Income Report - Improved

The previous version of the GG Income Report was a web page, which was unsuitable for printing or saving.

This report has now been reformatted to be produced in PDF format. This gives a much improved layout for ease of reading, and also means the report can be easily saved and forwarded by email, for example to an accountant.

All other features remain the same. The next report layout looks like this:-

First page(s) show a transaction list

The last page shows various transaction summaries

Paper Diary Updates

GG reminds businesses to add bookings to a paper diary so the two can be kept in sync, however not ever business uses this option so it is now possible to switch paper diary reminders off.

To do this set the parameter PAPR to No.

To use paper diary reminders set PAPR to Yes.

PAPR defaults to Yes if not defined.

Quick Entry For Off The Street Bookings

Before this update, when adding bookings for guests who come off the street rather than those who booked ahead it was necessary to complete the whole booking process. So to get the booking to the "Confirmed" status the following was necessary:-

• A deposit of £0 had to be entered on the deposit payment screen 
• On the send a confirmation process the booking had to be marked as confirmation sent

The new "Street Booking" facility allows bookings to be entered and straight away marked as confirmed.

A new button had been added to the booking details entry screen as shown below.

Clicking this causes the booking to be added in a "Confirmed" status, the diary will be blocked and an entry will appear in the audit trail indicating that this is a street booking.

Bill printing and check out will happen as normal. 

Blank Registration cards

GuestGuardian has for a long time had the facility to print guest resistration cards so it's all completed with names, addresses and booking details when visitors arrive.

An extra feature has been added that allows blank cards to be printed so you have cards ready for people knock on the door, or for instances where pre-printed cards are not appropriate (for example when someone made a booking for someone else).

To access the blank cards go to Controls >> Blank Cards as below

Once selected a blank card is displayed on PDF format which can then be printed as many times as required.

Bug Fixes and Amendments

The following changes have been applied to GuestGuardian

Bug.
If a booking has been cancelled it is still possible for the visitor to complete the deposit payment, causing the booking to be re-instated, however the reminder to add the confirmed booking to the paper diary was not appearing on the to do list. This is fixed.

Enhancement.
Once a guest had been checked out the "Refunds" button was not shown on the Guest Details screen, so in the case of an overpayment it was not possible to register the refund. This has been fixed, the "Additional Charges" button also now shows on checked out bookings.

Enhancement:
When a visitor attempts to make a deposit payment on a booking that has been cancelled and some of the rooms/dates allocated to someone else a screen informing this is displayed, however the link on this screen sent the visitor to the business homepage, this has been changed to the business availability calendar.

Bug:
All the GG screens contained a generic "title", which made it difficult to navigate around the system by holding down the "back" button on a browser so that all previous viewed pages are listed. This has been changed on all the key screens, all others will be done when possible. 

Defining A Minimum Nights Stay

As new facility has been implemented in GuestGuardian that allows business to restrict bookings that don't meet the minimum nights stay requirement. It works like this:-

The Minimum Stay is defined in the Control >> Parameter as below

MS00 - Default minimum stay usually defined as

       MS00 1 night

MS01 - MS12 Only needs to be created for months that differ from MS00 above.

      MS06 2 nights                   Minimum of 2 nights in June
      MS08 3 nights                   Minimum of 3 nights in August

So in the above example there is no limit for the year, except 2 night minimum in June and 3 night minimum in August.


These rules are only applied where the booking and deposit is processed directly from the guest, they are ignored for bookings entered by the business themselves.

If the Minimum Stay rules are not met by a guest, the booking and deposit will still be accepted, but automatic sending of the confirmation will be overriden.

A message will appear in the "Requiring Your Attention" section on the home screen, as below.

The exact details of the problem are shown in the guests audit trail on the bottom of the guest screen, as below.

 When this occurs the business can either:

1. Complete the booking by sending the confirmation
2. Reject the booking by:
1. Refund the deposit through paypal
2. Cancel the booking and inform the guest why