Hello everyone,

We're pleased to announce that the latest version of RezOvation GT is now available.  Updates are downloaded automatically,  so you should see it next time you restart RezOvation GT or if you select Help > Check for Updates from the menu.

New Features include:

Email

• You can now specify an email subject line for each individual document that you send. To do this, go to the Templates configuration, open the specific document you wish to edit (e.g. confirmation), and double-click on the document name. Enter whatever email subject you wish and click OK.

Reports

• Report windows now remember their last used settings, so you don't have to re-select dates or filters every time you want to generate a report.
• The Housekeeping report can now be grouped by Status (e.g. arrival, departure, stay over, change sheets, etc.)
• We added some additional data columns to the default Housekeeping report. The data columns are: arrival date, departure date, and # of guests. As always, you can modify the report to your specific needs.
• We added some additional codes for totals to the Housekeeping report. They are - Total Rooms, Total Nights, Total Guests, Total Adults, and Total Kids. You can view these codes in the in-program help document.
• We added some additional codes to the Occupancy report. They are - # Nights Out of Service, and # Nights Total (the total room nights available). These numbers should make it easier to understand what is being reported, and whether or not out of service units are affecting your overall occupancy numbers.
• We added some additional codes to the Guest Forecast report. They are - # Nights Booked, # Nights Out of Service, # Nights Total, Total Arrivals, Total Stay Overs, Total Departures, Total Guests, # Nights Booked Total, # Nights Out of Service Total, and # Nights Overall Total.

Reservations

• When adding or editing a room, you will now see a small checkmark for any selected room nights. If you edit an existing reservation and remove or add a room night, you will also receive a confirmation message asking if you meant to change the # of nights selected.
• It is now possible to have 0 adults assigned to a particular room. This is useful if you have a room which has children, but not adults.
• If you attempt to move a reservation on the Occupancy Map to a room that cannot accommodate the total number of guests, you will receive a warning message.
• We've reorganized the right-click menu on both the Occupancy Map and Reservations List to make the options more logical, and also added the ability to print and email from the Occupancy Map.

Rates & Availability

• We added a date selection to the Rate Seasons & Adjustments screen.

Configuration

• If you edit the default tax amount for any tax, you will now see a confirmation message that allows you to set what dates the change will affect. This allows you to decide whether or not editing the default tax amount should apply to past reservations, future reservations, or both.

Booking Engine

• The availability calendar navigation has been improved to make it easier for guests to book a room. When a room is selected, "Book" button will appear below the selection, and when the date selection is changed, the availability list is automatically refreshed. 

We hope you enjoy all the new features!

- The RezOvation Team 

P.S. To share your ideas, and to see what else we're working on, please visit the feedback forum.

We're proud to announce the latest update to RezOvation GT, which includes some significant new functionality based on feedback from our users.  The new version is 5.5.1, and these are just a few of the new features:

Windows 7 Compatibility: RezOvation GT is now certified as compatible with Wndows 7.

Group Reservation Enhancements:  We've added a new group reservation interface, which links together individual reservations within a group and allows you to easily manage payments and reservations for a particular group.  Enhancements include:

• Book a group quickly and easily, with individual reservations for each guest in the group
• Apply payments to the entire group, or a single payment to an individual reservation in the group
• Easily add a reservation to an existing group
• Print separate invoices for different guests on the same reservation (e.g. if you have a single reservation with multiple rooms / guests and don't want to put them under a group -- this is an easy way to split out charges / payments)
• Run reports on your group, see group revenue, etc.
• For a walk through of these new features, please click here.

Occupancy Map Improvements:

• The click & drag feature has been improved to allow for multiple selections without using the "CTRL" key. To make a selection on the occupancy map, simply click and drag the room / dates you wish. Make as many selections in different rooms / days as you wish, and then press ENTER on your keyboard, or right-click on a selection and click "Book".
• Out of service rooms can now be created by clicking and dragging on the occupancy map. Simply click and drag to select the rooms / days you wish to put out of service, and then right-click on the selection and click "Out of service".
• For a walk through of these improvements, please click here.
  

Improved Booking Process: We've made significant improvements to the process of selecting rooms, applying packages to rooms, applying discounts, editing room assignments, and managing multiple room reservations. For a walk through of these improvements, please click here.

Tax Effective Dates / Tax Scheduling: You can now schedule a tax change for a future date, and have the system automatically update future reservations to reflect the new tax rate.

QuickBooks Accounting Integration: We are now offering an open beta of this new feature, which allows you to synchronize your reservations and guests automatically to QuickBooks, and use the powerful automatic reconciliation features in QuickBooks. For more information or to sign up for the open beta, please contact beta@rezovation.com.

Booking Engine Improvements:

• Book packages only option. You can now set the Booking Engine to only allow room / lodging packages. To set this option, go to the Configuration screen, click the link on the right side for "Booking Engine", and check the box for "Book packages only".
• Compact availability calendar. We've added some settings under Configuration > Booking Engine which allows you to hide photos and minimum night stay information on your availability calendar. This is especially useful for properties with a large number of rooms
• Sort rooms & packages by price or name. You can now choose how your rooms and packages are sorted by going to Configuration > Booking Engine.
• Trip insurance. This feature was released in September, and allows guests to optionally purchase trip insurance while booking a room. You can read more about this feature here.

Email Improvements:

• Preview any emails and letters right from the template configuration screen. Just click the "preview" link, and you'll see a sample of the template with real data.
  
• Follow up and reminder emails can be configured to ignore the "Marketing OK" flag, so your follow up and reminder emails will always be sent.
  
• Marketing OK enabled by default setting. Set the "Marketing OK" flag to "on" by default from the Configuration section, from the "General Settings" link on the right side.
  
• Bulk update guests to "marketing OK". From the Customer List, select the guests you wish to update, right-click on a selected guest, and choose "Enable Marketing OK", or "Disable Marketing OK".

For more information about new features and bug fixes, please take a look at the release notes.

We've released the latest version of RezOvation GT.  The version is 5.4.1.84 and is available via the auto update feature.  This update includes numerous fixes, and details can be found here.

We're happy to announce that the latest update to RezOvation GT has been released.  The version is 5.4.1.49, and some features include:

• Gift Certificate management list view, which allows you to easily view / edit / manage all of your gift certificates and pre-paid accounts. To access this feature, click the "Gift" icon on the toolbar.
  
  
• Gift Certificate online checkout. This feature is available for Booking Engine users only, and allows you to sell your own "house" gift certificates online. To access this feature, simply place the Gift Certificate booking link on your site. This link can be found under Configuration > Booking Engine, in the "Booking engine integration with your website" section.
  
  
• Search feature for the Gift Certificate lookup screen. This screen appears when you are applying a gift certificate payment, and allows you to search for a gift certificate by number, purchaser, to, and from fields.
  
  
• Added an export feature to the customer and reservation list, which allows you to export any customer and reservation data to a CSV (spreadsheet) file. To access this feature, select File > Export from the customer or reservation list.
  
  
• Added a "Do Not Move" feature to the Occupancy map. To access this feature, right-click on any room reservation on the Occupancy Map and select "Do Not Move". If you then attempt to move the room, a warning message will appear and you will not be able to move the reservation to another room or another date.
  
  
• Reservations with credit card holds now display as orange on occupancy map. You can change this color by going to Configuration > Lists and Occupancy map (bottom right side of the Configuration screen), and selecting "choose occupancy map colors".
  
  
• Added additional data columns to the reservation list, including # of nights, # of guests, # of adults, # of children, arrival time, departure time, total charges, and total tax.
  
  
• List columns now "stick" when you reorder them. To reorder a list column, simply left-click on the column header and drag it to the left or right. The order will be saved when you close the program.
  
  
• Added a new Reservation Balance report. This report displays running totals through a specific date of any reservations which have a balance. This includes in house, departed, and future reservations.
  
  
• Added a new Reservation By Booking Date summary report. This report displays aggregate information about reservations booked for a particular date range, including % of reservations booked online vs offline, and more.
  
  
• Added a new user security level which prevents certain users from deleting reservations and customers, and canceling reservations. To access this feature, go to Configuration > Users (bottom right side), open the User you wish to edit, and uncheck the box for "delete customers and reservations" and "cancel reservations".

For more features as well as bug fixes, please read the release notes.

We want your feedback!  Share your voice and help decide which features are included in future updates.  Visit our feedback forum now.

A new update for RezOvation GT is available today!  The new version is 5.3.1.61 and includes the following features:

• GDS (global distribution system) integration, which allows you to provide availability on sites such as Travelocity, Expedia, Orbitz, Hotwire, and through distribution networks including Sabre and Pegasus. Additional fees apply if you wish to use this service. Please contact sales@rezovation.com for details on how to sign up.
• Reservations By Date report, which shows reservations booked based on whatever date range you choose. This report can be accessed from the Reports menu under Reservations.
• Revenue by Item report, which details all items sold based on revenue date (extras and rooms).
• Revenue by Rate Type report, which summarizes total revenue by rate type booked (e.g. Rack, BedandBreakfast.com, etc.)
• Revenue by Package report, which details sales by addon and lodging packages.
• Phone number masking for all list and edit views (including customer and reservation lists). This setting can be turned on by going to Configuration > Additional Settings > Lists and Occupancy Map.
• Auto refresh for all lists and occupancy map. This will refresh the lists / occupancy map on whatever interval you choose (30 seconds - 15 minutes). This setting can be turned on by going to Configuration > Additional Settings > Lists and Occupancy Map.
• For more features, as well as bug fixes, take a look at the release notes.
  

 

We're proud to annouce the latest update to RezOvation GT, version 5.1.6.20.  This release includes many important bug fixes, along with the following features:

•  Added a "copy rate type" feature which allows you to both copy an existing rate type to a new rate type, and copy rates between one rate type and another. You can also automatically adjust rates by a specified amount. This is particularly useful if you are part of the BedandBreakfast.com online reservations program, as you can copy rates from your Rack rate to BB.com rate and automatically adjust the rate. 
  

• Added template codes for "add-on packages" and "lodging packages" to the Housekeeping report.
• Added template code for "room description" to confirmation letters, folios, registration card, follow up and reminder emails, housekeeping report, and reservations reports. This code is [sRoomsDescription] and will display descriptions for any rooms added to a reservation.
• Added a "guest notes" template code to the reservations reports.
• Added a "Quick select" feature to the reports viewer which allows you to quickly select a date range such as "today", "this month", "last month", etc.
• Added a cancellation warning to the Customer edit and Reservation edit screens which asks you to confirm cancelling changes when clicking the cancel button or close (X) button.
• Improved the organization of the Configuration screen.
• Improved the reservation list "taken by" custom filter to be a picklist instead of a text box.
• SQL Express 2008 is now installed by default with new installations.

Read more here.

We released an update this week to RezOvation GT, and the version is now 5.0.4.255.  Some features include:

• Reservation Wait List. To add a reservation to the wait list, create the reservation using the Add Reservation button. Do not assign a room to the reservation, and enter any other reservation details (guest name, notes, payments, etc.). Click the Actions button and select Add to Wait List. To view the wait list, go to the Reservations list and click the "Wait List" button on the left hand side.
• Minimum night stay enforcement when booking a reservation via the Occupancy Map or Add Reservation screen. If the dates you have selected to not meet the minimum night stay requirements, a message will appear when you click the "Book" button, and you will be asked if you want to proceed.
• Packages by day of the week. You can now restrict packages so that they are only available on specific days of the week. This is useful if you want to set up mid week specials, etc. This feature works both for bookings made through RezOvation GT and through the Booking Engine.
• Custom colors for the Booking Engine. You can now choose what colors are used for the Booking Engine buttons and header images. Currently, there are 6 colors to choose from, and more will be added in the future.
• Fax confirmations for Booking Engine & BedandBreakfast.com reservations. To configure this option, simply enter a special email address into the Automated Notifications section under Configuration > Online Reservations > Global Online Reservation Settings. Simply enter your fax number followed by @metrofax.com, e.g. 5125551212@metrofax.com.  Do not use a prefix such as 1 or 9.
• Improvements to the data synch process. For example, if you move RezOvation GT to a new computer, and forget to uninstall / disable RezOvation GT on your old computer, you will be prompted to register the data synch on your new computer. This helps to ensure that data is always synched to our servers.
• Booking Engine display improvements. The Availability Calendar now displays room description when you mouse over room picture, and the room name is now displayed in the photo viewer (photo viewer is accessed by clicking on the room picture or room name from the Availability Calendar, or by clicking the Enlarge link from the select room list).
• Many bug fixes.
  
• Read the release notes ...
  

 

 

Sorry for the delay on posting this -- December was quite a month for us here at RezOvation with the acquisition of Webervations as well as some big end of the year projects, and our blog posting got a bit behind. So without further ado ...

The latest version of RezOvation GT was released on December 10, 2008, and is version 5.0.1.538.  Some highlights:

• The Booking Engine availability calendar view now automatically updates the room prices based on # of guests selected.
• When adding an extra, there is now an option for "Save and Add Another".
• When adding an extra, you can now move through the extra list by using the keyboard (e.g. type "c" to move to any extras that start with the letter "c").
• A sign up link for Intuit's QuickBooks Merchant Service has now been added to the Credit card processing configuration screen.  Intuit has some of the best rates available and fully integrates with RezOvation GT.  Check out this link for more details.
• Numerous improvements to the Webervations synch process, including:
  • Cell phone # is now downloaded
  • Arrival time is now downloaded
  • Reservations that cross the year boundary behave normally (previously, these reservations were not getting saved correctly)
• Many more bug fixes -- view the release notes for details.

 

We are very pleased to announce a major update to RezOvation GT today, version 5.0.1.232.

Some key highlights of this release are:

• Merge customers feature, which allows you to merge duplicate contacts from the Customer List.
• A new Quick Booking screen which allows users to quickly and easily get a list of rooms & rates for a certain date range, and then book the room.
• Enhancements to the occupancy map, including custom colors, color flags, out of service labels, and additional reservation detail.
• Many significant security enhancements, including the ability to purge credit cards automatically.
• Additional fields on the BE checkout, including arrival time and other names.
• A new feature for the BE that allows you to sell “orphaned room nights”.  For example, you might have a 2 night minimum stay on a Friday / Sat, but if the rooms are fully booked Thurs – Sat – Sun, then the Friday cannot be booked online because of the 2 night minimum.  We now have a feature which can be turned on that ignores minimum stays when this occurs, which will help you sell the 1 night stays that would otherwise have gone unbooked.  This is an optional feature which is off by default.  If you would like to use it, please contact support to have it turned on.
• Much more … read the release notes for details.

We released a new update for RezOvation GT today, which includes many bug fixes, improvements, as well as some enhancements.  Highlights:

• Occupancy Map > added a confirm room move dialog when changing rooms or dates using the click & drag feature.
• Improved the CSV (customer list) import to make the process of importing customers lists easier.
• Improvements to the initialization wizard for new customers.
• Customer List > Marketing List Export > added phone numbers and company name

For more details, view the release notes.