We are excited you are looking to setup your account with us! We will outline the steps you need to take in order to make your onboarding quick and easy.
The Booking Factory PMS is made for you and your team to access any time of the day, modify and add or remove any settings, adjust pricing, create bookings, check in and out or invoice guests.
There are many other functions available, such as connecting channel managers, creating a website, connecting a 3rd party integration with accounting, pricing, guest services or any other category add-ons.
No specialised training is needed, but we created a onboarding guide with all settings included, as well as support articles and videos to help you get through any doubts. We will have a live online training / onboarding with you, to guide you through any questions, help you get more comfortable with the system or just make sure everything is in order and in the way you need it to be.
This Help centre is made to answer any questions you might have. If you cannot find the answer, our support hours are Mon-Fri 9am to 5pm (GMT) - just use the chat box on the bottom right of your screen.
While you wait for your onboarding session with our team, you can feel free to roam around and try to do some settings on your own - and get to know the system better.
First things first, after signing in you will land on your Dashboard.
Go to the top right corner, click on your user name and from the drop down menu select Settings.
You will get the menu bar on the left side of your screen, with 9 sections listed below.
We suggest using Chrome for this app.
See our Setup step by step guide for help.
Scroll down to see how to get you connected to OTAs and import your existing bookings.
We know that not all of the below listed features are necessary to each hotel - and some are only for hotels that will be using our Booking Engine, but here is the list of all Settings and links to examples and more details.
How to set up Hotel Profile: company information, hotel information, location(s), currency. Make sure to fill in the correct information as some of these items will be used in the other Settings
How to set Hotel Content: hotel policies, extras (including meal plans) and facilities (displayed on the Booking Engine). Extras are also important for invoicing. Skip to Finance - Taxes if you need to set that up before pricing the Extras.
How to set Guest Configuration: guest registration forms and identification types (and additional information needed for your local tourist bureau or similar)
How to set Communication and Notifications: internal and external email setup, automation for guest emails prior and post arrival
How to set System Settings: enabling additional system features, calendar settings, languages. Internal settings to help you have a personalised view.
How to set Finance: payment types, taxes, invoice settings, additional currencies; plus payment gateways and accounting systems. This is also a good time to connect any partners you are using for Accounting systems, POS or Payment gateways.
How to set Inventory: Room types, room management, rate types, restrictions, cancellation policies, seasonality and discounts. Most of these settings will also be mapped with your OTA extranet, so it is important to have it complete and accurate. Please note that without complete Inventory, we cannot proceed to connection with channel manager.
How to do Connectivity Settings: channel manager, booking engine settings, booking widget and more
Other: setting up automated reactions and more.
Some items in #8 and #9 will be used for any Integrations you might have.
After you reach out to us that you are ready - or just book an online meeting with us, we will create / check the setup with you (and your team that will be using the PMS), making sure everything is the way you want it to be, answer any questions and give you a training for everyday users.
The system is now ready to use, but there are 2 more things we can do for you, before you start adding new bookings in:
Importing your previously made reservations (from your previous provider)
Included in your subscription is a one-time import of your previously made reservations for the future dates. The process of import usually takes up to 3 days from receiving the file from you. What we need is a CSV file with the following information separated into columns:
Guest name
Number of adults + children
Arrival date
Departure date
Total and Paid amount
Room type
and additional columns such as email, address etc
See example in image below (right click on the image to enlarge or open in new tab)
Please make sure to notify us in time about the needed import, it would be best done prior to mapping with the channel manager.
Connecting channel managers
If you need our channel manager service, we will do the mapping for you, and will need the following:
list of your ID numbers (usernames) for each of the channels that we will be connecting (in some cases additional information is needed);
log into every channel and connect and approve channel manager to each of the channels (in their extranet) that we will be connecting; for some channels you need to send a request for the switch, XML details and mapping code list
make sure your pricing is up to date in The Booking Factory and that your room (max occupancy etc) and rate (conditions, occupancy etc) setup match the setup on OTAs;
remove any derivations on rate categories on OTAs that you want to have mapped
create any rates that need to be mapped with individual channels (such as additional currencies etc).
See HERE how to switch the provider in major OTAs.
After we are done with the mapping, you will be notified and you will need to check OTA extranets for the rates and rooms to make sure everything is correctly mapped and displayed on all channels.
You are, of course, welcome to use your own provider if you already have one, and if we are able to connect. See HERE list of connections we can provide.
In order to get the most out of your PMS, you can also ask for our Website builder service.
In order to add any 3rd party connections, please check our list of connections and let us know if we can help.
Looking forward to having you on board!
How to get to Settings?
And you can share these videos with your Front Desk Team
PMS features
Bookings tab features