Shhh Why is it all so quiet here lately?
I know I love to look at product updates, I look at updates from competitors, other apps and the apps I use. As a CEO I also have the job of “Product Manager” and I need to pick the right features to work on with limited budgets and time.
Whenever things get quiet its usually because we are working on a big update, Q4 last year we did our biggest ever update which was the rate & availability management upgrade. It was so successful that we haven’t needed to do any more upgrades since then as it handles even the most demanding customer!
We took 2 months on that upgrade!
Small Notes Update
Even when we are in a full on big upgrade mode we still fit in a few small features to keep users happy. It’s not cool to not see any progress for 2 months, we live in a fast world with constant improvements. Think of facebook and their pace of updates.
So what small things have been done so far?
- Lightspeed EPOS connection — If you need a bar till system then these are the guys to reach out to, their EPOS is cloud native and works offline if no internet. It’s sweet!
- Allotz Channel Manager Integration — We added another channel manager which is based in Australia
- Google Analytics and Adwords Tracking for the Booking Engine
- And around 100 small fixes and bugs
What is coming soon?
Ahh good question… well as we drive to move upmarket with our solution we have know for a while that our invoice/billing section is “lacking” actually im surprised we have gone on for so long like we have!
Current Situation:
- One Folio/invoice per booking
- Cant customise invoice numbers
- Can’t have multiple folios or split amounts
- Can’t bill the invoice to a company account, you have to change the customer to company for that booking.
What were building is a revelation!
- Multiple Folios per booking
- Can close folios into invoices or sales receipts
- Full customisation of Invoice start numbers, prefix and suffixes
- Move items easily between folios
- Split items between multiple folios by amount or percentage
- Split rooms between folios by nights, amount or percentage
- Add discounts to each item or multiple items
- Close folio as invoice to a company account
- Smart routing of folios to company/agent accounts (Example a new Airbnb booking will automatically have the folio set up to the Airbnb account so the customer amount due is 0)
Wait thats not all!
In addition to this accounting/billing “stuff” we are upgrading the customer profiles also. They kind of go together!
Currently:
- One customer/company per booking
- Rooms have guest details but no profiles for them
- No way to add companions
The Future:
- Full profile per guest and companion
- Can add many companions
Why is the profile upgrade important?
It seems like no big deal right? Wrong!
We need this upgrade to satisfy some things so we can build the online checkin feature in the future. Online checkin sounds simple but some countries require guest info for everyone staying not just the main guest.
Also self checkin for multiple rooms or group bookings can get difficult but with separate profiles the lead guest can fill his own profile and give an email address for us to get the other guests information room by room.
Did I hear online check in?
Yes! It is high on our list to add in the coming months, will save everyone so much time! Keep an eye out for our progress with that in our next update blog post.
To Finish
I have done a LOT of research around folios, invoices etc.
Some systems confuse the hell out of me and looks like you need accountant to use them. We have tried really hard to keep it simple yet powerful and I hope that it will be really intuitive to use like it is currently.
Please reach out to my if your PMS does something in a hard or restrictive way, want to make sure not to repeat any mistakes of other systems.
Over and Out, Evan
