(Also, we’re hiring – Customer Coach for Brasil!)
Hey everybody!
We’re sponsoring HostelSkills Conference #6. It’s next week, October 18 & 19 in beautiful Lisbon. You can expect useful speaker sessions covering everything from Instagram marketing to revenue-boosting rate plans. Check out the full agenda here, and don’t forget to come get a drink with us! 🙂
Hope to see you there,
– FrontDesk Master Team
Hello everybody!
If you use Non Refundable rate in Hostelworld:
Please do not map the rate in Channel Manager (see here). Hostelworld informed us that they will not roll out direct price updates for Non-Refundable rates until late October and FrontDesk Master must remove this functionality until then. If you keep the rate mapped, the system tries to send updates what results in the error returned by Hostelworld and may affect Standard Rate updates.
We will make necessary adjustments to allow only recognizing Non-Refundable bookings until this time.
In case of an doubts or questions, do not hesitate to contact support@frontdeskmaster.com.
Thank you!
— Best Regards,
FrontDesk Master Team
Dear customers,
We are sad to inform that Hostelworld is experiencing issues with its API. Please note that the problems happened several times within last 2 weeks and unfortunately there is nothing FrontDesk Master can do to overcome it.
We all hope the API stability will be improved soon and irrespective of the root cause we apologize for the inconvenience.
FrontDesk Master Team
Hello everyone,
We are happy to inform that earlier today we released a FrontDesk Master update (v.33). Please see below for details.
FrontDesk Master Team
A new permission which allows you to decide if staff can access the system outside of their shift switch.
Check in Property Management / Staff / Edit Roles & Permissions
We made some changes to improve the window. Now, we are showing only the guests with complete details (name, email, etc.) And also we added an option to export the list of guests to Excel file.
You can open you Fact dashboard directly from FDM. Also, in case you need to create an invoice manually, you can create one directly from FDM
We improved the integration with LibreDTE.
We have released another integration. This time for Israel. Here you can see how a typical invoicing integration works. CLICK HERE
[DEV-2695] – Booking engine booking – Guest notes not received on email notification
[DEV-3065] – Reservation: after changing and saving data in Guest Details, the guest list changes order
[DEV-3078] – Issue with Deposits in tooltip
[DEV-3102] – Cant add new booking methods
[DEV-3123] – Paid reservation appears as due
[DEV-3194] – Price Manager – prices per occupancy not changing with different currencies
[DEV-3203] – Dashboard – Total Outstanding not showing any information. It shows only 0.
[DEV-3240] – LibreDTE / Primavera – generated invoices now showing on All Issued Invoices list
[DEV-3333] – Bookings are showing incorrect Total Due on Bed View
[DEV-3350] – Take Payment & Invoice – invoice generated over amount with commission included despite the configuration
[DEV-3372] – Updates after cancellations (auto-replenish problem on Hostelworld)
[DEV-3395] – Fact – invoice created for a guest from another not related reservation
[DEV-3404] – Can´t upload bookings from file
[DEV-3432] – System doesn’t update availability when Cancelled booking has its status changed to Confirmed
[DEV-3436] – Problem with editing notes
As you are probably aware, new data protection law (GDPR) goes into effect May 25th. At FrontDesk Master, we are following the developments and taking the necessary steps to be compliant and also provide you with tools which will help you comply with the regulations.
While it shouldn’t be considered a legal advice, please have a look at short information which may be relevant for you and your property.
The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) aims to protect the fundamental right to privacy and the protection of personal data of European Union (EU) citizens.
This regulation affects any entity that processes EU citizens’ personal data. Whether or not you or your business is located in the EU, if you have EU site visitors, or if your marketing campaigns target EU citizens, this affects you.
The full text of the GDPR can be found here and a glossary of all the legal terms you’ll need to know can be found here.
The GDPR applies to ‘personal data’ meaning any information relating to an identifiable person who can be directly or indirectly identified in particular by reference to an identifier. This definition provides for a wide range of personal identifiers to constitute personal data, including name, identification number, location data or online identifier.
If you are unsure what it means, ask yourself a question:
– Based on the information I possess could I possibly identify the person? Can I find who is it (also using technology)?
If you could possibly find out who is the owner of the data you have you are collecting the personal data in scope of GDPR!
A Controller (Hostel or Hotel) is the entity that determines the purpose, conditions and means of the processing of personal data, while the Processor (FrontDesk Master) is an entity which processes personal data on behalf of the controller.
Note!
The GDPR treats the data Controller (Hotel or Hostel) as the principal party for responsibilities such as collecting consent, managing consent-revoking, enabling right to access, etc. A data subject who wishes to revoke consent for his or her personal data therefore will contact the data controller to initiate the request, even if such data lives on servers belonging to the data processor. The data controller, upon receiving this request, would then proceed to request the data processor remove the revoked data from their servers.
There are two words which best describe the requirements: transparency and communication.
GDPR requires that you must be very transparent with your guests why and what data are you going to collect, how long are you going to store them and how you are going to use them. There is a difference between storing data because of legal requirements or booking processing versus due to the marketing reasons. It is your responsibility to inform the guest about it and to obtain a relevant and explicit consent, if for instance you want to build up your marketing database and send guests birthday cards or a promo codes.
Sorry to say that but to our knowledge, it applies to everything you have already collected. And unless you have a lawful reason ie. you are legally obliged to store the data or you have an appropriate consent to store the data, you shall either erase the data or get it into compliance (collect explicit consent!).
If you want us to to remove your past reservation data in bulk, please contact us at support@frontdeskmaster.com.
We strongly recommend to avoid such notion given the GDPR allows fines up to 20 million Euro or 4% of your annual profit whichever is higher!
Stay calm and don’t panic. GDPR was not introduced to collect fines but we all need to act responsibly and consciously towards the full compliance.
Obviously when accepting bookings you do have a lawful reason for collecting guests’ personal data. However, you should still make sure that your guest was informed about:
For instance, you may need to inform the guest that you are legally obliged to store certain data for 3 years after the check-out or you may request a guest’s consent to store the data for marketing purposes.
Just to be clear, the consent must be explicit and unambiguous and distinguishable from other matters.
As we previously mentioned, GDPR refers to collecting and storing the personal data which allow identifying the person. Look at this 2 examples:
Undoubtedly, in the first case you do have data in scope of GDPR protection. In the second case, if that’s all you have you do not have the data which allows identifying the person and you can store such data for statistical purposes forever!
FrontDesk Master will let you anonymize guest details automatically some time after the check-out.
It means that personal details will be turned into dummy details allowing you to maintain the statistics and comply with GDPR.
The tool will start working next week!
Important!
At FrontDesk Master, we believe that anonymization may be one of the best ways for you to deal with your past reservation data but remember it is your responsibility as a Controller to take actions and determine what to do with the data you collect to comply with the new regulations.
In accordance with GDPR your guests have Right of Access and Right to Rectify/Delete.
It means that anybody whose data is in your system has the right to obtain confirmation of what data you stored, modify it or request to delete the data. It means that if your guest wants to know what data you collected, you must offer him or her the right to view it and potentially modify it or deleted it (if there is no lawful reason for further storing the data ie. legal requirement, binding reservation, etc.)
Online Guest Account can be accessed by any guest whose data is in the system. From there guests will be able to see what data you store. He or she will be able to manage the consent they gave or even delete their profile (if you allow it).
You can already test the access to the account here but only on newly made bookings (for now). You can also find Online Check-in settings in Property Details.
We have implemented and are implementing changes.
We have worked to prepare our services for GDPR. We reviewed our data processing activities, and are making any changes that are needed to comply with GDPR such as implementing appropriate technical and organizational measures
We have released updated Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy updates
We have published updated versions of Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy which consist of necessary information regarding FrontDesk Master’s data practices. In next days, Property Administrators will be prompt in the system to acknowledge and accept the changes.
See here Terms and Conditions and Privacy Policy.
Please note that while we want to make it easier for you to comply with the new regulations by releasing new tools, you may need to seek a legal advice to ensure you comply with the new regulations.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us at support@frontdeskmaster.com.
FrontDesk Master Team
Hello everyone,
We are happy to inform that yesterday we released a FrontDesk Master update (v.31) which included several significant changes. Please see below for details.
If you want the BedView to open faster please enable BedView buffering setting in Property Settings (recommended for properties over 100 beds):
We have developed a universal way of managing and setting up the city tax. Previously enabled city/local tax models are still working and no changes are required.
1. For City Tax settings check Property Settings / Financial Settings / Tax Settings – City Tax.
2. Also, you can now toggle – add or remove – the city tax in the reservation.
* [DEV-2734] – No CC details in BE reservations
* [DEV-2767] – Incorrect reservation status in search box
* [DEV-2800] – Bulk Update – setting up prices/restrictions only for Sundays
* [DEV-2815] – Daily Production Report is not taking cancellations into account
* [DEV-2854] – Booking Engine – clicking on hostel logo doesn’t redirect to the hostel website correctly
* [DEV-2861] – BE – Wrong translation for “I have read and accept the terms and conditions”
* [DEV-2869] – Reservation from Booking.com taking a long time to be downloaded
* [DEV-2870] – Channel Manager – cancellation from MyAllocator not in the system
* [DEV-2880] – Fact – An error appears while taking payment with a postal code for countries different than Portugal
* [DEV-2950] – Fact – can’t make credit note for a sold item
* [DEV-2984] – Property Settings – problem with save
* [DEV-2994] – Availability and Rate Calendar – Can’t open rooms
* [DEV-3016] – Can’t open Shift Audit
* [DEV-3020] – Channel Manager – AirBnB reservations appear in Problematic Bookings list with an error.
* [DEV-3023] – Can’t save changes in Availability and Rate Calendar
* [DEV-3037] – Can’t change currencies in Availability and Rate Calendar/Price Manager
* [DEV-3041] – BE – Multiple bookings made by one guest
* [DEV-3063] – Channel Manager – bookings appeared on Problematic Bookings list with an error
* [DEV-3066] – Email & Printout Manager – when set up the message to be sent for specific nationalities or rooms the system doesn’t save it
* [DEV-3085] – Can´t extend bookings / cancel nights from BedVIew
* [DEV-3103] – System put the default price instead of season prices
* [DEV-3108] – Unallocated bookings invisible in Unallocated Bookings section on STAGE/DEV
* [DEV-3114] – Can’t open Currencies and Accounts
* [DEV-3126] – City Tax disappearing when going to payments tab
* [DEV-3127] – All Issued Invoices – clicking on Save & Print button doubles the invoice values
* [DEV-3131] – I can’t save changes in Shift Switch settings.
* [DEV-3132] – Shift Switch – the system does not record correctly the discrepency during the shift switch
Thank you! Have a nice week.
FrontDesk Master Team
Hello everyone,
We’d like to share with you some information related to FrontDesk Master short and mid-term objectives. Have a nice week.
In the following days we are going to release an improved BedView which allows much better:
We believe that it’s one of the most important improvements which supports our ambition to have the best Bed Calendar in the industry. In next months we will work on ‘swapping beds’ which is another long awaited feature.
In next days we are moving the infrastructure to new servers which will:
-help the system performance
-enable performing most system updates without taking it offline!
It is our passion to constantly improve the system by adding new functionalities. Also, we get lots of great feedback from you. However, in the next several weeks we will primarily focus on addressing all reported issues related to already existing functionality.
The new servers enable performing most of the updates without stopping the application and we are aiming to develop a new standard of immediately releasing important fixes or small improvements.
We hope the information is useful and you will enjoy the updates.
If you have any comments or you’d like to provide feedback, please feel free to contact us at info@frontdeskmaster.com.
Mateusz Sznir – FrontDesk Master Team
Certain conditions apply. Contact us at sales@frontdeskmaster.com for details.
We are happy to say that we are about to release the connection with AirBnB. As you all know AirBnB is mostly recommended for private rooms. Those of you who are interested may already contact us for trying the connection on our test servers.
That’s right. FrontDesk Master releases the integration with a passport scanner which allows filling in guest details automatically just by placing ID documents on a special scanner. We will be presenting the scanner during Hostelworld conference in Dublin.
A special online guest interface will allow performing pre-arrival check-ins. You will be able to determine what data you need from guests and when the check-in is available and maybe even charge the payment. Stay tuned. Release in March.
Professional Dashboard (mobile friendly)Just around the corner, there is a brand new dashboard designed especially for managers and owners to let you always access critical KPIs of your property. We can’t wait to release it.
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Hello everybody,
We are glad to inform that v.2.0.25 has been released Wednesday, Nov 15. Next update should be released in around 2 weeks. Please have a look below at the changelog and what’s coming next.
[DEV-1106] – Housekeeping Module (beta)
We have released entirely new Housekeeping module. It allows viewing:
[DEV-1527] – Real-time in Total Payments Outstanding
First, you can right click on the list of outstanding bookings to adjust their balance quickly.
Second, the outstanding total will be updated real time.
[DEV-1994] – New Shift Switch UI, more options and more Shift Switch Settings
We have refreshed the UI of the Shift Switch window to make it more user-friendly and easier for staff to navigate. Also, we have added new settings:
-You can determine now the amount of money you wish to keep in the Cash Box at the shift switch and determine the automatic withdrawal or transfer which should be made at the end of the shift.
– Users can also leave Shift Switch Notes now which will be displayed in the report.
Look for for Shift Settings in Property Settings:
Enjoy new Shift Switch UI
[DEV-1845] – Bulk Update – can’t change restrictions for linked rates
[DEV-2046] – Chat – duplicates guest messages and blocks other windows
[DEV-2135] – Costa Rica Time Zone problem
[DEV-2152] – Problem with editing reservations by receptionists
[DEV-2153] – Reservation – Not possible to check-in from right-click menu
[DEV-2154] – Daily Prodction Report does not load for some dates
[DEV-2164] – Emails and Printouts – {Currency} key doesn’t work
[DEV-2178] – Unblocking Beds Bug
[DEV-2185] – Fact.pt – error while sellinig something from POS
[DEV-2189] – Currency code visible while dragging booking from Unallocated section to beds
[DEV-2191] – Reservation/Poit of Sale – items charged in wrong currency
[DEV-2197] – Channel Manager – global does not update all restrictions
[DEV-2203] – Reservation – Error while opening CC details window
[DEV-2215] – Channel Manager – System doesn’t update availability after reservation from Booking Engine enters
[DEV-2220] – Linked Rates – settings not applied to prices in the AR Calendar
[DEV-2222] – Accounts and Transactions – Category and Amount columns not visible
