Stayntouch PMS: Release Notes (v5.76)

Modified on: Thu, 25 Apr, 2024 at 3:25 PM

Stayntouch PMS

Release Notes (v5.76)


Effective:


TABLE OF CONTENTS



ⓘ We'd like to call out a few special items that have been long-awaited and will make many of our customers happy:

  • We now allow hotels to split charges equally amongst accompanying guests within the same reservation.
  • Austrian Registration Cards now also show infants if they are associated with a reservation.
  • Stayntouch PMS now records changes to an add-on in an Activity Log from Settings > Rates > Add-Ons.
  • The Arrival Report, Departure Report, and In-House Guests Report now allow for the option to include routing information for reservations.


You Ask... We Listen


Daily Production By Rate Report Exportable To PDF

 

The Daily Production By Rate Report can now be exported to PDF format from Reports > Schedule a Report/Export > Scheduled Reports > Daily Production By Rate. Upon selecting PDF from the FILE FORMAT field, the scheduled report will be sent via PDF format to the delivery method selected. Please note, the TIME PERIOD must be set to Yesterday for the PDF option to be available for selection.


Financial Transactions – Revenue Report Exportable To PDF

 

The Financial Transactions – Revenue Report can now be exported to PDF format from Reports > Schedule a Report/Export > Scheduled Reports > Financial Transactions – Revenue. Upon selecting PDF from the FILE FORMAT field, the scheduled report will be sent via PDF format to the delivery method selected.


External Reference Added To Arrival, Departure, In-House Guests, & Reservations By User Reports

 

The Arrival Report, Departure Report, In-House Guests Report, and Reservations By User Report now allow for the option to include the external reference number for reservations, so hotels can use these reports to identify reservations booked via OTA. From Reports > New Report, upon selecting one of these reports, you can choose to select INCLUDE EXTERNAL REFERENCE from the OPTION(S) dropdown menu. By default, INCLUDE EXTERNAL REFERENCE will not be selected. When selected, these reports will display reservations’ external reference numbers, if any. The external reference field will be blank if a reservation does not have an external reference number.



This also applies to the scheduled versions of these reports. From Reports > Schedule a Report/Export > Scheduled Reports > + NEW REPORT SCHEDULE, upon selecting one of these reports, you can choose to select INCLUDE EXTERNAL REFERENCE from the OPTION(S) dropdown menu under Schedule Parameters.


Routing Information Added To Arrival, Departure, & In-House Guests Reports

 

The Arrival Report, Departure Report, and In-House Guests Report now allow for the option to include routing information for reservations. From Reports > New Report, upon selecting one of these reports, you can choose to select INCLUDE ROUTING INFORMATION under the Options column. By default, INCLUDE ROUTING INFORMATION will not be selected. When selected, these reports will display the following information:

  • Routing information matching the Guest Bill
  • Routing information is for all reservations with routing
  • Entity for all reservations with routing
  • If routing is using a billing group, the billing group name will display
  • If routing charge codes, the report will indicate, “One or more charge codes”
  • If multiple routing entities exist on a reservation, all entities will display
  • If both billing and charge codes are used, billing group names will display, and the report will indicate, “One or more charge codes”



This also applies to the scheduled versions of these reports. From Reports > Schedule a Report/Export > Scheduled Reports > + NEW REPORT SCHEDULE, upon selecting one of these reports, you can choose to select INCLUDE ROUTING INFORMATION under the Options column.



Product Enhancements

Room Release Date, Hold Status, & Rate Fields Locked For Past Groups

 

When a group’s check-out date (including shoulder dates) is in the past, the following conditions now apply:

  • ROOM RELEASE DATE selection will not be possible and will be read only.
  • HOLD STATUS selection will not be possible, and the group’s current Hold Status will display and will be read only.
  • RATE selection will not be possible, and the group’s last rate will display and will be read only.


Housekeeping Start/Finish Time Added To Room Activity Log

 

From Housekeeping > Room Status, the LOG tab for each room now shows a record of when tasks were started and finished. The following work tasks will be recorded:

  • Work Task Started: Logged when a user clicks the START button.
  • Work Task Finished: Logged when a user clicks the FINISH button.

 

Per this enhancement, a WORK TYPE column has been added to the LOG tab. The LOG tab records activity in the following format: [USER NAME], [DATE & TIME], [ACTION], [WORK TYPE], [FRONT OFFICE STATUS], [ROOM STATUS], [SERVICE STATUS]



Add-On Activity Log

 

Stayntouch PMS now records changes to an add-on in an Activity Log from Settings > Rates > Add-Ons.


Infants On Austrian Registration Card

 

Austrian Registration Cards will now show no more than four children on a reservation. The names and birthdates of children and infants should be filled in if applied to a reservation.

Stayntouch Connect APIs: Allow POST/groups API To Create Groups Without Room_Rates & Inventories

 

You can now create custom groups via Stayntouch Connect APIs without needing to attach inventories or room rates. The original workflow where room rates and inventories are sent as part of the POST/groups API call is also still supported.

Stayntouch Connect APIs: Allow PUT/groups/{id} API To Add Room_Rates & Inventories Not Previously Attached To Group_id

 

We made an enhancement to the existing API that will allow users to add inventories and room rates to existing custom groups, something that Stayntouch Connect APIs did not support before. We will no longer require our vendors to send all existing room types as part of the POST/groups call in order to support later modifications. Please note, always send the corresponding room_type_id in room_rates as well as inventories objects, as the two objects go hand-in-hand together.

Stayntouch Connect APIs: Show Tourist_Tax Separately In GET/hotels(id)availability/room_rates API

 

Any vendors that use availability APIs will now receive a new tourist_tax object in the response. Please note, tourist tax is used in some countries or cities only. If there is no tourist tax present in Stayntouch PMS, the API response will return the tourist_tax object with a zero value.

Stayntouch IBE: Enhanced Multilingual Support


Stayntouch IBE now offers multilingual support for both confirmation and login verification emails.


New Enhancements:

  1. Multilingual Email Templates: The Stayntouch IBE site builder now allows the creation of email templates in various languages.
  2. Language-Specific Confirmation and Login Emails: Users will now receive confirmation emails and login verification link emails in their selected language.
  3. Default English Language Setting: If a user hasn’t specified a language preference, Stayntouch IBE will automatically default to sending emails in English.


Please contact Customer Support to set up confirmation letters in different languages.

Split Charges Equally Routing


When the Split Charges Equally Routing feature is enabled for a hotel, the hotel can set up routing instructions with one or more accompanying guests attached to the reservation. 

 

To set this up, you’ll need to select two or more entities linked to the reservation. The Split Charges Equally Routing functionality will allow you to select the primary guest as part of the split route, or you can split charges equally only amongst the accompanying guests, as long as there are two or more entities part of the split route. 

 

When the feature toggle is active, it will replace the original 50% routing instruction. If you wish to set up a 50% routing instruction, you can select the primary guest and one accompanying guest, and that will behave the same as the original 50% split routing. 

 

By splitting charge routing equally, this will split the charges equally amongst the selected entities. 

  • Two entities selected: Will perform a 50% split between the entities selected
  • Three entities selected: Will perform a 33.33% split between the entities selected
  • Four entities selected: Will perform a 25% split between the entities selected
  • And so on…

 

Setting up a split charges equally routing instruction on a reservation level remains the same as per the normal routing instruction setup, whereby the billing group or charge code(s) must be selected to save the routing instruction. 

 

Split Charges Equally Routing Setup

 

To split charges equally among entities, first ensure there are accompanying guests attached to the reservation.


 

From the Guest Bill screen, select the blue BILL ROUTING button.

 

 

Then click the green ADD ROUTES button.

 

 

When adding a routing instruction, and you wish to split charges equally, select the Split charges between guests checkbox. Once selected, you can select the entities that you wish to be part of the split route. Please note, this functionality can only be applied to accompanying guests, you cannot set up a split route between guests and a company or travel agent.



If you wish to exclude an entity from this instruction, you can deselect the checkbox next to that entity's name, and this will update the count of entities selected to form the split route. 

 

 

You will not be able to split charges equally if you only select one entity.

 

 

Once your entities are selected, click the purple SPLIT CHARGES EQUALLY button, which will direct you to the following screen. 


 

Please note the following:

  1. You can set a date range for the routing to be applied if it is a multi-night reservation, and the routing only applies for a certain date range. 
  2. You can edit the route by clicking the purple pencil button. This will allow you to deselect or select additional entities, if you wish to include or exclude any at this time. The purple pencil button is also available once the routing instruction is saved.
  3. If you select + NEW PAYMENT METHOD, this will allow you to pre-set a payment method for each of the entities at this stage. If a payment method is not set, you can do this from the bill window for the individual guest entities and add a payment method after the split route is saved.
  4. Ensure that you select the desired billing group or charge code(s) that should be split equally amongst the selected entities. 

 

Once the routing instruction is saved, you will be directed to the Billing Information screen.


 

Please note, each of the entities part of this routing instruction will be grouped under one routing instruction.

 

Should you wish to edit the routing instruction, click on any of the names that are part of the routing instruction, and you will be directed to the routing instruction setup screen.


 

Upon clicking the purple pencil button next to entity, you can edit the selected entities that are part of the routing instruction.

 

 

When editing the routing instruction, you can go back and add the payment method to the entities, should you wish.


 

Should you wish to delete the entire routing instruction, you can click the red X (delete) button next to the combined routing instruction.


 

Please note, you can still have other routing instructions set up; however, please be aware of the charges being routed, as billing groups will not be available if they are part of another routing instruction for the reservation. 

 

Please also note, you will not be able to split charges equally if you wish to set up a routing instruction to another reservation or to an account. For these routing instructions, you will only have the 50% split routing option available. This is current functionality.



 

Once the split charges equally routing instruction is set up and saved, you will be returned to the Guest Bill screen. You will now notice a bill for each of the entities selected to be part of the split route.



Please note, when a split equally routing instruction is set up, the bills are created, and the primary guest is part of the split route, Stayntouch PMS will create a new bill for the primary guest that is part of the split route. Bill #1 will remain independent of the split route bills. Essentially, Bill #1 will not be part of split route charges. Bill #1 will remain in the primary guest’s name. At check-out, you can move all charges to and from bills as you wish. 

 

When night audit runs, and the split route has the room charges as part of the routing, it will split all the charges attached to the rate (all add-ons and taxes included) equally amongst the selected entities part of the routing.


 

This will also apply when adding charges to the bills. If a charge is added to the reservation bill, and the charge code was part of the billing group or charge code(s) selected in the routing instruction, then it will split that charge equally between the selected entities. 


 

In the above example, a $90 champagne bottle was posted to the Guest Bill, and because the routing instruction is set up to split charges equally for all charges, the charge will be equally split amongst the three entities.

 

Primary Guest: Johan Meiring


 

Accompanying Guest 1


 

Accompanying Guest 2


 

Please note, the split equally formula will be applied to the entire charge, including taxes. 

 

The detailed breakdown of the charges will be visible from Financials > Journal.

 

Please note, once charges are posted to the bills, the bills cannot be deleted and will remain attached to the entities. However, if you don't want the split charges equally routing instruction to be applied anymore, then you can go to the Billing Information screen and delete the routing instruction.

 

Moreover, transactions that have already been posted will not be changed by deleting the routing instruction. 

 

The Split Charges Equally Routing functionality is only available for individual reservations; this functionality is not available for groups or allotments.

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