What s New in choiceadvantage

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1 P ROPERTY STHE YSTEMS INNOVATIVE WEB-BASED T RAINING What s New in choiceadvantage What s New in choiceadvantage Release Notes and User Guide

2 WELCOME! Based on feedback we received from you, we have made several enhancements to choiceadvantage. These enhancements will be delivered to you in the form of a system upgrade, which is scheduled to be released Monday, October 21, The transition will require no functional training; however, this user guide is designed to assist your staff members with the new features so they are better able to provide exceptional service to your guests. HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE This guide has been specifically prepared to help hotel staff get the most out of the new features and functions of choiceadvantage. For more information on the new functionality and other changes to choiceadvantage, refer to your online help system once the upgrade has been implemented. Online help should be the first place you look for answers. 2

3 TABLE OF CONTENTS Topic Page(s) Access to Medallia site from choiceadvantage 4 Prepaid Accounts - Payments Beyond 7 Days 5 Occupancy Snapshot - Past Dates, Generate CSV, Group Stats 6 Mobile 8 Additional items addressed in this Release 20 3

4 ACCESS TO MEDALLIA FROM CHOICEADVANTAGE This enhancement introduces access to the Medallia site from choiceadvantage. This allows for more efficient use of time by allowing access to information provided by Medallia right from the choiceadvantage Menu bar. When logged into choiceadvantage, you will be able to access the Medallia site from any screen by hovering over the Quick Links icon and selecting Medallia.com. You will be directed to the Medallia user login page and required to enter your credentials. 4

5 PREPAID ACCOUNTS - PAYMENTS BEYOND 7 DAYS This enhancement applies to Prepaid Reservations, such as LADV and LADV2, and properties that use the Shift 4 Credit Card Interface. In the past, if a pre-paid reservation had a stay beyond 7 nights, choiceadvantage would only authorize and post payment for up to 7 nights. The hotel would need to view the account and collect the remaining authorization/payment. Now, prepaid reservations will be authorized and payment posted to guest folios for the amount of their entire stay. The Authorization Center will reflect the authorization amount for the total of expected charges. (In the past, this function would not authorize beyond the first 7 days of a guest stay.) This ensures that the cost of the stay is covered by the guest at the beginning of the stay and should prevent the hotel from having to obtain any secondary authorization for Room and Taxes beyond the 7th night. 5

6 OCCUPANCY SNAPSHOT: PAST DATES, GENERATE CSV, GROUP STATS This enhancement to the Occupancy Snapshot Report allows you to quickly view Group Occupancy Statistics which were previously not available on this report: View past dates Generate CSV (Comma-separated values) format Display group blocks and pickups You can now view past dates on the Occupancy Snapshot Report: Generate in CSV format allows you to print and save this report to a Microsoft Excel document for import/export purposes to other software: Suppress headers is an optional field. Selecting it removes the column titles from the Excel worksheet. 6

7 OCCUPANCY SNAPSHOT: PAST DATES, GENERATE CSV, GROUP STATS (CONT.) The Occupany Snapshot report now displays Group Blocks and Pickup counts. 7

8 MOBILE This enhancement introduces mobile device capabilities to hotels in the form of a Financial Dashboard and Housekeeping Management functions. This literally is the first step to running your hotel from the palm of your hand! Home Screen From a mobile device, connect to: The website will recognize your mobile device and direct you to the login screen. Use your property login and touch the Login button to connect. 8

9 MOBILE (CONT.) After logging in, you will be directed to the choiceadvantage Mobile. You will have access to Mobile Dashboard and Housekeeping menus, the Home icon and the Property Information icon. Tip: To return to the full desktop site at any time, touch the Property Information icon and select view desktop site. 9

10 MOBILE (CONT.) The Home and Property Information icons are available from all screens. By tapping the Home icon, you will be returned to the Welcome screen that initially displayed at login. 10

11 MOBILE (CONT.) By tapping the Property Information icon, the User, Date and Property Code will display. Tap on View Desktop Site to view choiceadvantage in Desktop mode, or tap Logout to end your session. 11

12 MOBILE - DASHBOARD Tapping the Dashboard icon displays your hotel s Revenue and Occupancy Statistics for Last Night, Tonight, Period to Date (PTD) and Year to Date (YTD). 12

13 MOBILE - DASHBOARD (CONT.) Period to Date (PTD) Year to Date (YTD) 13

14 MOBILE - HOUSEKEEPING Tapping the Housekeeping button from the Home screen displays your property s Room Status and Room Condition. 14

15 MOBILE - HOUSEKEEPING (CONT.) Tap the Search icon to search for a specific room number or any combination of floor, housekeeper or arrival. Check boxes provide the option of Flagging for followup, or searching for arrivals using your search criteria. 15

16 MOBILE - HOUSEKEEPING (CONT.) The Room Status section of the Housekeeping display lists your current room statistics. If the amount column displays as zero (0), you will not be able to select it as there is no additional information to be viewed. If a number greater than zero is displayed, that row s title text will show in blue, indicating it can be selected to display additional information. The dot next to Arrival indicates that there are blocked rooms for arrivals today. 16

17 MOBILE - HOUSEKEEPING (CONT.) In the example below, by tapping Arrival from the Room Status section, the 4 assigned arrivals for tonight display (shows current room status, room condition, and if a flag has been set). Tapping the room number displays the current Room Detail and allows you to set the room condition or flag it for follow-up. 17

18 MOBILE - HOUSEKEEPING (CONT.) The Room Detail displays the guest name, the status of the room assigned to the guest, and allows you to set the Room Condition. Tap Dirty, Clean or Ready to set Room Condition. Mobile Housekeeping introduces a Flag for Follow up feature, which provides you the ability to create custom on the fly room status notes! You may set this flag by tapping the box and entering your notes, such as Change Linens or Replace Light Bulbs, in the field provided. Tap Clear to un-do, or Save to apply changes. 18

19 MOBILE - HOUSEKEEPING (CONT.) Room Condition displays the current condition of occupied and vacant rooms. If there is a number greater than zero under Occupied or Vacant, you can tap Dirty, Clean or Ready to view those rooms. This will display the Room Condition screen. Here you may view details by tapping the room number, see the status of the room (Vacant, Due Out, Stay Over), set the room condition, or set a follow-up flag. 19

20 ADDITIONAL ITEMS ADDRESSED IN THIS RELEASE The following items have been improved with this release to improve system efficiency and your overall experience. Display of usernames on guest folio: There are two fields on the guest folio ( You were checked out by: and You were checked in by: ) which display the staff member s username. This poses an information security risk as the guest is given the username of the employee. This latest release will display the first name and last initial of the hotel staff member that performed the task to reduce this risk and allow for more personalized service. Guest function merging separate guest folios: When charges for a guest are moved onto different folios, the Guest function merges the charges onto one folio. This latest release will allow you to separate folios to the guest without merging the charges onto one folio. Rate Discrepancy Report - Configured Rate = 0.00: In order to properly verify guest rates on the Rate Discrepancy Report, there are two columns (Configured Rate and Guest Rate). Currently, the Configured Rate displays 0.00 causing the report to return a discrepancy for each guest. This latest release will display the amount for the rate that was originally configured in the system in the Configured Rate column, resolving this issue. Express Check Out Folios - Room Number Sort not working correctly: When printing Express Checkout Folios and sorting the report by Room Number, the sort is not applied to the folios printed. This latest release will print the Guest Folios in room number order as the default. (The sort order may be manually changed by the user.) 20

21 ADDITIONAL ITEMS ADDRESSED IN THIS RELEASE (CONT.) Express Check Out Folio - prints duplicate folios: When a guest has been in-house for more than one night and the same guest has occupied more than one room (room move), a copy of the folio prints for each room number occupied during the stay when printing Express Checkout Folios. This latest release will print a single folio for each guest if they have occupied more than one room when using the Express Checkout Folio function. In House List - leading zero s in room number break sorting: When viewing an In House List and sorting by Room Number, if the room number contains leading zeros, the rooms display in random room number order on the screen. (This issue was verified in Internet Explorer and Safari only.) This latest release will display the In House List in room number order when that sort option is chosen. Length of Stay Comparison Report provides inaccurate information: The Length of Stay report incorrectly calculates the room nights if recurring charges other than room charge are posted to the guest folio. (This report is only available at Extended Stay properties.) This latest release will accurately count the room nights figure on the Length of Stay report. Guest Folio - Fast Post incidental charge not routing properly: When using the Fast Post functionality and posting incidental charges that are configured to route to a folio other than Folio 1, the charges display on Folio 1. This latest release will route the charges to the correct folio. 21

22 ADDITIONAL ITEMS ADDRESSED IN THIS RELEASE (CONT.) Print Current Folio displays incorrectly when more than 10 folios are created: When more than 10 folios are created for a single guest, and you print 10 or more folios, the incorrect folio prints. If folios are printed using the print link (while the folio is displayed), it displays the information for Folio 1. If folios 20 or higher are printed using the print link (while the folio is displayed), it displays the information for Folio 2. This latest release will display the items listed on the currently displayed folio. Group Reservations made for dates outside of a group stay -- error when checking out early: After creating a reservation for a group that includes dates outside of the group dates (e.g. group dates are 6/26-28 and reservation dates are 6/25-28), and the guest checks out prior to the group s arrival, when viewing the group reservations the user receives the error The group's reservation must have stay overlap with the group master. This latest release will disassociate the reservation from the group and will not display the error listed above when viewing the reservation. Display of Estimated Cost total overlaps when a reservation is made for a package: When a reservation is made for a package and the duration of the guest stay is more than one night and the package included incidental charges, the total estimated cost information text overlaps when the user displays the Estimated Cost screen, making it difficult to read. This latest release will display the total cost information without overlapping the text. Reward Statistics Summary Report does not include Group Revenue: If a group guest is attached to a Choice Privileges number, the revenue from the room is not included on the Rewards Program Summary report. This latest release will include this information on the Group Revenue Summary report. 22

23 2013 Choice Hotels International, Inc. All rights reserved. 23