Yesterday we upgraded VELUMrent to a new version. Here is a rundown of a few new features that came with this version…

Custom reservation statuses

VELUMrent now supports up any number of custom reservation statuses. Every status has a changeable name, color and type. By default you’ll only see two statuses. You can edit them or add additional statuses in the Settings menu.

Note that you can now choose the type of every status. This option enables you to choose if it’s possible to freely move reservations around the reservations calendar or if you’ll need to confirm such changes. This option is a safety mechanism for confirmed and approved reservations so they are not moved by mistake.

Restore last session

There were quite a few feature requests for specifying what is the first thing VELUMrent shows after users log in. Some users wanted an option for choosing a default time filter while others requested a default date to be opened.

However, as many users use the same login credentials but want to see different parts of VELUMrent on log in, adding a single setting for the whole account was not the right solution. So to make this possible we implemented browser cookies into VELUMrent. Using cookies VELUMrent can remember you last used settings and then restore them when you log back in.

The great thing about cookies is that they are unique for every browser. This way every member of your staff will have their own settings saved for the computers/browsers they use without interfering with other user settings  on other devices.

Jump-to-Month feature

This feature further extends the functionality of two sidebar navigation calendars. By clicking the month or year number in the calendar header you’ll activate a drop-down menu from where you can choose a specific month and year to jump to.

This feature reduces the number of required clicks, and therefor required time, which takes to jump to a distant month or year on reservations calendar.

Visit VELUMrent’s change log to see other made changes.

]]> http://www.constructivecode.com/2010/05/custom-reservation-statuses-jump-to-month-and-other-new-features/feed/ 1 http://www.constructivecode.com/2010/05/quick-hint-for-iphoneipad-users/ http://www.constructivecode.com/2010/05/quick-hint-for-iphoneipad-users/#comments Sat, 22 May 2010 12:04:30 +0000 Darko Kontin http://www.constructivecode.com/?p=1003

One of the main reasons most accommodation owners are using/are interested in using VELUMrent is because of its mobility. Unlike other booking software out there which ties you to one or several computers, VELUMrent is a web application and can be accessed from any web enabled device, anytime and anywhere. Today such devices are widely available  (desktop computers, laptops and all the way to your smart phones).

I will share a little hint for all users who access VELUMrent from devices running iPhone OS (like iPod touch, iPhone or iPad).

The hint

If you have more than 8 accommodation units on your calendar, VELUMrent adds a horizontal scroll on the bottom so you can add more units without further squeezing unit columns and its data.

The problem – it isn’t possible to scroll VELUMrent’s reservations calendar sideways with one finger on iPhone OS devices as it is done on other “fixed” websites. The reason for this is that the reservations calendar is handled in a separate frame inside the existing web page (so that all settings are accessible to users at all times), and when you scroll the page this frame scrolls with it as a fixed object (as it should) which causes this problem.

However not all know that Apple addressed this issue sometime last year and that they implemented a way to scroll such embedded elements on every site with two fingers swipe.

So all you need to do is place two fingers on reservations calendar and move them left/right to scroll through all available units.

I hope you’ll enjoy this tip. And if you have some tips you want to share with us please let us know through comments bellow.

Public View is a very special feature in VELUMrent and it is unlike anything we have seen in other booking applications for private property owners.

Here are some common daily problems property owners stumble upon when dealing with guest and reservations:

• Guests are having a hard time visualizing accommodation availability if it is not immediately free for the requested time period. In such situations owners usually bombard the guest with raw reservation data and hope that guest will understand it and choose another accommodation or date for their holiday.
• Working with one and more booking agency requires owners to frequently maintain accommodation availability data on their sites. And doing it separately for every agency is extremely challenging.
• If maintaining accommodation availability isn’t offered by agencies they usually make pre-reservation calls to make sure they can offer requested property to a guest. This back and fort calling also generates big communication expenses on both sides.
• If reservations are handled by more than one person, and on more than one location, or evan away from reception desk, double bookings may occur if your booking system isn’t always in sync with the central database. Or evan worse – there is no way to check property availability on the go.

Public View feature in VELUMrent easily solves all problems mentioned above. What makes this feature so special is the approach it has to your reservation data.

Public View is basically a feature-less Reservations Calendar. Everything what is great about Reservations Calendar (like reservations and properties grid, advance calendars, time filters, …) is also available in Public View for everyone else with access privileges to use.

However, we removed features for editing and managing current reservations and we also removed all guest information so it can’t be misused by non-company personnel.

By giving your Public View link to guests you give them all the details and tools they need to see and choose which accommodation and when they want to book. You will no more have to exchange several e-mails or telephone calls just to explain them which property and when is available. Guest will immediately see, the same way you see using Reservations Calendar, when he can squeeze his holiday and book it directly from there.

If you introduce Public View link to agencies the results will be evan better. They will always have a real time information about your property availability and will only need to contact you when they have a confirmed reservation. I’m sure they’ll be fond on lowering their communications cost and time as well with the option :).

As you can see Public View feature in VELUMrent will save you a great deal of time and money.

The main reason why Public View is possible and works so well lies in the fact that VELUMrent is a web application with an online database. This ensures that your booking and reservation information is always accessible to everyone you grant access 24/7.

If you have some questions regarding this feature please let us know in the comments below.

One of the main parts/features of every booking software is its reservations calendar. It shows you all properties and associated reservations for a specific period in time.

Every booking solution has its own opinion on how reservations calendar should look, work and be used. Depending on your needs some solutions will work better for you than the others.

Here is how we at Constructive Code think reservations calendar should work and how we implemented those ideas into VELUMrent.

The basics

Reservations calendar should be able to show you multiple properties and their reservations all at the same time. It shouldn’t take you more than a look at it to see where you have openings for new reservations and which properties are already booked.

Like other quality booking solutions we also use a grid compiled of rows and columns which represent dates and properties. This way you can easily spot “holes” on the grid and  see  which properties and when are available.

Time navigation is controlled by two calendars in the sidebar and with several time filters. Combining those two options with big resolution screens you can instantly see availability of all your properties for the whole season. That is more than two months of reservations data available at your fingertips with a glimps of an eye.

This really is the best way you could check and view your properties availability and see how your booking process progresses over time.

Reservations calendar – the center of every booking process

What we done differently with our reservations calendar is that we made it interactive (instead of just leaving it be a visual representation of all reservations) and made it the central place for all booking operations.

Other booking applications take you away from reservations calendar if you need to add, modify or delete reservation. Unlike them, VELUMrent understands that reservations are all that maters to your business and never takes you away from them.

Need to move reservation to a different property or change it’s starting date? Simple drag and drop it on a new location or to a new date on reservations calendar.
Need to make a quick reservation? Just click on the empty space on reservations calendar and VELUMrent will fill out the dates and select the property for you. No need to double your steps for a simple task like this one.

What ever you need to do and which ever information you need to access you can do it directly on reservations calendar. And because of this approach everything can be accomplished in fewer steps than usual and with bigger time savings on your side

This blog post covered just some basics behind the reservations calendar. We will go into more depth about its features and how they can save you time and money in one of our future blog posts.

If you have a specific feature you would like us to write about please let us know in the comments below or by contacting us via e-mail.

VELUMrent, our booking solution for small and medium businesses, had couple of upgrades in the last few months. Most of those upgrades were minor upgrades like bug fixes reported by active VELUMrent users. To see what exactly has been fixed and added check VELUMrent’s change log here.

Currently we are putting all feature suggestions that we received from our customers but didn’t not have time to implement before on top of our pending features list. And in the next two weeks we’ll filter, combine and sort them all down until we create a list of features that will be available  in next upgrade. And as you can see this upgrade is going to be a major VELUMrent upgrade.

So if you have some feature suggestions and requests or some other issues with VELUMrent please let us know so we can consider and add them to the list as well so they are available in this major upgrade.

We won’t roll out all of the new features at once. Most likely they will be introduced to you over several separate system upgrades.

Second announcement we wanted to make today is that we are revitalizing this blog. Next to posts about VELUMrent news and updates we will also start writing periodical posts on how to use booking software, grow you business with it while saving money and time and much more.

We are going to cover a lot of VELUMrent’s features with these blog posts so if you are not sure if and how you should use some of those features this is going to be a great way to see how you can apply them to your business. Next to current feature we will also discuss some future futures that are coming and some features which are not coming and why.

Any comments, suggestions and criticism is always welcomed through comments below or by e-mail.

Some of our users already know that the best and the fastest way to receive VELUMrent news and updates is by following us on Twitter.

But as not everyone is a fan of Twitter we also created a Facebook Fan page for VELUMrent. We hope you will use our new Fan page not only to follow VLEUMrent news and updates but also to contact us, share information, ask questions and suggest features.

To celebrate our presence on this social media site we are giving away 10% discount coupons that can be used with all our subscription plans. To claim your discount you need to become our Fan on Facebook and then contact us to retrieve the 10% discount coupon code.

Until next time.

Today we released a big VELUMrent upgrade which includes a feature that will allow your customers and agencies to make reservations on their own through Public View. And as requested, they’ll still have to wait for you to review and confirm all pending reservation requests.

The procedure is fast and simple:

- In order for a public user to create a new reservation request he needs to click on any empty space on the Reservations calendar, enter his/hers contact details (which will be automatically stored in your Customers Address Book) and click the Create button.

- E-mail notifications are then sent to him/her and you.

- You now have to log into VELUMrent and navigate to a third tab called Notifications on your home page. There you will see all current request that have to be dealt with (there is also a red notification number in that tab if there are new notifications waiting for you).

- From here you can see all relevant reservation details and accept or deny any reservation with only one click. But if needed you can also open and edit any reservation as any other reservation in VELUMrent and then save the changes.

- There are no notifications to customers at this point once you accept or deny their reservation so don’t forget to notify them personally about your decision.

We would also like to thank everyone for their feature and other suggestions that helped shape VELUMrent in what it is today. And we would also like encourage all other VELUMrent users to comment on what they like, dislike and want to see in future upgrades so we can make VELUMrent better for you and possibly the only solution you’ll need for you business.

Today we upgraded VELUMrent to a new version and the biggest news is the implementation of  a completely free account (so no more 30 days trials and unavailable accounts if you downgrade your plan).

The Free VELUMrent plan has all the features as the paying plans and the only limitation it has is the number of properties it can show. This number is limited to three.

We also added some new features, some we already planned to include and other were Yours feature suggestions. To check them out please view our change log here.

This way we’d like to thank everyone for they feedback and encourage you evan more to let us know what you think and need so we can improve our product and help your businesses through VELUMrent.

Best regards.

All your work until now is backed up as always, so no data will be lost. And if you enter some new information during this 24 hours we can not guarantee that it won’t be lost so please backup the data on your end as well.

Thank you for understanding.

We had quite a few busy weeks this and past month developing new features for VELUMrent and preparing the site for redesign.

The site redesign should be done in one or two weeks. To be notified in time about those changes please follow us on Twitter (this is the fastest way to receive news about things that are happening with Constructive Code and VELUMrent).

So what’s new in VELUMrent version 1.1.0?

All together there are more than 10 new features and more than 11 bug fixes available in this release.

New added features will make working with new and existing reservations much faster and simpler. Now by clicking the date on every reservation will open this reservation for editing.

By clicking the empty space on the reservation grid you’ll automatically open a new reservation dialog with the dates and the unit predefined to the clicked space.
While editing or creating a new reservation we’ve also included a quick search field for customers so you can easily and quickly find the customer you’ve been looking for.

We’ve also added couple of new settings in the Settings menu so now you can choose between 10 new colors for confirmed and unconfirmed reservations or change the date format to suit your needs.

Public View has also been changed so it looks exactly the same as the the reservation grid you are using. Evan the fast switching languages are available there for customers to choose from.

To see which other features and bug fixes were included in this upgrade check our VELUMrent change log at http://www.constructivecode.com/velumrent-change-log/.

You can use this page to see all past and future changes to the application as we make them.

By now all VELUMrent user accounts should have been upgraded to this release. This and all feature upgrades are free.

Let us know how do you like the new features and what other features would you like to see in the future releases.

We’re looking forward hearing from you.