Booking Agent for Designer Widgets

This article refers to Booking Agents featured in Reservations Manager v.2, for our most up to date version please read the following article [link]

If your winery subscribes to eCellar Reservations Manager, and has migrated to Designer Widgets, you can use Booking Agents on your website to invite customers to request experiences (e.g. tours and/or tastings) at your winery.

Customers can access their existing accounts or if they don't have one, create a new account to place a reservation request.  The experience requests can then be found on the Unscheduled tab of your Reservations Manager calendar.  An email notification is sent to the Reservations Manager contact within eCellar for each reservation request received. 

How to use Booking Agent(s)

Location in ACP Menu: Res Mgr -> Booking Agents

Setting up a new Booking Agent:

To create a new Booking Agent, click  Add Booking Agent in the upper right hand corner (of Res Mgr -> Booking Agents), and fill out the form. Please note that all fields are required unless otherwise noted.

1

Select Reservation Type

2

Select Location

3

Select Station  (Optional) 

These three pull down menus are set in  Res Mgr - Calendar -> Settings 

Please note: These cannot be changed after initial creation) 

4

Enter Public Name (displays as the name of the Reservation Type on your website).

5

Notice Slug is auto-populated from initial Public Name entry.  This is used on your website to directly (deep) link to the Booking Agent.

IMPORTANT: If you change the slug AFTER it has been created, please note that any website navigation or emails sent containing the old slug will no longer work.

6

Enter a number for Sort Order - this defines what order this experience will appear on your website amongst others when the customer is retrieving a list of experiences at your winery.

7

Check all of the Requirement boxes that each booking requires:

Payment Method: This forces the customer to select an existing card on file, or enter a new card-on-file for later use if they don't have a card on file.

Email Address: Requires an email address for this customer for new accounts (or allows them to update their email if they already have an existing account)

Phone Number: Requires a phone number for this customer

 

8

Enter Description of this experience to display on your website.  HTML is ok to use here.

PARTY SETTINGS:

9

Enter number for Min Party Size (this controls the lowest guest quantity for this reservation type on your website).  E.g. 2

10

Enter number for Max Party Size (this controls the highest guest quantity for this reservation type on your website).  E.g. 8

11

Enter number for Max Parties per time slot (this controls how many total parties you can have in any given single time period.

12

Enter number for Overbook By # Parties (this allows you to overbook for this reservation type in case you have a no-show).

SCHEDULE:

13

Check Active box if this Booking Agent should display online.

14

(optional) Enter Begin / End Dates if you want this Booking Agent to show on your website for a very specific date range.

15

(optional) Select Blackout Dates: Very helpful if there are holidays or special event days at the winery and this Reservation Type is not available for public booking during those date(s).

16

Check Days of Week you want to make this reservation available for online booking.

17

(Display Only) Timezone (set in Company -> Locations) and dictated by Location selection in # 2.

18

Enter the First Time that your winery will seat & host for this reservation type.

19

Enter the Last Time that your winery will seat & host for this reservation type.

20

Enter a number (in minutes) for Offer Every - this controls the frequency of seatings displayed for the customer to choose from when booking online.  This is helpful if you want 30 minutes AFTER your previous experience booking, e.g. Offer every 90 minutes for a 1 hour duration.

21

Enter a number (x in hours) Book Ahead By.   The value used prohibits a customer from booking x hours before the next available time slot.  For example, if the start time for a day is 10 AM and the Offer Every is set to 1, then time slots will be available at 10,11,12,1, etc.  If Book Ahead By is set to 1 and it's 11:29 AM currently, the 12 PM time slot will not be available: the 1 PM will be the next available time slot.  If Book Ahead By is set it to 12, then it will look ahead 12+ hours to the next available time slot (from the current time). If you want a "24 hour" advance limitation, enter 24.  

Remember:  Book Ahead By x hours moves with the current time, not by any day-based calculation!

22

Enter a number (in hours) for Duration.  This is how long this reservation type lasts.  Note: Decimals are ok to use here, i.e. .75 = 45 minutes.

23

Hit the [Save] button to save this Booking Agent