active Search field (sometimes called ‘Live Search’, residing above the arrivals/in house/departures area) was giving inconsistent results, it now searches all 3 areas accurately.
• Fixed a situation where the Digitial Signing document using the “Tax Merge Fields” was always showing $0.  It now will tally all projected taxes accurately.
• Choosing an Existing Guest from the New Booking window was creating a NEW Guest Record (versus using the existing Guest Details) if the Guest had some errors associated. We put greater control and now regardless of how much Guest data you wish on the New Booking window proper linking occurs.

The MyPMS Release May 5, 2021 included the following Enhancements

Tax Enhancements

Date-Based Taxes

We now support Date-Based Taxes within MyPMS and the Channel Manager products.  This means that taxes can be setup to have different tax rates between specific dates, allowing for future tax changes to calculate accurate tax pricing.  Learn more here.

Tax Exempt Enhancements

BookingCenter added the ability enable Tax Exempt on Multiple Tax Rates at a time, so that 'exemptions' can be set to occur only to Room Rent and/or to all Items posted to all Folios in a booking.  Learn more here.

VRBO

The VRBO network is a major new OTA to our distribution offerings. Focused on vacation rentals, this OTA channel has been growing in popularity base and can now be included in your BookingCenter distribution.  From account creation, to image management, to managing seamless and real-time bookings, this interface leverages all the opportunities VRBO makes available to any channel manager.  Sign up today and allocate whichever Room/Rate combos you want to this important and growing channel.

Images

Because OTA channels such as Airbnb and VRBO require large images, BookingCenter now supports large-sized images that we automatically re-size for your needs based on where they are needed, saving our customers a lot of time and making image management even easier.  Learn more about Adding and Editing images here.

Self Check-in System

In preparation for our launch of Self Check-out, we have added new functionality for mobile Check-Out events and reporting on Check-in events.  Available now are:

The ability to visually see which booking was checked in/out via the Tape Chart

When using "Print All Registration Cards", those that were signed online (via the eSigns feature) and this are already "on file" will not be printed out.  This should save a lot of paper for users who use eSign and also traditional printed Registration cards.

EMV Enhancements

BookingCenter added Internal MyCard EMV updates to make resolution of 'Bad Batch' events easier to track and manage.  

Miscellaneous and Bug Fixes

We changed the Comments "history" link to an Icon to make it more appealing.

Fixed bug with single item images on 4 of our Booking Engine templates (01-04).

Fixed bug when properties were not using guest IDs on their New Booking Window.

Fixed an issue when Room Assignments were being made from the Search Bookings results.