Software Release 14/11/2022

Bookeasy deployed the below changes into the live production system overnight. Should you require further information in regards to any of the below features, please reach out to our friendly Bookeasy Support team who will be more than happy to help.

Improvements & Bug Fixes:


Guest Console Self Service Enhancements

Enhancements have been made to the Guest Console that introduce a step forward in self service cancellation functionality, as well as the introduction of a new alteration cart that provides the foundation for self service booking modifications currently in development.

Pending a number of business rules that need to be met for each booking, guests are now able to do the following:

  • Automatically cancel bookings
  • Submit free text cancellation requests
  • Simple booking modifications where there is no change in cost
  • Free text modification requests

In addition:

  • A new cancellation email has been created for destination partners, with its purpose to advise centres when a guest submits a self-service cancellation via the Guest Console so they can process any applicable fees or refunds (whether that be manually or by reviewing and submitting the bulk refund queue item).

  • The "Booking Centre Cancellation Fee" and "Operator Cancellation Fee" payment types have also been renamed in order to accommodate the introduction of modification fees coming in the next milestone release. These payment types have been renamed to "Booking Centre Fee" and "Operator Fee" respectively, and should appear wherever these terms are currently used in the centre staff console.

  • Unlike the standard base rate types guests are provided via the gadgets when booking tours and tickets, guests will be presented with the resulting custom rate types when they attempt to modify a tour or event booking. As a result, the rate types displayed in the guest console will match the rate types staff and operators see when they edit these bookings, or when making bookings via the staff console's activities search.

What is the "alteration cart"?

The alteration cart is a new screen and process in the Guest Console that provides the guest a summary of the booking cancellations or modifications they have selected, before it is submitted, inclusive of any owing refunds and applicable administrative or operator fees that may be incurred.

Not all bookings will be eligible for cancellation or modification via the alteration cart, which are dependent on a large number of business rules and factors such as (but not limited to) the cancellation/modification policies stored on a booking, the date and time the guest requests their changes, and other dependencies for each destination partner.

The alteration cart supports cancellation and modifications to a single itinerary only.

Countdown Timer

The alteration cart also includes a new countdown timer that displays on all pages in the Guest Console once a booking has been submitted to the alteration cart. Its purpose is to ensure that the alteration cart is kept free of bookings, in the event a guest abandons a booking alteration but then wishes to submit bookings from other itineraries at a later time. It also prevents our database tables from building up thousands of rows that may or may not be abandoned carts, and prompts the guest to action their alteration, rather than having it left sitting in the cart.

The timer commences countdown at 15 minutes, with an option provided to extend the timer another 5 minutes when the countdown reaches 2 minutes.

Cancelling bookings via the Guest Console

When can a guest automatically cancel a booking?

  • The booking must have a configured cancellation policy saved on it from the centre and/or operator.
  • The booking cannot be part of a package or promotion
  • If the cancellation policy does not have a "no cancellations allowed" rule
  • If cancellation fees apply, the total cancellation policy fees payable need to be less than the amount paid and allocated to the booking
  • The booking cannot be a child/parent booking that was created based on a booking question add-on product
  • The date and time the guest is cancelling the booking needs to be:
    • before the accommodation booking's arrival date and check-in time
    • before a tour, event or car hire booking's start date and time

The guest will also be advised of any applicable administration (centre) or operator fees before proceeding.


When does a "request only" cancellation apply?

If the above criteria are not met, a guest will have the "request only" cancellation request functionality as long as the date and time the guest is cancelling the booking before an accommodation booking's departure date, or not after a tour, event or car hire booking's start date and time

When can't a guest cancel a booking, or submit a cancellation request?

Below are some example conditions that will prevent a guest from submitting a cancellation or cancellation request:

  • If the date and time the guest is cancelling the booking:
    • Is on or after an accommodation booking's departure date
    • Is after a tour, event or car hire booking's start date and time
  • If the booking is already cancelled
  • If the booking has already been selected for cancellation in the Guest Console
  • If the booking has already been selected for modification in the Guest Console
  • If the booking has been submitted to a bulk refund queue

What happens when a booking cancellation is processed by a guest for a booking you manage?

  • If you use Bookeasy's Bulk Refunds functionality:
    • The booking will be immediately cancelled in order to free up the availability
    • The operator will receive their standard booking cancellation email notification
    • You will receive a new "Action Required - Self Service Guest Cancellation" email notification advising you of the booking that has been cancelled.
    • The booking will be submitted as a bulk refund queue item with all applicable booking centre fees, operator fees and guest refunds applied per the configured cancellation policies stored on the booking. The booking will also be flagged accordingly in the reservation search and itinerary screen per current functionality for when a booking is in the refund queue
    • As a result, booking centre staff will need to then review and process the bulk refund queue item, in order to automatically record and process the applicable fees and/or guest refund.

  • If you DO NOT use Bookeasy's Bulk Refunds functionality:
    • The booking will be immediately cancelled in order to free up the availability
    • The operator will receive their standard booking cancellation email notification
    • You will receive a new "Action Required - Self Service Guest Cancellation" email notification advising you of the booking that has been cancelled.
    • As a result, booking centre staff will need to manually process any applicable booking centre fees, operator fees or guest refunds, per the cancellation policy stored on the booking (unless alternative arrangements are made).

Modifying (editing) bookings via the Guest Console

Guests are now able to make adjustments to the following for an accommodation, tour or event booking, as long as there is "no cost change" made to the booking as a result of the changes made:

  • Number of persons (PAX)
  • Change the unit allocated to an accommodation booking (if the operator allows guests to book units)
  • Booking Question answers, as long as the booking question does not incur a cost adjustment or apply an add-on product
  • A text based modification request


When can a guest submit a "no cost change" modification?

  • If the product is bookable by the guest (e.g not an internal only product)
  • If the booking is not part of a promotion or package
  • If the booking is an accommodation, tour or event product
  • If the booking is not for a Rezdy, LIVN or FareHarbor partner connected operator
  • If the booking has not been made from an OTA like Booking.com, Expedia, etc
  • If the booking is not a child/parent booking that was created based on a booking question add-on product
  • If the date and time the modification is made is:
  • Before an accommodation booking's arrival date and check-in time
  • Before a tour, event booking's start date and time
  • If the booking has no modification policy stored on it
  • If the booking does have a modification policy stored on it, then it will only be permitted if the modification policy allows it, and if the policy does not apply a modification fee

If any of the above rules are not met, guests will be offered the option to send a text-based modification request.

When does a "request only" modification apply?

If a "no cost change" modification is submitted, the guest will be offered the option to submit it as a text based request:

  • If the unit selected becomes unavailable after it has been selected
  • If the cost will change due to the modification submitted
  • If there are booking restrictions that prevent the modification from saving
  • If the minimum/maximum PAX restrictions are not met

When can't a guest submit a modification of any kind?

  • If the end/departure date is a past date
  • If the booking is already cancelled
  • If the booking is already in the Guest Console's alteration cart for cancellation
  • If the booking has been submitted to the bulk refund queue
  • If the operator does not accept instant confirmation bookings

Room Manager Incorrectly Displaying "Due" Amount [#18310]

Previously, in certain areas of Advanced Consoles, bookings with extras could result in the “Due” amount incorrectly displaying an outstanding balance when there is none. 

Consecutive Night Online Bookings Toggle Causing Issues [#18465]

Standard Bookeasy Rooms Consoles have had this irrelevant functionality removed. Advanced consoles have had the description updated to "Online bookings can only be made if consecutive nights are able to be allocated to a single unit".

Follow Up Flags Not Being Sent Out [#18692]

We have resolved an error witht the Follow Up Flags not being sent out or being delayed. This was due to a confusion with timezone settings. Now the user may set Follow Up Flags based on their local timezone.

New Centre Email Template [#18737]

We have to created a new email template so that when a guest self-service cancels a booking via the guest console, the centre is alerted.

 

Centres need to be alerted so that the they can take action if necessary. Such as finalising a queued refund (if the centre uses bulk refunds), or needing to manually process cancellation fees and refunds if they don't use the bulk refunds functionality.

Emails Not Being Sent When Editing Booking [#18857]

When editing a booking in the Staff Console, guests would not receive an email stating the changes made. From now on, they will receive a new confirmation email with the updated details of the booking.

Rename “Operator Cancellation Fee” and “Booking Centre Cancellation Fee” [#18606]

Payment methods “Operator Cancellation Fee” and “Booking Centre Cancellation Fee” have been reworded to “Operator Fee” and “Booking Centre Fee” to be more inclusive of other fees suchs as Modification Fees.

Booking Forms Defaulting To Australia [#18623]

When a guests is filling out their booking form, the country would default to Australia. We have now updated the booking form to default to the country from where the booking is being made.

Operator Fees Not Separating On Itinerary via Refund Wizard [#19029]

When using the Refund Wizard on an Itinerary with multiple bookings, only one Operator Fee would be added to the itinerary that is inclusive of all bookings. This resulted in the Operator Fees not being able to allocated to specific operators. The Refund Wizard will now create an Operator Fee for each booking being cancelled.