Bookings made online may come from the following sources:
Via online Distributors you have opted into and
Via your own website's Booking Pages
A Visitor Information Centre using the V3Booking Centre module
Bookings made via these channels are automatically placed into your Res Diary screen and a Customer Folio created.
You will receive a CC of the emailed Tax Invoice or Booking Confirmation that is automatically sent to the customer to confirm the booking.
If you do not need to communicate with your customer prior to arrival, there is no need to take any further action regarding these bookings.
When you opt-in to be sold via a Distributor, you will note that the Distributor 'Payment Option' displayed will be either 'Full Payment' (payment direct to provider) or 'Provider Collects Full Payment' (On-account booking). These two types of online bookings are explained below.
If a booking is made via a Distributor using the 'Full Payment' payment option, the payment will be processed direct to Provider. That is, the full amount will have been placed into your bank account using the customer's credit card. In the resulting Customer Folio in frontdesk Res, the booking and associated expense, together with the online payment will be recorded under the 'Customer' tab. You, as the Provider, are responsible for managing the customer and the booking, and therefore you may cancel, move, extend or change the booking and manage associated payments, refunds and expenses as required. See also Cancel an Online Booking.
If a booking is made via a Distributor using the 'Distributor Collects Full Payment' payment option, the Distributor takes responsibility for the booking and for collecting payment from the Customer. In the resulting Customer Folio in frontdesk Res, the booking and associated expense will appear under the 'Agent' tab because payment is owed to you by the Distributor (who is the Agent in this case). It will then be necessary to invoice the relevant Distributor at a later date - this will be subject to the Distributor's Terms and Conditions that you agreed to when you opted in, and in most cases you will not be able to invoice them until after the Customer has checked out. You can view the Terms and Conditions at any time via your Marketing tab>Distributors. These terms will usually provide information on where and when to send invoices. Once the Customer has checked out, you have the option of generating a Tax Invoice to the Distributor (Agent).
Each month, V3 will send end you a Settlement Report, which will assist you with reconciling and invoicing on-account Distributors. Some Distributors may settle payments owing automatically into your bank account, depending on the Terms and Conditions to which you agreed when you opted-in. See also Payment Processes and Cancel an Online On-Account Booking for more information regarding management of On-Account bookings.
Important:
As the Distributor is responsible for the booking, it will not be possible to move the start date, or cancel the booking via frontdesk. The customer will need to contact the Distributor, who will make the change.
You will be able to move the booking to another Inventory item (eg room) or another Product. HOWEVER it is important to note that if the booking is edited and the edit results in a price change, the settlement amount will remain unchanged. This means that the amount owed to you by the Distributor will be dictated by the original amount booked - not the edited amount as shown in the Account Statement. The original amount will therefore be the amount shown on the settlement report supplied to you by V3 . You should take great care when changing an Online On-Account booking to ensure that the price either does not change or you agree the price change with the Distributor.
Any online bookings will appear in your "Diary" screen in purple with the Customer's name displayed. Double click on the booking to view the Customer Folio.
To view a Report of all Online bookings:
From the "Today" screen, you can click on the Online Bookings link under "New Bookings" to quickly view a report of all online bookings received in the last 7 days.
Alternatively, you can create your own custom report by clicking on the blue "Reports" tab in Res.
Select the search criteria required: (eg: Online Bookings by either by Date of Stay or Date of Booking, and the date range required).
Click View.
In Res, click on Payment Reconciliation tab and select Online, then View or Print. The resulting report lists any payments for internet bookings that have been made.
It is suggested that you reconcile this list of payments against payments received into your bank account.
Search for and view these bookings if required.
If you are using frontdesk as your online booking system to receive bookings through multiple distribution channels, you may wish to take some rooms off your list of available products for online sales occasionally, i.e. block online customers from booking a product online. For instructions, see Close out Product or Inventory.