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Just why is an Internet reservation system so hot? |
| Reservations
made over the Internet, cut your operating cost, attract
affluent customers and reduce your dependency on traditional
channels which are expensive. Now you can provide your customers
with faster, easier and guaranteed access to your inventory
24 X 7, enhance your brand visibility, cut through the lethargy
of intermediary channels and build customer loyalty through
direct interaction. |
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But i already have a reservations page on my website |
| Sure,
having a reservations page on the website is fine. But can
it guarantee a closed sale? Only when the customer has paid
do we consider it as a reservation. Most online hotel reservation
systems cannot deliver this. ResAvenue™
comes with a multi-currency, multi-payment options payment
gateway built-in, so you can close the sale instantly. And
the money is as good as in the bank. And since the customer
pays upfront, he feels satisfied because there is a sense
of closure to the transaction and he logs out knowing well
that he does not have to scout for any more hotel sites
and has had a first hand experience of your high standards
of service right at his desktop. The goodwill you reap from
this direct access is immeasurable. So just what is holding
you back? |
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Does the facility cost a lot of money? |
| You've
probably heard that adding an eCommerce component to your
business is an exercise that involves high entry costs,
integration of complicated software components and maintenance
of huge hardware infrastructure, technical staff and complicated
logistics. And the return on investment appears at a place
well beyond the horizon. That's all true, but only if you
want to handle the entire operation yourself. The smart
thing to do is to let someone else manage it for you. Try
ResAvenue.
With ResAvenue,
you do not have to make major changes in your IT infrastructure;
the entire operation is hosted and maintained for you by
us on a 24X7 basis within the overall subscription charges.
Plus the amazingly low set-up cost comes without any hidden
charges and helps you achieve your online sales targets
in no time at all. Your time to market by integrating ResAvenue
with your existing branded website takes just 24 hours. |
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Is it very complicated to run? |
| Not
so. We have made it all easy for you. We have created a
world class internet based reservation system with an online
multi-currency payment gateway built-in. It has a complete
bouquet of payment options including all major credit cards
and direct debit facilities to ten major Indian netbanking
interfaces. The system is so user-friendly that it empowers
you to operate effectively, efficiently and economically
from Day One of the implementation. Further, due to the
easy, self-explanatory features, your staff can master the
ResAvenue
system within a few hours, without any formal training! |
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How does it work at the customer's end? |
| The
ResAvenue
hotel reservation software enables hotels and other accommodation-providers
to accept instant real-time reservations. Guests visit your
hotel website pages, look at your room descriptions, images
etc. When they decide to book a room, they click on the
reservation link (it is advised to keep one on every page)
shown as 'Reserve Now' or 'Check Availability' buttons.
The reservation link takes guest to the ResAvenue
hotel reservation system (the URL address can be hidden
so that your own domain name is still displayed) and the
ResAvenue
pages have the exact look of your website pages, so that
the customers don't realize that they have moved on to the
ResAvenue
hotel reservation system. The reservation screens are user
friendly and the guests can easily view rates and room descriptions
in nearly 10 major international languages. Your guests
enter their chosen dates and available rooms are displayed.
They choose a room or rooms and then enter their credit
card details to pay either the full amount or a room night
deposit as selected by you in your ResAvenue
M.A.R.S. backend. Your guests see a confirmation screen
and receive an auto-generated email confirming their reservation.
You receive instantly an email or fax or SMS or all three
(as selected by you) from ResAvenue,
summarizing the reservation. The process is that simple. |
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How much control do i have to manage my inventory? |
| You
have complete control to enter and modify room description,
rates and allocations - all accessible 24 hours a day from
any PC with an internet connection. It's easy to increase
your room allocations or to close out dates which are fully
booked. If you have a smaller property, you can choose to
manage all guest reservations through the ResAvenue
M.A.R.S. (Merchant Accounting and Reporting System) back
office and update booking and payment status as and when
you require. Just like a mini-Front Office System.
You can feature password-protected wholesale contract rates,
allowing your other Sales Offices, Corporate Clients and
Agents to make instant reservations from your website at
the contract rates.
You can also collect valuable information that could help
market your property better. Guest email addresses are stored
in the database and can easily be retrieved for mail-shots.
You can view statistics such as how many people have checked
availability, how many have booked, total room nights actually
booked and the total revenue generated.
All in all, the ResAvenue
reservation system offers immense opportunities to improve
your business by making the most of your presence on the
internet.
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| This
looks fine for a big hotel chain, but will ResAvenue
work for my property? |
| The
ResAvenue™
online hotel reservation software is perfect for any property
selling accommodation over the Internet. It works equally
well for a small guest house as it does for an international
hotel chain. ResAvenue™
enables guests to check availability directly from your
website or from the hotel page or any other third party
pages.
The challenge for any hotel today is how to increase the
visibility and reach of its property at as low a cost as
possible. The multi-lingual, multi-currency, multi-payment
options nature of the ResAvenue™
reservation system allows your customers to have direct
assess to your property from anywhere in the world. The
ResAvenue™
reservation system offers you a unique opportunity by enabling
you to compete with any hotel property with a distinct advantage. |
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| How
do I make rooms available for booking on my website? |
| The
ResAvenue
M.A.R.S. system makes it easy to allow your guests to check
availability of rooms at your property and book rooms in
real time. To make rooms available for your guests you need
to follow the steps below:
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Login To Your ResAvenue
M.A.R.S. Account.
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Configure Your Property
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Add Room Types
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Add A Rate Master
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Add Rates For Each Room Type
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Add An Allocation Master
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Add Allocations For Each Room Type
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Add A Agent And Set As Default Agent
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Integrate The Check Availabity Link
With Your Website
And your ready to go! It's as simple as that.
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| Where
do I view the Reservations placed by my guests? |
| Log
in to your ResAvenue
Account. Upon logging in, you will be greeted with a welcome
message and you will be displayed the number of new reservations
received through the ResAvenue
Reservation System with a link to 'View New Reservations'.
You can also View New Reservations by clicking on the 'Reservations
& Reports' pull down menu at the extreme left hand side
of the top navigation bar. |
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| How
can I create separate rate structures for my agents? |
| The
ResAvenue
Reservation System provides you with great flexibility in
setting up not only different rates but also separate room
allocations for each agent. You can create multiple rate
masters and allocations masters. You can create multiple
agents and assign a rate master and allocation master to
each agent. You can control your distribution channels effectively
by assigning specific number of rooms and specific rates
for your agents. |
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| Can
I price my rooms separately for resident and non-resident
customers? |
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Yes you can! The ResAvenue
M.A.R.S system lets you set different rates for your resident
as well as non-resident customers. You can also select whether
or not you wish to show the resident rates to non-residents
and vise-a-versa. |
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| Can
my customers amend their reservations? |
| Your
customers will be provided with a account to which they
can login and view their reservation details and status
and also make changes to their reservations if required.
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| How
do I issue a refund for cancelled or amended bookings? |
To issue a refund on a cancelled booking you can simply
click on the refund link at the bottom of the order details
page for that reservation number and enter the amount
of the refund. In case you have set your property's cancellation
policy then the refund amount will be automatically computed
and displayed to you as per the rules set. However you
may still edit this figure if required by you.
In case of amended bookings, if the amendment is done
prior to your having confirmed the order then there is
no question of refunding the customer. You simply need
to confirm the amended booking details and the customer
will be charged for the new booking amount only, provided
the amount is less than the previous booking amount. In
case the amended booking amount is higher than the previous
booking amount then the customer will be sent an invoice
link by email to pay for the difference amount only.
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| When
do I get paid? |
ResAvenue allows you the hotelier the flexibility of
setting when you receive payments. Once the net payables
in your account exceed USD 50/-, ResAvenue can issue regular
cheques for all amounts over & above of USD 50/- and
after retaining a 5% Rolling Reserve from your payouts
(these will be retained only for a period of 180 days).
Payouts will be made according to the payment frequency
settings specified by you in Merchant Control Panel under
'Settings and Options'. You may choose to set your payment
frequency to weekly, monthly - either in the first week
or the last week of the month OR when the balance in your
account crosses a particular threshold level set by you.
You may alternatively choose to hold your payments until
you request them.
All orders shipped/executed until Monday midnight IST
(Indian Standard Time) are processed for payment on the
following Wednesday. Transactions are then paid-out by
either of two methods as chosen by you on our Merchant
Control Panel:
a) We will dispatch by First Class Registered Airmail,
a USD cheque (payable at Singapore) to your designated
address within 48 hours of the settlement period. This
option is available at a nominal delivery charge of US
$ 1 per delivery. You will have to deposit this cheque
for foreign inward collection with your bank. Credit in
your local currency to your account may take upto 15 days
or more. Please check with your bank for the exact period,
procedure and their collection charges for the transfer
b) You may opt for the wire transfer of funds (at a charge
of USD 30 per transfer) to your designated bank account.
If your account is designated in your local currency,
the exchange rate applied to the transaction is fixed
by your bank and we have no control over the same. A small
administrative fee could also be levied by your banker.
Please check with your bank for the exact time required
to credit your account and their exact collection charges
for this kind of transfer.
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| Who
links my site to ResAvenue?. |
It is the responsibility of the merchants to link their
site to ResAvenue. All technical specs are located on
our web site. Depending on the complexity of your property/s
and the technical skills, it will take between 30 minutes
to a few hours.
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| In
what currencies can the merchant receive payment? |
ResAvenue allows you to select from a range of processing
currencies - we are currently processing in USD, EURO,
GBP and INR. We will be adding currencies in the future
as well. ResAvenue merchants can receive their payments
in the respective processing currency. You bank will convert
the payments into the currency of your choice based on
the then current exchange rate.
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| What
type of bank account is required? |
You can have either a current or a savings account. As
part of the documentation for activation of your account
we will require a copy of a void cheque with your / your
business name imprinted. If not available with imprinted
business name, we require a letter from your banker verifying
bank account details and the signing authority's signature
and photograph.
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| What
is a transaction discount rate? |
In simple terms a sub-merchant "Transaction Discount
rate" is the amount of money (ie. 7% percent for
economy account holders and 5% for Premium account holders)
that the ResAvenue will deduct on each approved credit
card transaction. This discount fee is on the gross dollar
transaction amount, including taxes and shipping if included.
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| What
is a "Clear Copy Request"? |
This is initiated by a cardholder with their bank disputing
a credit card charge from a merchant. This usually happens
for one to four reasons.
1) Don't recognize the merchant name.
2) Don't remember purchasing from the merchant.
3) Didn't receive goods or services.
4) Didn't use their credit card to make purchase.
ResAvenue will produce the receipt for the transaction
on your behalf with all the details about the products,
approval codes and customer info and send this information
back to the cardholder's bank. Points
1) and
2) will usually be resolved with receipt. Point
3) upon discussion with the merchant and the customer
can usually be resolved either by showing proof of delivery
or re-delivery. Point
4) is more difficult and could result in a "Chargeback".
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| What
is a Chargeback? |
Up until recently after the 'Clear Copy Request' process,
if the cardholder still says it wasn't them and the merchant
has no proof of delivery or authorization in writing,
then Visa, MasterCard and American Express will chargeback
the dollar amount of the transaction to the merchant.
Under the Merchant Agreements with Visa/MasterCard /Amex
they do not guarantee non-face to face credit card transactions,
even though the original transaction was approved. They
would only guarantee the transaction if the merchant saw
the card and has a signature from a receipt. These were
the rules but ResAvenue would fight for the merchant in
these cases and despite the fact all internet transactions
are non-face to face, the banks are willing to review
each on a case by case basis.
However with the introduction of the latest 3 D Secure
Protocol this risk of chargeback due to "Transaction
Not Authorised" has been eliminated. ResAvenue has
already implemented "Verified by Visa" the new
online security feature introduced by Visa and will shortly
be implementing the "MasterCard Secure Code"
as well.
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| How
do you handle "Credits/Refunds to Customers"? |
Refunds can be handled by ResAvenue M.A.R.S. system.
These will occur if the merchant is unable to deliver
a product or service, has over-charged or agrees to refund
a customer. You can process a refund to the cardholder
by viewing the order and clicking on the 'Refund' link
provided and entering the dollar amount to be refunded.
A refund can only be done for a transaction processed
through our system. The amount cannot exceed the original
dollar amount.
What will be the name of the merchant on my customers'
credit card statements?
If you have opted for the Direct Merchant Accounting Feature
AND your customer is using Visa or MasterCard and if your
company name is Rare Books Inc. then your customers will
see on their next credit card statement "Rare Books
Inc.". This is very important for two reasons; it
reminds your customers about the product they purchased
from your company and prevents chargebacks since they
are more likely to remember your company name.
In case of American Express, JCB cards however this feature
is not available so your customers will see the charge
to "world.ResAvenue.com/charge" on their next
credit card statement.
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| As
ResAvenue Merchant, do we have our merchant numbers? |
If you have been opted for a Direct Merchant Account
you will be identified to your customers' MasterCard /
Visa / Citiban eCard / JCB credit card companies as USD
Internet merchants with your own unique merchant numbers.
Which will translate into "YOUR BUSINESS NAME"
on your customers' monthly MasterCard / Visa / Citiban
eCard / JCB credit card statements.
This feature applies only for all Visa, MasterCard, Citibank
eCard and JCB transactions. All American Express and Diners
Club International transactions will continue to be reflected
as world.ResAvenue.com/charge in your customer's credit
card statements.
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