Online Request Details |
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The Online Request Details dialog is invoked through Online Reservation Requests, by selecting an unprocessed request in the list and clicking the View / Process selected request button below the list. As a shortcut, you can also just double-click the request in the list.
Request Fields and Values
The request will be shown in a simple table of Fields and Values. Each field will be shown as extracted from the request data, using the Parsing Rules you've defined. Note that the fields are shown in the order that they were extracted, which is generally the order that they appear in the parsing rules. Only fields that were successfully extracted will be shown. Thus if a parsing rule is defined to set a field like "50 Amp" if it's requested, but it wasn't requested, then that field may not be shown in the list.
Many fields will show both the record type (table name) and field name, for instance "Reservations : First Night". In some cases there may be an index number after the record type, for instance if more than one transaction is to be created for the reservation then you might see "Transactions[+1] : Type".
Some "fields" aren't necessarily data fields, for instance a "Unit Type" may be shown that specifies the type of site requested. This is a temporary value that's used when selecting a site, but will not be saved with the reservation. Another example of a temporary value would be "Number of sites requested" -- this is used to determine how many linked reservations will actually need to be created from this request.
Editing Fields
If you see obvious mistakes in a field value, you can edit the value before saving the request. Just click on the value twice (once to highlight it and again to enter editing mode). Some values may be drop-down lists instead of editable text, just as they would be on other dialogs. For instance the Rig Type would be a drop-down pick list.
Only true data fields can be edited -- temporary values as mentioned above and other pseudo-fields cannot be edited.
Close (skip for now)
This will simply close this window and go back to the list of requests, without processing (saving) this request.
Note that any editing done to field values will be saved as long as you're still processing the list of requests, so the changes will be remembered if you come back here to View / Process the request. However any changes not saved as a real reservation will be lost if you close all the way out of the Retrieve Online Reservations dialog.
Selecting a Site
Before saving the request, you will usually want to assign a site (or sites) for the reservation using the Select a Site button. This function will let you select a site using the same "Assign or Change Site" dialog used elsewhere in Campground Master. You may notice a couple minor differences, however. Since this is not a real reservation yet, everything in the site selection dialog will be disabled except for the controls necessary to select a site. For instance, you can't use "Guarantee", or view customer details. Also note that any preferences selected or changed here will not show up when you return to the request details.
If the request specified a particular site already (either by specific site name or because only one site matches the online site data field designation of ID/name/class/etc.) , then it will be assigned automatically and you don't have to select one at all. However you could change the site if needed -- it will ask if you want to start over and select a new site if a site has already been selected.
If you have set up Site data fields like "Site_Online_Email_Type" and the request specifies one of the designated types (instead of a specific site), then the site selection dialog will only show sites of that type and "Requested Type" will be shown in the drop-down list where "All Site Types" is usually shown. You can override this if necessary to select different sites, by changing the "Requested Type" selection to something else. Obviously this is not recommended under normal circumstances, since you could be giving the customer a site they don't want.
If the request was for multiple sites (according to the "Number of sites requested" value, if present), then you must select exactly that many sites while in the site selection dialog. It will not allow you to save the selected sites if the quantity is not correct -- they must all be selected at the same time. Note that if it's for multiple sites, it will actually create multiple reservations as it always does for multiple sites, and they will all be linked as synchronized reservations.
Send an E-mail
This function can be used if you need to send the customer an E-mail to ask for more information, or perhaps reject the request. This will open an E-mail window where you can enter your message. However if you intend to accept the request and just need to send an E-mail confirmation, you should use Save & Continue to Details, and do Quote/Confirmation from there (see below).
Save ... Done
If everything looks OK on the request and you don't need to do anything more than save it as a real reservation now, click this button. Some validation will be done, and if everything is OK then it will be saved.
Entering a Deposit
If you use a 3rd-party online service, then the actual deposit might be received and processed by them already. If you have appropriate parsing rules set up, the Transaction for this deposit will be created automatically, so no further handling would be needed.
If you retrieve credit card information from the request and need to process the deposit locally, then you will need to do that manually. First you will use the Save & Continue to Details function (covered below), which will take you to Reservation Details. From there you will go to New/Edit Transactions and enter the deposit just as you would for a phone reservation. If you're handling credit card charges in Campground Master, you would do the credit card processing there as well. Note that it helps if you have the parsing rules extract the credit card information into the Guarantee Info field for the reservation, so it will be used automatically when you go to enter the deposit transaction.
Sending a Confirmation
Again, if you're using a 3rd-party online service, then that service probably already sends a confirmation to your customer. If you're taking requests from your own web site, however, you probably want to send them an E-mail confirmation now. To do this you will first select Save & Continue to Details, enter the deposit if needed, then use the Quote/Confirmation function to send the E-mail confirmation (just like when you take a phone reservation).
Save & Continue to Details
If you're ready to save the request but want to make other adjustments, or perhaps need to process a credit card deposit or send a confirmation E-mail, then select this option. The request will be saved as a real reservation and you will be shown the Reservation Details. You can do anything there that you would normally do after creating a new reservation. Once you're done, you will be taken back to the list of requests. (If you need to go back and do more with it, you can get to it easily from the list of requests by using the View / Process function again.)
Save as an Inquiry only
There may be times when you need more information from the customer before saving the request. Use this function to save the request with the current information as an "Inquiry" reservation. Then when you get the information you need, you can locate the inquiry through the Non-Reserved tab view to edit it and change it to a "Pending" or "Guaranteed" request.
Note: If you want to request the needed information by E-mail , it's easiest to use the Send and E-mail function before saving it as an inquiry, since you won't be able to come back into here after you save the request as an inquiry. Otherwise you would need to go to Reservation Details, then Customer Details, then click on the E-mail link there to send an E-mail.
Duplicate Customers
After you Save a request, Campground Master will check for any similar customers in the database (by last name and zip/postal code). If it finds a potential match, it will ask if you want to merge them to avoid duplicate customer entries. If you do, then the Merge dialog will be shown so you can verify the information and choose which customer record you want to keep. The one you don't keep will be deleted and all of its reservations and transactions will be transferred to the one you do keep -- so you can either keep the original one or the new one, depending on which one has the more accurate or complete information.
Further Topics:
Uploading Site Availability Data
Exporting to Web Vacancy Grids