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?

How do I Refund payments and Direct Bill postings to a folio? 

How do I transfer a payment between two bookings not in a group?

How do I remove an incorrectly applied payment to a Credit Card?

Manually Dating Items / Charges to a Folio

Managing Gift Certificates

User Manual Articles:

MyPMS User Manual (Folio) 

 MyCard Video Tutorials (The MyCard Module allows Automated Credit Card Payments to your Merchant Account) :

MyCard Series- Video Playlist

Folio Video Tutorials:

Related Articles:

Manage Credit Cards Screen Behavior - void and modify auths, settle, and Delete.

How do I release / void an authorization?

Why some authorizations can be voided or incrementally adjusted, and others can not be?
Understanding the Accounts Receivables (AR) and Direct Bill System

Download, fill it in with your 'Sources' - 'sort order' if the order they will appear in the 'Sourc'e drop-down menu, 1 at top and 12 at bottom).  When done, return this to your Account Representative and we will enter this into your property profile.

Option 1: Discount Rate Plan

If you simply need to give a discounted rate and the guest doesn't need to "see" the discount on the folio, then apply the discount to the Rate Plan. If you want the discount to appear as a separate transaction on the guest folio, the go to option 2.

• Prior to check in or before any RENT items have been posted, simply edit (Edit Tab) the booking and change the rate to the appropriate rate plan.  If there isn't a predefined rate plan, select Manual rate and enter in the discounted rate.
• After check in or after RENT items have been posted, you can modify the RENT item you wish to discount to give it a new value. To do so locate the RENT(s) or Item(s) postings you wish to discount on the folio and click 'Modify Amount'.
• In the 'New Amount' field enter the new dollar amount, not the amount of the discount.  For example if you had a $150 room rent posting and you wanted to give the guest 10% off ($15) in the new amount field you would put $135.00.  The system will post a reversal of the original $150 and then re-post the room rent in $135 including the recalculated taxes. 
  

See Modify Rates

Option 2 : Giving Discount on Folio

If you want to apply a discount as a separate line item to a guest folio so that it appears to the guest on statements, then you must set up an inventory item called "discount" and then go to the folio to apply the discount.

Step 1: Setting up the discount item:

1. First create a "Discount" Inventory Item you wish to use in the setup area. Go to SETUP | PARAMETERS | INVENTORY ITEMS
   
2. If  you want the discount to also decrease your tax liability,  then the item should be put in the group,  RENT. if this is the case, make sure that the item you setup for the discount has tax values that match your RENT item. If you don not want taxes applied, then create or assign a different group.
   
3. Unless the value of the discount will always be the same, we recommend you leave the sell value blank.

See Add Inventory Items

Posting the discount to the folio: Once you have your discount item(s) created you're ready to post the discount to the guest.  

1. Open the Guest booking details and go to the Folio.
2. Go to "Add Charge" and select your discount inventory item.
   
3. Enter the Quantity as negative number(i.e. -1)and the unit price as the positive amount ( i.e. 20.00)
4. Click apply payment and the transaction will be applied to the guest folio.

For example to provide single $15 discount you would enter qty -1 and unit price 15.00, which will make the amount -15.00.  Then simply click apply charge and the -15.00 and negative applicable taxes will be posted to the guests folio. 

 See Give a Discount

Option 3 : Giving TAX Discounts or REMOVALS on Folios

Taxes aren't tied to a rate, but they are married to the Inventory Item they are setup with.  The Inventory Item: RENT is linked to the Rate, but the same is true of 'beer', 'candy', etc.  There are some jurisdictions where it is illegal to present a taxable Item separate from it's tax value on an invoice (which is what a Folio is).  Thus, the two - Items and Taxes - are married together.

Step 1: Set up the 'reversal' item as detailed above and make sure it is set to be non-taxable.  We like 'Miscellaneus Item' as a good 'catch all' Item for this purpose.  When applying the reversal to the folio, use a Description comment to explain what and why you are doing this.

Posting the reveral item to the folio: Once you have your item(s) created you're ready to post the reversal to a folio.  

1. Open the Guest booking details and go to the Folio. 
2. Go to "Add Charge" and select your 'reversal' inventory item. 
   
3. Enter the Quantity as negative number(i.e. -1)and the unit price as the positive amount ( i.e. 20.00)
4. Click apply payment and the transaction will be applied to the guest folio.

For example to provide single $15 reversal you would enter qty -1 and unit price 15.00, which will make the amount -15.00.  Then simply click apply charge and the -15.00 and teh reversal without taxes will be posted to the guests folio. 

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

How do I edit a booking?

How do I provide a discount to the guest?

How to cancel a booking after its been checked in?

How to I clone an existing booking to a new one?

How do I set a booking to a new guest?

User Manual Articles:

MyPMS User Manual ("Editing a Booking") 

Video Tutorial:

Related Articles:

Cancelling a Booking and Using Cancellation NumbersChecking Out a Booking - when and how can I do this?
Extending Long term stays, pre-charging rent and tax exempt status
How do I add another Rate Plan option to a Room Type in MyPMS?
Resolving Questions about Availability Issues and No Room Assignments

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 Report and the Night Audit summary of Folio postings sent via email

When A Same Day Check In and Check Out Occurs, I Can't Check Anyone Into the Room. Why?
Reports Knowledgebase Articles

Room Rent wasn't posted, How do I manually charge Room Rent?

User Manual Articles:

MyPMS User Manual providing an over view of Night Audit processes. 

Video Tutorial:

Related Articles:

How do I Print All Registration Cards For My Arrivals
Locked Users - How to Unlock Them and Avoid Getting Locked Out
How do I remove an incorrectly applied payment to a Credit Card?
Batch Report Date Request
How do I deal with a failed Batch?

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) (Child Rate) (Long Term Rate) (Item included Rate)
Set Daily Rates with Weekly Rate trigger
How to add another Rate Plan option to a Room Type in MyPMS?
Managing Rates and Availability to your Front Desk, Website, GDS and Global Booking Networks via MyPMS
Rate Groups - a collection of Default Rates - and Group Bookings.

How do I edit existing Rates?
How do I edit/ add Rate Restrictions?
Managing Long Term Rates for specific durations, such as weekly, monthly, or 'every 10 days'.

How do I configure and edit Taxes?

User Manual:
Rates Tab

Video Tutorials:
1.) Add New Rate Plan:

2.) Edit Rate Plans using Manage Rates Screen:

3.) Allocate Rate Plans:

YouTube Rates Playlist: Click Here


Related Articles:

Expedia Direct Connection FAQ | Bookings, Availability, Rates

Booking.com Direct | Top Help Articles

Knowledgebase Articles:

**Selling Packages Online** Complete Guide to setup and selling packages.

How do I use promo codes to offer discounts or packages on my website?

Managing Images for Room Types, Packages, Items, and the Property

Restriction Warning on Dynamic and Fixed Packages

What Products Do I Need to Sell Packages Online?

Coupons and Codes to Access Unique Rates, Rooms, or Packages

NEW! Package Rates: Package Detail Link

Learn how to avoid the complexities of Packages if you simply want to track Cleaning or Meals plan Items (for example).

User Manual:  MyPMS Packages

• Dynamic Packages
• Fixed Packages
• Allocating Packages
• Adding and Managing Items
• Promo Codes - Packages

Related Articles:

Managing Rates and Availability to your Front Desk, Website, GDS and Global Booking Networks via MyPMS

This page highlights the Top Help Articles users have found to be most usefull when working with the MyPMS Group Bookings Screen:

Knowledgebase Articles:

How do I manage folio charges on group bookings?

Transferring Postings (Charges and Payments) Between Folios

Why am I seeing an error "No. of rooms allocated exceeds available no. of rooms ...?

Hard and Soft Room Allocations

Editing a Release Date to soft allocation

Unlink an Individual Booking from a Group Booking

 User Manual Articles:

Managing Group Bookings

Video Tutorial:

Coming Soon...

Related Articles:

Manage Credit Cards Screen Behavior - void and modify auths, settle, and Delete.

1. Open the Start menu
2. Click on Run
3. Type cmd and then press the OK button to open a command prompt
4. At the prompt, type tracert mypms.bookingcenter.com and press the Enter key
5. To copy the output, right-click anywhere in the window and select Mark. You can pressEnter to copy all of the output, or select the text you want to copy and then right-click with your mouse. Paste the copied text by hitting CTRL + V.

Linux

1. Open a terminal window
2. Type traceroute mypms.bookingcenter.com at the prompt and press the Enter key

Mac OS

1. Go to Applications -> Utilities -> Network Utility -> Traceroute
2. Type the domain or IP address in the appropriate input field and press Trace. You can also open a terminal window and use the same instructions as you would for performing a traceroute in Linux.

The 3 digit on the back of the card (4 digit on the front of American Express) is called the card security code and is typically referred to as a CVV2 code.  This CVV2 code is used as an extra security precaution for online or other 'card not present' transactions, however per PCI compliance regulations it's a transparent pass on use and cannot be stored anywhere.  What this means is in MyPMS CVV2 should only be used in conjuncture with our MyCard credit card processing, and will only be used when gaining an authorization or attempting to post a charge to the card.  You will not see this value stored anywhere on the booking as we are not allowed to retain it, only pass it with an transaction to the processor for validation.  Using CVV2 will usually get you a better rate from your merchant on card not present transactions, but may add complexity as the processor may decline a transaction with an incorrect CVV2 code.

Our advice is to save the most relevant current report, open it in Excel, or some other tool, and then edit it and save it so that it is what you want. You can then attach that file to this Ticket  or email, scan, or fax it to us at +1-718-228-5959. With a very specific document, we can quote a price to develop the report as you want it.

Create a new reservation for a guest called 'Direct Bill Charges For <Company>', assign the Cpmpany to the booking, and then cancel it immediately. Use this cancelled folio for charges and payments to this Company as you would a House Account folio.

We recommend a new ‘reservation’ for each Company account you need to do this for.

While the above solution is not as elegant as we desire, it does work correctly from an accounting perspective. Expect the ability to Add a Direct Bill to a House Account in the near term.

Take control of Agent Allocations and maximize online distribution in your MyPMS system. Learn how to setup your agents and allocations to make managing online bookings easy. Perfect for new users or those of you who may need a refresher!

This webinar covers the following topics:

• Setting up Agents: Promo, Private, GDS and OTA
• Managing Agent Allocations and Distribution
• Controlling Rates across multiple allocations
• Using Rate Loading to set rates across channels

This function allows you to send automated “pre” and “post” stay emails to your guests based on date-driven events such as check-in or check-out dates. Auto Letters is used in conjunction with the LETTERS Function to set an automatic trigger to email guests the Letters you have already created.

Auto Letters can be created for Group Bookings, Individual Bookings, or Guest records based on the Letter Type assigned to the Letter. Once the Letter is created and assigned a Letter Type, then the Auto Letter function can be applied and you can automatically send emails to your guests. To set up a Letter go to Creating Custom Letters

Please see the instructions below to set up and use Auto Letters.

Set up Auto Letters: Go to SETUP|PARAMETERS| AUTO LETTERS

1. Click ADD to create a new Auto Letter.
2. Choose “Event” from the drop-down menu. (Note: Events are date-driven events that are set based on individual, guest, or group booking data).
   • There are 7 Events to choose from:
     1. Online Booking Confirmation: (Individual Type ) based on the booking date for online bookings from your website
     2. Booking Check-in - (Individual Type) based on individual check-in date for all bookings.
     3. Booking Check-out: (Individual Type) based on individual check-out date for all bookings.
     4. Online Group Confirmation – (Group Type) based on the group booking date for online bookings from your website.
     5. Group Commerce (Group Type) – Arrival date of Group Booking
     6. Group Finish (Group Type) - Departure date of Group Booking
     7. Birthday: (Guest Type) based on the DOB field on the guest record.
     8. Agent: sent to a Travel Agent when booked via the Agents Area.
     9. Owner: sent to an Owner when booked via any channel, including the Owner's Area.
     10. SMS; send a unique SMS Letter based on the booking details.
3. After choosing the “Event,” you will be prompted to select the following fields: Click SAVE, and your Auto Letter will appear in the list.
   • Letter: Choose your Letter. (Note: you will only see the types of Letters that are available for the type of Event)
   • Days: Choose the number of days before or after the Event you want to send emails automatically. For example 3 days after check-out)
   • Timing: Choose whether the email is sent before or after the Event.
     • Before (I.e. 2 days before Check-in)
     • After (I.e. 3 days after check-out)
   • Notes: 

   • Check-in and check-out Events 

     1. Choosing a 0 or 1 for the timing of a booking check-in letter will have these effects.
        1. 0 days before Booking check in -  Queued at midnight on day of arrival
           1 day before Booking check in - Queued at midnight 1 day before arrival
           0 days after Booking check in -  Queued at midnight on day of arrival
           1 day after Booking check in - Queued at midnight 1 day after arrival
     2. Choosing a 0 or 1 for the timing of a booking check-out letter will have these effects. 

        1. 0 days before Booking check out - Queued at midnight on day of departure
           1 day before Booking check out - Queued at midnight 1 day before departure
           0 days after Booking check out - Queued at midnight on day of departure
           1 day after Booking check out - Queued at midnight 1 day after departure

     3. Group Events
        1. The same 0 and 1 timing effects happen with the auto letter events as happens with the Check-in and Check-out events but all dates are based on the group master dates and not individual booking dates that are part of the Group
     4. Booking Made events
        1. This is solely for 1+ days after. A setting of 0 days after will not work and any "before" day timing will not work. 

Your Auto Letter has now been created and will automatically send emails based on your settings!

Here are some examples of how you can use Auto Letters:

• Send a guest a discount code for their birthday.
• Send pre-arrival information
• Marketing promotions to guests by month or season
• Send information on packages to guests to stay on special occasions and holidays.

Related Articles

Create Custom Letters

Edit Custom Letters

To unlink an individual booking from a Group booking, follow these steps:

1. Locate the Individual booking, either through the Group Booking or confirmation #, name, etc.
2. Go the the BOOKING Tab and go the Booking Information section.
3. You will see the group name and an unlink icon. Click the icon to unlink the booking.
   

Related Articles

How do I Transfer Payments between two bookings not in a group?

MyPMS Groups: Top Help Articles

If these payments are posted 'along the way', the A/R will reference a folio that may have additional payments to it at a later date. For example, if you were to Apply Payment on 5/4 via "DB:<company>" and then do it again on the same booking 2 weeks later on 5/18 for the "DB:<company>" , the original invoice (folio) would be referenced but a new A/R amount would be there. ie, a second payment took place.

To avoid this in a long-term, extended stay scenario, do one of the following;

• Check the Guest out each week/ month /etc and issue the "DB:<company>" only once at 'checkout' and then create a new cloned booking for the next week/month. Do this each week to cleanly separate what was 'consumed' and what was 'billed' to the Company.
  
  
• For each week, 'Add New Folio' to the booking and post each week's "DB:<company>" payment to a new folio on the same booking. This will create a separate folio (invoice number) that won't change and the booking can be as long as desired. You might even call the folio 'Week 1', 'Week 2', and so on. 

1. Booking By Inquiry  
2. Booking By Availability
3. Tape Chart

To add a new Booking follow these steps:

• First, go the BOOKING TAB in the Front Desk. Choose your preferred booking method.
• Choose from the date, rate plan, room or room type and you will see the NEW BOOKING button.(The same booking window opens for all three options.)
• Click the NEW BOOKING button and it will open in a new browser window.
• Complete the booking by first choosing the Rate Plan and Room and then entering Guest Information. This information will appear in the Booking Tab of the Booking once it is completed. (A Room must be assigned to see the booking on on the Tape Chart.)
• When finished, click COMPLETE BOOKING.

Useful features and Tips:

• Source and Guest Types will automatically populate for existing guests records when entered as a new booking.  

Guest Information

• Auto-fill:
  • Return Guests: Most Guest information fields can be auto filled by typing in a partial or full name or address of guest.
  • First-time Guests: enter the zip code and the city and state will automatically populate.
• Reset Guest I.D. : This feature is used in Group Bookings to save individual gues information while remaining as part of the Group. See Reset Guest ID

Booking Information

1. Source and Guest type is required. Source (I.e. Repeat Guest, Walk-in, Website, Trip Advisor) and Guest Types (I.e.Corporate, local, Tour). Go to SETUP | PARAMETERS to set up Sources and Guest Types.
2. Booking Comments: These will appear on on email and letters to guests and to maids and on Housekeeping sheets.
3. Guest comments: Stays with Guest. Not visible to Guest.
4. Projected Income: Total of the projected Room Rent of stay based on Rate Plan.
5. Guarenteed by. Choose the payment type (Receipt type). You are just indicating how you will take payment NOT charging anything to the Guest. To use our Direct Bill and AR system, see Understanding the Accounts Receivables (AR) and Direct Bill System

Related Articles

Edit A Booking

What's the difference between Authorize at Checkin and Authorize manually?

Trying to Check In a Booking, I get a 'Server Error'

There is a two column reporting system for payments and charges in Folios.  Next to each transaction you will see two icons: Modify (change $ amount of transaction) and Delete (deletes transaction from folio)

• Charges and Payments: The two column format allows you to  see each charge or payment as a line item with a corresponding $ amount in the Charges or Payments columns. The total of each column is shown at the end with the Cusomter balance shown at the end of the Folio.  A positive balance indicates an $ amount due. A negative balance indicates a credit balance due to a prepayment or deposit.

• Modify and Delete Icons: Click on each icon to either Modify (change $ amount of transaction) or Delete (deletes transaction from folio)

 The following are the main functions of the Folio:

MyPMS Folio - Top Help Articles

How do I Transfer Payments between two bookings not in a group?

Transferring Postings (Charges and Payments) Between Folios

Manually Dating Items / Charges to a Folio

We define the other users you may notice here:

Admin - this meant the booking was created by a travel system that is part of the Global Booking Network (GDS, Pegasus, OTA system_ that you use BookingCenter to connect to.

Requests - this meant the booking was created by the Booking Engine that BookingCenter provides for making bookings, usually from your website, FaceBook, or TripAdvisor listing.

XML - this meant the booking was created by an XML interface developed by your webmaster; or an XML service you use such as Easy Innkeeper, buuteeq, or others we support.

The most common cause of this occuring is that the default rate plan assigned to the room type of the room not showing in the report has been deleted.  Because the Out Of Order report contains a column for calculating lost revenue when the default rate plan no longer exists no results are returned.

Prior to contacting BookingCenter support for issues with rooms not showing up on the Out of Order report please check the default rate plan of the room type and make sure that it corresponds to a valid live rate plan.

To do so go to Setup -> Rates -> Room Types and view the room type in question.  Make a note of the default rate plan assigned and then validate that rate plan exists on Setup -> Rates -> Default Rates.  If the room type default rate incorrectly points to a legacy rate no longer in the system please update the default rate plan for that room type.

To create or edit any letter, go to Setup | Parameters | Letters. See Add Letters and Customize and Edit Letters. To set up Automated Emails, see Auto Letters Setup

Merge Fields available for Individual Letters. See below for details on each field.

• Today's Date - Inserts the date of the current day.
• Hotel Details - Inserts Hotel details: Entered in SETUP|SETTINGS|SITE DETAILS. See Site Details
  
• Booking Details - Inserts details entered in the Booking Information for each guest. See Booking Details
• Guest Details - Inserts the data entered in Guest Information Section of the Booking Data. See Booking Details  
• Financials - Inserts financial information from the Payment Information and Folio of Booking Data See Booking Details-Folio
• Financials (Projections) - Inserts financial information for future bookings. Use for Confirmation Letters.  See Booking Details-Folio
• Financials (Taxes) - Inserts Tax information from the Payment Information and Folio of Booking Data See Booking Details-Folio
• Travel Agent - Inserts information from Agents. SETUP|RELATIONSHIPS|MY AGENTS See Agents
  
• Marketing and Policies - Inserts information from Marketing and Policies. SETUP|SETTINGS|MARKETING AND POLICIES See Marketing and Policies
• Digital Signing - Inserts the link to the Digital Signature Document. And, the signature and initials box that the guest will sign. See  eSign - Digital Document Signing
• Owners - Owner contact details and commission fields to create detailed letters for each Owne

 To see detailed descriptions of Merge Fields for IndividualLetters at Merge Fields- Individual Letters

Properties will notice that often times, when using MyCard, that the Manage Credit Card screen shows multiple authorizations, as well as the date such authorizations were acquired and settled.  Most often, this is due to a property setup to use 'Auth at Checkin' to receive an authorization for the remainder of the 'projected income' amount plus a 'one time auth' plus a 'nightly auth fee' as detailed in the MyCard section of the MyPMS Manual.

If the property then posts additional charges that makes the necessary payment greater than intially predicted (ie, what was 'auth'ed at checkin), then MyCard will go retrieve an additional authorizations to cover this increased amount(s).  MyCard does this 'in the background', but displays the authorization details in the Manage Credit Cards screen.  If your guest is watching their credit card statement online during their stay, they will see these authorizations as 'pending' and might get concerned that these are 'charges'. Tell them not to worry - when you pay the folio at checkout, in a single payment, these auths all get combined into that single payment and the card holder will see a single transaction on their bill.

This happens when you settle the batch.  The multiple auths all get settled from the merchant processor, to the card holder, as a single transaction.  Thus, if you have an auth for $150, and another auth for $45 that was created when a single payment of $195 was paid to a folio, then the batch report will show these 2 authorizations settling, but the card holder will see a single transaction from your property for $195 on their credit card statement.

See our online manual for detailed instructions, examples and tips on  MyPMS MyCard

To create or edit any letter, go to Setup | Parameters | Letters. See Add Letters and Customize and Edit Letters. To set up Automated Emails, see Auto Letters Setup

Merge Fields available for Group Letters. See below for details on each field.

• Today's Date - Inserts the date of the current day. 
• Hotel Details - Inserts Hotel details: Entered in SETUP|SETTINGS|SITE DETAILS. See Site Details
  
• Guest Booking Data - Inserts the data entered in group Booking Information Section of the Booking Data. See See Booking Details 
• Group Booking Details - Inserts details entered in the Booking Information for the group and the contact person. See Group Booking Details
• Marketing and Policies - Inserts information from Marketing and Policies. SETUP|SETTINGS|MARKETING AND POLICIES See Marketing and Policies
• Financials - Inserts financial information from the Payment Information and Folio of Booking Data. For more details, see Letters: Merge Fields - Financials See Group Booking Details- Folio 

 To see detailed descriptions of Merge Fields for Group Letters at Merge Fields- Group Letters

To create or edit any letter, go to Setup | Parameters | Letters. See Add Letters and Customize and Edit Letters. To set up Automated Emails, see Auto Letters Setup

There are three section of Financial Merge Fields available.

• Financials - Inserts financial information from the Payment Information and Folio of Booking Data
• Financials (Projections) - Inserts financial information for future bookings. Use for Confirmation Letters. 
• Financials (Taxes) - Inserts Tax information from the Payment Information and Folio of Booking Data

To see detailed descriptions of Financials Merge Fields for Individual and Group Letters at Merge Fields- Individual Letters

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?

How can I request a customized report?

User Roles: System Access and Reports

Daily Transactions and Credit Card Deposit Matching

How can I run a tax report?

Managing Gift Certificates On a Daily Basis

How can I get a Total Revenue/Income Report for a Day?

Travel Agent Commission Report

Understanding the Occupancy Forecast Report

Undertstanding the Revenue Report?

Understanding the Bookings Report

User Manual:

Reports

Video Tutorial:

Coming soon....

Related Articles:

Managing Rates and Availability to your Front Desk, Website, GDS and Global Booking Networks via MyPMS

To place a room(s) "Out of Order", go the BOOKINGS|TAPE CHART.

• Click on the Room in the left hand column and a pop up box will appear. Click on Mark Out of Order.
• Another pop-up box will appear. Choose the date range and enter a Reason if needed.
• Click Save

To "Make a Room Available", go the BOOKINGS|TAPE CHART. 

• Click on the Out of Order Room in the Tape Chart and a pop up box will appear.
• Click on "Make Room Available" and the Out of order status will be removed from the Room and Tape Chart.

Related Articles:

Blocking out rooms for a specific time period

Out of Order (OOO) status will not release from a room

Reports: Why do some rooms not show on the Out of Order Report?

To enable the “Warn On Check-in” Flag for a specific Guest Type, go to SETUP | PARAMETERS | GUEST TYPES.

• To create a new Guest Type, click Add
• To edit a current Guest Type, click on the Guest Type I.D. and click Edit.
• Enable Flag: Set the "Warn on check-in" to YES or NO. The "Yes" will enable the warning message feature. 

To use the House Accounts for Gift Certificates, see Setup Gift Certificates.  

If setting up POS printers (Point of Sale), read this article to create custom printers and receipts.

Go to FRONT DESK | HOUSE ACCOUNTS to set up, manage and print House Folio accounts. The Primary Folio serves as your main House Account Folio and will always display as the default when you go to the House Accounts.

• When you Add a Charge or Payment, it will automatically post to the Primary Folio unless have created another folio and chosen it when applying the transactions. See Add Folio
• When Setting up a new folio, you have the ability to indicate which charges should automatically be charged to that folio. In the example below, Dinner is set to automatically charge to the Restaurant folio and the gift items to the Boutique folio. This can be changed manually at time of charge, bu this is a convenient way to ensure the charge goes to the correct folio. See Edit Folio
• House Account folios can be open and closed at anytime as long as they are balanced. To balance the folio, a corresponding charge and payment must be applied. See Balance Folio and Close Folio
• Remember each folio must be balanced in order to complete night audit, so be sure to make charges and take payments in the correct folios. If you are using a daily folio or have a one-time charge, you can close the folio after it is balanced. The transactions will be recorded and viewable in the Transactions Report. See See Folio and Night Audit
• After a folio is closed, it can be located by using Search Folio

See the MyPMS User Manual for examples and step-by-step instructions on setting up and  managing House Account Folios

• Add Folio
• Edit Folio
• Add Charge
• Close Folio
• POS Receipt Function
• Search Folio
• Add Payment
• Print/Email Folio

Related Articles

To Close a House Account Folio. See Closing House Account Folios

To use the POS Reciept Function. See House Accounts: POS Receipt Function

To view and edit your POS Receipt. Go to SETUP | PARAMETERS | LETTERS and choose the POS Receipt Letter. You can then customize the  Receipt with Merge Fields.

How to use Merge Fields

• Today's Date: Displays the current date.
• Hotel Details - Inserts Hotel details: Entered in SETUP|SETTINGS|SITE DETAILS
• Details - Inserts financial information from the Payment Information and Folio of Booking Data
• Marketing and Policies - Inserts information from Marketing and Policies. SETUP|SETTINGS|MARKETING AND POLICIES

Using the POS Receipt function in House Accounts

• Go to FRONT DESK | HOUSE ACCOUNTS
• Select the House Account Folio.
• Select the items to appear the POS Receipt by putting a check mark in the box next to the transaction. To choose all items, check the box next to Date in the top left corner of the folio.
  
• Once you have selected the items, scroll down below the Folio and you will see "Print checked items to POS Printer" . Choose Print or Email from the drop-down list and a new window will automatically open with the Receipt containing the transactions you selected. 
• Note: The first time you use the POS Receipt, a message will appear prompting you to create a POS Receipt Letter. See instructions below.

Set-up and Customize POS Receipt Letter

• To view and edit your POS Receipt. Go to SETUP | PARAMETERS | LETTERS and choose the POS Letter by clicking on the Letter I.D.. POS Receipt Letter and Merge Fields
  
• To create a new POS Receipt. Follow the steps to Add A Letter and choose the POS Letter Type. This new Letter is used in conjunction with the "Print checked items to POS Printer" and will open when you click either Print or Email in the drop-down list.
  

 Related Articles

Folios: Closing House Account Folios

House Account Folios

POS Receipt Letter and Merge Fields

Go to FRONT DESK | HOUSE ACCOUNTS 

• Search Folio: Use the Search function in House Accounts, located in the last Tab to search and display House Account folios by name or folio number for historical review. A highlight is that House Account folios can be closed, yet still searchable and reprinted at a later date.
  
  • Choose the Search Folio Tab available in folio tab list across the top.
  • Choose your search criteria by Name, Folio # or Status. Use partial numbers or letters to get a list of folios with those characters.
    
  • Select the status of the folio search: Open or Closed. If you leave it at Select all and click search, it will return a list of all folios.

• Print or Email:
  
  • First click on the Folio by choosing in the Tab list at the top.
  • Click on the Print or Email links in the top right, above the folio. A new window will appear with statement of all of the transactions in the particular folio.
  • To create a statement with specific items from the primary folio:
    • First Add a new folio
    • Go to the primary folio and select the items by checking the box next to the transactions and then go to the "Transfer checked items to" below the folio and choose the newly created folio from the drop-down list.
    • Go to the newly created folio and print or email a statement with only those folio items. If you need to add or edit information to the statement, then choose the email function. Print versions can not be edited.

• Customized Receipt Function: See, Customized Receipt Function Note: you must have the POS Module enabled to use these function.

Related Articles

Folios: Closing House Account Folios

House Account Folios

Managing Gift Certificates

POS Receipt Letter and Merge Fields

The email is sent to the main email address of the property, as set under Setup | Settings | Site Detail.  This is a good email to have your staff, or accountant, look at each day to make sure all rates were charged correctly to each in-house Guest.

If there were manually charged RENT charge, see this article to explain the effects of the manual 'Add Charge' of RENT on Night Audit: https://support.bookingcenter.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/348

To make sure that the Night Auditor never forgets to 'Charge Folios' see this article above to to make that a requirement.

• The link is visible next to the Package Rate in the New Bookings and in the Booking Details when a Package Rate is chosen.
• When clicked a pop out window will appear with the itemization of the Package. 

Please note: (This feature is available only to users of the Packaging Module)

 Related Articles

Setting Packages
Managing Images for Room Types, Packages, Items, and the Property
Restriction Warning on Dynamic and Fixed Packages
What Products Do I Need to Sell Packages Online?
Coupons and Codes to Access Unique Rates, Rooms, or Packages

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 connection.  

1.)  The two primary parties in any OTA Contract Rate is:  a.) the property (you)  and b.) the OTA (Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb, Priceline, Hotwire).  Because the contract is between the two of you, the roll BookingCenter plays is simply being the connection between your PMS software and the OTA extranet (the managing site for any OTA).  

2.)  Proper Communication Channels:  Because the contract is between the two of you, we do not interfere in the enrollment process or the maintenance process between you and your designated Market Manager.  We do not reach out directly to the OTA on your behalf, as they will not want to hear from us.  We will rely on you to relay any communication that we need to know from your Market Manager to us.  We will also ask you to relay questions we may have as part of trouble-shooting or clarification back to your Market Manager.

3.)  Limited Information:  Because we are a third party, we will not have access to your extranet or some of the settings you have with your OTA.  We cannot always see what you see, and so we will rely on you to communicate in detail what problems you are having.  Include the guest's name, date of check-in, room/rate, promotional program if there is one, etc.  The more details we receive from you, the more we can research effectively on our side of the relationship.

4.)  Who to Contact When:  Someitmes it is difficult to know what side of the relationship (the OTA or your BookingCenter software) the problems lies on.  When in doubt, contact both sides with the details of the issue:  us and your OTA Market Manager.  

We have two features to give you more control over your User Log in Sessions. The Log in Session Timeout time can be customized to 5-60 minutes to fit your needs and a Session Expiry Warning message appears 3 minutes before the session is about to expire.

Log in Session Timeout: Choose a site wide session expiry time between 5 - 60 minutes. 

• Go to SETUP | PMS | SETUP
  
• Click Edit at the bottom right of the screen. 
• Go the the first section: Setup
  
  • In the field, Session Timeout (minutes): enter a value between 5- 60 minutes
• Click Save
• The Session Expiration Warning message will now appear to a User 3 minutes before the session expires and the User is logged out and returned to the Log in page.

Session Expiry Warning Message:

A pop-up window will appear with a Session Expiration Warning message three minutes before the end of the Session Timeout entered. The message displays the time remaining in the last 3 minutes and gives you the choice to Stay Logged In or Log Out Now.

For example, If the Session Timeout is set to 40 minutes, the warning message will appear at 37 minutes to warn the User that the session will expire and give them 3 minutes to stay logged in. 

In part one of Basic Front Desk Operations, we will create a new booking, search for a booking and go over the check-in and check-out a Guest.

Recommended for first time users of the Front desk and those needing a refresher.

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/

What is EMV "chip and pin" and what does it mean for MyCard?

A regulatory change that occurred in North America where the liability for fraudulent credits cards containing a 'chip' shifted with the advent of the 'EMV' change.  EMV is the global standard for smart card payments and acceptance devices, named after the developers: Europay, MasterCard, and Visa. EMV microchip-enabled cards provide stronger security and other capabilities not possible with traditional magnetic stripe cards.  Credit card companies are already issuing EMV/chip cards. A special card reader is required to read these EMV chips, but you can still swipe the cards through the same magnetic stripe readers you're using today. However, to encourage businesses to adopt the more secure technology of EMV/chip cards, a liability shift went into effect. Prior to EMV, if you swipe a counterfeit or stolen card, the bank assumed the loss. With the liability shift, if you swipe a counterfeit or stolen EMV/chip card with a magnetic stripe reader, you could be liable for that charge. Liability is with whichever party is the least EMV-compliant in a fraudulent transaction. Thus, depending on how the card was swiped/dipped (pin & chip)/tapped (NFC or 'Apple Pay')/keyed-in, the liability for approving an authorization could be with either the merchant bank or the merchant.  

Credit cards processed via MyCard (the payment gateway used within MyPMS - More details) have - and will - continue to work after the 'EMV Liabiity Shift' just like computers did after Y2K - don't get alarmed.

BookingCenter provides details on how you can enroll and sign up to receive en EMV terminal on this page: https://www.bookingcenter.com/interfaces-and-modules/mycard/

What should a MyPMS customer do?

Because there are many thousands of credit-card accepting facilities that do not have EMV-certified hardware and software, the 'liability shift' in North America did not upset the relationship between merchant and merchant provider.  Also, few BookingCenter customers see 'pin and chip' credit cards that present fraud.  For any manually keyed-in transaction, online booking, or card present transactions with a 'swipe' track and no 'pin & chip' (the vast majority of transactions right now), there is no change required in your use of MyPMS or liability shift.  Just keep doing things as traditional.

For card holders who come to your property and present a 'pin & chip' credit card, if you swipe the card and that credit card is found fraudulent, the new 'liability shift' means that the property owner ('merchant') may be liable for fraud costs.  Because the card holder possessed a 'pin & chip' credit card, the 'liability shift' governing 'card present' payments (i.e., entered via a swipe or manual entry) will no longer protect the merchant who doesn't use an EMV device to authorize 'pin & chip' cards.  

Option 1 : For those concerned with the 'pin & chip' credit card 'liability shift' (i.e., you have exposure to guests who present fraudulent cards), you should visit this page and get an EMV device so you no longer 'swipe' chip cards.  This is the best and easiest path to avoid fraud chargebacks, as MyPMS has robust support for EMV devices we support, as we detail here.

Option 2:  An alternative is to never worry about the EMV 'liability shift', and continue to run all credit cards as you have done in the past, swiping the 'pin & chip' credit cards for your 'card present' discount rates, which will continue to work. If you process payment prior to arrival, or via online, then this issue doesn't affect your business at all, since all your card transactions are 'offline'/ 'card not present'.  The liability to this strategy is that if you were to swipe a 'pin & chip' credit card, and it was later found to be fraudulent, you might find your merchant processor won't protect you for fraud costs. Ask your merchant account rep to know more about that situation.

Option 3: If you don't want an EMV device from BookingCenter, you may also request an EMV reader from your merchant provider in order to process 'pin & chip' card present transactions.  This would mean posting an 'offline' credit card 'receipt type' in MyPMS, as explained in the article here, as these 'offline' transactions won't process within our MyPMS system. Such an approach would be a mix of processes for your front desk:

1. The MyCard traditional technique (see these movies for understanding of how MyCard works) for all transactions except card present transactions where a 'pin and chip' card was presented.
2. For situations where a 'pin and chip' card is presented by a guest, the card would be 'dipped' into the EMV device then manually entered onto the folio as an 'offline' payment.  View an article describing this process here.

This would be 'best practices' behavior in avoiding any fraudulent 'pin and chip' transactions.  But it is a mix of processes, which can cause errors when staff is trained on exceptions. We have a more detailed article on using EMV terminals with MyPMS here.

If you want to order an EMV reader...

Any of the EMV devices listed at: http://www.bookingcenter.com/point-of-sale-hardware-and-forms/ are EMV ready now with BookingCenter. Read the details to make sure the one you choose supports the method for connecting (either ethernet cable or wi-fi) and also whether or not you wish to use NFC (which is what ApplePay, GooglePay, SamsungPay are, for example).  

If your merchant banker can provide one of these devices for you to use for your 'EMV' transactions, then we will be able to install our BookingCenter app onto the devices listed on the page at: http://www.bookingcenter.com/point-of-sale-hardware-and-forms/ to make integrated EMV-approved transactions.  No additional device will need to be purchased, as the PAX devices listed at the URL above will all work.  BookingCenter is giving away basic EMV devices for free if you sign up at this page.

What if my merchant processor doesn't have a certified EMV app with Does BookingCenter, can you build one?

BookingCenter spent years designing and building EMV apps with PAX devices and the TSYS and Global payment processing platforms.  We likely won’t create an EMV app with other merchant processors for some time, as the effort is intense. Each EMV certification takes year(s) to gain, and then hundreds of hours per year to re-certify as standards evolve.

At the moment, Global and TSYS are the only large platforms we’re certifying EMV apps with, as there is no down side to our customers (except having to switch accounts).

If you want to stay with your existing processor, I’d recommend avoiding the EMV terminal and stay with the e-commerce and ‘card present’/swipe transactions we offer via the many processor connections. While this does provide a bit of opportunity for illicit users who attempt charge backs when using their ‘chip cards’ in a swiped transaction, in our experience, the risks are either non-existent (most hotels who swipe ‘chip cards’ have no charge backs) or very small (most people are decent and don’t lie).

EMV is a complex subject and there has been much written about it.  There is a good overview with common questions and answers presented here: http://www.creditcards.com/credit-card-news/emv-faq-chip-cards-answers-1264.php.

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 group without having to contact the property directly.

The Group Booking Engine provides Rooming Lists, individual payment options and group booking details to give guests the information they need to choose a room and complete payment. Guests can select the Room type they want from availability based on the hard allocation in the Group Booking in MyPMS.

All bookings made on the group booking engine are automatically updated and managed in MyPMS giving the Group Booking Engine complete control without the time commitment of taking individual bookings.

The group booking engine can also be customized to your property by adding a logo banner, displaying your marketing policies and room type images.

Note: The Group Booking Engine is available to MyPMS customers who currently use the BookingEngine.

Features and Benefits

• Full availability control and guest management in MyPMS
• Secure guest access with User ID and Password
• Availability and rates based on group booking allocation
• Seamless integration of rates and availability with MyPMS
• Customized banner and Room Type images
• Display Deposit, Confirmation, and Cancellation Policy

How does the Group Booking Engine work?

• First, create a Group Booking in the Group Booking Wizard in MyPMS. The confirmation # of the booking will become the User ID.
• Open the Group Booking and go to the Booking Data Tab.
• In the Booking Information section, create a password and enter it in the password field and click Save. (See below)
• The Group Booking can now be accessed through the Group Booking Engine, https://groups.bookingcenter.com/ using the Confirmation # as a User ID and the password you created for the Group. The User ID and password is the same for all guests logging into the Group Booking.
• Give the Group Contact the User ID and password and direct them to https://groups.bookingcenter.com/ to log in and start making bookings.
• To easily email the USER ID and Password to the Group Contact, add the USER ID and Password to the Group Confirmation Letter using merge fields. 

NOTE:

• Group ID: is auto set via the system, it is the Group Booking ID. This field is not editable.
• Password: is set via the property o teh Group Data page. Guests cannot change this field, but it be changed at any time.

Customize the Group Booking Engine

There are several settings in the Setup Area of MyPMS that are used to customize the group booking engine to your property. You may already have some or all of these set up for your website booking engine. The booking engine settings that are already enabled will automatically be used on your group booking engine.

These settings are all located in SETUP in MyPMS.

• Email Notifications and Guest confirmations of bookings
• Deposit Policy and terms
• Deposit, Confirmation, and Cancellation Policy Message
• Customized logo/banner
• Room Type images

Go to Group Booking Engine in the Online Manual for Step-by-step instructions.

Group Booking Engine Overview and Instructions for Guests

After the group booking is created. Give the Group contact the User ID (Confirmation #) and password and ask them to log in at https://groups.bookingcenter.com/

Note: If the Group check-in date is in the past, or the group has been cancelled, then the system will not allow anyone to log in.

Once logged in, the guest will be logged in to the Group Booking Engine and the Add Booking Tab.

The Group Booking Engine has four Tabs:

Add Booking

• Arrival and Departure Date cannot be changed in the booking engine. If a guest has different booking dates than the group, they will need to call the hotel to make their reservation for the different dates.
• Choose # of guests
• Choose the room type from the drop down menu. (These have already been allocated in the Group Booking)
• Enter First and Last Name and Email Address
• Choose method of payment from the drop down list.
• If Credit card is chosen, then enter the credit card number and expiration date.
• The last step is to agree to the terms and conditions if present and click Complete Booking.
• The booking will now display in the Rooming List.

Rooming List – This list displays the bookings that have already been booked as part of the group.

Group Information – This page shows basic information about the group, i.e. check in and checkout dates, etc.

Property Information – Basic contact property Information, phone, address, Address of the property

To Customize a Group Letter with the USER ID and PASSWORD

After the group booking is created and assigned a password, you can then easily give the guest the login information by using a merge field in a custom Letter. 

• To create a Custom Letter for a Group Booking, see Add or Edit Letters
• To insert User ID (Confirmation #) and Password merge fields, See Merge Fields - Group Letters
• To enter the Password for the Group Booking, see Group Bookings - Create Password

Sample Group Booking Engine Letter using Merge Fields for USER ID and PASSWORD. The following example shows how the Letter looks in the Template Editor with merge fields inserted for the User ID and Password. Please feel free to copy and paste this into your Group Booking Letter.

It has been common for hotels to use a gmail address, such as 'myhotel@gmail.com' as the From: on the email setting in BookingCenter.  But the SPAM avoidance of today's systems won't guarantee that BookingCenter is authenticated to send email for your specific Gmail account. What is BEST- and works in all email situations - is for you to use your own domain, such as myhotel.com, and SPF sign that domain so BookingCenter is authenticated to send emails for your domain 'myhotel.com'.  That way, you use an email such as 'Bookings@MyHotel.com' as the From: to send confirmation/self check-in/etc emails and the SPF record has been validated.  

If you wish to use a commercial email service (such as Google offers) for reciving and replying to emails - great.  You can easily forward all email from 'myhotel.com' to your gmail: myhotel@gmail.com to avoid having to change anything in your operations - all email will still be managed by your basic, free Gmail email address.  You just use your domain name to validate (via SPF)  that third party systems - such as BookingCenter - can send emails under your domain name and therefore the emails are receved by all your intended recipients. And it does look better to guests,that your enails come from @myhotel.com (such as bookings@myhotel.com).

Regardless, once you have set the SPF record (as detailed below), you must make sure the email used by MyPMS (set in the Setup Area | Site Settings area - 'email') uses your domain name, such as bookings@myhotel.com.  The domain name used must match the domain name with the SPF record so that BookingCenter is authenticated to send email on its behalf. 

For properties that choose this recommendation and use their domain-based email, and have SPF enabled with a hard fail condition, we recommend you add an SPF record for teh BookingCenter netblock of 209.237.231.0/25.  

A sample SPF record, if you didn't already have one defined, would look like this:

v=spf1 mx a ip4:209.237.231.0/25 -all

If you already have an SPF record, then simply add "ip4:209.237.231.0/25" to the record at the end of your current record and save it. This would maintain the ability of your current provider to send email for your deomain and add the 'net block' of BookingCenter to also send email for your domain.

Breaking this down, this defines allowed senders as any of the MX records (inbound mail servers) for your domain, as well as the IP address of the root A record of your domain, and any server in our 209.237.231.0 netblock.

If you aren't familiar with SPF, we recommend you use a generator tool like https://www.spf-record.com/generator that can pull your existing SPF record and allow you to make modifications. If you have an existing SPF record and aren't what to change, you can open a support ticket providing the domain in question and our support team can assist you in determining what to add to the record.  Please be aware BookingCenter doesn't control the DNS for your domain, and cannot make those changes for you.

For SPF authentication to pass, all these conditions must be met:

1. you have exactly 1 SPF record on your domain;
2. the record's syntax is correct;
3. the total number of DNS lookups can't exceed 10. 

Please look in your DNS entry to make sure there is only 1 TXT record, it is important that you don't have 2 SPF records.

You may have a situation where you are SPF approving another service to send emails from your domain, such as 'outlook.com' in which case the 1 TXT file on your DNS will have TWO SPF records:

• one for Outlook (which might look like: v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com -all)
• and one for BookingCenter (which should be v=spf1 mx a ip4:209.237.231.0/25 -all)

In such a case, the SPF record might look like this : v=spf1 include:spf.protection.outlook.com ip4:209.237.231.0/25 -all which will allow BOTH Outlook and BookingCenter to be supported via the SPF record.

MyPMS currently does not support DKIM signing of emails.

Updating your SPF records involve changing your DNS settings. Depending on the company that hosts, or is the registrar for your website (i.e. GoDaddy, 1&1, etc), the steps below may differ somewhat, but are consistent.

1. Login to your Domain and go to your DNS Records
2. Click ‘Add a DNS Record’
   1. Often you will be presented with a list, such as the first screen shot 
3. Choose a TXT record 
4. In the most DNS systems, enter the following:
   1. The Host Name will be blank
   2. The value will be: v=spf1 mx a ip4:209.237.231.0/25 -all
   3. TTL: We recommend an hour (3600 seconds)
   4. Click ‘Save’
5. We would recommend waiting about an hour and then you can check your SPF and DNS records at: https://mxtoolbox.com/dnscheck.aspx.

 
Some additional recommendations

1. You can only have ONE SPF record. SPF supports multiple entries, but you can only have one (single) SPF record.
2. You can check your existing SPF and DNS records at: https://mxtoolbox.com/dnscheck.aspx. Simply enter your domain (i.e. bookingcenter.com) and go to SPF Record Look-up. This screen will show you if the record is updated correctly (in green) or if there is a problem it will show in red and tell you the issue(s) that need to be corrected.

Each Individual and Group booking has a Folio Tab in the Guest Booking Details.To manage the folio of a Guest Booking, locate the booking and then click on the Folio Tab in the Booking Details.

To check out a booking, the guest folio must be balanced to insure that all all payments due and that the guest balance is at $0 at checkout. Balancing the folio can be accomplished in several ways by adding charges, applying payments, giving refunds, giving discounts, etc.

The system provides two methods to  insure that all Folios are balanced and all payments are received before a guest can check out and the system date can be incremented to the next day.

The two methods are:

1. Balance Folio at Check out
2. Balance Folio in Night Audit

For step-by-step instructions on how to balance the folio and examples see online manual Balance Folio

Headers and Footers displaying when printing a webpage is a client preference and can be changed via the browser based print settings.  To suppress these find your browser below and follow the steps.

Chrome:

Bring up the print dialog via Ctrl-P (PC) or Command-P (Mac)
Click on the '+ More Settings'
Uncheck 'Headers and Footers'
Once unchecked and you print a page it should remain unchecked until manually re-enabled.

Firefox:

Mac OSX:

Click on Fille -> Print.
Click Show Details.
Set desired Header & Footer options to 'Blank'.

Windows:

Menu -> Print
Click 'Page Setup'
Click the 'Margins & Header/Footer tab'
Set desired Header & Footer options to 'Blank'.

Safari:

Click on File -> Print.
Click Show Details.
Set desired Header & Footer options to 'Blank'.

Internet Explorer:

Click on the Menu Cog -> Print -> Page Setup.
Under the Headers and Footers section set desired options to 'Blank'

There are also several ways to customize the Tape Chart to fit your property needs.

Follow these step-by-step instructions on how to use these settings to customize your Tape Chart.

• Order of Room Types & Rooms: Choose the order of Room Types and Rooms om the Tape Chart.
• Default # of Days: Choose the number days in the default Tape Chart View. This means it will automatically appear with the set number of days when opened. This can always be changed manually in Tape Chart.
• Date Bar Repeat: Choose the number of rows to view your rooms on the Tape Chart.
• Room Type Images: Add Thumbnail Images that will appear in the Room pop out on the Tape Chart.
• Booking Flag: Add a Flag to booking by selecting one of your flagged Guest types in the Booking Details. It will appear on the Tape Chart with a red outline around the Guest Booking.
• Group Icons: Add an icon to each Group Booking and each booking in the Group will have the icon appear on the Tape Chart.

The Tape Chart has many functions available for managing bookings and availability that you may want to become familiar with. For details and instructions, see Tape Chart Management

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.

If you DO have an account with Expedia go to Expedia | Activate Connection

For important information on setting up and managing your Expedia connection, see Expedia | Manage Connection

 How do I know when my Expedia Direct Connection is live?

After BookingCenter has completed the mapping of your Room Types, we will confirm the connection with Expedia. You will then receive a confirmation email from Expedia. In this confirmation email, you will be asked to log into the extranet to activate the direct connection. When you click this button and activate the connection, you will be LIVE on Expedia and can receive bookings. BookingCenter will also receive notification that the connection has been activated by you and update all rates and availability. If there are any issues, please let us know by updating your support ticket. 

How do I change Property Information, Images, Room Type Descriptions and Amenities?

All changes to Property and Room Type information such as descriptions, images, amenities, etc. are made in the Expedia Partner Central extranet. You have complete control over this in your Extranet. If you need help with making these changes, please contact your Expedia Market Manager. Remember, BookingCenter sends ONLY Availability, Rates and Restrictions to your Expedia Extranet. 

How do I find Expedia bookings in MyPMS?

All Expedia bookings will come in to your BookingCenter PMS with the agent code of EXPDIRHC=Expedia Hotel Connect, EXPDIRHC= Expedia Collect or EXPDIRPK= Expedia Packages, depending on the program you are signed up for. All Expedia bookings will come in with EXPDIR as the Source and an "E", for Expedia, at the end of the booking confirmation #, I.e. 626310332E

• The booking will be automatically integrated into your PMS and appear on the Tape Chart as an "Unconfirmed" booking.
• You can also see all online bookings that have integrated into your PMS in SETUP | BOOKINGS | ONLINE BOOKINGS. For instructions see Online Bookings.
• To locate an online booking at the front desk, go to BOOKINGS | SEARCH BOOKINGS and search by Source. For an example, see Search Bookings

 How do I know when a Expedia booking is made?

When a booking is made on Expedia, you will receive an email notification from Expedia and it will automatically integrate into your PMS system and appear on the Tape Chart as and "unconfirmed" booking in Red. You can also see all bookings made in SETUP | BOOKINGS | ONLINE BOOKINGS. See Online Bookings

How do I add or remove a Room Type?

Easily add/remove room types by making the changes in Expedia Partner Central and then notifying BookingCenter of the changes. See Expedia | Add or Remove Room Types

How do I make sure that my room types in MyPMS are mapped to my Expedia extranet?

Once we receive noification of your activation request, BookingCenter will complete the mapping for you! All you need to do is make sure that you have the Room Types setup in Expedia Partner Central extranet and we will map them in MyPMS to channels EXPDIRHC=Expedia Hotel Connect, EXPDIRHC= Expedia Collect, and EXPDIRPK= Expedia Packages. See Expedia | Agent Allocations

How will I be able to see what is mapped to the Expedia Extranet

Go to SETUP | RELATIONSHIPS | AGENT RELATIONSHIPS. Locate Agent BKGDIR. Click on the number "X of X"  in the Allocations column and this will open a window with the Room Type/Rate Plans currently allocated to Expedia See Agent Relationships

How do I know what Rates are being sent to Expedia?

All your Room Types will be mapped to the Standard Rate Plan for each Room Type you have allocated in MyPMS under SETUP | RATES | ROOM TYPES, unless you specify otherwise.  All Room Type/Rate Plan allocation changes must be done by BookingCenter. If you need to change a Room Type/Rate Plan, then please submit a support ticket with the requested change.  

How do I make Rate changes?

There are two ways to change rates. Rate changes made in the property management system will be sent to ALL channels the Room Type/Rate Plan is allocated. Changes made in the Expedia extranet will apply ONLY to the Expedia.

1. BookingCenter property management system: Rate changes made in SETUP | RATES | MANAGE RATES will automatically update to Expedia and can be seen in your Extranet. See Manage Rates
2. Expedia Partner Central extranet: Changes to rates can be made in the Expedia extranet and will over ride any rate changes made in the property management system.

How do I manage availability?

There are two ways to manage availability. Availability changes made in the property management system will be sent to ALL channels the Room Type/Rate Plan is allocated. Changes made in the Expedia extranet will apply ONLY to the Expedia channel.

1. BookingCenter property management system: Any changes made to availability in the property mangement system will automatically update to all channels including Expedia. This includes Closed to Arrival on Rates, Out of Order Rooms, etc. See Manage Availability
2. Expedia Partner Central extranet: Changes to availability can be made in the Expedia extranet and will over ride any rates set in the property management system.

Where do I make changes to Restrictions: Closed to Arrival, Min. LOS and Max LOS.

There are two ways to change restrictions: Restriction changes made in the property management system will be sent to ALL channels the Room Type/Rate Plan is allocated. Changes made in the Expedia extranet will apply ONLY to the Expedia channel.

1. BookingCenter property management system: Rate changes made in SETUP | RATES | MANAGE RATES will automatically update to Expedia and can be seen in your Extranet. See Rate Restrictions and Manage Rates
2. Expedia Partner Central extranet: Changes to rates can be made in the the extranet and will over ride any rate changes made in the property management system.

How do I add a promotion?

Contact your Expedia market manager and set up the promotion in your Extranet. Please tell your Expedia Market Manager that the promotion must be setup in "Instant Promo Mapping".  This setting was designed to be for short-term promotions for properties who wanted to offer promotions with short notice and NOT require extra mapping from the Channel Manager (in your case, BookingCenter). For important information and more details on Promotions, see Expedia Direct | Create Promotions

Also, you can 'View Tickets' you've already created, and open or review those tickets that are 'closed'.  You can always find articles in the KnowledgeBase that will help improve use of the BookingCenter tools and services. This area is managed 24 x 7.  

There are times when a property wishes to have multiple Users attached to their 'company' so that multiple users gain access to the 'tickets' raised.  To do this, have your new user visit: https://support.bookingcenter.com/ and click 'subscribe' to subscribe to the Support Area.  If they use the domain name of your property (such as me@myhotel.com where 'myhotel.com' is your host/domain name) when subscribing, our system will automatically attach them to your property, so they are added as a User who can login and view tickets for your property.  If they 'subscribe' with a different email address, such as me@gmail.com' then the system will not know they are suppord to be associated to your property, and you must enter a ticket and ask us to attach that specific user to your property account. Just send us the email they used to subscibe in a Ticket and we will then manually attach them to your propty profile in the Support Area.

There is no simple reversal.  Here is what we recommend:

Create a new reservation for a guest called 'Direct Bill Charges For <Company>', assign the Company to the booking, save it, and then cancel it immediately. Use this cancelled booking only for its folio to record charges and payments to balance out mistakes. 

For example, if you had paid 10 folios via the AR Accounts area using a Visa card ending in xxxx-1234 with a payment of $1,000, and you wish to credit the card back the $1,000 and accept payment with a check, then this is what you would do:

On the folio of the 'Direct Bill Charges For <Company>' booking created (and cancelled) from above, apply a negative $1,000 (-1,000) Payment using the Visa card ending in xxxx-1234 to the folio of the cancelled booking.  This will show the folio as 'out of balance'.  Now apply another Payment to the folio for the check you received for $1,000. This balances the folio; gets the $1,000 credit back to the card holder; and correctly records the $1,000 check received from the Company. 

We advise using a Description when posting the check Payment to reference either the original Folios paid off incorrectly or the AR Payment such as: "Incorrect AR Payment-<Company> transaction from Jan 2, 2017".  This way, your accounting team will know you made the check Payment to reverse the incorrect AR Visa Payment for the specific Company on the specific Date.  The accounting staff can run a Transaction report to balance these 2 events out.

While this solution is not as elegant as we desire, it does fix any Payment mistakes made to an AR Account. Expect the ability to Reverse a Direct Bill Payment in the near term.  If you have made mistakes wwith Direct Bill (DB:) Charges on a Folio, see this article: https://support.bookingcenter.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/324.

Best apporach: Create a rate plan you call 'comp' or 'free', make it $0,  and assign this $0 value Rate to the day(s) you wish to comp a booking.  This way, one can run a number of Reports and find out  'how many?' comp rates were given over a time period by searching via Rate.  How to make a Rate?  See: https://support.bookingcenter.com/index.php?/Knowledgebase/Article/View/542

Another approach is to simply make a Manual entry for the Rate you have assigned and make the value $0.  This works, as well, but requires manual intervention as well as makes identifying 'how many?' comp rates were given over a time period.

It may be a good idea to also use a Guest Type code for the types of 'comp rooms' being given, such as 'owners' or 'employees' so one can differentiate betwen the comp rooms given over a time period.

There have been some managers who wish these 'comp rooms' to not have any implication on ADR or REVPAR.  In this case, it is important to keep the Rates as normal, but issue a Payment on the Folio that 'writes off' or 'comps' the cost of the booking as a business loss.  This requires giving staff the ability to choose a Payment method on Folios that could possibly be mis-used, so proceeed with caution with this apporoach.

There are times in which a property will 'add up all taxes' (ie, bundling) and get a rounding that is different than if they apply the taxes discreetly.  If a property wishes to have simple taxes (such as one tax applied for 17%) then rounding may occur differently than if they apply the taxes discreetly.

What Is ADA Compliance?

The Americans with Disabilities Act (also known as ADA) is a comprehensive civil rights law that was enacted to protect individuals with disabilities from discrimination. In 2010, Title III was added to the ADA to ensure that standards would also apply to website accessibility.  The ADA uses The World Wide Web Consortium’s (W3C) Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG 2.0 AA) as the guideline for accessibility. To test your website pages for errors, use http://wave.webaim.org/

Please note that BookingCenter only providex ADA Compliance on your Booking Engine, not your website. Please consult your website designer for ADA Compliance testing and for any necessary updates that need to be made.

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 <potential> anomalous bookings.  When an online booking goes into an OVER Room, it's because the booking was received for a Room Type which could not be placed into a single Room for the entire stay.  This article explains how you can better manage these OVER bookings and prepare for them.  Strategies to PREVENT OVER Bookings can be read in this article; a good summary of how OVER is applied to Rates, Room, and Room Types as OVER Bookings can be read in this article.

EMAIL Notice of an OVER issue

Every new booking that occurs online sends an email to the email address you have in the 'Site Settings' section of your Members/Setup area.  If a booking was saved with OVER applied to the Rates, Room, and/or Room Types, this email will alert you to this fact and you shoud take action as described in the articles linked (below).

Use the "Arrivals with Unassigned Rooms" Front Desk widget for MyPMS.

This widget will show you all bookings with arrival dates over the next 7 days that have no Room assignemnt, including an OVER assigned to the Room or Room Type.  This 'widget' functions as a way to keep visble arriving bookings that need Room assignments and links directly to them.  

Front Desk widgets can be used to bring common reports to your Front Desk area so that they are more visible than ‘requesting' a report. The ‘widgets’ are interactive, and graphically more interesting than reports, thus staff is more likely to pay attention to them. ’Widgets’ are added to your specific MyPMS system via the Front Desk Layout section of the Admin Tab  .Learn more about how to use Front Desk widgets in the documentation area.

-----------------------More Info ----------------------

We have additional info on strategies to PREVENT OVER Bookings in this article.

We have info on OVER as applied to Rates, Room, and Room Types as OVER Bookings in this article.

We explain how you can better manage - and prepare for - OVER bookings that come from Network sources (OTAs, GDS, etc) in this article.

BookingCenter has no personal data on you, but you did book with a BookingCenter customer in: (whatever date was the booking and the property name and city/state/country). 

You can read about our Privacy Policy, data retention, storage, and conformance to California and the EU's GDPR Policy at: https://www.bookingcenter.com/privacypolicy/ 

Let us know how else we can assist.

It is then the Property's duty to remove the Guest's data as detailed in the Privacy Page.

When any activity occurs on that web service, the Log entry on the booking will reference "mybooking", meaning someone was provided the RUID to access their booking online, and did something to be logged.  Since we don't know for sure who the Guest was, we Log it as "mybooking".

Properties do not have to use the "mybooking" web service. The only way a guest can access that area is to have the RUID, which would be sent via a Letter as an email or SMS.  An RUID to a booking should not be used if you don't have a way to manage the area properly with clear business rules, as guests can interact with their bookings via that secure link.

Learn more about mybookings here.

1. If the Cleaning fee is for tracking purposes only, and is already embedded into the Rate, then the easiest way is to use the 'Include Items' approach that is defined here.  This assumes the Rate has the price for the ‘fee’ built-in, and there is no need to make a specific Folio Charge. Basically, you wish to have a simple way to track Cleaning fees or a Meal Plan for specific bookings.  
2. If the need for price variation exists, ie, in one Room you want a $35 cleaning fee applied to the Rate, but another Room requires a $65 cleaning fee AND/OR you want the fee added as a Folio Charge to the booking, then you have two choices: 
   1. Use the Item Included Rate that is available for an Item to be added to a Rate and tracked with and/or without Costs and Taxes.  This is availale to all MyPMS and Channel Manager customers and is free, fast, and easy to setup.
   2. Use the Package Module to include multiple Item(s) in a Rate, dynamically priced with each Item taxed propertly and in the right recurring amount, based on the booking duration. This is a more comprehensive approach, but requires the purchase of the Package Module to enact.

In the case of the Package approach, the steps are as follows:

1. Make sure you have purchased the Package Module for your property.    Contact us if you need this for your property.
2. Figure out the Items you are going to need included in your Packages.  See: Adding and Managing Items for help doing this.
3. Build the Package Rate you need for each unique Item you want, making sure to get the descriptions, "from" "to:" (when it's available) and other aspects of the Package correct.  This is when you will add the Items you created in Step 2 above.  Make sure to get the price correct when you add Item(s) to the Package.
4. Once you have the Packages built correctly, you need to need to allocate them to where you want them booked, and with the correct Room Types you want them made available.  See: Allocating Packages for details on doing this.  You llikely will want your website (usuallly Agent: BC) and front desk (Agent: MYPMS) as places these Packages can be booked.
5. Make some test bookings and watch how the Items that were included in the Package get posted to the Folio and affect the Rate.  You can cancel your bookings after fine-tuning this.

For more help understanding Packages, see the "Packages - Top Help Articles" page.

The question of which device to get is based on pesonal preferences and how you will use it.  For example, if your device will always be at the 'front desk' of a hotel, one that is wired with an ethernet cable is probably fine and it prevents any issues with wireless networks.

But if you will be traveling with your EMV device, such as bringing it home in the evenings, or to your 'off season' house to manage payments remotely via EMV, then you may wish for a wireless one that has good battery power so it can run in more places.

Keep in mind, every time you change networks, the EMV device will have to be powered down and then up to obtain a new network address.

If you are going to manage a wireless network using a mobile tablet/phone's 'hot spot' and connect your EMV device that way, you are going to have to become proficient in managing your tether to accept DHCP connections from your 'hot spot'.  Do some research before attempting this, as DHCP (required for connecting an EMV device to a 'hot spot') will operate differently on different tethering operating systems (iOS and Android) and differing devices.

The example below is based on an occupancy tax rate that is 11% from June 1^st to September 30^th and is 8% from October 1^st to May 31^st.

As taxes will only apply when a guest stays at the property and MyPMS will post taxes during the Night Audit process, we recommend the following solution.

In your cancellation and deposit policy, enter in what your taxes rates are for your various seasons. Given the example above, this would include: Please note that our occupancy tax rate is 11% from June 1^st to September 30^th and is 8% from October 1^st to May 31^st.

This will ensure that all confirmation notices clearly display the tax rates for the guests given their specific stay dates.

2. Update the taxes within BookingCenter on the dates these taxes change. So on June 1st, update the occupancy tax rate to 11%. All guests that stay starting on June 1st will correctly have the occupancy tax post at 11%; with no changes needed at the folio level.

The same logic will apply on October 1st. On this date, go back in the tax settings of MyPMS and change the occupancy tax rate to 8%.

Based on this all taxes will correctly post based on the guest stay. This approach will not require any adjustments or manual updates to any reservations.

Here are a few common questions when managing these types of bookings:

• Rates - We have a KnowledgeBase article here detailing Rates, with a focus on the Daily, Weekly, and Monthly Rates.

• Direct Bills and managing Company accounts paying Long Term Stay guests can be read here.

• Extending Long term stays, pre-charging rent and tax exempt booking status for Long Term Stay guests should be read here. 

• Read about the In-House Guest Ledger report that identify Long Term Stay and Extended Stay guests needing additional payments. 

Ask us for any further assistance understanding managing the unique needs of Long Term Stay guests.

When the EMV device starts up, it 'registers' itself with BookingCenter and we DNS (serve a name) of that LAN IP address to a service we maintain so that all machines on the LAN can access the EMV device.  Simply re-starting the device can solve many problems.

If you are having trouble connecting to the device from MyPMS, go to your Setup Area | PMS | EMV device (URL) and view the field: 

This tells you that the device did register with the bookingCenter service at 5:12 pm on May 2020. If this is not the time that you last re-started the device, then it's not connecting to the BookingCenter servers.  The most likely cause is that the router is unplugged from the device - check the cable and try again.

To verify that your Mac, PC, ipad, tablet, etc is on the same LAN as the EMV device, find the LAN address used by a device behind your router (here is an instruction posted by a university for finding on various platforms) and verfiy that the LAN IP address of your PC, Mac, ipda, etc is

..is on the same subnet as the device (whihc you can find in MyPMS in the Setup Area | PMS | EMV device (URL)).  In the example above, all of your Mac, PC, iPads, tablets, etc need to have a LAN IP address in the 192.168.000.xxx range - if they don't, then the solution will likely not work.

Another common error is that the device network settings were chnaged - nearly always these need to be DHCP.  Contact your merchant account rep to see if the device's settings have changed (BookingCenter can't access that).

Static IP Address

If the EMV device is to be accessed over the public network, this is possible but the custoemr must then setup teh device with a statis IP address and pay your internet company to allocate a 'statis IP' to your device so it cane be addressed over teh public internetwork.  This dos present some security risks (hackers might try and access that device), so proceed with an installation like this with caution, as BookingCenter warns against it and accepts no responsibiioty for security violations in an installation like this.

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 and ideas to start you thinking how your Kiosk environment should work and function.  Note that harware for kiosk solutions chnages constantly (gets cooler looking and cheaper) so some simple Amazon or Google searches will get you the desired results for your property.

There are many variations, but we have found that two options are the most practical, which include a floor stand model and a table stand mount on a desk.

1. Floor Stand Model

The floor stand models are typically free-standing and a full-height tablet kiosk. These can often be bolted directly to the floor or you be used with a wheeled base. Some sample images include:

a. https://armodilo.com/digital-signage-guide/hospitality-and-tourism-tablet-and-ipad-kiosks/

b. https://www.lilitab.com/products/freestanding?variant=19634761498711

2. Table Stand/Mount (locked to a table/desk)

These table stand options allow your Kiosk iPad for counter or tabletop use. They are often configurable for 180°, 90° or 0° rotation make it ideal for sharing across a table or counter. Some sample images include:

1.      lilitab: https://www.lilitab.com/products/countertop?variant=19634770083927

1.      Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Beelta-Holders-Aluminium-Enclosure-BSC305W/dp/B07MKJGDJZ/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?dchild=1&keywords=ipad+stand+locked&qid=1593063126&sprefix=ipad+stand+lock&sr=8-4

3. Table Stand/Mount – Dual Display (front and back)

 Of the table stand “family” for counter or tabletop use, this dual display design allows for two individual iPad mounts. A sample image includes:

1.      https://www.maclocks.com/the-rise-space-dual-ipad-kiosk-dual-screen-ipad-stand.html

Printers & Security Cable Locks

 If you wish to also include a printer, there are many options that include either wired or wireless printing. Although a printer 'case' is not common, you may want to consider some additional security cable locks to ensure the printer cannot be removed. Some examples of these locks include:

•        https://www.amazon.com/AboveTEK-Universal-Security-Adhesive-Protection/dp/B073R3KG22/ref=sr_1_1?dchild=1&keywords=computer+hardware+lock&qid=1593067983&sr=8-1  

•        https://www.amazon.com/Kensington-K64615US-Desktop-Computer-Peripherals/dp/B0036Z9TNU/ref=sr_1_2?dchild=1&keywords=printer+lock&qid=1593067739&sr=8-2  

There are some more customized options that will allow you to brand a kiosk as well. If you have additional questions or need further assistance, please contact our sales department.

Vendors:

•        https://www.displays2go.com/C-27582/Tablet-iPad-Kiosk-Enclosures-Digital-Display-Use-Trade-Shows-Retailers  

•        Armodilo: https://armodilo.com/digital-signage-guide/hospitality-and-tourism-tablet-and-ipad-kiosks/ (specific to hospitality)

•        lilitab: https://www.lilitab.com/pages/lilitab-in-the-hospitality-industry (specific for hospitality) 

•        https://www.kioskgroup.com/pages/ipad-tablet-kiosks-for-restaurants-hotels

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, you will have to login to the device and make sure the wi-fi is re-connected.  How will you know when it's connected?  the wi-fi signal (at top) will show in a blue color. If it's not connected, it's a grey color.

Look into your manual or work with your merchant processor to get the wi-fi set properly.

2) When not using the device, power the unit down to preserve the battery and power.

3) We do not recommend using this device for Kiosks for the reasons that both battery power and wi-fi are less reliable than A/C (active power) and ethernet plugged into the router via a cable.

• It will allow some bookings to 'fall through the cracks', such as those booked the same day as arrival. For customers who are setup for Self Check-in, the system knows if a booking is received (from Booking.com or Expedia, for example) for 'today' and immediately begins the automation setup as per the Self Check-in guidelines.  This contrasts to Auto Letters, which are only sent once per day, so these 'same day arrivals as booked' bookings would have to be manually delivered via a Letter you issue manually.
• Also, their is no way to initiate payment automatically with the Guest agreeing to 'pay now', which is a core part of self check-in that guarantees payment has been received prior to delivery of a Lock Code. Rather, you will have to manually apply payment to the folios to get payment.
• Because the Guest will not be required to check an "I Agree' button to initiate payment, this provides less support in the event of a dispute.  The only guarantee one would have to support a dispute would be the eSign letter. That is less desireable than a proper Self Check-in where an explicit message is displayed to accept payment terms.
• The eSign letter will also have to be manually confirmed to be signed and on file before the Lock Code goes out, as no Self Check-in process would verify that it is on file and received prikor to delivery of a Lock Code.

Such scenarios are less than ideal, in order to save on costs, but can be done if one wishes to use Auto Letters to automate the delivery of Lock codes.

Our recommended approach to solve the batch isssue is to reach out to TSYS/Global Payments at 1-800-847-2772. You will need to know your V# or Merchant ID to get the needed support.  You can also email their support group at: 855-882-0507; ISVCARE@TSYS.com but this will take awhile, so we recommend phoning during business hours and resolving the issue quickly.

Once on the phone with TSYS/Global, have them help identify any offending transaction(s) and walk you through completing the batch manually on the device to clear any issue(s). 

The first and most comprehensive is the use the Search Bookings function under the BOOKINGS TAB in the Front Desk. See Search Bookings in the online manual.  This will teach you how to make custom queries to get the 'subset' of bookings desired for your needs.

To export a list of all of your Guests, go to SETUP | RELATIONSHIPS | GUESTS. See,  Export All Guests to a File. and Guests in our online manual.  This provides a complete list of all Guest data stored in BookingCenter.

If you wish to save a financial record of all folio transactions in BookingCenter, we recommend the Transactions Report for exporting Folio transaction activity.

Because you will wish to have a record of any Advanced Deposit (AD) or Advanced Charges (AC) applied to future bookings, use these links to learn about the data and reports to access Advanced Charges/Deposits.

Finally, because you may wish to know what, if any specific Folio charges have been applied to future bookings, use the Item Analysis report to get a list of Charges, and their booking IDs, to post any Folio Charges (“Items”) for your future bookings.

We also support a complete list of XML messages (based on Open Travel Alliance, so they are 'industry-standard') that get detailed data from BookingCenter, which you can review here.  Keep in mind, we only provide credentialed access to XML web services to customers who have signed an NDA and are part of our Web Services agreement.

There are times when customers need these to go to multiple email addresses, and we suggest creating a free email account (such as with www.Hotmail.com, www.Yahoo.com, or www.Gmail.com) for an email you will use and then that service will forward them to whomever you choose.

Generally, that card is valid for 2 days prior to check-in to 2 days after check-out for the full Room + Tax amount of what was booked via that OTA 'merchant' (specific OTAs have their own policies).  This card is only valid for the Projected Income that MyPMS shows (the rates sold via the OTA + taxes) so never attempt to authorize more than that amount on the Virtual Credit Card.  If one manually authorizes this card, and then attempts another auth, it will be denied - only one auth for the Virtual Credit Card can be obtained, and only within teh time frame that OTA allows (generally 1-2 days prior to checkin till 1-2 after checkout). We recommend not manually authorizing virtual credit cards.  Just issue the 'Apply Payment' to the folio for the proper amount, which obrtains the auth automatically (if using MyCard).

Booking.com has a good article on these Virtual cards here: https://partner.booking.com/en-us/help/policies-payments/payment-products/everything-you-need-know-about-virtual-credit-cards 

Errors Obtaining Authorizations on Virtual Credit Cards

There are times when a Virtual Credit Card will not be able to receive an auth (BookingCenter will show: "Unable to accept payment' as an error message if using MyCard).  We will have no idea why, though usually it's because there was already an auth taken from the Virtual Credit Card. In these situations, you will have to login to your merchent center for the specific OTA, find the booking, and request a new Virtual Credit Card from the OTA for that booking. This new card should then get manually entered into the PMS and this may require a manual Payment or Auth (depending on scenario) for the amount the OTA states is appropriate for the booking: the Rate + Tax that were booked.

BookingCenter has developed a way to require a guest's credit card as part of our Self Check-in system so that the Virtual Card is used only for the approved Room + Tax amount, and 'incidentals' are then paid to the card the guest has chosen.  We do this as detailed here for ADDPAYMENT.

If the User logs in from another device, then an email will be sent to that User's email on file notifying them of a new login via a new device.  This allows the User to analyze if their account was hacked, and alter the password or User settings to be more restrictive.