AMBER HOUSE's wish list

Suggestions and ideas to make Beds24.com better
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amberbb
Posts: 125
Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2012 10:12 pm
Location: Centre of New Zealand - sunny Nelson!
Contact:

Last updated 25 February 2013

It has now been announced that, although important bugs will continue to be fixed, no new features will be added to the Original Control Panel. New development work will be concentrated on the New Control Panel.

I will add (and subtract, I hope!) from this list (by editing it) from time to time and especially as the appropriate new feature gets incorporated into the New Control Panel.
In order of decreasing priority:

:| updated 29 October 2012 (was first listed 22 Mar 2012)
1) For the Offline "ANGEL" Beds24.com software, fix "Refresh Bookings from Server Now" so the date refreshes to read the REAL date of the "Last Update from Server" rather than the last date the software was started afresh.
(We both know this is just a display problem , but most peeps may waste their time and yours without realising that the database really has updated. I'm running build 1.0.0.22 - the latest when I "Check for Program Update".)

2) Implement the ability to configure automatic refreshes of "ANGEL's" data at set intervals
- perhaps from a pick list of 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 1 hour, (if you think that so frequent updates would not impact your server too much - I assume that it is just the differential increment of data that needs to be fetched, and not the whole kit and caboodle again) 2 hours, 4 hours, 8 hours, 24 hours, 3 days, 7 days, 30 days

:mrgreen: 22 Mar 2012 Option to choose a different background colour in the calendar view for dates that have either been set to be either
an exceptional booking period
or
"Blackout"
(We have a traffic light fixation. We have set booked dates to Red, available dates to Green and we would then be able to set the colour in the calendar view to Orange for dates that have been set to be an exceptional booking period so that they are not instantly bookable and to a slightly lighter shade of Red - I suppose I mean pink - grin - from the current Green where that particular room and date combination had been set to "Blackout" in the "Override Dates" view.)

:ugeek: 16 Apr 2012 Currently, in <Properties>, <room settings>, <Advanced> there are two identical fields that determine whether that particular room requires another particular room (or rooms) to be available before it, too, shows up as being available.
It would be nice if this field worked with Boolean logic operators and the number of dependent room fields increased from 2 to four (say).

For example, we have a new room type (called an `En suite - room only' ) that requires either our Gold Room or our Blue Room or our Rose Room to be available - since those are our only rooms that actually have en suite facilities.
If this new feature were added, then we would enter "Gold Room OR Blue Room OR Rose Room" in this field as the <Advanced> setting for our `En suite - room only' room type...
03 May 2012 update: OR logic now available - but still only for a maximum of 2 (rather than 4 or 5) room types.
12 May 2012 update: The new logic coupled with the announcement of virtual rooms and dependency chaining ( https://www.beds24.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=45 ) has probably fulfilled this wish, but I'm still testing...

:idea: 18 Apr 2012 At the moment, on the booking page there is a "voucher code" field to grant variable discounts.
The Hotelier blackmailers Trip Advisor have recently announced another predatory website, Tingo.com http://www.tnooz.com/2012/04/05/news/is ... in-hotels/ that I would like to be able to counter.

I would like to offer an automated "early booking" feature.
If the guest agrees to their card being debited in full immediately (this differs from our normal practice where we don't debit any cards until either arrival or cancellation) then they would get an increasing discount on the total price.

For properties that toggle on this new feature, an additional checkbox that would appear in the booking process if customers started the booking process more than the number of days set in the new "time unit" field (described below):

"Would you like your card debited now in return for an "early bird" discount of n%? Yes/No? "

I envision that there would be four additional fields in <Properties>, <Booking rules>:
a "base early bird discount" field (- we would set that to 3%)
a "time unit" field (tu) with number of days in advance the guest books (- we would set that to 14 days as a time unit)
a "% discount per tu" field (- we would set that to 1 to give an additional discount of 1% per block of 14 days in advance they book)
a "maximum early bird discount awarded" field (- we would set that to 18% to give a maximum discount of 18% if people book 210 days or more in advance of arrival = 210/14 + 3 = 15 + 3 = 18%)

This "early bird discount" would be on top of any long stay or voucher discounts.

:roll: 22 Mar 2012 Show the more explicit message of
"Card number does not correspond with card type chosen above"
when the client enters a card number that does not correspond with the card type chosen (eg VISA, AmEx, MasterCard, etc) rather than the current "Card number is not valid".
(I've just had an irate gentleman phone me to protest that his [MasterCard] was perfectly valid when, in fact, he had just left the
card type at the "Visa" default value... As you know, I wish to remove any teensy weensy impediment to successful bookings being made via Beds24.com, Mark.)

Implemented 03 May 2012

:geek: 22 Mar 2012 In the "Calendar view" screen of Calendar, implementing a CSS drop down secondary menu to reduce the height of the parts of the screen at the top that do not actually display the nitty gritty.
(Please see <ControlCenterTableView.png> previously attached for a view of what I spend most of my time viewing at present.
If this were implemented, the row with the "fast forward" buttons would remain the same and in the same position, but the "Save changes to Values" button would move to the first row to occupy the position currently occupied by the Beds24.com pillow logo. This logo would move to a position at the right hand end of the primary menu. All of this should save about 8% of the visible height on my netbook screen
- allowing one more room row to be displayed without all that scrolling up and down...)

:shock: 22 Mar 2012 At https://www.beds24.com/control.php?page ... king+Rules
add
i) the ability to move individual "Extra Bookable Items To Offer The Guest" up or down the running order that is presented to the customer when booking
and
ii) a toggle to make them active or inactive
(perhaps for those seasonal items - I know some hosts charge extra heating charges during winter...
)Implemented 11 May 2012
and
iii) 14 May 2012 update: the ability to enhance text appearing there with bold, italic, underline, colour[/colorand size variations
(perhaps by using

Code: Select all

<b>, </i>, <u>, <color=#hhhhhh> 
, etc?[/color][/size])Implemented 22 May 2012

12 May 2012 update: "not used" option fulfils the second request.
The new "optional %" (including negative percentages to produce a discount) applied only to the room booking price and eight additional "Extra Bookable Items To Offer The Guest" rows (now making a total of 20) goes a long way to implementing the ability to offer "Early Bird" discounts!

:o 25 February 2013 update: 15 August 2012 A toggle to switch on or off whether the contents of a particular field are displayed in the mouse point hover-text in the CALENDAR>> CALENDAR>> view in control panel.
This way we could suppress the hover-text display of the "Quoted price" field but enable the hover-text display of our new custom "Key code sent?" field...
Implemented 19 February 2013 but only in New Control Panel
Last edited by amberbb on Sun Feb 24, 2013 11:24 pm, edited 17 times in total.
Amber House Limited trading as AMBER HOUSE - at the centre!™
Mobile: +64 21 202 4961
Phone: +64 3 539 0605
Fax: +44 70 05 96 34 37
http://www.AmberHouse.co.nz
Amber House, 46 Weka Street, Nelson 7010, New Zealand
markkinchin
Site Admin
Posts: 935
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 1:43 pm

amberbb wrote:"Card number does not correspond with card type chosen above"
when the client enters a card number that does not correspond with the card type chosen (eg VISA, AmEx, MasterCard, etc) rather than the current "Card number is not valid".
This warning message has been changed to Card number or Card type is wrong
markkinchin
Site Admin
Posts: 935
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 1:43 pm

amberbb wrote: :ugeek: 16 Apr 2012 Currently, in <Properties>, <room settings>, <Advanced> there are two identical fields that determine whether that particular room requires another particular room (or rooms) to be available before it, too, shows up as being available.
It would be nice if this field worked with Boolean logic operators.
For example, we have a new room type (called an `En suite - room only' ) that requires either our Gold Room or our Blue Room or our Rose Room to be available - since those are our only rooms that actually have en suite facilities.
If this new feature were added, then we would enter "Gold Room OR Blue Room OR Rose Room" in this field as the <Advanced> setting for our `En suite - room only' room type...

:idea: 18 Apr 2012 At the moment, on the booking page there is a "voucher code" field to grant variable discounts.
The Hotelier blackmailersTrip Advisor have recently announced another predatory website, Tingo.com http://www.tnooz.com/2012/04/05/news/is ... in-hotels/ that I would like to be able to counter.

I would like to offer an automated "early booking" feature.
If the guest agrees to their card being debited in full immediately (this differs from our normal practice where we don't debit any cards until either arrival or cancellation) then they would get an increasing discount on the total price.

For properties that toggle on this new feature, an additional checkbox that would appear in the booking process if customers started the booking process more than the number of days set in the new "time unit" field (described below):

"Would you like your card debited now in return for an "early bird" discount of n%? Yes/No? "

I envision that there would be four additional fields in <Properties>, <Booking rules>:
a "base early bird discount" field (- we would set that to 3%)
a "time unit" field (tu) with number of days in advance the guest books (- we would set that to 14 days as a time unit)
a "% discount per tu" field (- we would set that to 1 to give an additional discount of 1% per block of 14 days in advance they book)
a "maximum early bird discount awarded" field (- we would set that to 18% to give a maximum discount of 18% if people book 210 days or more in advance of arrival = 210/14 + 3 = 15 + 3 = 18%)

This "early bird discount" would be on top of any long stay or voucher discounts.
The boolean operator is now available. You can set logic AND or logic OR for the two dependency rooms.

Have a look at the following post, I suspect you may be able to set something close to your "early bird" idea using this new logic.
https://www.beds24.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=45
amberbb
Posts: 125
Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2012 10:12 pm
Location: Centre of New Zealand - sunny Nelson!
Contact:

markkinchin wrote: ...warning message has been changed...
Thanks, Mark!

My wishlist above has been appropriately updated...
Amber House Limited trading as AMBER HOUSE - at the centre!™
Mobile: +64 21 202 4961
Phone: +64 3 539 0605
Fax: +44 70 05 96 34 37
http://www.AmberHouse.co.nz
Amber House, 46 Weka Street, Nelson 7010, New Zealand
amberbb
Posts: 125
Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2012 10:12 pm
Location: Centre of New Zealand - sunny Nelson!
Contact:

markkinchin wrote: The boolean operator is now available. You can set logic AND or logic OR for the two dependency rooms.
Thanks for the OR operator, Mark!

Any chance of increasing the two dependent room fields to 4 (say) so I can implement my `En suite - room only' room type?

My wishlist above has been appropriately updated...

markkinchin wrote: Have a look at the following post, I suspect you may be able to set something close to your "early bird" idea using this new logic.
https://www.beds24.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=10&t=45
I've struggled, but failed - so this is retained on the wishlist above...
Amber House Limited trading as AMBER HOUSE - at the centre!™
Mobile: +64 21 202 4961
Phone: +64 3 539 0605
Fax: +44 70 05 96 34 37
http://www.AmberHouse.co.nz
Amber House, 46 Weka Street, Nelson 7010, New Zealand
amberbb
Posts: 125
Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2012 10:12 pm
Location: Centre of New Zealand - sunny Nelson!
Contact:

markkinchin wrote:I think the best way is to post a new reply at the bottom of the topic pointing out that you edited something, preferably with a copy or summary of the edited content.
That way it makes it easy for readers to identify what was edited and when by scrolling through the posts.
What are the chances of getting this little enhancement please, Mark:
amberbb wrote: :shock: 22 Mar 2012 At https://www.beds24.com/control.php?page ... king+Rules
add ...
iii) 14 May 2012 update: the ability to enhance text appearing there with bold, italic, underline, colour and size variations
(perhaps by using

Code: Select all

<b>, </i>, <u>, <color=#hhhhhh> 
, etc?)
Last edited by amberbb on Wed May 23, 2012 12:06 am, edited 1 time in total.
Amber House Limited trading as AMBER HOUSE - at the centre!™
Mobile: +64 21 202 4961
Phone: +64 3 539 0605
Fax: +44 70 05 96 34 37
http://www.AmberHouse.co.nz
Amber House, 46 Weka Street, Nelson 7010, New Zealand
markkinchin
Site Admin
Posts: 935
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 1:43 pm

I have allowed HTML tags in the bookable items description.
Please note the tags will be removed from emails, invoice item descriptions and the rate description stored with the booking.
i.e. they will only show on the screen during the booking process and are not saved as part of the booking information.
amberbb
Posts: 125
Joined: Tue Mar 20, 2012 10:12 pm
Location: Centre of New Zealand - sunny Nelson!
Contact:

markkinchin wrote:I have allowed HTML tags in the bookable items description.
Thanks, Mark!

This is a useful enhancement in trying to differentiate the various bookable options for the customer at the booking stage
(as can be seen here:
https://www.beds24.com/booking.php?subg ... 2014-04-24)

I can confirm that the HTML tags of <i>, <u>, <b>, <small>, <sub>, <sup> are all working as expected.
Also, the deprecated font commands of (eg) <font face="times">, <font color=#990033> and <font size=+3> are also displaying
&nbsp; has the expected effect too - but disappears after saving (but the effect remains, even though it has become invisible in the text entry field)

Our wishlist above has been appropriately updated...
markkinchin wrote:Please note the tags will be removed from emails, invoice item descriptions and the rate description stored with the booking.
i.e. they will only show on the screen during the booking process and are not saved as part of the booking information.
That's great, Mark and is just the way I would like it; we don't want them cluttering up emails or the Angel database...

Thanks again!
Amber House Limited trading as AMBER HOUSE - at the centre!™
Mobile: +64 21 202 4961
Phone: +64 3 539 0605
Fax: +44 70 05 96 34 37
http://www.AmberHouse.co.nz
Amber House, 46 Weka Street, Nelson 7010, New Zealand
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