What was new in GuestMaster Hotel Reservation Software version 15.0

What's New in GuestMaster

What's new in Version 15.0.0

Major features or enhancements

Guest Delivery System integration - Enterprise edition only - Requires a current support agreement - This option has an additional cost.

Full 2 way integration with GDS (Global Distribution Service) and OTA (Online Travel Agent) which allows availability information to be immediately dynamically uploaded to the vast numbers of Travel Agents around the world, and a huge quantity of Online Travel Agents like, Expedia.com and Lastminute.com and associated websites. Reservations are automatically collected, modified or cancelled without need for user intervention.

You have total control over pricing and availability, and you are not committed in any way as you can instantly turn off or on the entire service for an individual room on a specific day. This is done by instantly dropping a special Timeblock on the reservation diary in just the room you want, for just the days you needed them.

These external agents may charge separate joining fees or a commission percentage for their bookings, and may require you to enter contracts with them.

However, when you need to sell a room, and are happy to pay a bit, they can be totally invaluable.

See Guest Delivery System

GDS Mode Rate Names - Enterprise edition only

A new Rate Name mode is provided for use with the GDS systems. GDS agents systems cannot provide the flexibility in their Tariff Control that GuestMaster can, so on the Rate Names screen, a new feature is provided so that you can mark a Rate Name as a GDS Rate. When you select a GDS Rate as the Rate Name on the Rate Values screen, it will automatically remove the feature that GDS Agents systems cannot handle, thus leaving only those features they can use. This feature provides a visual aid to assist you in setting up your rate correctly for use by the GDS Agents.

See Rate Names screen

Linked Bookings - Enterprise edition only

You can now link bookings into a chain. This is useful when a customer changes rooms during a stay. With linked bookings, when the customers is checked out of a room, all the invoice items are transferred to the next booking in the chain. Thus when they are checked out of the final booking, they have one invoice detailing their entire stay in all the rooms.

See Booking Details screen - Status tab

Enhanced Tariff Control with layered tariffs conflict yield management - Enterprise edition only

You can now have multiple layered tariffs to manage different prices for different reservation durations during a period. For example a duration stay of 3 days can have a different price from that of a duration stay of 2 days in the same room at the same time. Conflict management can be set to be highest wins or lowest wins depending on which scheme is best for you.

See Tariff Control - Yield Management

Apartments system mode - All editions

GuestMaster now directly supports companies that rent Apartments. A new system mode for Apartments has been added to GuestMaster.

See Number of Resources Screen or Company Control - Settings tab

Long Stay Tax Rules - Enterprise edition only

The Long Stay tax rules can now apply if you have a reservation that lasts longer than 28 days. Thus after 28 days the room tariff tax code can be switched to a different tax code e.g. zero rated VAT. This is especially useful for apartment letting in the United Kingdom.

See Company Control - Default Tariffs

Clear Credit Card details on Checkout enhanced - All editions

The Clear Credit Card details on Check out has been enhanced to delay the clearing for a number of days after the customer has left. This allows for charges to be made to the customer for items that may have been forgotten at the moment of checkout.

See Company Control - Options tab

Credit Card Holder Name - All editions

A field for the Credit Card Holder Name has now been provided in the Booking Details and Customer Records screens.

See Booking Details - Payment tab

Total number of Guests - All editions

A field for the Total Guests has now been provided in the room details screens to help with occupancy calculations.

See Resource Details

Compatible with Windows Vista x64 - All editions

GuestMaster is a 32 bit application that will now run on Windows Vista and 2008 x64 bit edition operating systems.

Compatible with Windows Vista and 2008 Service Pack 2 - All editions

GuestMaster is now compatible with Microsoft Vista and 2008 Service Pack 2.

PABX Module IP Comms - Enterprise edition only

The PABX module can now be set to use TCP/IP comms where a switchboard no longer has an RS232 comms port.

See PABX Module help file - Comms Settings page for details.

Online Database Backup - Enterprise edition only - Requires a current support agreement

When the Internet module is in use, it will upload an encrypted full copy of your database to our secure server once a day, keeping the last 7 days backups. Thus is case of total disaster, GuestMaster Technical Support will help you restore the backup from our secure server.

See Internet Module help file - Options tab page for details.

Enhanced Internet File Transfer - All editions - Requires a current support agreement

Faster, more secure and more reliable data transfer when the Internet module updates.

The Internet Module allows you to take reservations directly from your own website at no further cost as you have a current support agreement.

RateValue AutoLoad feature - Advanced, Professional and Enterprise editions

On the RateValue screen is a new button called AutoLoad. When clicked, this button will delete the existing set of RateValue records and reload a complete set of empty records.

This will make the task of creating an empty RateValue record for every permutation much faster when you are first setting up GuestMaster's tariff control.

All you need do is to simply put in the actual values, as a complete set of records is pre-created for you, thus reducing the possibility of creating a incomplete set of permutations.

See RateValues Screen

Also see What was new in GuestMaster