Once your system has been set up and you have been given access to it, there are a few tasks for you to work through in order to get elina "ready for selling".
Completing these tasks is necessary so that we can start connecting you to the channel manager/channels and so that your elina booking engine can go live on your website.
As part of your system set-up, the elina team will have created your super users already. These are those team members who are on point for getting elina ready for selling.
Any additional user profiles should be created by you.
Check your property set up to ensure that all of your accommodation areas, types and units are present and correct. For any "structural" changes i.e adding/removing/moving of records please reach out to your elina on-boarding contact.
Tip: reviewing this information in the Availability Calendar is helpful as it is a visual representation of your properties and allows you to easily spot any missing properties etc. Alternatively, go to Marketing -> Property Content -> View Accommodations.
Property content & adding additional languages to the booking engine (if applicable)
Owners may be given access to a login where they can view and manage their available properties, which is permissions dependant. They can also view their current account balance and an overview of reservations on their property.
Enter your "best available" rate for each property type.
Remember:
- Without rates, you will not be able to make reservations
- elina pricing is inclusive of VAT
- Decide how many sleepers your base rate includes and then manage pricing increases/decreases using dynamic rules
- If you would like to enter past reservations into elina you must back-date your rates as far back as the oldest reservation you would like to enter. Please also inform your elina on-boarding contact so they can make your properties available for the past.
Dynamic rates are a dynamic method of adjusting daily rates and the price of add-ons according to guest behaviour and history.
elina pricing is generally inclusive of VAT (sales tax). If you charge additional fees on reservations e.g. a tourist or city tax, final cleaning, sales tax (USA) etc. please set up fee rule(s) for these.
Invoice departments are "buckets" under which revenue is reported in elina.
Product & Services categories are useful for operational reporting and to do lists as well as representation of add-ons in your booking engine.
Products and Services are an opportunity to increase incremental revenues by selling more than just accommodations.
Company reservations are those for which the reservation holder a company or travel agent i.e. where a company or travel agent profile is linked to the reservation.
The Marketing and Communication tool puts you in contact with your guests and the public. The tool allows you to send e-mails or generate contact lists based on guest information, activity or demographic profile.
You must have an SSL certificate to ensure that visitors' data is kept secure while communicating with your hospitality services.
In order to allow your elina system to send out emails for you, you must update SPF record to reduce your messages from getting flagged as spam before they reach your recipients. .
The public site permissions determine what guests, owners and company managers can see and do in their guest, owner and company manager lounge.
elina's booking engine includes a guest, owner and company manager lounge. Guests obtain access to this lounge via a link in the account activation and password reset email templates.
Providing that you have taken care of steps 1, 2 and 3 you can go ahead and enter your future (and if desired past) reservations now. Optionally, it may make sense for you to complete steps 7 and 9 also before you go ahead with this.
Create guest and company/agent reservations
Remember: this task is only relevant if the elina team is not already scheduled to import your data for you through a script i.e. only if you have decided to enter your reservations and profiles manually.
When you have populated your future reservations please let your elina on-boarding manager know who will:
- Inform the concierge team so they can guide you through connecting your OTAs
- Enable your account activation (guest and owners lounge) and email confirmation templates
Please contact the elina concierge team (elina do > booking engine customisation) to book a call to discuss your booking engine customisation.
A payment gateway is an e-commerce application service provider service that authorizes credit card payments for your business. It is the equivalent of a physical point of sale terminal located in your office or at your reception.
Please update the status of any properties that are not sellable for specific date ranges due to maintenance being carried out or other reasons e.g. being off the market due to operational reasons or on request of an owner.
elina can also connect to revenue management software such as Pricelabs
