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CRO - Central Reservation Office

The CRO is a software programme that lets hotels manage reservation requests made on the phone, via the hotel’s website reservation request form or directly at the hotel (walk-in), as well as manage requests to change or cancel any type of existing reservation.

The system provides operators with the prices of various tariffs or special offers in real time, taking into consideration all inserted restrictions, and, what is more, it also lets operators prepare quotations and send offers via email, text or fax.

Connected call centre operators or the operator at the hotel desk can insert a reservation into the system in just a few clicks, fulfilling the customer’s request with maximum efficiency.

All the actions performed by operators are logged in the database and statistics are available in real time to analyse types of requests, customer behaviour, performance based on certain indicators and conversions into reservations.

Main functions:

Property search

A rapid property search module concerning the properties the customer is interested in is available for chains, and reservations can be made from the results

Booking engine

Reservation system

Quotations System to create and send quotations

Special offers Quick identification system of special offers that could interest the customer

Cancel/modify

A module for modifying or cancelling existing reservations

Customer profiles

A module for identifying if the customer is a new or returning customer

Reservation search A module for carrying out a rapid search for an existing reservation

Sending of emails A module to send emails to customers

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How to start

You can access the CRO from this URL address: https://cro.verticalbooking.com/cro_login.htm

When you connect to the system, the following page will appear and the operator should insert his/her username and password to enter.

The operator can then choose one of the following options:

New call

Click on ‘new call’ if dealing with a new call. After clicking ‘new call’, the operator will see various links for performing different actions, the time of the start of the call and the duration of the call.

Not on the telephone Click here to carry out different actions, such as preparing quotations or checking data.

In both cases, all actions are logged for statistical reasons.

Resetting passwords

If the operator forgets his/her username or password, he/she can follow this procedure in the CRO:

If you have forgotten your

password, click on

‘forgotten your password’.

Insert the user’s

Username and

click on ‘Submit’.

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The user will now be able to enter the CRO by clicking on the link in the email, using the new password generated by the system and following the instructions to create a new personal password and save it.

Main menu commands

The operator can start to use the CRO by clicking on one of the options in the horizontal bar or one of the options listed under the operator icon.

An email will be sent to the

user containing a new

password which can be

used to login.

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Property search

Clicking on the first option in the horizontal bar called ‘Property search’ will take the operator to the following screen:

You can insert one or more search criteria:

- Country: select the country where the property is located

- City: select the city where the property is located

- Name: the operator can insert the name of the property in question into this field

Click on ‘Search’ to proceed.

The results of the search are displayed as follows:

The following information is shown in the search results:

- Hotel: Name of the property

- Type: Hotel, Campsite, Motel

- Country: Country where the hotel is located

- City: City where the hotel is located

The ‘Make booking’ button on the right lets the operator begin the process of making a reservation at the

corresponding property.

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Inserting a reservation

There are various ways to insert a reservation from the CRO and the operator can choose which is the quickest and best way depending on the input criteria at hand.

- Property search

- Customer profile search

- Quotations (if confirming a quotation)

- Special Offers

- Booking Engine

In this phase, the standard process is explained, that is, the process that begins when the operator clicks on the ‘Make booking’ button on the horizontal bar or under the icon on the first page.

This process is exactly the same no matter how the reservation process is started.

The process of inserting a new reservation is the same whether the operator originally chose the ‘New call’ or ‘Not on the telephone’ option.

If operator chose the ‘New Call’ option, the system will display the date and time of the start of the call, but if he/she chose ‘Not on the telephone’, no timing will appear.

Important: the process of inserting a reservation is progressive therefore you can go back to the

previous page(s) using the buttons in the CRO. Using the buttons in the browser is not

recommended.

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Make booking

The CRO requires the operator to select whether it is a New customer or an Existing customer, depending on whether the customer has already made a reservation in his/her name.

The following will be displayed by clicking on New customer:

On the left, the operator can select the hotel in question (Search by hotel), the arrival data (select on the calendar), the number of nights, the number of guests (adults and children are selected separately) and the number of rooms that the customer would like to book.

Once the operator has selected the property where the reservation will be made, it will not be possible to change it.

On the right, a Short Profile module is displayed where the customer’s personal data will be inserted. The fields marked with a * (Name, Surname, Email) are obligatory and this data cannot be saved if this information is not inserted. By clicking on Save, the system will automatically save this information, making the customer an Existing customer.

Inserting the customer’s data at this point is not necessary to continue with the reservation process because it can be done later in the ‘Confirm reservation’ phase.

If the operator selects ‘Existing customer’, the system will ask for the data of the existing customer to be inserted.

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One or more search criteria can be inserted (Name, Surname, Country, City and Customer code).

To start the search, click on the ‘Search’ button.

The search results are displayed at this point, and there may be more than one result depending on the search criteria inserted.

Name: name and surname of the customer

Reserve: this leads on to the reservation process

Country: customer’s country

Code: customer code

Reservations: number of reservations already made by the customer

The button at the end of each line lets the operator see a summary of the customer. Clicking on the other button lets the operator see the reservation(s) the customer has made.

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Clicking on ‘Reserve’ takes the operator to the same step shown before for the ‘New customer’, the only difference being that the data of the selected customer will already be inserted into the fields of the Short Profile.

The CRO also lets the operator carry out a search that includes children in the number of guests.

In this case, the next step involves the operator asking the customer for the ages of the children so as to find the best room types and fulfil the customer’s requirements.

Note

Summary boxes will appear on the right of the screen after each step of the reservation process is completed

and these show the operator what has been done/selected so far. If necessary, the operator can make changes

to the reservation by clicking on these boxes.

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Select tariff

Once an availability search for a specific date at a property has been completed, the CRO will provide the

operator with the tariffs available for the selected dates, highlighting, when possible, special packages and/or promotions.

Since it is possible to make a multiple reservation (more than one room), the system will display the same box again for each room that the customer intends to book, highlighting which room the choice is being made for.

The following information will be displayed in the list of tariffs available for the selected period:

Name of the hotel and the date of the reservation Name of the tariff

: this icon opens a pop-up which displays the description of the relative tariff

Descriptive text about the tariff (the same text that is shown if you click on the button) Starting from: the amount prices start from for the various room types Select: this button shows the various room types connected to the tariff

The operator can open a window with a small description about the selected hotel by clicking on

either the name of the hotel at the top of the list or the next to the hotel name.

Details about more than one tariff can be visualised at the same time by clicking on the ‘Select’ button for each tariff you want to see.

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In the table that opens, all room types that can be booked with the selected tariff are displayed.

Tariff/room: name of room type

: this icon opens a pop up which displays the description of the room type chosen

The different prices for different days the selected period

Total: total price of the reservation

Clicking on the ‘Select’ button takes the operator to the page where services can be booked at the selected property.

Each property will have uploaded the services available there, and each service is linked to the chosen tariff.

As with the choice of the tariff, the CRO lets the customer book services for each reserved room, and the CRO reminds the operator which room the service is being booked for.

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The name of the property is displayed at the top of the table, the room type and the relative selected tariff.

Services: name of service

: this icon opens a pop up window containing a description of the service

Month/day: shows the dates when the service is available on the basis of the customer’s requests

Total: total price of the service chosen

Total of services: total price for all the services chosen (the total price of the stay is also added to this).

Clicking on the ‘Continue’ button lets the operator continue with the reservation and go to the Reservation summary phase.

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Reservation summary

The Reservation summary step lets the operator see all the options selected in the previous steps in one screen.

1. Period: check in and check out dates 2. Guests: total number of people the reservation is being made for 3. Hotel: name of the property where the reservation is being made 4. Origin: where the booking is coming from 5. Room: type of room being reserved

6. Paym. methods: payment method which can be chosen from the drop down menu 7. Canc. Policy: cancellation policy which can be chosen from the drop down menu 8. Send email to the customer: by choosing either the Yes or No option, you can send the customer a

confirmation email of the reservation to the email address provided by the customer. This can be changed in the next session, if requested.

Note

The channel where the reservation comes from can only be changed if they originate from the internet

or walk-ins. If the operator chooses New call at the beginning of the process, the system will automatically put the origin of the reservation as ‘ Phone’ and this cannot be modified after.

The cancellation policy and payment method can be chosen from the options that the property/chain decides to configure.

‘Quotation’ : this lets the operator create a reservation in the form of a quotation, therefore not confirmed,

and it is placed in the shopping basket. If necessary, the operator can return to this quotation later on during

the call. ‘Reserve’ : the operator clicks here when the customer decides to confirm and proceed with the reservation.

‘24hr quotation’ : this creates a quotation that is valid for 24 hours. The features of this are explained further

on.

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Finalising a reservation

During this part of the process, the operator will insert all the information needed and requested to successfully conclude the reservation.

Summary boxes will appear on the right of the screen during the reservation process and the operator can

make changes to the reservation at any moment by clicking on these boxes.

Search box: the operator can start from the beginning of the reservation process by inserting new search criteria into the search box on the left of the screen and clicking on ‘Search’.

The box called Personal information is where the operator inserts the personal information of a New customer who is making a reservation, if the operator did not insert this info at the beginning of the reservation process.

A customer profile is created automatically when the operator inserts this information and proceeds with the reservation, and this profile can be used again if the customer makes more reservations in the future.

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If the customer who is making a reservation is an Existing customer, the fields in this box will already be filled in with the relative information that was previously memorised.

The next part of this page involves the optional insertion of the names of other guests, if there are any. The amount of names that can be inserted is relative to the maximum number of guests that the reserved room can hold. Inserting these names is completely optional and is not essential to making the reservation.

The data inserted for guests will be used to create relative Existing customer profiles and it will be possible to retrace the reservation using this customer name in the profile search.

The customer profiles of guests can be completed by doing a profile search, filling in the missing information in the Short profile and clicking ‘Save’.

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The credit card details must be completed in full. All obligatory fields must be filled in to finalise the reservation.

If the customer is not able to supply the data, the operator must tell the customer that he/she cannot continue with the reservation but can save it as a quotation, which can be confirmed at a later date at the property’s discretion and depending on room availability.

The last section on this page, called Call centre operator remarks is a space where the operator can insert remarks or notes about the whole reservation process, regardless of whether it was made on the telephone or not.

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Confirmation of reservation

Once the reservation has been finalised, the CRO displays confirmation of the reservation.

This message and the relative generation of the Reservation code will only appear once the operator has successfully completed all the steps needed to record the reservation.

At the top you can see:

Name: name the reservation has been made it

Code: reservation number

Room: type of room and guests

Following this is the Reservation summary:

Date: check-in date and number of nights

Guests: number of guests per room

Hotel: name of the hotel where the reservation has been made

Address: address of the hotel

Telephone: telephone number of hotel

Email: hotel email address to which confirmation of the reservation is sent

Room: room type

Payment method: payment method chosen for the reservation

Cancellation Policy: cancellation policy chosen during the Reservation summary phase.

The total of the reservation is shown on the bottom right, including any add-ons but excluding VAT, then the VAT amount is shown underneath, and, finally, then the overall total is displayed.

The CRO will send a confirmation email to the customer when this screen is displayed, if that was requested during the Reservation summary phase.

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Multiple reservations

The CRO lets operators insert a multiple room reservation.

As with individual reservations, the operator will be able to create a multiple room reservation for a New customer or an Existing customer by inserting the same criteria into the search box (Hotel, arrival date, number of nights, number of guests and number of rooms).

The difference from making an individual reservation is that, in the next step, the CRO asks the operator to select how many guests there are per room so that it can show the various relevant rates.

Once again, the CRO lets the operator insert children as a search criterion and, just like with adult guests, select how many children there are in each room.

The process for making a multiple room reservation continues with the choice of each single room, each single tariff and the choice of any desired services, and which room the services are being booked for is always shown.

When the operator has reached the end of the tariff options phase, the Reservation summary will appear showing all the rooms the customer has reserved.

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Clicking on the button ‘Reserve’ concludes the process of confirming the reservation, as seen previously with individual reservations.

Note

Cumulative payment method refers to how much the customer has to pay in advance and how much at the hotel, since different payment methods and cancellation policies can be chosen for each single room.

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Reservation summary boxes

Whilst the operator is creating a reservation, he/she can always monitor, check and, if necessary, change various parts of the reservation process.

The option(s) chosen during each step will appear on the right of the screen.

In the first phase, the dates, number of guests per room and customer’s details, if inserted, will appear.

‘MODIFY’: this button takes the operator back to the Customer profile where, if it is an Existing customer, the fields will already be filled in with the memorised data, however if it is a New customer, blanks fields will appear that can be filled in.

The second summary box displays the room type, the selected tariff and the total of the reservation.

‘MODIFY’: the second ‘Modify’ button takes the operator back to the screen where he/she can chose the tariff and various available options.

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The uniqueness of this function is that it can reproduce the summary of each detail selected during the reservation process, therefore, as can be seen in the following screen, each room in a multiple room reservation has its own summary section.

Another piece of information that is reported in these summary boxes is the age of any children.

Warning: since the reservation process is sequential, when changing a part of the reservation, the only options that remain untouched are those in the previous stages. For example, let us look at a reservation with three rooms: if the operator wants to modify the second room, the data for the third will also have to be reinserted, however the data for the first room will remain memorised.

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Send quotation

Sending a quotation means that the customer will receive emails containing various quotations for stays at different properties during the different periods that interest the customer, however the customer is not obliged to confirm the reservation during the phone call.

Once all reservations have been received, the customer can confirm one or more of them later on, or during the phone call itself.

The process of creating a quotation is the same as the reservation process, therefore it follows the same logical steps:

- Selection of customer type (New or Existing)- If it is an Existing customer, a name search is carried out and the operator selects ‘Reserve’

- Availability search is carried out by inserting the various search parameters (hotel name, check-in date, number of nights, number of adults, number of children, number of rooms)

- Selection of tariff, package or offer

- Selection of the room type the customer intends to book

- Selection of services that can be booked at the property

Reservation summary: during this phase of the reservation process, the CRO asks the operator to insert the customer’s details to make a reservation or create a quotation.

Confirmation of the quotation is given when the operator clicks on the appropriate button at the bottom of the Reservation summary screen.

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When the operator has finished the process for an Existing customer, once again the CRO automatically fills in the data of the chosen customer, whereas if it is a New customer and the operator did not memorise the data in the initial phase, the system will require the operator to fill in all the fields manually.

Note: inserting and saving the customer’s details in the ‘Send Quotation’ phase does not mean they are automatically memorised by the system, thus creating a Customer profile. This only happens when a quotation is confirmed and therefore leads on to a confirmed reservation.

Quotation:

1. Availability: the operator can choose to block or not block availability 2. Validity: the operator can set a validity period for the quotation.

The operator can send the quotation to the customer via email by clicking on ‘Save’ and the summary screen will be shown in the next screen.

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Quotation

Name: name the quotation was made in

Code: quotation code

Name: name the quotation was made in

Room: room type, chosen tariff and number of people per room

Summary

Date: check-in date and number of nights

Guests: number of guests per room

Hotel/address/telephone/email: details of the property for which the quotation was made

Room: room type

Pay. Method/canc. policy: payment method and cancellation policy in place for the reservation quotation.

The operator can create other quotations by clicking on New quotation.

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Quotation search

The CRO provides the operator with a button in the main menu bar and a button in the list of options under the operator icon for performing quotation searches.

Through the screen shown below, the operator can search for a quotation by inserting one or more search parameters:

Code: quotation code that the system generates once it is confirmed

Name/surname: name and surname of the customer who requested the quotation

Quotation date: date when the quotation was made

Hotel: the property for which the quotation was made (can be selected from the drop down menu for the properties that the operator is able to work with)

Operator: user name of the operator who made the quotation

State: can be chosen from the drop down menu. The options are:

1. Confirmed (the quotation has been confirmed therefore there is a reservation number which can be referred to)

2. Valid (the quotation has not been confirmed yet but it has not expired yet either) 3. Expired (the quotation date has passed therefore the quotation is no longer valid) 4. Cancelled 5. 24hr quotation: type of quotation which will be shown in the following pages

The more search criteria inserted the more precise the search will be.

The following screen will appear when the operator clicks on ‘Search’:

Customer: name the quotation was made in

Hotel: property for which the quotation was made

Code: quotation code

Operator: name of operator who made the quotation

Quotation date: when the quotation was made

Expiry date: date the quotation expires

Period when availability is blocked: if availability was blocked, this shows until when.

Status: state of the quotation

: resend the quotation email to the customer

: confirm the quotation, making it a confirmed reservation

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: cancel the selected quotation.

Confirming the quotation

Confirming the quotation means that a reservation is made with the exact same information as was in the quotation.

Once the operator has selected the quotation he/she was searching for, all he/she has to do is click on the ‘Confirm’ icon, which will make the quotation summary page appear.

The ‘Reserve’ button at the bottom of the page will take the operator to the page where the reservation can be finalised.

The operator should follow the same instructions as mentioned before for the reservation process, and a

confirmation email will be generated upon completion.

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Special offers

The ‘Special offers’ function is available to the operator for a certain type of reservation.

Through this process, the operator can create a reservation by performing an availability search based on the validity of special rates related to packages and/or offers.

The following page will appear when the operator clicks on the ‘Special offers’ link in the main menu:

A search can be carried out for either one particular property, which shows the special offers available there, or for all properties, which shows the offers available at all the properties in the selected period.

Search all properties

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Special offer search for one particular property

Clicking on will let the operator see all the details of the special offers:

- first level: shows the offers available at the property

- second level: shows the description of the offer and the availability search box

Once the operator has inserted the search criteria and clicked on ‘Search’, the reservation process will continue in the same way as described above, starting from the choice of the room type.

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Shopping basket The shopping basket is a tool that the operator can use to save as many searches as the customer wants to make, without creating a quotation or reservation. These results are held in standby until no more requests are made, and no codes are created for these saved

searches, therefore they cannot be searched for once the call finishes. It is therefore important to distinguish the difference between searches saved in the shopping basket and quotations. As mentioned, a quotation has its own code and validity period, and availability blocks can be put in place for a quotation. Searches saved in the shopping basket are purely informative, they do not make any impact on the property’s sales or room occupancy, but they can be turned into reservations or quotations.

The operator can place a reservation search into the shopping basket when he/she reaches the Reservation summary page by clicking on ‘Shopping basket’.

Once the operator has saved the searches requested by the client (there is no maximum amount), he/she can see what is in the shopping basket by clicking on the option on the right in the main menu.

The operator can see what is in the shopping trolley on the next screen.

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The CRO shows what was saved, in order, during the search phase. At this point, the operator can proceed by

confirming the request ( ) or cancelling it ( ).

If the operator confirms the search, the system will take him/her to the Reservation summary page where the operator will be able to choose from various options, which have been explained previously (such as Quotation, 24hr quotation, Reserve). Of course, since this process begins from a search saved in the shopping basket, there will not be the option to

save this reservation process in the shopping trolley later on.

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24hr quotation

As seen previously, to create a quotation the operator has to follow the normal reservation process.

When the CRO displays the Reservation summary screen, the operator will be able to proceed with the confirmation of the reservation (by clicking on the ‘Reserve’ button), create a standard quotation (by clicking on ‘Quotation’) or create a 24hr quotation (by clicking on ‘24hr quotation’).

This type of quotation is similar to a standard quotation, except that a validity period of 24 hours automatically begins from the date the quotation is created.

The operator can therefore block availability during peak periods but only for a short time, or block the room for the customer who wants to reserve the room but is not able to provide the credit card guarantee details at that particular moment.

Then, if the operator wants to do a quotation search, he/she can do so by inserting one or more of the details of the quotation, or by selecting the state of the quotation, which in this case would be 24hr quotation since it is a special type of quotation.

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Modify/cancel reservation

To perform a reservation search, the operator must select the ‘Reservation search’ button in the main menu or in the list of options under the operator icon. The screen that appears will look as follows:

The system requires one or more of the search parameters to be inserted to be able to show and let the operator select a reservation:

Code: reservation code

Name/surname: name and surname of the customer who made the reservation

Arrival: check-in date

Departure: check-out date

Hotel: select, from the drop down menu, the hotel for which the reservation was made (only the

properties that the operator is able to work with can be selected)

Operator: insert the user name of the operator who created the reservation.

The more search criteria inserted, the more precise the search results will be.

Name: customer name and surname

Country: country where the customer comes from

Code: customer code

All details of the selected reservation can be seen by clicking on .

The following information can be seen in the reservation summary:

Hotel: hotel name

Channel: what channel the reservation was made through (name of operator)

Date made: when the reservation was made

Arrival/departure: check-in and check-out dates

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Nights: number of night

Adults/children: guest details

Total: reservation total

You can also see the following in the centre:

1. Room type

2. The chosen tariff

3. Any remarks left by the operator by clicking on .

You can also see:

Time and date of the reservation

Name of the operator who created the reservation

Name of the call centre where the reservation was made

Automatic notes created by the system which better explain the operation.

The CRO also provides the operator with some more information about the status of the reservation: the (X) indicates cancelled reservations and the (M) modified reservations.

Code: code of the reservation that is being changed/cancelled State: state of the reservation and date of the last operation Name: name and surname of customer who made the reservation Arrival/departure: check-in and check-out date of the reservation

Nights: number of nights Guests: total guests per room Hotel: name of the hotel at which the reservation was made Room: room type reserved Remark: remarks about the reservation written by the operator (different from system remarks)

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Fields marked with can be modified on the present screen.

Name

Guests

The operator can use the following commands:

‘New remark’

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Warning

If there is already a note present, writing a new one will automatically overwrite the old one.

‘New operator note’

Warning

These notes are automatically saved in the reservation history.

‘Send documents’

Warning

Each property will have its own documents to select and send to customers.

‘Modify’

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Clicking on this button will take the operator to the room type selection page, where changes can be made.

Once the required options have been changed (tariff, rooms, services), the operator will see the confirmation of the reservation.

The customer, on the other hand, will receive a cancellation email, with ‘BOOKING CANCELLATION DUE TO MODIFICATIONS’ in the subject, containing confirmation of the new reservation.

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Reservation search

To perform a reservation search, the operator has to select the ‘Reservation search’ option in the main menu or from the list under the operator icon. The screen that appears will look as follows:

The system requires one or more of the search parameters to be inserted to be able to show and let the operator select a reservation:

Code: reservation code Name/surname: name and surname of the customer who made the reservation Arrival: check-in date Departure: check-out date

Hotel: select, from the drop down menu, the hotel for which the reservation was made (only the properties that the operator is able to work with can be selected)

Operator: insert the user name of the operator who created the reservation.

The more search criteria inserted, the more precise the search results will be.

Name: customer name and surname Country: country where the customer comes from Code: customer code

All details of the selected reservation can be seen by clicking on .

The following information can be seen in the reservation summary:

Hotel: hotel name Channel: what channel the reservation was made through (name of operator) Date made: when the reservation was made Arrival/departure: check-in and check-out dates

Nights: number of night Adults/children: guest details Total: reservation total

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You can also see the following in the centre:

1. Room type

2. The chosen tariff, and any remarks left by the operator by clicking on .

The operator will be able to see which reservations have been modified or cancelled immediately thanks to the following two symbols which are located above the grey arrow on the left:

(M) for modified reservations

(X) for cancelled reservations

The operator can see the details of the modification/cancellation to the reservation by clicking on , which

displays the System remarks.

In particular, the operator can see:

Time and date of the reservation

Name of the operator who created the reservation

Name of the call centre where the reservation was made

Automatic notes created by the system which better explain the operation.

The operator can also modify or cancel the reservation from this screen (if possible according to the cancellation policy), as previously illustrated.

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Customer profile

Through this function, the operator can bring up a Customer profile by inserting one or more search parameters.

Name/surname: inserting just one of these is sufficient

City/country: city where the customer is a resident and country where they come from (can be

selected)

Customer code: identification code of the customer which is created when the profile is saved or when the customer makes a reservation.

Warning: when customer details are inserted during a phase that does not directly create a reservation, no customer profile is made. Therefore, if the operator sends a quotation to the customer or inserts a customer’s details as a guest, no customer profile will be made and therefore a search using these parameters will not produce any results.

The more search criteria inserted, the more precise the search results will be.

Name: customer’s name and surname

Reserve: this button takes the operator to the page where he/she can create a reservation for the selected customer

Country: customer’s country

Code: customer’s identification code

Reserv.: number of reservations made by the customer (there will never be 0 in this column)

: this icon lets the operator see the details of the customer profile, and clicking on the second arrow icon will display all reservations made by the customer.

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Note Even though the page looks similar, it is not possible to carry out further actions after completing the process of searching and viewing reservations from a Customer profile. Actions such as inserting a new remark, sending an email, modifying or cancelling a reservation can only be done by following the Modify/cancel process.

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Send email

The last operation to illustrate is the ‘Send email’ option.

Through this function the operator can send a message to a customer, independently from any other actions carried out, making this action very quick.

From: the operator chooses from which hotel the email is being sent

To: to whom the email is being sent can be inserted manually or selected from the address book by

clicking on

Subject: subject of the email

PDF forms: the operator can attach one or more files to the email

Message: message to be sent to the customer.

If the operator wants to search for the customer’s email address, he/she can click on the icon and the following screen will appear:

One or more search criteria can be inserted (name, surname, city, country and customer code). Clicking on ‘Search’ will bring up the matching results; clicking on ‘Back’ will take the operator back to the previous screen; clicking on ‘Add’ will add the selected email address.

More than one email address can be inserted simply by performing more searches and selecting and adding the desired email addresses.

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Clicking on ‘Send’ will send the email straight away, and a pop-up window appear to confirm that the email has been sent.

How to conclude

As mentioned at the beginning, the CRO can be used to create a reservation received by phone or through other channels (internet, walk-in).

No matter what the booking channel was, once the operator has completed the reservation process, the system

will take him/her back to the first page where the operator can once again choose from the two options ‘New call’ or ‘Not in a call’.

This automatic return to the starting page does not happen if the operator has just performed one of the two options below:

- Quotation

- Reservation confirmation

In these two cases, starting the process from the beginning must be chosen manually.

If the operator is on the phone and wants to finish the call and hang up, he/she has to choose the reason why from the drop down menu and then click the ‘Hang up’ button in the bar above the main menu.

The system will not let the operator select the ‘Reservation made successfully’ option if this has not actually happened.

Expect for the two options mentioned previously, if the phone call does not end automatically, the operator will have to select the reason to hang up from the drop down menu, and in this case he/she can select ‘Lost due to other reasons (specify)’. A screen will then appear where the operator can write why the call was ended and then he/she can hang up by clicking on the ‘Hang up’ button, which also stops the timer.

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If the operator selected ‘Not in a call’ at the beginning, the operations will not be timed therefore he/she can go back to the starting page at any point by clicking on the ‘Back to Home’ button in the bar above the main menu.

Once the operator has finished everything, he/she can logout by clicking on the logout button on the top right of the screen, and another operator can then log into the CRO.

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CALL BACK function

The operator can select the CALL BACK function at any time during call. This function creates a reminder to

call back the customer if they request the operator to do so.

Once the operator fills in all the information required to call back the customer, he/she can then hang up by

pressing the ‘Hang up’ button.

As mentioned, the CALL BACK option will always be available to the operator to guarantee that he/she can

respond as promptly as possible to the customer’s requests.

If the CALL BACK function is requested, the operator will see the following screen. Remember: the date inserted

will be saved but it will not be associated to a customer code, therefore the customer will not be considered as

an existing customer just by saving his/her information in this form.

If the customer already has a profile, and is therefore an Existing customer, this process is much quicker

because the customer’s data will already be inserted into the fields.

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Once all the required information has been inserted, the operator can hang up by clicking on the ‘Hang up’

button underneath the box.

The CRO will create a reminder for all operators showing the details about the customer(s) that needs to be

called back.

Customers who need to be contacted again by phone (Customers to call back) or via the internet (Internet

requests) are shown separately.

Furthermore, the flashing symbol will notify all operators if there are any pending internet requests to

reply to, or if requests have expired.

At this point the operator will be able to see the details of the CALL BACK form by clicking on , as shown in

the next screenshot.

The operator can then call the customer by clicking on the ‘New call’ button on the top right of the display box,

and if the customer is an Existing customer, his/her details will automatically be filled in.

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If the request originates from the internet or if the customer’s data was inserted but the customer does not

have an existing customer code, the system will require the operator to save this data in order to be able to

continue with any further operations.

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The data will be saved and the relative Client profile will be created when the operator clicks on ‘Save’.

The state of the request can also be modified at this point by choosing from the options in the drop down

menu.

The options available are:

- Web request - call: this lets the operator change the date and/or time to call back the customer, whose

request originates from the internet.

- Call in progress: shows when the operator is on the telephone with the client (this prevents more than one

operator calling the customer at the same time).

- Call back: change time and/or date for requests that originate from a phone call

- Processed: the customer has been contacted as requested.

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The CRO also allows for certain operator levels to be created, which correspond to being able to only perform

certain operations.

These different levels will allow operators to work together in the process of creating a reservation or when

managing a reservation.

The different levels will affect operations regarding PRICES, TARIFFS and CANCELLATION POLICIES.

Prices

If the operator is enabled, he/she can insert a certain amount (in percentage) of discount which will be applied

to all room types that feature the selected tariff.

Different levels can also be set for discounts, so maximum discount amounts can be set for different operators

(in both percentage and total amount).

The operator can also be enabled to apply a discount to the total price of the tariff (either a percentage or a

total amount).

The amount of the discount (in percentage) that can be applied is set to a maximum amount depending on the

operator’s level, but this can be changed when required.

The operator will see when a price has been discounted because it will be highlighted, as you can see in the

next screenshot.

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Services

Enabled operators will be able to discount services by following the same process for discounting room rates.

Cancellation Policy

Another parameter that can be altered, depending of the operator’s level, is the cancellation policy for a certain

reservation.

This operation is made possible when the operator has to modify a reservation that includes a penalty charge

for any changes.

Once this change has been confirmed, the operator selects ‘Yes’ and the penalty charge is applied, and the

amount is calculated automatically and inserted into the new reservation confirmation, as shown in the

following screenshot.

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The operator can also select ‘No’ however, in which case the penalty charge will not be applied.

Three security levels can be set for operators:

1. Do not enable the operator to modify penalty charges for modifications/cancellations

2. Only enable the operator to modify penalty charges when a new reservation is made and the total of the new

reservation is higher than the original one

3. Enable the operator to modify penalty charges for any reservation.

Lastly, as previously mentioned, in the section related to finalising a reservation, a reservation can be

confirmed without the credit card details having to be inserted, but only if the operator is enabled to allow this.

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