Logging In Along with the recent new Dashboard and UI we have also changed the way in which we handle logins or more technically identity authentication. We have partnered with industry leader auth0.com  to bring enhanced security and the option of using your Google or Facebook accounts for logging into guestbook247.com. Why the need to change? Technology and methods of providing the safest and easiest ways to secure access to systems has moved on.  And with more people wanting to use social media accounts for authenticating access to other apps we needed a solution, auth0 offers that. Beyond this  auth0 offers better methods to detect unauthorised access attempts, block nasty bots or scripts from attacking our apps and provide us the tools to monitor and react to threats. Using a partner that specialises in all things identity means we can concentrate on adding great new features to guestbook247 whilst trusting that auth0 will protect your account and offer more ...

Lots Has Been Happening. We've been very busy with lots of exciting new features and have created a more modern and cleaner look for guestbook 247. Not just a new look but a much enhanced dashboard from which to see at a glance key info, bookings, availability and business insights. We hope the new look will make using and navigating guestbook more pleasant, easier and productive. The Dashboard.  The dashboard is your new Guestbook 247 home from where you can see and do most of your daily task and get easy insights on your business. The availability calendar sporting a new fresh look and improved navigation Key business metrics such as number of bookings and enquiries, rooms occupied  The Timeline shows your booking info for the  the most relevant bookings recent activity new enquires who's in and out Instant guest search based on name or email Booking source charts - see at a glance where your bookings are coming from, compare different time periods ...

GDPR is coming So what is GDPR (General Data Protection Regulation)? It's an EU regulation that becomes law on 25 May 2018 that aims to increase the data protection of all EU citizens. A whole industry has sprung up of GDPR "specialist" and there is now much media coverage. As usual there's much mis-information floating around not helped by ambiguities and deliberate vagueness of some parts of the GDPR regulations. So we think the specific understanding of GDPR will take some years to mature as authorities enforce and challenge companies compliance. Practical Impacts What does it mean for the hospitality industry and in particular the hotel sector? It means that hotel business must take steps to understand how they handle, store & process any personal information. That clearly includes personal information for guests and prospective guests. Even if you operate your business outside the EU but interact with EU citizens you need to take action. The EU and ...

Did You Know? UK and EU VAT / Sales Tax rules mean that when you take a deposit or advanced payment for services, such as a stay in your property, that creates a tax point. This means you need to report the payment in the current VAT period and produce an invoice detailing the tax allocation. This can be quite complex, error prone and time consuming process.  Even more so if you have to deal with different Tax Rates for different invoice items. More information from HMRC  https://www.gov.uk/guidance/vat-instalments-deposits-credit-sales Example You take a booking in April for 1 room, 2 guests with breakfast for 5 nights starting in November at £630 and right now you take 50% deposit of £315. A tax point has been created and you need to report the receipt of £315 on your current VAT return and issue an invoice to the guest.  Lets assume this is the breakdown of the chargeable services: room rate : £96 * 5 = £480 (gross, inc VAT) breakfast : £15 * 10 = £150...

There's always something extra you want to note down about a booking, maybe a guest has specific dietary requirements, wants a car hire arranged, is arriving at an unusual time. Well the Guestbook note feature makes it easy to add a bit extra info to a booking. Sometime it's the little things that have the greatest impact. In this case a little yellow dot on the availability calendar. Not all notes are born equal, in some cases we want to mark a note as important. Adding an important note to the booking will activate the magic yellow dot on the availability calendar.  Not only is this a great visual reminder but hover the mouse over the booking on the calendar and see the note pop-up. Hopefully you won't miss that little special something to keep the guest happy. From the booking edit page click the Add Note button and ensure the Important Note checkbox i ticked. Then when that booking is visible on the availability calendar you'll see yellow dot.

Base Rate Templates. With the recent release of Guestbook 247 Kaprun invoicing has just become even easier. We've worked to make it simple to split a booking base rate into one or more invoice lines. So for instance if a booking base rate includes a room rate and breakfast fee attracting different tax rates you can now define this once in a base rate template and apply it to selected bookings. Guestbook will generate an invoice containing separate lines for the room rate and breakfast. The template can define a mix of invoice items with fixed or percentage based amounts. Guestbook 247 will take care of allocating the base rate across the different invoice categories and tax rates. So taking our bed and breakfast example the template rules would look like: breakfast €15 inc 12% tax per night room rate 100% of unallocated base rate (after breakfast amount) inc 15% tax per night You can define multiple base rate templates to cover different requirements and set one to be...