Attract more customers with discount codes

Discount codes are a very powerful way to increase sales to new and existing customers. By offering a limited-time discount, you encourage your customers in several ways. First, everybody loves a good deal and by offering a good deal to new or existing customers, they are more likely to do business with you instead of somebody else. A time-limited discount encourages your customers to make the reservation now instead of waiting, which also helps to drive sales. And finally a discount is a useful tool to increase business during slow periods.

The latest version of WebReserv now offers support for discount codes. You can add discount codes to the system and your customers can apply the discount codes to reservations during the reservation process.

How to add a discount code

 To add a discount code, go to Setup – Discount Codes (http://www.webreserv.com/setupdiscountcodelist.do) and click Add new discount code. You will now have an empty discount code field as shown in the screenshot below.

Code: This is the code that must be entered in the discount code field when making a reservation. A code can be up to 20 characters long and consist of characters or numbers, but no spaces or special characters. Use easy to use codes such as SUMMER08 or FRIEND. If you are advertising through several channels, for example flyers and ads, you can create a different code for each type of ad and use the code to track the responses.

To control when a discount code can be used, enter a valid from date and a valid to date. A reservation must be booked within the valid from and valid to dates for the discount code to be valid.
You must also specify a Reservation From date and a Reservation To date. Use these dates to specify when the reservation must start for the code to be valid.

Finally you must enter either a discount percentage or a discount amount. This is the discount that will be applied to the reservation. The discount will be applied before taxes, if any.

When using a discount percentage, you can also specify a minimum or maximum discount amount. Use can use this feature to give a percentage discount up to a certain level, for example, 10% up to a maximum of $100.00.

When you have entered the discount information simply click Save and continue and you will be taken back to the list of discount codes.

Example:
In this example we want to provide a 10 % discount (up to $200.00) for August reservations, but the reservation must be done before July 15. The values for this discount code become:

How to apply a discount code
WebReserv.com will automatically show a discount code field in the payment section whenever one or more valid discount codes exist for the selected product. If no discount codes are valid, the discount code field will not be shown.

Availability
The discount features is available in all premier WebReserv accounts (Silver and Gold).

For more information or questions, please contact WebReserv.com support.

Auto confirm and Decline

WebReserv.com will auto confirm all reservations made for your business, this is easy to use and customers love it. However, there might be situations where you want the reservation system to mark a reservation as pending and review it before accepting the reservation. A typical example of this is when you need to verify the reservation with a third party.

You can change the default auto confirm behavior on the Reservation Rules page for each product.

If you set the Auto Confim rule to pending, you will be sent a pending notice whenever a reservation has been made. To confirm or decline it, open the reservation and click the Decline or Confirm button.

The customer will automatically receive an email specifying whether the reservation was confirmed or declined.

To modify the email templates for confirmed and declined emails, go to Setup – Emails.

Custom Field price calculation

You probably already knew that you can add a price to a custom fields and use the custom field to charge for additional items, for example, extra equipment or catering. Starting with the latest release of WebReserv.com you, you can now specify the time basis for such charges.

To set up your custom field charges, go to Setup – Custom Fields.

If the price for an add-on charge is for the entire reservation, simply leave the time setting at 0. If the price depends on the length of the reservation, select the time frame that the price is for.

Say for example that the charge for DVD player is $15 per day, enter 1 in the time field and select day(s). Now the price will automatically be calculated based on the length of the reservation.

 

New “round-up” feature for rate calculation.

A new “round-up” setting enables the reservation system to pick the rate that is higher than, or equal to, the length of the reservation. The round-up is typically used when a rental has one rate up to a specific length of time and a different rate after that time.

Example:

We want to set a rate for $45 for the first 4 hours, and $90 per day after the first 4 hours.

To use the round-up rate, go to Setup - Products  & Reservation Rules and select Reservation  Rules.  In the Rate Calculation Field, select Round Up.

Next we need to enter the rates. Go to Rates – Edit Rates for your rate list. If the time frame (4 hours) is not listed, click on the add times links to create a time frame for 4 hours.

 

Go back to the Rate Setup screen and enter the rates for 4 hours and the daily rate.

You can also use the round-up to provide a discount when reserving more than a certain number of days. Say for example that you want to charge $90 per day for the first 3 days, but if a reservation is 4, 5, 6 or 7 days, you’ll charge a flat rate of $360 (4 day rate). Simply create the time columns for 2 and 3 days and enter your rates as shown below.

New reports

The new reporting module provides reservations and revenue reports that easily can be viewed online, printed or even downloaded to Excel for personal use or tax purposes. Currently you can view or download reservation reports by logging on to your WebReserv account and click Frontdesk - Reports. The reports are available with Silver and Gold accounts.

Reservations Report:
The reservations report shows all valid (pending and confirmed) reservations for a specific date or date range. The report is a convenient way to get a list of each day’s customers and can also be used as a passenger manifest. To run the report, select Frontdesk – Reports, enter in a start date and an end date and format; select HTML for online viewing or printing and CSV for download to Excel.

Revenue Report:
The Revenue Reports shows revenue on a month-by-month basis. The report includes line items for additional charges, customer options, tax and more. The revenue is calculated on the first day of the reservation, so a reservation from March 29 to May 5 will be included in the March line. To run the revenue report, select Frontdesk – Reports and, type in the reporting year and select HTML or CSV format.

Customer Report
The customer report includes customer contact information and reservation code(s). The customer report will be available by the end of March.

Email notifications

A customer will automatically receive a reservation email under the following circumstances:

• A reservation is made
• Reservation status changes from Pending to Confirmed or Confirmed to Cancelled
• Start date/time or end date/time is chanced
• The product has been changed

In any of these circumstances a reservation email is automatically sent to the customer. In addition to the emails automatically sent to customers, you will receive a notification email whenever a new reservation is made.

Availability calendar update makes scheduling easier

Now you can use the availability calendar to view hourly reservations and fixed-schedule reservations. The calendar has also been updated to include more date ranges (month, 14-days, week and day) and you can easily navigate the calendar using the scroll-bar at the bottom .

With the calendar update it’s easy to view availability and make corrections if necessary. Say for example that a unit becomes unavailable due to maintenance. To mark it as unavailable in the system, simply go to the availability calendar and click the link Mark unit as unavailable. This will take you to a form where you can select the unit and select the time period for which the unit is unavailable. You can even enter a description for the unavailable entry so it’s easy to see why it’s unavailable.

Click on the thumbnail to view full screenshot. 

When units are unavailable, they are marked with a gray box in the availability so they can easily be distinguished from other reservations. If you need to change an unavailability entry, simply click on it in the calendar and change the timeframe as needed. To remove an unavailable entry, open the entry by clicking on it in the availability calendar and click the button named delete this entry.

New email template keywords

Starting with the 2/28/08 release, the following new keywords can be used in email templates:

@baserateamount Displays the base rate.
@rateadjustmentamount Displays the rate adjustments when reservation time is shorter than minimum time.
@additionalchargesamount Display additional charges, such as cleaning fees.
@customeroptionsamount Displays amount for options selected by the customer.
@subtotalamount Displays the sub total amount.
@taxrate Displays the tax rate.
@taxamount Displays the tax amount.
@totalamount Displays the total amount.
@depositamount Displays the deposit amount.
@balancedue Displays balance due (totalamount minus depositamount).
@currencycode Displays the currency code.
@creditcardnumber Displays the last 4 digits of the creditcard number.

Keep better control of your availability

The first WebReserv.com update for 2008 has arrived and with it a powerful new availability calendar. The new availability calendar provides extends the old availability calendar with a fresh new colorful calendar that shows you availability, reservations and inventory status in a flash.

To experience the new availability calendar, simply go to Frontdesk -> Availability calendar or click here: http://www.webreserv.com/availability.do

From the availability calendar, you can click on each reservation or OOI (Out-Of-Inventory) item to get more information. To mark a unit as unavailable simply click on the link below the calendar.

A convenient way to track your reservations

With the latest WebReserv release, it is now possible to name your products/rooms/units individually. This allows you to manage and track reservations and utilization at a completely new level. For example, you can now track now only what your customer reserves, but you can track exactly what unit is rented out and returned.

To name your products, go to setup -> products and reservation rules -> product details. In the list you can name each product. Typical names are room numbers (for hotels), tag numbers (car and RV rentals), serial numbers (equipment) and so forth.

When a reservation is made, you can quickly see which unit(s) that has been assigned, and if needed you can reassign the units as needed.