The Booking Blog

New feature - A unit can be linked to several accommodation types

You can now offer units which is linked to several accommodation types (eg. single room and single room with dinner) Just register two accommodation types and 'Add a new unit' to one of them. Then click on the unit created, click 'Edit' and check all the accommodation types you would like the room to be linked to.

Whenever the unit is booked through either of the accommodation types it will not be available through any of the other linked accommodation types.

Channel management available for Expedia and partners

You can now receive fully synchronized bookings from expedia.com, hotels.com, venere.com, tripadvisor.com and other sites.

To activate this feature make sure that you have a Sirvoy premium account and a contract set up with Expedia and then go to 'Settings' > 'Receive online bookings' > 'Integration with Expedia' and follow the instructions.

Editable date formats

You can now change the date format by going to Settings > Other Options > Other Settings. Perfect if many of your guests are used to another format than yourself!

Minimum nights for specific accommodation types

Many of you have asked for a way to only allow a minimum amount of nights for specific accommodation types while the other accommodation types remain on default. That have now been developed! You can edit these settings on each one of your accommodation types.

New Premium Account

Our new Sirvoy Premium account is now available. The Premium account will include multiple user accounts and channel management, a payment solution will also be included in the package. You can find more information here.

Monthly fee charged in advance starting from January 1, 2012

Customizable cancellation emails

The cancellation emails can now be edited to suit your business. Edit the email at Settings > Languages and texts > Email confirmation for cancelled bookings. Also, when cancelling a booking you now have the option to send or not to send the cancellation email.

Manage cleaning of rooms

A newly developed function will now help you to organise the cleaning of your rooms. You can find this function by going to Settings > Other Options > Other Settings. You will there be able to enable the 'Manage cleaning of rooms'.

Improved Calender View

You can now interact with your guests directly from the calender view. Click on any booking and in the pop up field you'll have the options to send out email confirmations, edit contact details etc.

Estimated arrival time...

...can now be edited together with the checkin and checkout dates.

Improved export functionality

The export now includes information about rooms, extra options and payments, as well as a simple version of the booking calendar. Go to Settings -> Your Account -> Export

Long response times and server unavailable

During the night, our server was temporarily unavailable. We regret this deeply, the problem has now been solved.

Improved functionality for card payments

The credit card transaction will now be part of the booking process if your setting is that prepayment is required. If no payment  is made, the room will be released within 10-15 minutes. You can also specify that card payment is required only for check-ins within 1, 4 or 8 weeks.

New Feature

You now have the option to choose how many days prior to check in you'll allow new bookings. You can edit this option by going to 'Settings', click 'Other options' and 'Other settings'.

PDF problems

We're sorry about the problem with opening PDF files that occurred this morning. The problem is now resolved.

Receive bookings through your facebook page!

Social media is a great way of gaining wider exposure leading to more guests. So what could be better than having Sirvoy's fully integrated booking form available on your facebook page? Sirvoy's Facebook App lets you do just that. Add it today! If you don't have a facebook page yet then do consider creating one, it's free after all.

Star Markings

Now it is possible to mark a booking with a blue or red star. That could be handy if any booking is preliminary or requires a certain action. (If you use Gmail then you may already be familiar with this feature ...) The star appears in the booking list, the calendar pop-up and of course on the booking page. Click once or twice on the star to change colour.

News of the reservation system!

Following requests from our users you can now:

• Enter the reason for closing / blocking - this will only be viewed internally. (it may help to know why blocking has occurred ie. weddings, renovations, travel, etc)
• Decide whether the room number is to be displayed in the e-mail and PDF

Tell us what you think

We have started to gather user reviews to put on our website. If you want to join, please send your comments on the booking system to support@sirvoy.com. We will also publish your logo and a link to your website.

Now availability is shown in the calendar when booking

If you go to the 'Other Settings' box under the 'Settings' tab you will be able to choose to show an availability calendar to your guests when they book. This option will make it easier for your guests to find a date that has rooms available.

Facebook booking module

We are currently building on a facebook booking app which will allow Sirvoy's users to have a fully integrated booking system on their facebook page as well as on their website. It also means that small B&Bs without a website still will be able to receive online bookings through their facebook page with a minimal start up cost!

It will be finished within 1-2 month!

Integration with booking.com, expedia.com and similar sites.

We are currently looking into the possibilities to integrate Sirvoy booking system with sites such as booking.com, expedia.com etc. These sites can help accommodation owners to keep a full house at all times.

If you feel that these services could be beneficial to your business please participate in our poll on facebook or send us an email, as many of these sites require a certain amount of interested users before they let you integrate with them. As soon as we have enough interest we will start working on it!

At last - extras with limited availability!

We have finally developed a new long-awaited feature. Extras can now be specified to have a limited availability per day. Bicycles, conference rooms, saunas etc can be booked and offered based on availability. The calendar shows booked/remaining numbers and via the calendar, you can also block access to single dates.

The function is in the early stages, which means that some improvements are already planned, for example, the extras will soon be summarised and reflected in the statistics. Before the feature is fully tuned small errors might occur. We are therefore grateful for your feedback and your suggestions on how the function can be improved.

Limited Time Offer

It's now possible to offer extra options for a limited time only. Choose the dates that apply when you register an extra option. Before the summer of 2011 we will launch additional functionality for extra options with limited availability such as conference rooms, saunas, bikes and much more!