LateRooms.com

Synchronising Beds24.com with your LateRooms.com or AsiaRooms.com account

http://www.laterooms.com

General

• Click here for general information on how the channel manager works.
• This tutorial explains how to set prices for channels.

NOTE: The screenscrape connection is obsolete and will be eliminated shortly by Laterooms. Use only the XML connection.

XML Connection

Capabilities

• Beds24.com can export Inventory
• Beds24.com can export Minimum Stay
• Beds24.com can export Multiple Rates
• Beds24.com can import Bookings
• Beds24.com can import Booking Cancellations
• Beds24.com can add a multiplier to prices to convert to a different currency.

Limitations

When you use the XML LateRooms will limit your option to make changes in your LateRooms extranet. Contact LateRooms support for details.

Before you connect

Prices

• We can only send availability if you have set up prices which are activated for this channel. This tutorial gives general information how to set prices for channels.
• Prices for "Extra Person", "Extra child" and discounts set in the "Discounts" tab of the rates can not be sent.

Bookings

New Bookings are imported.

Existing bookings are not automatically imported when the connection is established and should be entered into Beds24 manually.

Extras and Taxes

"Upsell Items" can not be exported.

Rooms and room types

If you sell rooms individually at another channel or your own web site and want to sell them here as a "roomtype" with a quantity of more than one you can set up virtual roooms.

Setup

Send us a support ticket with your Laterooms property ID (NOT group ID) and the name your property is listed under. We need this information to request a connection from Laterooms. Laterooms will send you an Email when the connection is ready.

LateRooms

Once you have the Email from Laterooms you can then start the set up:

• Go to the menu ROOM DETAILS and enter your Beds24 room ID in the "Room Ref" field.

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• Go to RATE PLANS and create your rate plans with your conditions. Each rate plan needs a unique name. Use a single phrase without spaces. If you create multiple rate plans you will be able to send a price to each. Each rate plan will be available for each room.

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Beds24

• Set "Connection Type" = XML then press SAVE
• Enter your LateRooms hotel ref id. You can find your hotel id in your Laterooms live URL or in the Laterooms extranet under the finance section
• Enter your main LateRooms rate plan code.

Multiple Rates

If you have multiple Laterooms rate plan codes you can

• In daily prices enter an additional rate plan code under "Enable" in the Daily Price settings (SETTINGS- >PROPERTIES- >ROOMS- >DAILY PRICES then click on "Edit")
• In rates enter the additional rate plan codes directly in "Channels" tab of the appropriate Beds24 rates.

Please note, the XML will only update inventory for mapped rate codes, rate codes at Laterooms which are not mapped to beds24 cannot be updated and will remain bookable even if the room should be closed.

Price Multiplier

If you want to add a multiplier to your prices, for example because LateRooms requires a different currency to your Beds24 currency, add a * followed by the multiplier number to your hotel id.

For example a hotel id setting 123456*1.23 will multiply all prices by 1.23 sent for hotel code 123456. (i.e. raised by 23%) Lower prices can be sent with a multiplier less than 1, i.e. 123456*0.85 will send a price 85% of the normal price (i.e. lowered by 15%)

You can also use currency conversion template variable. All currencies supported by the booking page currency selector can be used.

For example *[CONVERT:IDR-EUR] will convert Indonesian Rupees to Euros.

Activating

• You can view the live availability and prices that will be sent before or after activating using the "View actual data" button.
• To activate the connection check "Inventory and Prices" and "Bookings". Then press "SAVE".

Check Connection

The connection is working if you are not receiving error messages and the display in the channel is correct. If you are receiving error messages check in the "Common Errors" section why you are receiving the error and how to fix it.

Updates

Changes to availability and prices will be instantly sent to the channel. Changes for settings for example minimum stays or number of rooms will send with the next update. Click on "Update" if you want to push them through instantly.

Common Errors

Any errors reported by Laterooms will be emailed to you with the error message as returned by Laterooms. The error message usually includes information about the date, rate or room with the problem and a brief description. Below are common error messages and how to fix them.

Hotel does not exist
The number you have entered as Laterooms property ID has not been activated for XML.  You find your property Id when you log into Laterooms then go to "Finance". Check the Email with the activation notice from Laterooms that the correct ID has been activated.

InvCode
Check if your Beds24 room ID is correctly entered in the Laterooms extranet.

Disconnect

• To deactivate the connection uncheck "Inventory and Prices" and "Bookings". Then press "SAVE".
• Contact LateRooms and ask them to disconnect you at their end.

FAQ

Will I receive notifications on new bookings?

After you activate the channel manager the channel will stop sending notifications. You will receive them from Beds24 instead.

How do I modify or cancel a booking?

Bookings coming from a channel should be modified by the channel. Cancelling a booking in Beds24 will not cancel the booking in Laterooms and can cause a double booking. Please ask Laterooms or the guest to cancel the booking in Laterooms and the cancellation will be sent to Beds24.

If for some reason you need to make a change in Beds24 and do not want the channel to override it, you can set "Allow Channel Modifications" = No ("Details" tab of the booking"). If you have changed the room you can set "Allow Channel Modifications" = All but not room changes.

How do can I access credit card details?

This is how you can view credit card details. Laterooms may sometimes withhold the credit card number or CCV unless you specifically request they are sent to you. Contact your Laterooms rep if this is occurring and you require this information to always be sent.

How do I add a promotion or special price?

You can set up promotions in the Laterooms extranet.

Can I send different prices for different minimum stays or for different numbers of guests?

Yes. See the "Multiple rates" section of this page.

I have multiple Laterooms hotel ids. How do I set this up?

The system can handle multiple properties in one account. Each Laterooms hotel id requires one property in Beds24.

What to do when I receive an overbooking?

• Check if you are receiving error messages by email or in the potential issues menu. Error messages need to be addressed immediately because they can mean the channel manger is able to make updates.
• Entering the same Laterooms room code in multiple rooms in Beds24 can cause overbookings. Check your set up for warnings.

If you can not see a problem in your set up send us a support ticket with the booking numbers and dates.

Why did a booking not import?

• Check if the room for which you received the booking is properly mapped.

If you can not see a problem in your set up send us a support ticket with the booking number and the date the booking was made.

Why is the price for the booking wrong?

• A special offer set up in the channel may have reduced the price the channel manager sent.
• Your prices are not set up as you expect.

What do I do when I have a no show?

Contact Laterooms support to report a no show.

Screenscrape Connection

Capabilities

• Beds24.com can export rates and inventory.
• Beds24.com can import Bookings from the email notification.
• Beds24.com can import Cancellations from the email notification.

For details please click here

This tutorial explains how to set prices for channels.

What you will need:

• Your LateRooms Hotelier username (also known as reference or group reference) and password.
• The LateRooms room code for each room you want to synchronise as described below.

Limitations

Booking modification are not imported and need to be entered manually.

Multi room bookings will be imported into the first room and must be manually moved to the correct room.

"Extra Person" prices cannot be exported.

LateRooms: Beds24 can synchronise multiple properties defined in LateRooms.

If you have multiple properties you must enter the name as it is defined in Laterooms into the Property Name setting. If you only have one property leave the Property Name setting blank.

Setup

To determine your room codes, login to your LateRooms account, go to the rates and availability page showing only the one particular room of interest. Look at the URL displayed by your web browser, it will have an item near the end such as "roomid=456789" in the URL. The number displayed in your browser is your room code.

If you only have one room defined in Laterooms be sure to click it just under the heading "View ALL Room Types" so as to display the roomid= value in the URL.

To import new bookings to Beds24 you must set a copy of the booking notification email from LateRooms to be sent to one of the the following email addresses:

book.8b0000@api.beds24.com replacing the 0000 with your Beds24 property number. For example if you are property number 1234 the email address will be book.8b1234@api.beds24.com. Bookings sent to this email will only be imported into this property.

book.8a0000@api.beds24.com replacing the 0000 with your Beds24 account number. For example if you are account number 1234 the email address will be book.8a1234@api.beds24.com. Bookings sent to this email will be imported into the best matching room in all properties in the account.

If you can only enter one email address at Laterooms we suggest sending the emails to yourself and creating an auto forward rule in your email system to forward all emails from laterooms on to your beds24 email address. If this is not possible we do forward emails that arrive at the beds24 address to you so you should still receive a copy.

Beds24.com: Sign into your Beds24.com account and go to the Synchroniser. Select LateRooms.com and change it to enabled, click Save. Enter your username (also known as reference or group reference), password and room codes in the fields and enable the link for each room. The property code is not required. Click Save again to save your changes.

Beds24.com will attempt to identify the room being booked by comparing the room name set in Beds24 to the room name sent by Laterooms in the booking notification email. Please ensure the names match as closely as possible so new bookings are assigned to the correct rooms. The Laterooms room name can be entered for each room in the synchroniser settings to help matching.

If you include the following text "roomidxxxx" in your laterooms room description the bookings for that room will be imported into your Beds24 room xxxx where xxxx is the Beds24 room id number for your room.

Rates

If no valid price is found the date will be exported as unavailable. If no valid price is found for a one night stay the system will search for prices for longer stays and set the "minimum stay" field accordingly. Only Daily prices set for Room Price can be exported, daily prices set as a 1 or 2 person price will be ignored.

A multiplier can be applied to all prices sent to Laterooms. Add the multiplier after a * to the Laterooms username. For example if your username is 123456 and you want to raise Laterooms prices by 15% enter your Laterooms username as 123456*1.15

Only prices set for offer 1 are sent to Laterooms.

Disconnect

• Untick "Inventory and Prices" and "Bookings"
• Log into your Laterooms account and remove the Beds24 Email addresses