Best Western 2Way Interface Detailed (BW) (Cloud)
Access to certain sections is restricted for hotel staff, as some areas are exclusively available to Visual Matrix technicians.
Path: Management > Interfaces > All Interfaces > Central Res BW2/Best Western 2 Way.
The interface is composed of 6 sections:
- Best Western 2 Way.
- Communication.
- Seasons and Setup Tools.
- Room type.
- Room Allocations per Level and Gtd/Cxl Policy per Rate Plan.
- Other Setup Tools.
Best Western 2 Way
Dropdowns fields
- Property ID: this is the BW property ID of the hotel, which is also the property ID for Visual Matrix.
- Room Type: this is the room type VM will select if it is unable to match up the room type sent with the reservation.
- Hold Policy: this sets up the default hold time policy for any non-guaranteed reservation that would come in through the 2way.
- Max Stay Days: It should always be set to "0". The maximum stay days are determined by Best Western and hardcoded in the 2-way interface.
- Months to Purge Old CRS numbers: CRS numbers are reused after a certain amount of time. If a reservation coming from the 2way has a CRS number that is already attached to another reservation in Visual Matrix, the new one will not get retrieved. This setup will clear any CRS number in Visual Matrix after X setup months.
-# Rooms: This field goes wither the 2way overbook option. If interested, contact the Client Experience team for assistance.
- City Ledger: This function specifies what CL account will automatically be selected for central billed reservations. These are typically reservations that were paid for with BW Rewards points.
- Reason for Stay/Market Segment/Referral Method: Any reservation than comes down with a Rate Plan that is not mapped in Visual Matrix will be attached to this segment. The same policy applies to Rack Reservations.
Checkboxes
- Allow Overbook: This feature needs to be enabled both in Visual Matrix (VM) and in Best Western (BW), with configurations set up on both sides. If interested, contact the Client Experience team for assistance.
- Pay TA Commission: This function tells the system that the hotel will pay TA commissions for reservations booked through CRS. This should be unchecked.
- Enable Plan Code/Package Mapping (restricted): This feature is meant if a Rate Plan sold online needs to be mapped to a package in Visual Matrix. This feature can only be enabled by a Visual Matrix technician.
- Resync Groups After Audit: Check the box to enable the sync of every pending group in Visual Matrix. This feature can lengthen the audit if you have a lot of groups.
- Email req BWR Enroll: Check the box to require an email every time a new BWR membership is started.
- NA BWR Update Arrivals: Check the box to do an update of the BWR Status of the client upon check-in.
- Group Overlay: This box should always be checked. If not, a group allocation would be duplicated and creates an availability discrepancy.
- Email Req BWR Check-In: Check the box to require an email if the email is missing upon every BWR client check-in.
- Enroll Popup: Check the box to pop up a prompt to enroll the guest in BWR if the reservation doesn’t have a BWR profile attached.
- Enforce Local Rate Level: This tells the system to enforce restrictions placed on rate levels locally. For example, if Level B is hard closed in the interface, local reservations can still be made using rate plans assigned to rate Level B. If this is turned on, local reservations cannot be made using rate plans that are assigned to rate level B.
- In House: This is tied in with the "NA BWR Update Arrivals" function to also check for BWR membership status changes for in-house guests as well as the day's arrivals.
Communication
URL and Ports
The ETW URL, WS URL and Property Services URL, Ports, and Client ID fields cannot be modified. Any information modified here will cause the 2way to drop. Each URL is compsed of the property ID, a BW Property code, and:
- ETW URL: [...].crs.ghs.bwhhotelgroup.com
- WS URL: [...].bwr.ghs.bwhhotelgroup.com
- Property Services URL: [...].crs.ghs.bwhhotelgroup.com
For STR and MCI Interval and CutOff, check the following articles:
Seasons
This section will show the rates seasons created in Management > Rates > Seasons. This is where the Guarantee and Cancellation policies for those periods are also set up and sent to Member Web.
- Start Date/End Date: Those dates are the season's start and end set up in Management.
- Tier Type/Tier Level: Tiered or Fixed.
- Choosing Tiered will send whatever the going rate is for a particular date, whether it's Base or Tier 1 - 9. The Tier Level column does nothing when Tiered is selected.
- Choosing Fixed will always send whatever Tier is selected in the Tier Level column. If 1 is selected, the interface will always send Tier 1 rates regardless of whatever the current rate may be in VM.
- WD Confirm/WE Confirm: This is the general Guarantee Policy that will be synced online.
- WD Cxl/WE Cxl: This is the general Cancellation Policy that will be synced online.
- Reopen: This will reopen the inventory online if rooms become available again. Choosing No will leave an inventory close once it has been sold out, even if rooms become available after.
Room Types
This section has 2 pieces of information:
- # Rooms: this column shows the number of rooms, overall, and per room type. If a modification on a room number is made in VM that changes this total, it will automatically update.
- # Close: the number here is the number of rooms left at which the interface will close online inventory.
Modifying the "#Close" value does not trigger any immediate changes to reported inventory numbers or automatically send closes.
This function is a reference point for the system, and actions are taken when inventory numbers change. In other words, inventory has to increase or decrease in order for the system to determine what inventory to report and whether to close or open.
Room Allocations
This section has two objectives:
- Enable Levels communication between VM and MW and allocate rooms.
- Clicking the "Rate Levels" button provides access to the second purpose: enabling Rate Plan communication and configuring online Guaranteed (Gtd) and Cancellation (Cxl) policies.
Levels
The box should be checked for every level, every room type, and overall included. If not, Levels will not update in MW. If MW Levels shows 999 for the availability, or if a restriction (MLOS, CTA, Soft) is not being synced, this is the reason.
The # Alloc let the hotel allocate a certain number of rooms per Level. By default, the total number of rooms is allocated.
It is very important to save line per line after each modification. If modifications are made on multiple lines, when saving, every other line will be reset.
Rate Plans
When the user clicks on the Rate Levels button, the section will change from a Levels details to a Rate Plan details. All Rate Plans will show. If a specific Gtd and Cxl policy has to be set up for an online Rate Plan, it will be set up here.
The "# Alloc" let the hotel allocate a certain number of rooms per Rate Plan. By default, the total number of rooms is allocated.
It is very important to save line per line after each modification. If modifications are made on multiple lines, when saving, every other line will be reset.
All Rate Plans cannot be updated from Visual Matrix. Most of them are managed directly from MW. Contact EDS or your Revenue Manager for more information.
Setup Tools
From top to bottom:
- Rate Plan Setup [O]: This tool is to map the rate plans between Visual Matrix and Member Web. See this article for more information: Map Rate Plan(s) in a the BW2Way (Cloud)
- Rate Plan Logs [O]: This log shows every creation and modification done in the Rate Plan Setup screen.
- Room Type setup [R]: The tool is to map Room Types between VM and MW.
- Rate Plan Allocation [O]: The hotel can allocate a specific number of rooms per day per room type, by Level. The Apply Range feature gives more allocation options.
- Availability [O]: It is the same screen that is found in Front Office > Supervisor > System Maint > BW 2Way > Availability.
- BWR Tiers Setup [O]: When checking in a BWR member, a specific message can pop up based on the BWR level (Blue, Gold, Platinum, Diamond, Diamond Select).
- Check Compare [O]: This tool is to access the Check Compare Report.
- Manage Certificate [R]: The 2way communication is secured by an SSL Certificate. This certificate is renewed every 2 years.
- BWTW Override [R]: The tool is to send syncs between VM and MW.
- Currency Conversion [R/O]: This tool is designed to convert rates from incoming reservations when the currency differs between the online portal and the local PMS. Visual Matrix technicians handle the setup, but the exchange rate will need to be updated manually as necessary.
[O]: This tool is accessible by Management users with the appropriate Access Privilege.
[R]: Access to this tool is restricted to Visual Matrix technicians and possibly BW Revenue Managers.
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