Stayntouch PMS Find Rates & Create A Reservation: Part 2
When making a call-in reservation for a group block, start by updating the arrival and departure dates as well as the number of guests.
Then, start to type in the name of the group block in the COMPANY/TA/GROUP/ALLOTMENT section. It's important to note that you'll only find group availability in the rate query screen if you have dates that match or are within the group block dates selected. If you select a date where the group is not booked, the group will not be returned as an option.
In this example, we're not getting any selectable results, so we need to confirm the group name and dates and try again.
To assist you with finding the group dates or name for the group, click the Availability line graph toggle in the top right corner.
Then, use the dropdown in the top lefthand corner to select Groups.
You can update the dates underneath the dropdown and view the resulting groups below. To expand the details for a group and see which dates it has rooms blocked for, click on the group's name or the orange chevron arrows to the left of it.
By expanding, we can see that this example group is arriving on April 11 and departing on April 14. Since we were searching for an arrival on April 10, we were not getting results.
Now, we can collapse the Availability screen by clicking on the line graph toggle in the top lefthand corner.
And now, we can type in, find, and select the group block by clicking on it.
Once you have identified the right rate for the guest and wish 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, where you can attach add-ons to the reservation. Here, you will see a selection of different packages your property offers with filters by charge group on the left side, and an add-on can be attached simply by clicking the green ADD button.
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.
Whether you want to proceed with the add-ons selected, or you would like to bypass add-ons completely, simply click the green BOOK button at the top right of the screen to continue with the reservation process.
If the guest does not have an existing record, you can opt to select the NEW GUEST >> button to create a new guest card.
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.
The total stay cost with taxes and fees is at the bottom.
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.
The DEMOGRAPHICS button allows you to track various characteristics about the reservation, such as the RESERVATION TYPE, MARKET, SOURCE, ORIGIN OF BOOKING, and SEGMENTS.
The ADD BILLING INFORMATION button allows you to set up specific bill routing information for the reservation.
To the righthand 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 if there was one due, we would see the details of how much is due and a prompt to process it once providing the payment method.
If you select Credit Card, and the guest is not in front of you with their physical card, you will select and toggle over to manual. If there are EXISTING CARDS in the Wallet tab of the guest card, you can select one, or you can choose to ADD NEW CARD.
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. Please note, Stayntouch PMS does not save whole credit card information in the system. After entering a credit card, Stayntouch passes that information to the payment gateway, where it is encrypted. As a result, Stayntouch PMS only holds the encrypted or tokenized information the payment gateway produces.
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 card information will not be added to the reservation if you do not press the green CONTINUE button, so this is very important.
Then, simply click the blue CONFIRM RESERVATION to finalize your reservation and send the confirmation email.
The reservation is confirmed, and you can proceed to the guest stay card, make a new reservation for the same guest, or navigate back to the dashboard if desired.
In this example, we have our normal non-promotionally discounted rate for a Standard 1 King Bed available for $350. Let's pretend we are offering a Spring promotion with a 20% discount, so we are looking to book this room for $280 instead.
From the Create Reservation inquiry screen, in the promo code section in the bottom right, we can type in the promo code. If it is valid for these dates of stay, we will see it appear above the text entry field. The P in the top left corner indicates that it is a promo code.
This brings you to the RECOMMENDED tab of the Rooms & Rates screen where you can see available options with the promo code applied. The resulting rates have been reduced by the configured discount for the promotion. In this example, where our original rate for the Standard 1 King Bed was $350, you can see that applying the promo code has reduced the rate to $280—so when you are quoting rates for a guest the rate displayed here is with the promotional discount already applied and you do not need to manually reduce it any further.
To move forward with booking a reservation at this discounted promotional rate, simply press the green BOOK button on the desired rate and room type combination.
In this event, you may want to click Show Restrictions in the top righthand corner to see what barriers are in place that are keeping the promotion from being booked. In this example, there is a two-night minimum length of stay requirement for this promotionally discounted rate that was not met by the one-night stay inquiry. We could try updating the search parameters to a two-night stay if the guest is willing to stay a second night.
You can also toggle to the ROOM TYPE or RATE tabs to see rates that are not eligible for the promotional discount but might still be available to book.
