Stayntouch PMS Find Rates & Create A Reservation: Part 1
To perform a new inquiry or create a new reservation in Stayntouch PMS, you can click the + NEW button in the top righthand corner of the Dashboard.
Or, navigate to main menu and select Front Desk > Create Reservation.
In order to speed up the reservation creation process, we suggest entering the arrival and departure date and the number of guests. As a best practice, leave the room types set to All Room Types and do not enter the guest name yet.
For the arrival and departure dates, you can select the dates directly on the calendar.
Or enter the number of nights in the space provided to update the departure date automatically. Entering 0 nights will prompt you for an arrival and departure time and allow you to create a day use reservation.
Then, indicate the number of ADULTS, CHILDREN, and INFANTS for the room by using the dropdowns. This will ensure your results reflect only rooms that can accommodate the correct occupancy. We will cover booking multiple rooms at once a little later in this article.
Then, click the green FIND ROOMS & RATES button at the bottom.
Each property has the option to display either the ROOM TYPE or RATE tab as the default. The ROOM TYPE tab will sort availability by room type; whereas, the RATE tab will sort availability by rate.
On the RATE tab, you will see a list of available rates, which you can expand by clicking the dropdown chevron arrows to the left of the rate.
This will allow you to view the rate by room type, and each room type can also be expanded by clicking on its orange chevron icon to the left for more information. Also, note the number of rooms available for this room type is also shown.
When expanded, you can see additional details, such as the room type description, information about the rate, deposit and cancellation policies, and the total cost for the stay, including taxes and fees.
If you want to see restricted or unavailable rates and room types, in the top right, you can select the checkbox for Show Restrictions.
Next to Show Restrictions, you will also see a checkbox for Show Stay Dates.
When selected, it will show the guest’s stay dates and allow you to change the number of guests.
Click DONE to save your rate selections and move forward with the booking.
Should you need to tweak your search options while on the Rooms & Rates screen, just select the << NEW RESERVATION button found in the upper lefthand corner. This will return you to the Create Reservation inquiry screen, keeping your initial search parameters intact. From there, you can modify your search as necessary and quickly see rates and availability based on your updated specifications.
Let's confirm a transient reservation. Once you have identified the right rate for the guest and are ready to move forward with confirming a reservation, click the green BOOK button.
After you select the BOOK button, you will be directed to the Enhance Stay screen. If you do not wish to add enhancements, simply click the green BOOK button in the top righthand corner to continue. If you wish to add enhancements now, you can do so before moving forward.
An add-on can be attached simply by clicking the green ADD button. If you wish to add more than 1 or bundle it with the room price, you can select that before clicking the green ADD button if your hotel has this feature enabled.
Doing so will display a ROOM ENHANCEMENTS popup with details about the package. Please note, if an add-on is based on the number of adults, when attaching it to a reservation, it will automatically be applied to the number of guests indicated for the reservation. You will also be given the option to add more to this room and continue with the add-on process.
If you instead want to continue with the reservation process, click CLOSE WINDOW.
After you have added all of your desired add-ons, simply click the green BOOK button at the top right of the screen to continue with the reservation process.
Upon clicking the BOOK button, you will be prompted to enter the guest last name and first name to either create a new guest card or find an existing one. If there is an existing one, you can choose the guest card that populates when entering the name by clicking on it.
If the guest does not have an existing record, you can opt to select the NEW GUEST >> button to create a new guest card.
Enter the guest's contact information details as you see fit. Most hotels will focus on the contact information on the righthand side of the guest card. You can use the tab key to quickly move to the next field or click on the one you would like to enter information into. As a note, you may see or not see some different entry fields or have certain fields that are required to move forward, annotated with a red asterisk, depending on your hotel's settings.
When the new guest card details are complete, click the green SAVE NEW CARD button towards the top right of the screen.
Then, you will be directed to the Guest Details & Payment screen. At this point, the reservation is technically confirmed, and if the guest wishes to back out of the booking, you will need to click CANCEL RESERVATION. However, there are a few more areas to review before the booking should be considered complete.
This screen shows a RESERVATION SUMMARY with the CONFIRMATION number and booking details on the lefthand side. You may find it helpful to repeat the information shown here back to the guest to ensure the details are correct.
The total stay cost with any applicable taxes, add-ons, and fees is at the bottom of the screen.
If you would like to enter an arrival and departure time, you can do so by selecting the dropdown arrows underneath the arrival and departure dates.
Below that is a button for DEMOGRAPHICS.
Lastly, should you need to edit the rate amount you are charging, you can select the rate name to view the editor window.
The DEMOGRAPHICS button allows you to track the various characteristics about the reservation, such as the RESERVATION TYPE, MARKET, SOURCE, ORIGIN OF BOOKING, and SEGMENTS. If you make changes, the SAVE button at the bottom will turn green, and you should select it. If not, you can press the red X in the top left corner or CANCEL to close the popup.
The ADD BILLING INFORMATION button allows you to set up specific bill routing information for the reservation. This will likely not apply for most reservations, and can also be set up later on the stay card if you prefer.
If your reservation is for more than 1 person, you will also have a + ACCOMPANYING GUEST option, which can be used to add the additional guest name(s).
To the right side of the Guest Details & Payment screen, you will be given an option to select a PAYMENT TYPE from a dropdown menu. In this example, no deposit is due now at the time of booking, but you would still generally want to collect a credit card to guarantee the reservation.
If there was a deposit due at the time of booking, we would see the details of how much is due and a prompt to process it once providing the payment method.
When adding the payment method, if you select Credit Card, and the guest is not in front of you with their physical card to insert into an EMV terminal, you should select and toggle over to manual for the card input type.
If there are EXISTING CARDS in the Wallet tab of the guest card, you can select one by clicking on it to use it as the method of payment to confirm the reservation, or you can choose to ADD NEW CARD in the top right.
If there are no cards on file, toggling the card input to MANUAL will take you directly to the add new card entry screen.
Here, you can insert the credit card details by clicking on each field or using the tab button to move to the next.
Once you have entered the complete details, press the blue Add button.
If you wish to save this credit card to the guest card Wallet tab for use on other or future reservations, select Add to Guest Card. If you do not, leave it unselected.
Then, click the green CONTINUE button. The credit card will not be added to the reservation or guest card if you do not press the green CONTINUE button, so this is very important.
If certain demographics fields are required but have not been filled in, you will receive a popup to complete them using the dropdowns. When you are done, press the green SAVE & CONTINUE button.
On this last screen, you can review the reservation on the left, and if your hotel sends confirmation emails from the PMS, specify the confirmation email details on the right. It will send the email to any valid addresses that are filled in and have the orange checkbox selected. By default, the primary guest's email from the guest card is selected, and if you do not want to send it, you will want to unselect the orange box.
Below, you can change the guest's email language with the dropdown if you are using the multi-language feature.
You can also choose not to show the guest rate on the email or any future guest-facing stationery, on Stayntouch Guest Mobility, or on Stayntouch Guest Kiosk by selecting the checkbox DON’T PRINT RATE.
If you’d like to enter a unique personalized message that will appear in the guest confirmation email, you can do so by selecting CONFIRMATION CUSTOM TEXT.
When you are ready, simply click the blue CONFIRM RESERVATION button to finalize the booking and send the confirmation email with your set options. If your hotel sends confirmation emails from an external third party system, you might not see the email options, as this setting may be turned off to prevent sending multiple confirmations. If that is the case, clicking this button will simply take you to the next screen.
The reservation is confirmed, and using these buttons, you can proceed to the stay card for this reservation, make a new reservation for the same guest, or navigate to the SEARCH RESERVATIONS screen.
From the Create Reservation inquiry screen, select the dates and correct occupancy. Then, if you want to book multiple rooms with the same room type, increase to your desired number of rooms by using the dropdown labeled ROOMS on the right.
Or, if you wish to book multiple rooms with varying room types, select the first room type here. As a note, if you don't know what room types are available to quote, you may want to proceed with an inquiry for 1 reservation first, and then go back and modify the inquiry based on the room types the guest is interested in.
Once you've selected the first room type, click on the green plus (+) button on the righthand side.
This adds another row, which allows you to enter the details for the second room type selection. If you need to add another room type entry row, you can do so with the green plus (+) button on the right. If you would like to remove one of your options, you can use the red X button next to the number of rooms dropdown.
In this example, I'm making a reservation for three rooms—1 of the first room type, and 2 of the second room type. When you are satisfied with your inquiry parameters, click the green FIND ROOMS & RATES button.
We are beginning by selecting the rate for the first room type as is indicated by the orange selection in the top left corner. If we wanted to select for the other room type first, we could click on the ROOMS 2-3 option.
To select a rate for the first room, click the green BOOK button.
This takes you to the add-on selection screen where you can add enhancements. If you wish to proceed with the booking without enhancements, click the green BOOK button in the top right corner.
This has taken us back to the Rooms & Rates screen where you can see we are now selecting a rate for ROOMS 2-3.
When sending the confirmation email on this screen, you are triggering a confirmation email for each reservation. In this example, the guest has made three room reservations, so they will get three separate emails once we click the blue CONFIRM RESERVATION button.
If you want to make any notes or changes to the individual reservations, you can click the orange GO TO STAY CARD button.
If you wish to view or make changes to one of the other reservations, simply click the CONFIRMATION NO. dropdown in the top lefthand corner of the stay card.
When you click on the dropdown, it is expanded to show you all current, upcoming, and historical reservations for the guest. All reservations will display with the corresponding reservation status icon and color as well as the date range of the corresponding stay.
To add notes or actions to one of the other reservations, you will need to collapse the reservation details dropdown by clicking on it at the top.
If the guest qualifies for a rewards member rate, you can select the checkbox for MEMBER. If selected, hotel staff can select the TYPE from the dropdown menu provided upon selection.
When making a reservation for a corporate negotiated rate or travel agent rate, you can type the name of the entity in the section labeled COMPANY/TA/GROUP/ALLOTMENT.
Make sure to select the correct one by clicking on it. The correct one generally will have a contract icon and access code underneath the name if it has a special contracted rate code.
The RECOMMENDED tab will display with the contracted rate(s) when a selection has been made in the COMPANY/TA/GROUP/ALLOTMENT entity section on the Create Reservation screen.
When searching with a company or travel agent that does not have an active contract, the RECOMMENDED tab will not show any results. However, you can click over to the ROOM TYPE or RATE tab to move forward with booking on a public rate while still keeping the entity attached to the reservation.
