08-01-2020, 01:07 AM
Dear Wubookers,
For weeks we've been working hard on very challenging topics.
We hope you'll enjoy our latest developments. The work in progress is over, and mid-August is just around the corner.
Our users are busy in the summer work season, and our team is getting closer to the summer holidays.
In order not to create any inconvenience, we have therefore decided to publish our developments at two different times.
The first one, next Tuesday, will bring some good news. Small changes that won't "destabilize" the summer situation.
The major developments, though, will be online at the end of August/begin of September.
But let's start describing the first changes. On Tuesday we'll release:
- Online Checkin
We have introduced email notifications for customer registration, notes insertion, and credit card confirmation.
- Many CSV files are now created with a MS Excel-compatible format.
With the next release, at the end of August, we'll extend this functionality to all sections.
- Channel Manager
Perfect detection of booking.com's cancellation rules.
Perfect detection of the occupancy of booking.com reservations.
Probably, perfect detection of Expedia boards. Here are some cases where the boards were not correctly detected, although
such cases are rare. Zak's engine will not overwrite the City Tax detected by the Channel Manager.
- Istat: Auto Upload for Liguria and Sondrio
In the second part of the release that will be online at the end of August, we'll introduce some consistent changes.
Below, we'll describe them in detail.
We have completely redesigned the invoicing process. Now, it's much more user-friendly. And that's not all: we will support multiple invoicing headers, including electronic ones.
Besides, these days we are working to introduce international invoicing for many countries. I would point out that since we'll have operating costs on every electronic tax header,
we'll charge an extra cost for multiple headers. We will update you on the price details as soon as possible.
We've not only redesigned Tabla and Sytar: we've introduced some innovative settings. We are not aware of other existing systems implementing them!
We attach a couple of images to give a first overview, and then we will describe the implementation in detail.
First of all, please note the Settings icon on Tabla. It will allow you (finally, sorry for the delay!) to order your products.
And you can also choose graphic themes (at the moment we have two different themes).
Then we've added two fields on Tabla: *Availability Modifier* and *OTA Limit*. Let's describe the first one, already available on Zak.
As you may have noticed, the management of OTA sales limits has been integrated on Tabla. In addition to having a single screen for monitoring, the introduction of this field allows
you to set different limits on different rates.
The *Availability Modifier* allows you to modify your availability manually. It was initially developed to manage Overbookings. Some of you practice overbooking as a selling
strategy: by knowing the average cancellations (for example, on Booking.com, the cancellations percentage is quite high), you can decide to sell more units than the available ones.
Once again, please note that this value is "rate-based". You can set it according to the conditions of sale. You might decide to practice overbooking to sell particularly favorable
rates, since it represents a risk (even if it is minimal if you manage it with caution).
Turning the *Availability Modifier* and the *Ota Limit* to a rate-based setup does not necessarily represent an additional complexity in managing your rates.
First of all, they're not mandatory at all. Besides, you don't have to set up every rate.
Both values will be *derivable* with the excellent and innovative Zak's derivation system that many of you already know. Please note that these parameters allow you to differentiate the availability.
You can set up a different availability for each rate. For example, if you wish to reduce the availability on Booking.com, you just have to create a derivation from an Expedia rate and set up a different value on OTA Limit.
Now let's move on to other functionalities. Below is an image of the new YouBook:
In addition to the improved graphic setup, we would like to point out the possibility of sending the reservation voucher via email. Soon, we'll implement the creation of group
reservations with a specific functionality. And we'll work just as quickly on implementing payment requests on the Online Checkin Page.
In a few words: if you enter a reservation on YouBook (maybe a group reservation), and specify a payment request, your customer will receive a voucher with a link to proceed with the payment.
Obviously, everything is integrated and will be automatically managed on payment and invoicing systems.
Let's move on; we have more news.
As you can see in the previous image of Youbook, there is a new small detail: in addition to "children" and "teens," we added "babies." A new age range allows you extra flexibility on price management.
Here is a preview of the Products page, where you can find another new feature:
Here, for each product, you can specify the number of "Babies." But there's more.
Now you can assign compatible setups to your rooms in addition to those specified and managed on the Broom Paper.
Why?
We've been working on Zak's Online reception, starting from the product setups. If you specify room setups for every product, your customers can select a specific room setup while making a reservation from
your Online reception. Here below, you can display a preview.
Many of you have requested this functionality. We hope you enjoy it! Please note that these room setups will be translated into all available languages by our team. So you won't have to worry about the presentation.
Once again, the news doesn't stop here for the Online Reception. We pay attention to your requests on our forum, as you can see by discovering the next improvements.
Here's a list of new functionalities on Zak's Booking engine:
1. You can remove the link to the "Dashboard" (or Home) on the Online Reception.
The customer will remain within the booking process without accessing the sections we introduced as part of the Mini-Sites development.
2. you can remove the Images section.
3. New languages are available. Here's the list: it-en-fr-es-gr-ru-de-nl-lt-pt-br.
4. You can customize the babies' age, as it already happens for Teens and Children.
5. You can specify a time range for check-in. If you configure it, the client will display this information on your website.
Anyway, we've preferred not to "block" the reservation if the selected check-in time is out of range.
6. You can define your Extras "per Day" (Daily). The price will be multiplied by the length of stay. Sorry for the delay!!!! We know this improvement is significant!
7. Major improvements on several fronts.
For example, on the Best solution suggested on the Online Reception, the occupancies of the selected rooms are shown with extreme precision.
8. In the contact/estimate request, your clients can enter a phone number.
Besides, on the control panel, we have fixed some functionalities.
Sending 1-click reservations becomes effective (Once again:
Sorry for the delay, we know this is very important!). By clicking on a short link, your customer can reach the reservation page immediately.
You will need to read a little more down if you want to know all the news.
We have listened to your request on other fronts too. And I'm happy to announce two particularly successful developments:
*Copy Reservation* (accessible from the Reservation detail or the Planner!) and the quick insertion of guests during the registration process (Registration page), for every room.
Finally, smaller things. So many smaller things. Distributed improvements. Performance. The usual stuff you do during developments.
The most important are: the possibility of anonymizing clients on two different levels (hard and soft).
New tutorials on Tabla/Sytar.
From the Planner, you can now add notes to reservation, without accessing the Reservation detail page.
The Planner's print option includes applied filters (rtag and room type).
And what about the Channel Manager?
In addition to the improvements that will be online on Tuesday (already described at the beginning of this post), we'll have *Agoda*native on Zak!
And minor improvements on Despegar, on the updates page and channel monitors. As you can see, there's a lot of news!!
We look forward to your feedback, hoping that this message reflects well on how much we are working to make Zak a better PMS, day by day.
Greetings from Fano
For weeks we've been working hard on very challenging topics.
We hope you'll enjoy our latest developments. The work in progress is over, and mid-August is just around the corner.
Our users are busy in the summer work season, and our team is getting closer to the summer holidays.
In order not to create any inconvenience, we have therefore decided to publish our developments at two different times.
The first one, next Tuesday, will bring some good news. Small changes that won't "destabilize" the summer situation.
The major developments, though, will be online at the end of August/begin of September.
But let's start describing the first changes. On Tuesday we'll release:
- Online Checkin
We have introduced email notifications for customer registration, notes insertion, and credit card confirmation.
- Many CSV files are now created with a MS Excel-compatible format.
With the next release, at the end of August, we'll extend this functionality to all sections.
- Channel Manager
Perfect detection of booking.com's cancellation rules.
Perfect detection of the occupancy of booking.com reservations.
Probably, perfect detection of Expedia boards. Here are some cases where the boards were not correctly detected, although
such cases are rare. Zak's engine will not overwrite the City Tax detected by the Channel Manager.
- Istat: Auto Upload for Liguria and Sondrio
In the second part of the release that will be online at the end of August, we'll introduce some consistent changes.
Below, we'll describe them in detail.
We have completely redesigned the invoicing process. Now, it's much more user-friendly. And that's not all: we will support multiple invoicing headers, including electronic ones.
Besides, these days we are working to introduce international invoicing for many countries. I would point out that since we'll have operating costs on every electronic tax header,
we'll charge an extra cost for multiple headers. We will update you on the price details as soon as possible.
We've not only redesigned Tabla and Sytar: we've introduced some innovative settings. We are not aware of other existing systems implementing them!
We attach a couple of images to give a first overview, and then we will describe the implementation in detail.
First of all, please note the Settings icon on Tabla. It will allow you (finally, sorry for the delay!) to order your products.
And you can also choose graphic themes (at the moment we have two different themes).
Then we've added two fields on Tabla: *Availability Modifier* and *OTA Limit*. Let's describe the first one, already available on Zak.
As you may have noticed, the management of OTA sales limits has been integrated on Tabla. In addition to having a single screen for monitoring, the introduction of this field allows
you to set different limits on different rates.
The *Availability Modifier* allows you to modify your availability manually. It was initially developed to manage Overbookings. Some of you practice overbooking as a selling
strategy: by knowing the average cancellations (for example, on Booking.com, the cancellations percentage is quite high), you can decide to sell more units than the available ones.
Once again, please note that this value is "rate-based". You can set it according to the conditions of sale. You might decide to practice overbooking to sell particularly favorable
rates, since it represents a risk (even if it is minimal if you manage it with caution).
Turning the *Availability Modifier* and the *Ota Limit* to a rate-based setup does not necessarily represent an additional complexity in managing your rates.
First of all, they're not mandatory at all. Besides, you don't have to set up every rate.
Both values will be *derivable* with the excellent and innovative Zak's derivation system that many of you already know. Please note that these parameters allow you to differentiate the availability.
You can set up a different availability for each rate. For example, if you wish to reduce the availability on Booking.com, you just have to create a derivation from an Expedia rate and set up a different value on OTA Limit.
Now let's move on to other functionalities. Below is an image of the new YouBook:
In addition to the improved graphic setup, we would like to point out the possibility of sending the reservation voucher via email. Soon, we'll implement the creation of group
reservations with a specific functionality. And we'll work just as quickly on implementing payment requests on the Online Checkin Page.
In a few words: if you enter a reservation on YouBook (maybe a group reservation), and specify a payment request, your customer will receive a voucher with a link to proceed with the payment.
Obviously, everything is integrated and will be automatically managed on payment and invoicing systems.
Let's move on; we have more news.
As you can see in the previous image of Youbook, there is a new small detail: in addition to "children" and "teens," we added "babies." A new age range allows you extra flexibility on price management.
Here is a preview of the Products page, where you can find another new feature:
Here, for each product, you can specify the number of "Babies." But there's more.
Now you can assign compatible setups to your rooms in addition to those specified and managed on the Broom Paper.
Why?
We've been working on Zak's Online reception, starting from the product setups. If you specify room setups for every product, your customers can select a specific room setup while making a reservation from
your Online reception. Here below, you can display a preview.
Many of you have requested this functionality. We hope you enjoy it! Please note that these room setups will be translated into all available languages by our team. So you won't have to worry about the presentation.
Once again, the news doesn't stop here for the Online Reception. We pay attention to your requests on our forum, as you can see by discovering the next improvements.
Here's a list of new functionalities on Zak's Booking engine:
1. You can remove the link to the "Dashboard" (or Home) on the Online Reception.
The customer will remain within the booking process without accessing the sections we introduced as part of the Mini-Sites development.
2. you can remove the Images section.
3. New languages are available. Here's the list: it-en-fr-es-gr-ru-de-nl-lt-pt-br.
4. You can customize the babies' age, as it already happens for Teens and Children.
5. You can specify a time range for check-in. If you configure it, the client will display this information on your website.
Anyway, we've preferred not to "block" the reservation if the selected check-in time is out of range.
6. You can define your Extras "per Day" (Daily). The price will be multiplied by the length of stay. Sorry for the delay!!!! We know this improvement is significant!
7. Major improvements on several fronts.
For example, on the Best solution suggested on the Online Reception, the occupancies of the selected rooms are shown with extreme precision.
8. In the contact/estimate request, your clients can enter a phone number.
Besides, on the control panel, we have fixed some functionalities.
Sending 1-click reservations becomes effective (Once again:
Sorry for the delay, we know this is very important!). By clicking on a short link, your customer can reach the reservation page immediately.
You will need to read a little more down if you want to know all the news.
We have listened to your request on other fronts too. And I'm happy to announce two particularly successful developments:
*Copy Reservation* (accessible from the Reservation detail or the Planner!) and the quick insertion of guests during the registration process (Registration page), for every room.
Finally, smaller things. So many smaller things. Distributed improvements. Performance. The usual stuff you do during developments.
The most important are: the possibility of anonymizing clients on two different levels (hard and soft).
New tutorials on Tabla/Sytar.
From the Planner, you can now add notes to reservation, without accessing the Reservation detail page.
The Planner's print option includes applied filters (rtag and room type).
And what about the Channel Manager?
In addition to the improvements that will be online on Tuesday (already described at the beginning of this post), we'll have *Agoda*native on Zak!
And minor improvements on Despegar, on the updates page and channel monitors. As you can see, there's a lot of news!!
We look forward to your feedback, hoping that this message reflects well on how much we are working to make Zak a better PMS, day by day.
Greetings from Fano