StayNtouch User Guide

The objective for this interface is to pass rates, availability from StayNtouch and then iVvy to create block reservation along with its different scenarios of creating block reservation, block pickup, cancel and modify block reservation.

This interface will allow changes in the block and reservations (which are attached to the blocks) from StayNtouch to IVvy.

Note: For this interface to exchange information about blocks and reservations the expectation is that iVvy is always the source of the blocks and any blocks which are created in StayNtouch directly will not be considered while exchanging the information.

This article will cover the following:

About the Extension

Module Information

The impacted areas in the application:

Installing the Extension: Account Level

Installing the Extension: Venue Level

Initial Sync: Venue Level

iVvy Endpoint

About the Extension

This interface will allow changes in the block and reservations (which are attached to the blocks) from StayNtouch to IVvy.

Note: For this interface to exchange information about blocks and reservations the expectation is that IVvy is always the source of the blocks and any blocks which are created in StayNtouch directly will not be considered while exchanging the information.

Module Information

The impacted areas in the application:

Below are the following screens where the IVvy application will be impacted because of StayNtouch interface.

1. Dynamic Rates
Once the user navigates to a Venue and goes to Setup > Accommodation > Rate Plan Details > Dynamic Rates they will see the dynamic rate in IVvy application which is been pushed to IVvy system using this interface for different room types.

Note: Rate plan is been mapped at 2 places while setting up the StayNtouch updates user can select the rate plan category and name for which they would like to send rate information to IVvy. In order to ensure IVvy is able to process the rates information been sent by StayNtouch the requested Rate Plan and Room type should be mapped in IVvy Extensions.

2. Dynamic Inventory
Once the user navigates to a Venue and goes to Setup > Accommodation > Rooms > Dynamic Inventory they will see the dynamic inventory coming from StayNtouch.

Note: The Room type coming from StayNtouch needs to be mapped with Room type codes available in IVyv so that the updates can be done. Majority of PMS supports overselling which means the inventory values can be negative.

Anchor 3. Bookings
In the bookings section of IVvy if the bookings are created is eligible to be pushed to StayNtouch.

Note: There is a configuration when a booking is eligible to be sent to StayNtouch depending upon the current status of the Booking. This setting is called Booking Trigger Threshold and a user can select either Prospective, Tentative or Confirmed status of the booking and the booking will be pushed to StayNtouch when the booking status is equal to when what is selected in the Booking Threshold.

Once the Block is pushed to StayNtouch a user from StayNtouch is allowed to make any changes in the block, this includes things like changing the accommodation block, no of rooms on each date, modifying the start or end date of the block.

Anchor 4. Reservations
Once the Booking (Accommodation Block) status is Confirmed the StayNtouch allows users to pick up reservations for the block. The Reservation can be picked up from either IVvy or from StayNtouch.

Reservation is allowed to be modified from SMS even when the user has checked in the Hotel.

5. Extensions
In the extensions section in IVvy users needs to configure the default values and mappings which is required for the interface.

The following settings are required in the extensions

Installing the Extension: Account Level

Go to Setup > Applications > Extensions
Click install on StayNtouch and Confirm.

This will activate the extension to be available for your venues.

Installing the Extension: Venue Level

The setup on the account level still needs to be completed first however before being able to do a venue level setup.

To set this up you will need to do the following:

Authorization settings.
Click on the ‘Authorize’ tab on the extension configuration page, you’ll see the page below
1. Choose an API connection endpoint, you can choose between North American Data Center and EU Data Center depending on the property’s location.
2. Choose an authorization connection endpoint, you can choose between North American Data Center and EU Data Center depending on the property’s location. Usually it should be the same as the above one.
3. Enter the Client ID provided by StayNTouch team.
4. Enter the Client Secret provided by StayNTouch team.
5. Press the ‘Authorize’ button
Hotel setting. Once you’ve completed the previous step, you’ll be redirected to the next tab, named ‘Hotel’:
1. Select the hotel from your chain and press the ‘Save Selected Hotel’ button.
Configuration. Once you’ve chosen your hotel, you’ll be redirected to the next configuration tab.
1. Booking Hold Types. You need to map all four iVvy booking statuses to their corresponding hold types in StayNtouch.
2. Room types mapping. You need to map the iVvy room types to their corresponding room types in StayNTouch.
3. Rate plans mapping. You need to map the iVvy rate plans to their corresponding rate plans in StayNTouch.
4. Market segment mapping. You need to map the iVvy opportunity types to their corresponding market segments in StayNTouch.
5. Booking Sync Threshold. You need to select a booking status, below which status the groups will not be pushed to StayNTouch. Choose ‘Prospective’ to sync them all.
6. Booking note type. You need to choose which note type to be synced into StayNTouch’s group notes. Only one note type is allowed. If you choose ‘No Type’, then notes will not be synced into StayNTouch.
7. Syncing groups without room allocations. You can deny or allow catering groups to be synced into StayNTouch.
8. Default rate plan occupancy. Since iVvy does not currently support multiple rates for different occupancies, you need to choose a default occupancy, which will be used to process incoming rates.
9. Multiple occupancy rates on group updates. Since iVvy does not currently support multiple rates for different occupancies, you need to choose whether to leave the other rates (except the default one) as they are or override them to the default occupancy, selected in the previous setting.
10. Default cutoff date. Since in iVvy the release date is optional and the same is required in StayNTouch, you need to choose a default cutoff range against the group’s arrival date. If a given group’s cutoff date has been set, this release date will be synced to StayNTouch. If you leave it blank, a default cutoff date will be calculated depending on the group’s arrival date.
11. Sync offset. This is an optional setting, which allows you to hold future groups/reservations, if they are too far. For example, if you enter 730 days (2 years) and you create a booking starting after 740 days, it won’t be synced into StayNTouch unless the limit of 730 days is reached, therefore this group will be automatically synced into StayNTouch after 10 days.

After you press the ‘Configure Venue’ button, your extension will be ready for use.

Initial Sync: Venue Level

Once you’ve configured your extension you may sync all existing data from StayNTouch into iVvy. To do this go to the Data Sync tab:

Poll existing data from StayNTouch. This setting allows you to sync groups, reservations, companies, contacts, rates and inventory from StayNTouch. It’s strongly recommended to sync at least the rates and inventory.
1. To sync rates, select ‘Rates’ and press the ‘Poll and Sync’ button. You’ll be notified that the sync process has started successfully. This process may take few minutes depending on how much data needs to be synced.
2. To sync inventory, select ‘Inventory’ and press the ‘Poll and Sync’ button. You’ll be notified that the sync process has started successfully. This setting syncs the inventory for the next 10 years or how long is available in the PMS. This process may take few minutes depending on how much data needs to be synced.
3. To sync StayNTouch accounts into iVvy companies, select ‘Companies’ and press the ‘Poll and Sync’ button. You’ll be notified that the sync process has started successfully. This process may take from few minutes to an hour or even more depending on how many accounts need to be synced.
4. To sync StayNTouch guests into iVvy contacts, select ‘Contacts’ and press the ‘Poll and Sync’ button. You’ll be notified that the sync process has started successfully. This process may take from few minutes to an hour or even more depending on how many guests need to be synced.
5. To sync Groups, select ‘Groups’ and press the ‘Poll and Sync’ button. You’ll be alerted that you have to first perform a booking mapping, described in section (2), which is usually done by a tech person. This process may take from a few minutes to an hour or even more depending on how many groups need to be synced.
6. To sync reservations, select ‘Reservations’ and press the ‘Poll and Sync’ button. You’ll be alerted that you have to first sync the groups, because the reservations depend on the groups. This process may take from a few minutes to an hour or even more depending on how many reservations need to be synced.
  
  Note: During the initial syncs described above some extension functionalities like creating/updating a booking/reservation may not be working.
Import block mappings. If you connect the extension to a property which already has groups and those groups need to be synced into iVvy, you’ll need to import the existing groups into iVvy and then use this setting to upload a mapping document which actually links the groups in both the systems.

Note: that during the booking import the interface must be DISABLED by the setting below, otherwise it may cause duplicate groups in StayNTouch.

After you import the bookings and upload the mapping document, you may enable the interface and use it.
If the property is already working with iVvy platform, but new for StayNTouch, you have the option to sync all iVvy groups and reservations to StayNTouch using the Sync Historical Data setting.

iVvy Login:

Go to the venue and click Setup > Extensions.
Then select “Add, and “StayNtouch”
Authorize: Please refer to the extension section in Module Information to complete the extension configuration.

Your integration is now successfully installed. You can click the configure button and click on “Logs” at any time to see the synchronization logs for the integration.

Anchor iVvy Endpoint

StayNtouch/property will request for the iVvy endpoint to send the webhook events against, this can be found under the Authorize tab once the extension is installed on the venue.