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The first thing to do is set up the rooms you will be renting online. (We suggest first time users set up only 2-4 of your most common room types; after you become accustomed to the system, return and add more.) Go to the Manage Rooms page. Click Add A Room and enter information about room type, default availability (we suggest 30% of room type supply) and rate (we suggest using your highest rate of the year; you'll enter seasonal rate ranges in a moment), the number and type of beds, maximum number of guests, the type of confirmation e-mail sent to the customer when a reservation is made, etc. You may return to this screen at any time to make changes.
Note: The Receipt Message box on this screen cannot be completed until you set up receipt messages on the Manage System page. Remember to come back to the Manage Rooms page to select a value for the Receipt Message box after you define the messages on the Manage System page.
Now Click UPDATE.
Manage Rates page to set room rates and seasonal rate. Click Seasonal Rates and select the room to set up seasonal rate ranges.
Manage Availability page to set room availability and minimum stay limit. Click Minimum Stay Limit and select the room to set up minimum stay limit.
Note: This is how you would set up weekend rates. The minimum stay option works the same way.
Note: The day you enter a 2 would be the key day that requires a second night on either side. For instance a 2 on Saturdays only for June 1st through August 31st would require guests to stay 2 nights on Saturdays for any Saturday that fell between June 1st and August 31st.
Now that your rooms, rates and availability are set up, you should define how you would like DORS to work for you. You can do this on the Manage System page, which allows you to specify a number of parameters that affect system operation. Here you you'll enter the e-mail address where you want customer information to be sent when a reservation is made online, the billing options you want to offer to customers, your fax number, your local tax rate, the confirmation message customers will receive when making a reservation, etc.
You should review availability and rates on the Manage Availability and Manage Rates pages at least once per week. Whether you're modifying availability or rates, the procedure is the same. First, select a month and year. Running down the page you'll see numbers for each day in that month (for example, 1 - 30). Along the top of the page, you'll see the names of the room types you defined in step 1 above. The values in these boxes depend on what you set as the default values in the Manage Rooms section. To change any of these values, simply enter a number in the box that corresponds to the day and room you wish to change. You can make as many changes as you wish, but be sure to click UPDATE when you are finished, or your changes will not be saved.
Note: You do not have to enter a dollar sign for the rates
Now that you have completed the preceding steps, you're ready to let customers make reservations through the Internet. Now is the time, also, to have your Web Master add your RoomDORS "Check Availability" Link. We suggest you add this to your web site tool bar so it shows on ALL pages. You will begin receiving e-mail and fax reservations (thanks to the settings you made on the Manage System page), and DORS will record all the customer and reservation information for you. To view this information using the DORS Administration Tool, go to the Reservation Inbox page where you will find a list of reservations made online. The Current Reservations list is where a reservation gets stored when first made. Once a reservation has been fulfilled, you can move it to the Archived Reservations list. There's also a Custom Reservations list, which you may use in any way you want. You can easily move reservations from one list to another using the buttons at the bottom of the page. You also may sort these lists by clicking a column header. To view reservation details, simply click the customer's name.
That's it. Your online reservation system is now up and running. Although the major setup steps were covered in this guide, we highly recommend that you also read the user manual where you will find these and all other DORS System steps covered in far greater detail.