Do the initial Setup

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Revision as of 17:46, 12 January 2015 by Annette (talk | contribs)
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This page explains how to set up your account

You're now only a few steps away from accepting on-line bookings. We recommend you let our Setup Wizards guide you through the process.

There is context sensitive help throughout our system. If you are stuck, click on the ? icons. You can also use this Wiki for help.

Contents

1 Terminology

Properties can be Hotels, B&B´s, apartment houses, camp sites, etc. the system can handle multiple properties of different types.

A property can have only one or very many different rooms.

Rooms can, but do not need to, represent physical rooms; they are a way of splitting your property into separately bookable units.

These units or "Rooms" could be guest bedrooms, hostel dormitories, individual beds in backpackers, camp sites, houseboats, holiday homes, individual hotel suites, cabins, tours, classes or cars etc.

If you're renting your property as a whole, you still need to define one "Room" which in your case represents your complete property.

2 Step 1 - Enter your Settings

Click on SETTINGS in the top menu bar.

  • Go to ACCOUNT and complete your details
  • If you want to use a language other than English on your booking page, go to ACCOUNT -> LANGUAGES and tick the ones you want to use. If you enable more than one language you will see tabs for each language in your descriptions, information on your booking page and notifications. Descriptions have to be entered in each language tab.
  • Go to PROPERTIES -> DESCRIPTION and enter the name and the currency symbol you want to use
  • Go to PROPERTIES -> ROOMS. A click on EDIT will open a field where you can set the name and quantity of "Rooms" of that type available.

Don't forget to SAVE!

3 Step 2 - Set your Prices

Daily Prices

If you have a simple pricing (eg: one price per room - go to CALENDAR in the top menu. This is a table giving you a complete overview of your bookings, rates and inventory. By ticking the boxes you can select what you want to display.

Activate DAILY PRICES. You can set your room prices here. Click in the DAILY PRICE row and set price and date range and click SAVE. You may modify individual dates as required. Rules for daily prices can be set in SETTINGS->PROPERTIES->ROOMS->DAILY PRICES.


Set a flexible rates and discount structure

To set a flexible structure go to RATES in the top menu. Multiple rates and discounts may be defined for each room. When multiple rates exist for a given date the system default will calculate and offer the lowest price that matches your criteria. You can override this in the rates settings.

When creating multiple rates you would generally set your highest price to always be available and create discounted price rates for longer stays, specific days of the week or date ranges as you require. This way you can create sophisticated rate models.

Adding Rates and Discounts: To add a new rate click on the button ADD RATE

Copy a Rate: If you want to use the same rate for another room click on SAVE AS A COPY

Changing Rates and Discounts: Click on the rate you want to change and enter your changes. You can delete rate setting and add new ones. You may re-use old rates that are still in the system by changing their start and end dates.

The price offered to the guest will be the lowest from your DAILY PRICES and your RATES which match the requested stay period.

4 Step 3 - Add your Bookings

To avoid double bookings it is advisable to enter the bookings you already have. You have different options:

  • In CALENDAR you will find a row INVENTORY. The number shows rooms remaining to sell. They can be edited to quickly change your availability. Doubleclick to open a popup and save the changes.
  • To Add Bookings manually click on the suitcase icon in the CALENDAR or on the "Add Booking" link in the BOOKINGS menu.
  • If you are comfortable working with .csv files you can download your bookings from booking.com and upload them into Beds24 using our API (https://www.beds24.com/api/).

5 Step 4 - Install your Booking Button, Box, Strip, Calendar or one of our other Booking Widgets

Booking widgets connect your website to your booking page. There is a choice including booking buttons, booking boxes, booking strips, calendars. Click on SETTINGS -> BOOKING WIDGETS. Choose the widget you want to use. If required you can customise the appearance. If you need help please click on the HELP button on the top rights of the widgets page.

Copy your widget to your website. To install the booking widgets on your web site you will need the ability to edit the HTML of your page. This may involve knowing the passwords for your web server and the ability to transfer your files. Your web hosting service should be able to provide information and assist you with this.

6 Step 5 - Do some test bookings to check everything is working.

Congratulations! You are now receiving on-line bookings. New on-line bookings will be added automatically. You can also enter new bookings manually clicking on "Add Booking" on the BOOKINGS page.

7 Customise