Stayntouch PMS
Release Notes (v5.23)
Effective: 22 April 2020
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- Handle Number of Adults on Stay Card in Allotment Grid
- Archive Invoices and Registration Cards to Google Drive
- Payment Receipt Email Enhancements
- Stayntouch PMS Will Print New Company Card Name/Address When Reprinting Invoices If Provided
- Invoice Search and Auto Charge Are Now Permission Driven
- Manager Dashboard: Pace Graph Zoom Capability
- Manager Dashboard: Grid View for Distribution View
- Ability to Flag Guests
- Toggle to Display Company Name on Bill 1
- CUSTOM TAX RULES
- Tax Date Range
- Tax Length of Stay (LOS)
- Tax by Room Type
- Additional Remarks
PRODUCT ENHANCEMENTS
Handle Number of Adults on Stay Card in Allotment Grid
When changing the number of adults on an allotment reservation stay card, the allotment grid will now be updated and move one blocked and one picked up room from the previous occupancy (single) to the new occupancy (double).
Please note, the maximum occupancy for allotment reservations is four adults.
Archive Invoices and Registration Cards to Google Drive
Invoices and registration cards can now be archived to Google Drive from Settings > Hotel & Staff > Archival Transfer. This applies to standard and Austrian registration cards. Arabic registration cards will be covered in a future release.
Payment Receipt Email Enhancements
When the setting to EMAIL PAYMENT RECEIPT ON CREATION is enabled from Settings > Hotel & Staff > Stationery > Payment Receipt, the following will apply:
BILL #1 will always be emailed to the guest.
If BILL #1 does not have en email address attached, you will be prompted to enter an email address. This email address will populate on the guest card, as well. However, if the guest does not wish to enter an email address, you can select cancel and proceed to the next step.
If BILL #2 is routed to a Company or Travel Agent with an email address attached, payment receipts will be emailed to the email address on file.
If BILL #2 is routed to a Company or Travel Agent without an email address attached, you will be prompted to enter an email address. This email address will populate on the Company or Travel Agent Card, as well. However, if the guest does not wish to enter an email address, you can select cancel and proceed to the next step.
If BILL #2 is not routed to a Company or Travel Agent, the bill will always be sent to the guest email.
Stayntouch PMS Will Print New Company Card Name/Address When Reprinting Invoices If Provided
This change is applicable to hotels that have the lock bill setting activated. If you reprint an invoice where a Company/Travel Agent Card has been changed, Stayntouch PMS will not print the new Company/Travel Agent Card name or address details. The reprint will always show as it was at the time of invoice and lock bill generation.
Invoice Search and Auto Charge Are Now Permission Driven
In order to view Financials > Invoice Search and Financials > Auto Charge, we have added new permissions in Stayntouch PMS. In the event users require these permissions, they can be added manually from Settings > Hotel & Staff > Permissions.
Manager Dashboard: Pace Graph Zoom Capability
We have added zoom capability to the Pace graph to make it easier to view large sets of data. Simply drag and drop the black bar below the main graph to narrow down the set of data you wish to view. You can zoom into a few dates or even one date to view hourly data.
Manager Dashboard: Grid View for Distribution View
You can now toggle between CHART and GRID view for the Distribution view on the Manager Dashboard.
For all distributions, the data returned will include data for all chart types—ADR, occupancy, occupied rooms, and RevPAR.
Rows are defined by “aggregate by” and “chart type” combinations. All rows will be returned, even if the cell content is zero. Each cell contains the measure corresponding to the “aggregate by” and “chart type” combination.
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Ability to Flag Guests
We have added a Flag Guest toggle to the guest card.
When turned ON, a visual indicator will appear on the guest avatar, and a free form text field will be available for you to enter a Reason for flagging the guest.
The flagged guest indicator on the guest avatar will be visible on the following screens, in addition to pre-existing VIP and STAYS indicators:
- Front Desk > Guests > Find Guests
- Front Desk > Guests > Find Guests > Edit Guest (Guest Card Itself)
- Front Desk > Create Reservation > Guest Search
- Front Desk > Create Reservation > Guest Card on Top of Stay Card Once Selected
- Stay Card > Guest Card on Top of Stay Card
- Housekeeping > Room Status
- Housekeeping > Room Status > Guest
If the toggle is turned OFF again, the Reason for flagging the guest will be removed from the text field, and the field will not be visible from the guest card. The Activity Log will record when the toggle is turned ON or OFF.
Furthermore, as part of this functionality, you can also search flagged guests from the guest card search screen.
Please note, the Flag Guest permission is required to use this functionality. To enable this permission, navigate to Settings > Hotel & Staff > Permissions.
Toggle to Display Company Name on Bill 1
Upon opening a reservation with a Company attached to it, navigating to BILL & CHARGES > BILL #1, and selecting the INVOICE button, you will see a new GENERATE INVOICE FOR GUEST/COMPANY toggle.
If toggled to GUEST, the bill will print the Guest Invoice. However, if toggled to COMPANY, the bill will print the Company Invoice with the details of the Company Card attached.
The default setting will be GUEST; however, you can toggle to COMPANY if required. If a reservation does not have a Company attached to it, the toggle will not be available. Please note, when toggled to COMPANY, the Company Invoice will print as if from a posting account with an A/R number, Tax ID, etc. It will not print the normal guest bill. This is also applicable to emailed invoices. Furthermore, only one address will ever print on the invoice.
When the invoice is generated for Bill #1, it will ALWAYS reprint the format in which it was generated (i.e., GUEST or COMPANY). You will not be able to use the toggle once the invoice has been generated.
CUSTOM TAX RULES
We have implemented a new functionality in Stayntouch PMS to support custom tax rules. Below is an explanation of the custom tax rules you can configure and their functionality.
The three different tax rules are as follows:
Tax Date Range
Tax Length of Stay
Tax by Room Type
To activate custom tax rules, in Hotel Admin, navigate to Settings > Financials > Financial Settings > Turn ON the TAX RULES toggle.
Tax Date Range
We have implemented a Tax Date Range rule for countries in which the government changes the taxes regularly, as hotels in these countries need to be able to automate the tax change in the system instead of manually completing these changes. Please note, Tax Date Range is specific to reservation stay dates NOT reservation creation date.
Example:
A hotel has an accommodation tax set at 15% for 2021.
The government has declared a new accommodation tax beginning on January 1, 2021, for 17.5%.
Scenario 1:
Reservation Arrival: December 25, 2020
Reservation Departure: December 31, 2020
Accommodation Tax: 15%
There is no change for this reservation or the guest invoice.
Scenario 2:
Reservation Arrival: December 29, 2020
Reservation Departure: January 2, 2021
Accommodation Tax: 15% and 17.5%
December 29-31, 2020 will be taxed 15%.
January 1-2, 2021 will be taxed 17.5%.
The guest invoice will show the tax breakdown for 15% and 17.5%.
Scenario 3:
Reservation Arrival: January 1, 2021
Reservation Departure: January 2, 2021
Accommodation Tax: 17.5%
The reservation will be taxed 17.5% for the entire stay.
There is no change for this reservation or the guest invoice.
Scenario 4:
Reservation Arrival: January 1, 2026
Reservation Departure: January 2, 2026
The hotel forgets to add a tax rule percentage for the new date range. The reservation will automatically use the base tax percentage set for the charge code. In the below example, that is 10%.
New Stayntouch PMS Configuration:
- Log into Hotel Admin and navigate to Settings > Financials > Charge Codes.
- Select +ADD NEW or edit an existing charge code. Please note, the charge code type must be set to Tax.
- Navigate to the CONFIGURE NEW TAX RULE AMOUNTS section.
- Select +ADD NEW TAX RULE and select a date range for which to configure a custom tax rule.
NOTE: You cannot configure overlapping date ranges. The tax behavior, be it % or $, will always be taken from the charge code configuration. One charge code cannot have both % and $ configured for tax rules.
Tax Length of Stay (LOS)
We have implemented a Tax Length of Stay (LOS) rule for countries in which guests staying at a hotel longer than 28 days will be subject to lower tax than the standard tax.
Example:
A hotel has a standard accommodation tax set at 15%.
Scenario 1:
Reservation Arrival: December 1, 2020
Reservation Departure December 25, 2020
Accommodation Tax: 15%
The guest will be charged the standard 15% tax on all charge codes.
Scenario 2:
Reservation Arrival: December 1, 2020
Reservation Departure: December 29, 2020
Accommodation Tax: 9%
If, from the beginning, the guest reservation was booked for 29+ days, the guest is subject to a 9% accommodation tax from day 1.
Scenario 3:
Reservation Arrival: December 1, 2020
Reservation Departure: December 25, 2020
The guest decides to extend the reservation to December 29, 2020.
Accommodation Tax: Changes from 15% to 9%
If, during their stay, the guest decides to extend their stay to December 29, 2020, they then fall into the 9% LOS bracket.
The hotel is obliged to adjust all revenue charged with 15% and repost the new 9% tax. The hotel will need to issue a proper credit note for these changes.
Scenario 4:
Reservation Arrival: December 1, 2020
Reservation Departure: December 29, 2020
The guest decides to shorten the reservation to December 22, 2020.
Accommodation Tax: Changes from 9% to 15%
If a guest decides to shorten their stay to less than 28 days, they are no longer eligible for the 9% accommodation tax.
The hotel is obliged to adjust all revenue charged with 9% and repost the new 15% tax. The hotel will need to issue a proper credit note for these changes.
Scenario 5:
Reservation Arrival: December 1, 2020
Reservation Departure: December 29, 2020
Accommodation Tax: 9%
The guest wishes to complete an advance bill for the entire stay at the time of check-in. If, during the stay, the guest decides to leave on December 25, 2020, they would no longer be eligible for the 9% accommodation tax. Because the guest has paid in advance, the hotel is not obliged to change the posted revenue charge codes, so the bill will remain as is.
NOTE: Adjustment/reposting of revenue is completed by the hotel manually.
New Stayntouch PMS Configuration:
Log into Hotel Admin and navigate to Settings > Financials > Charge Codes.
- Select +ADD NEW or edit an existing charge code. Please note, the charge code type must be set to Tax.
- Navigate to the CONFIGURE NEW TAX RULE AMOUNTS section.
- Select +ADD NEW TAX RULE and LOS to configure a custom tax rule for this period.
NOTE: You cannot configure overlapping LOS rules.
Tax by Room Type
We have implemented a Tax by Room Type rule mainly for resort hotels that reserve the right to charge a different tax for different room types.
Example:
Tax for a standard room is 15%.
Tax for a suite room is 15.5%.
Scenario 1:
A reservation made for a standard room type is subject to 15% tax on the accommodation revenue.
Scenario 2:
A reservation made for a suite room type is subject to 15.5% tax on the accommodation revenue.
Scenario 3:
A reservation made for a standard room type is subject to 15% tax on the accommodation revenue.
However, if the guest decides to upgrade to a suite during the stay, the following apply:
- If the revenue has not been posted yet, it will then automatically post to 15.5%.
- If the revenue has been posted, it is up to the hotel to adjust the already posted revenue from 15% to 15.5%. Stayntouch PMS will only provide a warning message.
Scenario 4:
A reservation made for a suite room type is subject to 15.5% tax on the accommodation revenue.
However, if the guest decides to downgrade to a standard room during the stay, the following apply:
- If the revenue has not been posted yet, it will then automatically post to 15%.
- If the revenue has been posted, it is up to the hotel to adjust the already posted revenue from 15.5% to 15%. Stayntouch PMS will only provide a warning message.
New Stayntouch PMS Configuration:
Log into Hotel Admin and navigate to Settings > Financials > Charge Codes.
- Select +ADD NEW or edit an existing charge code. Please note, the charge code type must be set to Tax.
- Navigate to the CONFIGURE NEW TAX RULE AMOUNTS section.
- Select +ADD NEW TAX RULE and room types to configure a custom tax rule for the required room types.
NOTE: Multiple tax rules cannot have the same room types. They need to be unique. Any room type that is not part of the custom rule will assume the base tax amount configured. In our example, it is 15%.
Additional Remarks
In upcoming releases, we will add additional tax rules. Currently, if multiple tax rules are applied (e.g., one date range, one LOS, and one room type), Stayntouch PMS does not know which rule to apply. Therefore, Stayntouch PMS will not apply any of the custom tax rules and will instead use the base amount for the tax charge code.