Creating a New Accommodation

Accommodations - is lodging capabilities you can create for allocating your tourists. In the system this section is called 'Hotels' but within it you can create different kinds of accommodation - hotels, villas, apartments, etc.

The peculiarity of creating self-operated accommodations is that you can have multiple contracts for the same hotel with different suppliers. So you can create one description of the hotel and link it with multiple contracts. It is shown on the following picture and influences the process of accommodation creation (as described below in the following sections).

Creating a New Accommodation

To create a new self-operated accommodation,

1. If you haven’t yet created supplier of it – please, first go to menu Suppliers and create the supplier of accommodation (it can be hotel itself or group of hotels or apartment owner, etc.). If you have already created this supplier earlier – just skip this step

2. Go to menu Self-operated products and click Hotels.

   Even if you’re going to create apartments or villas, they are created as “Hotels” and you will be able to specify the type of accommodation within settings.

3. On the Hotels page click Create a new hotel in order to create a new accommodation description.

   Open

   

4. The new hotel description page appears:

   Open

   

   Fill in consequently all tabs. Pay special attention to configuration room types and meal types – without them you won’t be able to configure prices. Each tab is described in more details in the following sub-sections.

5. Once the description is made – follow the link Prices&Availability.

6. Consequently fill in and save other sections within Information tab (Additional services, Tourists, Prices and Availability).

Let us have a closer look at each sub-section within Information tab and examine the peculiarities of filling accommodation description.

Creating a New Accommodation Description

The Accommodation Description is an essential part of configuration that aims on configuring both general information about hotel (where it is located, what room types and meal types are being offered), as well as marketing description (available services, photos, etc.).

This information is presented within a set of tabs:

• General description

• Detailed description

• Services

• Location

• Room types and meal types

• Sport, leisure and kids services

• Photo

• History

General Information
On the General information tab specify the following information:

1. General info and address:

   1. Name - type here the hotel's name.

   2. Source of description - here the default option Own description is selected, since this is your local hotel description.
      In case of integration with external suppliers via API they usually provide their own descriptions, so this parameter is important for differentiation of them.

   3. Code – for external hotels the code is assigned automatically by a supplier. For self-operated hotels however, you need to assign the code on your own. Locate mouse pointer into the Code box, and enter the sequence of Latin letters and numbers. Your hotel codes should be unique.

   4. Hotel chain - select the hotel chain to which the hotel belongs.

   5. Hotel type - select type of accommodation (e.g. Hotel, Recreation Center, Sanatorium etc.)

   6. Category - select the hotel category of the hotel.

   7. Country - select the country of hotel's location. After you have determined the country, select the city of hotel's location from the City drop-down. Then locate mouse pointer into the bar and type the factual postal code of the hotel. Select the district of hotel's location from the drop-down. Finally locate mouse pointer into the Address bar and type the address of the hotel's location.

   8. Recommended - is implemented for own hotels. If to switch on this option on Back-Office, you can sort products by option “Recommended” on the results search page on the Website.

   9. Internal Note in the description for OWN and EXTERNAL hotels. It may be used for internal notes. Also it is possible to use this note to display it on the Website via API for different goals (this may need customized implementation).

   10. Upload a hotel logo (if it has any and you want to use it) using the Upload file form.

2. Contacts:
   In the Contacts form, locate mouse pointers into the corresponding bars and type:

   1. hotel phone numbers

   2. fax number

   3. URL-link

   4. contact e-mail addresses
      All the boxes in the group are optional.

3. Classification:
   Select the check boxes of your choice to specify the hotel classification. The parameters are classified in several groups. The information identified in the Classification group will be displayed on the Information about hotel page. With this additional logic you can specify & see whether hotel is near the beach or mountains, whether it’s modern or historical, budget or luxury and for what target audience is aimed.

4. Characteristics:
   The Characteristics group is used for entering basic information on accommodation (build year, territory area, quantity of floors, etc.). This group is used mainly for describing villas, but you can also add such a description for self-operated hotels. All information specified in this group is displayed on the Information about hotel page.

Detailed Description
The Detailed description tab contains the description of the hotel properties and infrastructure. On the Detailed description tab you can see the number of bars each standing for a particular property. Click the bar of your choice to expand the form.
The only mandatory information to be specified is Check-in/Check-out. The other bars are optional.

As soon as the required information is specified, click Save to continue.

Services
On the Services tab specify all the services available at a hotel.
When editing the services of a previously created hotel, first, switch to the editing mode by clicking Edit at the bottom of the page.

The Services tab includes the following groups of check boxes:

• Board type
  In the Board type group select the public catering facilities available at the hotel, their cuisine and menu. Select the check boxes opposite the services available.

• Business services
  Select the infrastructure options for business talks and meetings, conferences, presentations, etc.

• Child services
  Select the services and amenities available for children (playground, playroom, etc.)

• Credit cards
  Select the payment systems available for credit card payment.

• Health care services
  This group is mostly oriented to health resorts and sanatoriums. Select the treatment and healing procedures available at the hotel.

• Hotel amenities
  Select the standard services, offered by the hotel.

• Room
  Select the room services, amenities and equipment available.

• Security
  State the security measures provided by the hotel to protect the guests and their property.

• Sport and recreation
  Select the facilities provided by a hotel for sports and active recreation.

There is a possibility to prepopulate the list of room services from the room amenities list on the Services section. In this way, the supplier can add only the extra items that are specific to this room.

Location
On the Location tab configure the display of hotel location on the map and the facilities in the neighborhood.

• From the group of check boxes select the facilities located in hotel's vicinity:

• In the Coordinates group enter the Latitude and the Longitude of hotel's location. The coordinates will be used to display the hotel on the map in the Results Representation form and on the Information about hotel page.

• When entering a hotel description you can use Google maps. The map type is selected during the system installation. In the Google map box enter the direct passageway to the hotel's location starting with the frame tag.

To find the coordinates of a hotel on Google maps,

1. Open Google maps and search for the hotel by address.

2. In the address bar, the coordinates are displayed in the following way:

Creating Room Types
You need to specify the room types that will be available to tourists in a self-operated hotel. For each room you can define it’s description, as well as limitations on how many travelers can be allocated in this room (on main beds, extra beds or sharing places).

To add a new room type:

1. On the Room types and meal types tab, in the Room types group, click Create. The New room window appears:

2. Enter the necessary information:

   1. Name: full name of a room type as provided by a hotel (for example, Double Standard Room, Double Deluxe Room, Family Sea View).

   2. Accommodation: the allocation of guests a room is suitable for (for example, Single or Double).

   3. Category: the category of the room (for example, Standard or Deluxe, etc.)

   4. Short description: brief description of a room type. It will be shown in the search results.

   5. Description: detailed description of a room type. It will be shown in the separate window with room details.

   6. Room capacity: the boxes in the group are filled in by default when you select accommodation type (e.g. for a single room it will be specified that there is 1 main bed within it; for a double room there are 2 main beds, etc.), but you can specify the number of available main beds, extra beds and sharing places manually. It is possible to add the number of bedrooms and the number of bathrooms in the Capacity and beds section. The information on the number of bedrooms and the number of bathrooms you can also see in reservation.

      While creating your own hotel, you can specify the acceptable number of guests: children and adults separately. Also, for children, you can specify the age.

   7. Bed types: specify the bed types that are available in the room (if supplier provides this information). Click the option of your choice. It is possible to add multiple bed types in each of block (basic and alternate). In case of added settings on bed types (both basic and alternate) information will be displayed in created reservation.

   8. Room services: select the room services that are available for the room type.

3. Click Save.

Creating meal types
You also need to include all board types that are available for tourists in your own hotel. By default the Room Only option is created, but you can create more options (if provided by hotel).

To create a new board type,

1. On the Room and meal types tab, in the meal types group, click Create. The New board type window appears:

2. In the window, fill in the required information:

   1. Name: enter the name of the meal type as it is specified by hotel (e.g. “Vegetarian Breakfast”)

   2. Type: select the meal type from the drop-down

   3. Default: select the default check box to apply the meal type under configuration as default.

   4. Description: locate mouse pointer into the Short description and Description boxes and enter the meal type description.

3. Click Save and click Close.

For Own Hotels it is possible manual sorting on the list of rooms and meal types. It helps to work with Daily rates and Price-lists more comfortably. The same sorting is saved in the price list, daily rates and price list for surcharges.

Sport, leisure and kids services
As part of the description you can specify the list of bars and restaurants, sport, SPA and kids amenities and that are available in the hotel or nearby.

To add the available hotel amenities:

1. On the Sport, leisure and kids services tab, in the required group, click Create.
   Let us consider an example of adding a restaurant. The New restaurant window appears:

   Enter the necessary information into the form:

   1. Name: name of the facility

   2. Type: type of the facility: restaurant or coffee-shop

   3. Location: where a restaurant is located: inside the hotel or near it

   4. Cuisine: type of the cuisine: for example, European, oriental, etc

   5. Short description: a couple of phrases about the restaurant

   6. Description: more detailed information about the restaurant

2. Click Save.

Adding images to a hotel description
You can demonstrate exterior and interior of your hotel by showing it with the images. To add the images to the description of your hotel, do the following.

To upload an image from your PC,

1. On the Photo tab, in the Upload File group, click Add.

2. Browse to the image you want to upload, and click Open.

3. Click Download.

4. Select the respective image category from the drop-down list below the image.

5. For those images that relate to rooms or sport or leisure activities you can additionally specify what is depicted on the image (room type or restaurant, etc.)

6. You can additionally specify the image title (enter text description for the image).

7. If you want to show photos within the photo galleries in a specified order – indicate the display order number.

8. To display the uploaded image as a thumbnail on the hotel search results page, click the radio button opposite the required image.

9. Click Save.
   The saved image is displayed on the hotel search results page. You can also see it in the Detailed hotel description window.

To upload an image from the Internet,

1. On the Photo tab, click Upload via link to expand the form.

2. Locate mouse pointer into the box and enter the web source where the required image is stored.

3. Click Add if you need to add several images.

4. Click Download. The image is uploaded and displayed on the Search results, as well as in the Detailed hotel description window.

Edits made to information about self-operated products
On the History tab you can view the list of changes made to the information about a self-operated hotel.

Using the Filter form at the top of the page you may filter the list of changes to display:

You can use the following filtering criteria:

• Time period: Define the time period during which the edits were made.

• User: From the User drop-down select the user who made the edits.

• Section: from the drop-down, select the hotel contract section to which the edits were applied.

• Type of change: Select the required check boxes to filter the list of edits by type: changed, added or deleted.