WETU – helping the travel industry sell better

If producing content-rich, interactive itineraries that inspire your guests to travel is key for you, WETU is your answer!

WETU is the place to store and distribute your content for and to your travel partners, and it’s a quick way to get noticed. It only starts there, imagery and videos stored in WETU that are relevant to bookings are automatically added to your WETU itinerary, making your customer eager to convert.

Here is our favourite part… You can create a gorgeous WETU itinerary from ResRequest in seconds, with an easy ResRequest integration. In two clicks, your sales team can open their ResRequest booking, in WETU.

Paul de Waal, WETU CEO believes technology doesn’t sell travel, great content does. “You have a small window of opportunity to engage and communicate with your customers using your best content. Travel is back on everyone’s mind and this is the time for suppliers to be putting their best foot forward with their best content so that what we see is worth selling,” says Paul.

Launched in 2009, WETU came to be after Paul saw a massive opportunity to help the travel industry store, organise and share its content.

Today the WETU platform seamlessly, efficiently and quite beautifully arranges, organises and curates the complex, complicated world of different languages, cultures, time zones, suppliers – all perfectly wrapped up in a variety of streamlined itineraries, brochures and catalogues.

“People are bombarded with information, they want one place to go to that they can trust with accurate, informative and exciting content”, Paul explains.

How WETU can help you

  • Centralised access to all your content
  • Interactive itineraries bring that rich content to convert prospects
  • Professional presentations that impress and inspire
  • Centralised curation, storage and distribution for all your best content
  • Exposure to over 200,000 global trade visitors to the Content Portal
  • Digital tools such as iBrochures, itineraries, catalogues, APIs and file sharing to optimise your marketing and B2B collaborations

“It’s time to get intentional with what you put out in the world,” says Paul. “Suppliers who load their best-quality content to WETU are the ones that stand out from the sea of same and really leverage our incredible trade reach.”

Let the numbers speak for themselves

WETU has 1396 itinerary building clients (50+countries) and is available in 15 different languages. WETU statistics from January 2020 (before Covid): 

  • 550 000 unique visitors accessed content
  • 69 000+ itineraries built
  • 600 000+ itinerary views

Take a look at some WETU itineraries

For more information about our integration to Wetu visit our Online Help guides or Contact ResRequest Support to sign up.

How to engage with your guests on social media?

Did you know that 4.48 billion people use social media worldwide? So it’s fundamental to have a social media presence for your hotel because of the huge potential in this space.

Guests today not only use search engines but also troll social media to make informed decisions about their next vacation. Looking through online reviews and posts from other travelers to help guide their decision as to whether or not they will book with your accommodation or not. Hence it’s essential that you have a solid social media marketing strategy that will entice guests to frequent your accommodation and also recommend you on social media.

So just posting random content and pictures will surely do the trick, right? The answer to this question is an emphatic, NO! Managing your accommodation’s social media is beyond ‘just posting’.

If this is your first time creating a strategy for social media or perhaps you want to rethink your approach, then you can read our previous blog post that guides you through 5 ways to improve your social media strategy.

This blog post will help you discover ways that you can better engage with your audience and help you increase your exposure through social media.

Engagement is key

Have you ever felt ignored? Right or wrong, it creates a negative association that stays with you, and chances are you are reminded of it when you see that person again or even hear their name. The same applies when guests leave a comment on your social platforms and there’s no response.

A golden rule that all social media marketers should follow and never break is, ‘you must respond to all comments made on your page’. Even if you have a few hundred followers, never break this rule. Engagement is key, and if you want to position your brand positively, respond to all comments, but also ensure that your response time is quick.

Use high-quality images

This is often the most overlooked aspect of social media marketing. Make use of high-quality photos across all your social media platforms because this will convey consistency, professionalism and sets a good reputation for your brand. Highlight your guestrooms, restaurant decor, food, wildlife, show pictures of your guests enjoying their experience (make sure to get consent from your guests before posting), and perhaps even tagging your guests on social media, this will increase your exposure and family and friends of the guests will take notice and hopefully plan a trip to your accommodation in the new future.

Stay engaged on your platforms, and use high-quality photos to accurately depict local attractions and essential features your accommodation may offer, which will in turn easily influence search results.

Make use of #hashtags

Hashtags play an important role in improving your brand’s visibility and help grab attention on your social media platforms. A hashtag helps to highlight the social media post to the audience. Hashtags have no boundaries, so people from all over can connect to you without any barrier.

Reach out to travel influencers

Influencer marketing is a profound way to reach new audiences and boost your brand awareness. Most travellers in this era are young and tech-savvy, and leveraging partnerships with travel influencers can help hoteliers reach a wider audience and boost engagement and bookings. 

Research shows that today’s consumers trust peer recommendations over and above all other forms of marketing, so making use of social media influencers can be of great benefit to your brand.

The added benefits are that most influencers are on highly visual platforms such as Instagram, TikTok, and Snapchat, and these are excellent sources for compelling and engaging content. Partnering with an influencer can be a cost-effective method to boost your content creation thereby having a direct impact on your online social presence.

There are many ways to skin this cat, and there’s no holy grail when it comes to social media marketing and each approach and strategy will differ from brand to brand within the same industry. So finding the right strategy will involve trial and error, but the most important thing to remember is to be consistent and follow through with all interactions on your platforms.

Increase your direct bookings with ResNova 3

Meet Bob, an extreme “hodophile” (One who loves to travel). After his most recent trip to Africa, enthralled by the beautiful landscapes and captivated by the majestic “Big 5”, he couldn’t help himself but trawl to your website to plan his next trip to Africa.

However, his booking experience has left a bitter taste in his mouth, after finding the process to be slow, and difficult to view on mobile – as a result, Bob, unfortunately, decides to abandon his booking.

Just like Bob, there are many users/customers who experience the dissatisfaction of a poor booking experience. One thing that is crucial to note, is that your guests’ first experience of your business begins with the success of their booking experience.

So just how can you tap into this opportunity and turn it into a success for your lodge?

The place to start is with our booking widget, ResNova.

What is ResNova?

ResNova is our booking widget, which enables you to embed your ResRequest availability and rates anywhere on your website. It offers two formats so you can show your information in either a calendar matrix or a quick search…or both!

You have choices when it comes to deciding how you would like to set your widget up. You have the option of simply showing availability, or enabling the full booking process.

You even have a list of payment gateways that you can choose from, to ensure your guests can make payments during the booking process.

Why ResNova?

Our most recent development on ResNova, means that it is now built with technologies that provide a sleek and stable booking experience. Just like Bob, most of your guests will access the internet using their mobile devices and with our latest development, we wanted to ensure that their user journey is optimal and user-friendly.

Our new features include:

  • Let your users make bookings in a few quick and easy steps from any device.
  • Customise the buttons, colours, and hover states to align with your website branding.
  • Now includes an integration to DPO payment gateway.
  • Payment plans are now accessible to users making bookings from your ResNova widget.
  • Track where your bookings are coming from by selecting a source per widget.
  • Extended search functionality allows the guest to select and filter properties.
  • Back-office live chat to stay connected to our team, for any ResNova queries that might pop up.

To learn more about ResNova, and our latest features, contact our support team or visit our Learn Online site.

Bringing you a Contactless Guest Solution

Your guests are super excited about their holiday with you. Help them by giving them the option to check-in online, saving them time and queues when they arrive. Plus, our online check-in is a contactless way to source guest details and preferences, so you can plan the best welcome for them.  In this blog we’ll explore these features available to you in our Guest Services module released with version 7.33. Guest Services Everyone wants a quick and streamlined process, and guests are eager to do what’s needed to reduce time with administration check-in before their travel date.

This means that prior to arrival is the perfect time to gather as much contact information as possible (without overwhelming them with data capture fatigue!). Most travellers also know that giving you their contact details and signing necessary indemnity documents prior to arrival, is a standard operating process required by any lodge or hotel.  Your reservation team can include a link in the reservation documents sent to the person who made the booking. The link points to your Guest Services page. From this page, the guest then has the option to create or edit a guest list or to check-in a guest for a booking.

Our new Guest Services module provides you and your team access to our guest-list, guest check-in, and automated workflow functionality, to optimise your contactless check-in process. Here is a summary of the functionality these features provide:

Guest List

Our guest list provides a way for you and your team to collect guest details long before they arrive at your property. The guest list functionality lets the booking contacts compile their own guest list and room group, provided they can verify the booking details. While compiling a guest list, booking contacts also have the option to easily link a guest record (or the entire list) across multiple itineraries.

Automated Workflows

Remind your incoming guests that they can check-in online, prior to their arrival by using our automated workflows. Set up the date and time the check-in reminder should be sent to your guest ahead of their arrival so they receive a reminder email which includes a link to your online check-in.

Guest Check-in

Your guests can check-in as early as 7 days prior to their arrival. Guests can find the online check-in in their reservation document or via the automated email reminder. Information added during the check-in process is stored on the guest’s profile, along with a guest registration document which includes a record of the indemnity agreement the guest agreed to during check-in. For guidance, our support team will be delighted to help you work with the guest services module.

Feel free to contact us us with any queries you or your team have. We are here and ready to help.

what’s new in version 7.33?

We through with the first quarter of 2021 and plans to reboot tourism are well underway. We’ve worked hard during these times to make sure that when tourism does officially reboot, you and your team will be ready to welcome guests with open arms (or perhaps an elbow tap).

Online Guest Checkin

We know that COVID-19 has forced the tourism industry to find innovative solutions to help us navigate our guests’ experience. Even as vaccines are being rolled out in different parts of the world, social distancing and the wearing of masks will continue for a while to come. 

In the past, your accommodation generally involved frequent contact between staff and guests, but going forward, it will be imperative to limit contact, and to help with that, we’ve developed a contactless guest check-in solution. With Covid still lurking about, clients would most likely prefer an online check-in solution, so that the guest can limit contact with the front-of-house team and the respective paperwork.

Our newly developed guest services module offers you and your team access to guest list, guest check-in and automated workflow functionality, to optimise your contactless check-in process. 

Agent terms at property level

If you run multiple properties in your system, you’ll love being able to work with simpler rates. This could now be possible by setting agent commissions for each property. Instead of managing hundreds of unique rate sheets (often riddled with typos), you can now set up contracts with your agents as a commission per property.

Rates rounding per person

Rounding in ResRequest takes place when a commission percentage is applied to a commissionable rate. The system currently offers the facility to round rates at the itinerary level. This latest release, however, introduces the option of rounding at a per person level. 

This rounding option is set on the rate header and a new option has been added on the reservation documents to allow you to show the per person charge amount details on those documents.

Multiple Specials on a booking

With this latest release, it is now possible to apply multiple specials to a reservation. If a booking qualifies for both a Circuit discount and a Honeymoon discount, both can be applied.

The addition Special Combos, govern which specials can be combined, so they can automatically be applied as the sales team makes bookings.

Outlet Sales

Our integration with TallOrder POS streamlines operations by posting POS charges to guest accounts. It is, however, very important that these charges are also posted to your accounting system.

With our latest development, ResRequest now detects POS cash sales that are not linked to room activity. These sales are then recorded in ResRequest, which allows them to be included in ResRequest reports. The resulting financial transactions can then also be batched to your general ledger, along with the rest of your ResRequest invoices.

User access audit trail

We have recognised the importance of having transparency of any changes that have been made to user access in your reservation system.

On the user access audit report, you can now filter by users, user groups, functions, and type filters (for filtering by the types of changes made, ie. allow cross invoicing, API flag, functions access).

The addition of the user access audit trail will now allow your team to report on any changes made (going forward from this release) to user access.

Multiple system administrators

You will now have the option to add multiple system admins and ensure that key decisions that affect your reservation system can be made by various managers, instead of merely relying on a single System Administrator.

To ensure that your business never misses a beat, put a continuity plan for your team in place today, by adding additional system administrators.

If you need any assistance or guidance with the with our new features, please contact [email protected]

Benefits of using a Channel Manager

Working in a fast-paced industry like the tourism industry requires any good Hotel Manager to identify ways to increase revenue and maximise efficiency. Thankfully technology has provided many advantages for hoteliers, and none more so than channel management. So what’s the noise about channel management? What are its benefits? And how do you get started?

What is Channel Management?

Channel management is the process of selling your inventory through online distribution channels all over the world. These channels include OTA’s (Booking.com, Expedia), Travel Agents, Metasearch engines (Google, TripAdvisor), or direct channels (Your website).

Ideally, channel management software provides a centralised platform to properties for managing their distribution across different platforms, and as and when bookings are recorded from any one channel, it automatically updates the latest rates and inventory on all the channels.

How can this benefit you?

Imagine that you’re managing multiple properties through many OTA channels and once you receive a booking from a channel, you have to quickly update the availability across the other channels. Furthermore, the situation can get complex if the guest modifies or changes his booking or cancels his reservation. Can you imagine how admin-intensive this process can be, also leaving room for human error.

  1. Accurate inventory management – Without a Channel Manager you have to log in to the various OTAs you are connected to and update your property’s availability, this manual process requires you to react quickly with a great deal of accuracy. A Channel Manager solution provides an automated process that eliminates any chance of error and streamlines your reservation management.
  2. Avoid overbookings The more OTAs you’re connected to, the higher your chances are of overbookings if you are not using a channel manager. So chances are that while you are updating the inventories, you may receive a booking from other channels. 
  3. Time Effective – A channel manager, ensures that a lot of your manual efforts and time invested in inventory distribution is saved. The entire process is now managed by the channel manager, saving you time and money.

How do you get started?

Through our ResConnect programme, there are connections to Channel Managers and OTAs which enable ResRequest customers to distribute stock on numerous online booking platforms. ResRequest has direct connections to Channel Managers, SynXis, NightsBridge, and most recently we have added Siteminder to the list of Channel Managers that we interfaced to.

For more information on how to set up your ResRequest Channel Management service (we call this module ResConnect), contact our friendly support team for assistance at [email protected]

Global Protocols: ‘Safe stamps’

COVID-19 has certainly made most of us navigate this world with much fear and trepidation. From the paranoia of going to the grocery store to even the anxiety of leaving our homes out of fear of somehow being exposed to COVID. The tourism industry was undoubtedly hit the hardest with travel restrictions placed upon most / if not all countries across the globe. Since then we have seen a gradual lifting of those regulations and so responsible tourism has taken on an entirely new emphasis as we turn our attention to the most effective ways to enable our economies to recover from the fallout of the global Covid-19 pandemic.

To adjust to the “new normal”, the WTTC (World Travel and Tourism Council) together with health experts and other leading associations are working together to achieve effective recovery protocols by developing meaningful action plans that optimise sector-wide recovery efforts, according to the WTTC.

The WTTC aims to publish protocols in phases for the following industries including; Hospitality, Attractions, Outdoor Retail, Aviation, Airports, Short Term Rentals, Cruise, Tour Operators, Convention Centres, and MICE, Car Rental and Insurance. Each set of protocols takes into consideration the guidelines provided by the World Health Organisation and Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

By implementing these action plans the WTTC aims to standardize safe travel by developing new global standards and a stamp that allows travellers to identify businesses and destinations that are adopting world-class health and strict hygiene protocols. 

To obtain a Safe Travel stamp, countries and their destinations will have to share their protocols with the WTTC, who will then validate that they are in line with the WTTC guidelines. 

By following these protocols companies are eligible for a safety stamp that you can display proudly on your website, thereby providing travellers with confidence that your destination has taken all steps to ensure they travel safely.

what’s new in version 7.30?

We hope that you and your loved ones are safe and well during this time. We’ve been in touch with many of you as you work through the operational impact of Covid-19 while making plans for your team to be safe and sound. 

While most of us are still under lockdown due to COVID-19, we have been working from home. It took us a while to adapt and reduce costs so we could use this time to put our heads down to take massive strides in delivering new product features. We’re still working on all of this, but we wanted to check in with you to show you some of the items we are working on that will be ready and waiting for you when you reboot.

The New Rooming Calendar

We have crafted a new drag and drop Rooming Calendar for you, with auto room capabilities, perfect for your front-of-house operations.

What is rooming?

Rooming refers to allocating your guests to specific rooms. It’s important to room guests to track arrivals, departures or no shows; to avoid situations where you have to move guests to a different room during their stay; ensure that special requests like a honeymoon room or a family room are accommodated and to automatically charge guest accounts using our stock and POS interface.

So what are the new features in the Rooming Calendar?

Rooming by the lodge staff is typically managed on the Rooming Calendar. Our previous calendar now called our “Classic” calendar, requires a lot of pop-ups and quite a bit of manual work to room bookings. Our stunning new calendar, which we call our “Modern” calendar fits visuals to your full-screen width, so you can see more information than ever before; automatically auto rooms reservations at the click of a button (our absolute favourite Jenga trick) and enables drag and drop should, you want to customise the view.

Autoroom function in action

AUTO ROOM – Automatically room your unallocated reservations in the optimal configuration, to ensure that you get the most out of your availability.

Drag and drop function in action

DRAG AND DROP – Shuffle a reservation between rooms by simply dragging and dropping it to the relevant room. Clicking on a reservation item also highlights the valid rooming possibilities in green.

Managing a reservation

MANAGE A RESERVATION – Manage multiple aspects of a reservation without leaving the rooming calendar screen. Manage guests, view itineraries, check multiple rooms on a reservation in, and so much more.

Managing a reservation

ROOMING CONFLICTS – Our team has included an indication to alert users of any potential rooming conflicts. This will minimise the risk of overbooking a room, despite multiple people being responsible for rooming reservations.


Business Intelligence – Dashboards

We all love great pictures, even more, when they tell a story. If your job is to stay on top of everything, you’ll love our new Reservation Manager and Sales Overview Dashboard. The Reservation Manager and Sales Overview Dashboard are the first of many dashboards we’ll be introducing. Graphs on this dashboard will give you visibility into the reservation and sales overview side of your business. The sales dashboard will help measure key metrics, individual team members, and sales activities.

 Learn more about dashboards here.

Our new charts will help you analyse the booking trends of your Agents and quickly spot gaps and positive or negative changes in their performance.

You spoke and we listened 

Last year we released dashboards as part of our Agent CRM. We received feedback that you would like to include revenue information, our developers heard you, and have added a revenue-based chart so you can monitor how your agents are performing month-on-month.

Product Usage

ResRequest is a powerful system, so how can you be sure that you are using it to its full potential?

The Product Usage Dashboard is a quick and easy reference point, to assess what areas of the system are being used and what you can still tap into.

If you need any assistance or guidance with the rooming calendar and dashboards, please contact [email protected]

FAQ: Managing Covid in ResRequest

Who would have thought that at the beginning of this year our lives will look so different in a few short months? There is no doubt that COVID-19 has reshaped the way we work – especially in tourism. At ResRequest we noticed some trends amongst our clients with booking management during COVID, so we would like to share them with you! As we’re well aware, everyone manages their bookings differently, so we had our Support team on hand to customise this process, as the questions came in. Here are some of the FAQ’s we received:


“How can I use the Source Codes field to track COVID reservations, without affecting the reservation status?”

Source codes enable you to keep track of where your bookings are coming from. However, some customers have opted to keep track of COVID affected bookings using this field, as it can easily be reported on. 

Our recommendation is to create 3 source codes:

  • COVID – Cancelled: Where bookings are cancelled outright.
  • COVID – Postponed: Where bookings are moved to a date in the future.
  • COVID – Pending: Where bookings are awaiting confirmation of date change or cancellation.

To set up, edit or delete source codes navigate to Admin > Setup > Code tables > Other > Source > enter the Name and Abbreviation > Click save.


“I feel the need for an additional reservation status, to separate reservations held aside due to COVID postponements, from standard reservations”

Requests came in for a new reservation status, where bookings could be ‘held’ until the bookings were confirmed with new travel dates or cancelled by the agent or guest.

For this, we recommended using the ‘Waitlist’ status. This way you can report on actual confirmed stock for forward bookings and note stock still pending confirmation. By coupling this with a Covid status, teams can differentiate between bookings that are waitlist and those that are Covid-related ‘on hold’ bookings.

See: COVID 19 – Reports – Waitlist reporting


“How can I easily track COVID-affected reservations using reports?”

Our new ‘Keyword’ reporting filter is ideal to track booking movements around COVID.

On the Financial Analysis reports, the new field called ‘Keyword Filters’ can be found nestled with the rest of the Res Filters. This can be utilised to filter keywords found in the Reservation name, Reservation number, Voucher reference or Cancel Reason. ie. #coronavirus

Navigate to Reports > Financials > Financial analysis (day)

Here’s a practical example: You may opt to reference a keyword in the reservation name, for all reservations that are postponed to a later date due to COVID. In this instance, you’d include the same reference on all reservation names.

Should you, for example, choose to use “COVID” as your keyword/flag, a reservation name would appear as “Smith x2 COVID”. You’d then enter “COVID” in the Keyword filter field on the report, to view all bookings with “COVID” in the reservation name.


“What if I want to honour the rate the reservation was originally booked with, even if the reservation is postponed to next year?”

Some of our customers had already finalised their 2021 rates prior to COVID-19 hitting, which resulted in the 2021 rates being applied when allocating new travel dates to the postponed COVID reservations, instead of the 2020 rates. To honour the 2020 rate in 2021, you would need a “deferred rate”.  Simply put, a deferred rate is a 2020 rate duplicated to ‘Deferred rate’ types for 2021.

Override rates are also an option to override rates for 2021, where rates had already been finalised for 2021, or rates had not been set up for 2021 yet.


“Are there other areas I should consider?”

Many hotels acted quickly, changing Payment plans, cancellation policies, and booking terms and conditions in Custom notes,  to better handle and adapt quickly to the changing market.


“How can I see the impact COVID has had on my business?”

Some of our customers asked for a snapshot of what their stock looked like this time last year, to compare data between 2019 and 2020. This type of statistical data will give you invaluable insight into the true effects that COVID has had, and assist you to project your cash flow for when tourism reboots.ResInsite is a business intelligence tool which can generate comparison data, beautifully! Find out more about ResInsite and how it can benefit your business HERE. You will also be happy to know that all ResRequest customers have access to a FREE ResInsite Lite package, for the duration of 2020.

You will also be able to retrieve year on year comparisons in graph format, at the touch of a button! (Available in our new version release (V7.30). Have a look at our Sales Overview chart.


“I need to refund cancelled reservations. Where do I start?”

Issuing credits, credit notes, and refunds quickly became one of the most commonly talked about topics, with the questions streaming in!

It’s important that the way credits and refunds are done are in line with your specific financial processes.

Contact our support team who will happily point you in the right direction.


“How can I keep track of both existing reservation dates, and potential future dates for the same booking, until travel dates are confirmed?”

A few of our customers opted to duplicate their reservations to hold stock for both present and future dates. This is in order to secure both sets of dates until they know when the guests can book flights.

Although this is being done by a few, it’s important to note that managing the reservations in this way will inflate your bed night revenue stats, as you’re basically doubling up.


“Is there a way I can keep an ‘archive’ of reservations cancelled due to COVID, but separate from actual cancelled reservations?”

The ‘Delete’ status is not exactly an option to select under the status’ dropdown, but it is a status that can be used for reservations with no payments, and can also be reported on.

To achieve this navigate to the reservation > change the status of the reservation to ‘Quotation’ > and click the bin button to obtain the ‘Deleted’ status:

Why would you work this way? It’s another status option when trying to apply a “filing system” to manage your reservations affected by COVID.


Reports

Another common topic is – reports. We have listed a few report templates that could be insightful and of use, but it is almost guaranteed that they will need a few tweaks to suit your unique reporting requirements.

1. Waitlist reporting

This is a quick way to view the list of Waitlist bookings. Remember, you can also retrieve this info, and more, using your Financial Analysis, or Standard Reservation reports.

Navigate to the Waitlist icon > Select Waitlists >

2. Reservation status change report:

This report will display reservations where the status of the reservation was changed, over a particular date range. For example, you could use this report to see all reservations travelling in 2021, which had a status change between Jan and May 2020.

To generate this report in your system, you would follow these steps:

  1. Navigate to Reports > Financials > Financial Analysis (day)  
  2. Select the Travel date range you wish to view
  3. Res filters > Status date range – Select the status date range you wish to view and apply the date range.
  4. Res filters > Status: Confirmed, cancelled and provisional 
  5. Select data > Group: add Res#, Source, status confirm date, status Provisional date, Status Cancellation date, cancellation reason
  6. Select data > Fields: add arrival and departure date
  7. Display options: Select Include group totals

3. Reservation travel date changed:

This report will display every reservation edited between April and May and will, furthermore, show if the arrival date changed between those dates:

1. Report Audit trail 

2. Reports > Audit > Audit trail

3. Audit trail time: 1 April and 31 May

4. Action: Edited

5. Data options > Fields: Reservation number arrival date before and arrival date after

4. COVID Source code reservations

This report will show you all reservations with the “COVID” source code and what the arrival and departure dates for those reservations are:

Navigate to Reports> Financials > Financial Analysis (day) 

1. Select the Travel date range: 1 Jan 2020 – 31 Dec 2022

2. Res filters > Status: All

3. Res filter > Source: e.g COVID 19

4. Select data > Group: add Reservation number, status, source code, and cancellation reason

5. Select data > Fields: add arrival date and departure date

6. Display options: Select Include period totals

5. Reservations with Payments/deposits


This report will display payments and the total amount outstanding on all reservations with a COVID source code:

Navigate to Reports> Financials > Financial Analysis (day)

1. Select the Travel date range: E.g. 1 April and 31 May

2. Res filters > Status: Select which status’ you would like to include

3. Res filters> Source: Select you source code you require e.g COVID-19

4. Select data > Group: Add Agent, Reservation#

5. Select data > Fields: Add Payment and Total amount outstanding

6. Display options: Select Include period totals

If you’d like some guidance, our support team will happily set up report profiles for you or walk you through setting them up yourself, over a call. Feel free to contact us with any queries you or your team might have. We are here and ready to assist.

4 ways to effectively work from home during the Coronavirus pandemic

The coronavirus (COVID-19) is ravaging the globe and causing panic amongst nations. Many industries and businesses are already feeling its impact and the tourism industry is devastatingly hit the hardest. The extent of this impact would depend on how long the pandemic lasts, and while it is human to feel anxious and fearful, it is important to take the measures set out by the government and health officials. 

Due to the spread of the virus, most businesses are forced to change their strategy and adapt quickly to what seems like the new norm – working from home. There is no doubt working from home can be challenging, however, research from a Harvard Business review article suggests that people who work their same office schedule from home get more done per day. 

Here are four points to consider if/when you are working from home:

1. Start your day early

Waking up and immediately switching your laptop on to start your working day is not only an unhealthy habit, but you will find yourself burning out quite quickly as the day peters out. Start your day as if you are preparing to go to work. 

Doing this consistently creates a good habit and puts you in the right frame of mind to kickstart the day. Get out of your PJs and dress the part, spend some quiet time in meditation, exercise, listening to music or your favourite podcast, have a cup of coffee and even spend some time with your family before you do decide to switch on your screen.

2. Establish your workspace

It is important to note that whilst it’s a dream come true to work from home, if you’re not cautious you could quickly find yourself working on the kitchen counter, in the lounge and the bedroom. Working in these environments at home will most certainly take a toll on you physically and psychologically, therefore you need to be intentional when setting up your workspace.

Make a clear distinction in your mind when considering this, and that is, the kitchen is for mealtimes, the lounge is for rest and entertainment, and the bedroom is for sleep. Your workspace should be away from all distractions, you can call it your “in-house office”, make it clear to your family and pets that when you’re in your office you must not be disturbed unless it’s an emergency. 

Now that you’ve identified your “in-house office”, some important things to remember are:

  • Ensure your workspace is well-lit.
  • Set up a sturdy desk that’s clean and clutter-free.
  • A comfy chair that supports your back.
  • A good pair of headphones/earphones comes in handy if music helps with your productivity.
  • Make sure everything you need is within easy reach.
  • A bottle/jar of water and some snacks to ensure you don’t visit the kitchen too often.

3. Shift your mind to a strong mental state

Mind over matter, right? Absolutely! However, by now we know that working from home comes with a host of distractions, which can cause you to lose productivity and your focus. 

So how can you beat distractions and help push your mind in the right direction? Here are a few pointers:

  • Stay motivated – Listen to motivational podcasts to stay mentally sharp. Set clear goals for the day and perhaps have a checklist nearby to help you stay focused on all your tasks.
  • Avoid distractions – There’s a lot going on in the world right now and the temptation to watch TV and scroll your social media feed is highly tempting. Whilst it’s important to know what’s going on as far as the pandemic is concerned, the negativity can shift your mind to a state of panic and fear. Set specific times in the day to check your notifications or watch the news, whilst also making time to ensure your motivation levels are high.
  • Manage your time – Hours at your workstation will most likely get you fatigued, so take 5-minute breaks for every hour you’re in front of your screen.

4. Improve communication with your team

As you know, we at ResRequest love technology and are big advocates for digital transformation. With most countries now in lockdown, businesses are forced to adopt work from home strategies which include having a good communication platform such as Skype, Google Hangouts, Slack or Microsoft Teams to name a few. This may be a new way of communication for you, but if utilised correctly it can help you and your team reach your goals, even if you’re not in the same building.

Find appropriate times in the day/week to check-in with your manager/ team leader, as far as your KPA’s are concerned, and be sure to nott just disappear for days and weeks without communication. This goes a long way to ensure that you remain motivated and focused on accomplishing your goals.

How to Collaborate Effectively If Your Team Is Remote

We hope that this separation from each other does not go on for a long period of time, but we also understand that in order to get back to the office and pre-covid life we have to self-isolate. We have witnessed how self-isolation / self-quarantine can help flatten the curve in China (here’s why this helps), and now it’s our turn to play our part. 

Our team met last week to plan on how we can continue to build product and help our customers while being in lockdown. We have implemented an extended work from home policy and although we’re isolated from each other and in different locations, we’re ready and available to take your Skypes, emails, and calls. Our development team is also feverishly busy building product, in order for us to continue giving you what you need when we get back to a (new) normal.

This extended work from home called for some additions to our existing work from home policies, which we’d like to share with you for you to glean some tips. (Take a look at our work from home policy).

Take a look at some of our heroes working in the comfort of their homes. Follow us on Instagram to see what we’ve been up to.