When the Reservation System is first started, the application window looks like
this:
The first thing to be done, is to enter information about your inn(s). So click on the
File Maintenance button. This will bring up the following window:
Now click on the "Edit Inn Locations" button. That will bring up the following window:
Start by changing the example "My House" to all the information of your first inn, including a color for the inn, an Area Map, and a Local Map.
If you have more than one inn, add them by clicking on "Add a new location".
NOTE:
As you get to the "Phone" number the screen will scroll to the left showing more fields to enter. Important fields, besides the obvious
ones, are the "Inn Abbr." and the email address.
The "Inn Abbr." field must be 1 to 10 unique set of characters defining the
abbreviation of the inn name.
The "Email Address" field is starting address where email should go. The format
a is simple
form, like "info@MyHouse.com".
Once you are finished you can also add the optional following
information:
Click on the "Choose Color" button to change the color of the text for the rooms for that
location (See below.)
Click on the two buttons to add a local and area pictures that show maps on your confirmation
letters.
The pictures our of your own design using a graphics program like Photoshop, Image, etc.
Your screen then should then look something like this:
Once all the inns have been entered, highlight one of the inns that you then want to add the rooms for that inn.
The next step is to add the rooms for each location. So click on the "Edit Rooms" button as
shown on the previous slide. The following window appears:
Click on the "Add a new Room" button to add more rooms.
The "Room Type" field is normally blank. If you have multiple
rooms that are interchangeable (e.g. you have several rooms that are almost the
same type and price) and when guests call to book one of them, you can choose
just the room type and the guests don't need know which room is actually
assigned until they arrive. For example, suppose you have 5 cabins that are all
the same. Then the Room Types could all be "Cabins", and then the Room Name
would be the actual cabin name.
The name of the "Room Name" is the name that will appear on all screens
that reference this room.
The "Rm Abbr." is an important field and must have an entry. This is a 1 to 3 character
field which is unique and is an abbreviation for the Room Name.
The GDS ID and the GDS XREF fields are used only if you will be interfacing with the
Global Distribution System (Like TravelClick). This interface is
explained in the Web Interfaces Section of this manual.
The white box to the right of the room
grid, labeled "Room Description" is used to add a description of each
room.
The "Room Rates" grid defines the rates for this room. The three
default Rate Ids are for Double Occupancy (Dbl), Single Occupancy (Sngl), and
Corporate Rate (Corp). You can name these any thing you want, or add to
them by clicking on "Edit Rate Categories".
The "Blackout Dates" grid is used to define when this room becomes
unavailable to rent, like for the winter season. If the "Blackout Start
Date" is left blank, then this room is never available on or before the
"Blackout End Date". If the "Blackout End Date" is left blank, then the
room is never available after the "Blackout Start Date". If both dates are
entered, then the room is unavailable between those dates. The Blackout
Dates will use the "Blackout Dates Color" from the initial File Maintenance
screen and will automatically will in on the main Reservation Chart screen.
Note: Please note the extra little
rectangular box on the "Blackout Dates" screen. It is just to the left of the
"Blackout Start Date" and the left edge row marker. By clicking on this
rectangle, it will turn black. Click on it again, and it turns white again.
This is called the "Delete Marker". When it is Black, the record
is scheduled for deletion with in 10 seconds. So, if you want to delete any of the records, just
click on the rectangle to turn it Black, and when you move on to another task,
the record will eventually disappear.
On other grids there may not be this rectangle because deleting an item may
involve multiple steps, and so there is usually a separate button to delete the set of
records (as in the "Room Rate Categories" grid).
You can also add up to two pictures of each
room by clicking on the two "..." buttons (
).
You can add more than just the rooms that will be for rent. This allows you to have other
areas of your inn visible at the click of a button. (More on this later.)
So after filling in the room information, the window will look similar to the following:
buttons until you get back to the main
Reservation System window. This window should now show all the locations and rooms your added,
similar to the following: