SPECIAL RATES & HOLIDAY RATES

Do you have a rate that is just for this year? You can now create special rates that override your standard rates. These special rates expire according to your rules. This is great if your rates change year to year or if you want to temporarily raise or lower your rates. If your rooms are organized into room classes, you can quickly update room rates by class.

To create special rates, go to "Settings" -> "Rooms", select the room and use "Special Rates & Holiday Rates" found under "Standard Rates".

We also made it possible to label rates behind the scenes. For example: "Valentine's Day". This makes is easier to remember what the rate is for.

CLEANING UP DUPLICATE GUESTS

Ever use "Guest Lookup" when making a reservation and see the same guest too many times? You can now merge these duplicate guests into just one. Mark the circle next to the guest that is most up-to-date then check the boxes next to the duplicates before clicking "Merge Duplicates". If you mess up you can undo your changes and start over.

BATCH RECEIPTS AND BATCH CONFIRMATIONS

You can now print out receipts and confirmations in batches using "Tools" -> "Print Wizard". We added "Receipts By Date" and "Confirmation Letters By Date".

RECORDING COMPANY NAMES

There is now a separate field for recording the company name. We have relaxed the requirements on the "Guest Information" page so that you need a first name, last name or company name along with a telephone number. This eliminates the situation where you have to create a unique telephone number for people who have the same number within the same company.

LIMITING EMPLOYEE'S CREDIT CARD ACCESS

You can now customize each of your employee's access to credit card information under "Settings" -> "Staff" -> Select the User -> "Advanced". The options are:

This user:

-Can view all credit card numbers for charging and refunding purposes.

-Has limited access and can only view credit cards X days in the past and future of today's date.

-Has no access to credit card numbers.

For Auto Pilot users that use the built-in credit card processing through Authorize.net, this makes it very easy for you to limit what access your front desk workers have to credit card numbers without inconveniencing your general manager.

AUTHORIZE.NET

If you are use Auto Pilot with Authorize.net for processing credit cards, Authorize.net was bought out a few months ago and they are making some changes. In theory there should be no interruption of service from their side. If you receive an email from them about merchant account changes, the changes only affect those who used Authorize.net for their merchant account. All of you, as far as we know, are set up with just a gateway account, and use your own credit card merchant. For more information visit: http://www.authorize.net/support/securesourcefaqs.

AVOID PUTTING RESERVATION NEXUS IN FRAMES

Sometimes we find web design companies recommending to inns that they put our guest reservation link into a frame or iframe so that it fits inside your website. We highly discourage putting Reservation Nexus in any type of frame because guests will call you asking if your online reservations are secure. Their reservations are secure, but embedded into a frame on your website, the security status for that page is your website, not Reservation Nexus's secure page. So the security bar and icons on the actual browser don't indicate secure as normal. You will lose reservations. Would you enter your credit card information into what appears to be a non-secure website?

If you really, really want to put Reservation Nexus into a frame, we recommend purchasing your own SSL certificate for your website so guests feel secure when making an online reservation from your website.

OTHER COMPLETED FEATURE REQUESTS

• When adding a new credit card to group reservations, Reservation Nexus now updates the credit card name and address information based on which guest you select the card is for
  
  
• When you adjust the number of guests on "Edit Room Rate", it automatically updates the rate to the correct rate for that many guests.
  
  
• Auto Pilot subscribers can now send out 12 promotional emails each year. Keep in mind that your Red Carpet Professional is there to train you how to create promotional emails and answer any questions you may have, not create them for you.
  
  
• Nights/rooms are now sorted by the room name then the stay date. This makes it much easier on group reservations.
  
  
• Can now search by email address under "Search".
  
  
• Credit card expiration dates are now hidden on guest confirmations and receipts. Many states are passing laws prohibiting them in emails and on receipts.
  
  
• Added a total on the Revenue report.
  
  
• "Today" option on the reservation grid.
  
  
• "Cards on File" displayed who the card was assigned to. It now displays the name on the card.

FIXES

• In the Outstanding Balances, duplicates no longer show up.
  
  
• The confirmation page on guest reservations is now always white, better supporting dark appearance schemes.
  
  
• The "Home" link on the guest side now matches the "Header" color.
  
  
• Fixed an issue with credit card processing using Auto Pilot, where it was possible to select multiple credit card charges to be refunded at the same time.
  
  
• "Cancel" now in "Quote" releases your rooms properly instead of waiting on the 15 minute timeout.
  
  

UPCOMING ENHANCEMENTS

We have some very aggressive developmental goals for 2008 in order to expand not only our market share in the hospitality industry but into additional industries. Details will be provided as they become public.

Our first task is to make a Large Hotel Edition of Reservation Nexus. Many of the improvements will benefit inns of all sizes. We always have and will continue to enhance Reservation Nexus from your requests at least each quarter. We appreciate your patience as sometimes we have to enhance one area before we can fulfill a request that relies on it or due to priority.

The following large projects are currently under development:

• Directory Integrations: Webervations, Availability Online, bbonline.com.
• Popup calendars on all date fields.
• Minimum Nights Revisited: By Room, special date ranges, etc.
• Tasks, reminders and auto-reminders.
• Guest area: week view guest calendar, adding guests manually.
• Large properties enhancements: GDS, customizable receipts, multi-property support.
• Auto Pilot:  Gift Certificates – creating, tracking and reports.