Reservations Overview

The RDP reservation system contains 30+ years of features, many of which have been added from customer requests. Below is just a short feature list and it would be best to get a demo of the system and discuss your specific needs with one of our sales specialists.

While the feature list refers to ‘Room’ and ‘Room Type’, these labels can be changed in the system for other hospitality market segments, such as Vacation Rentals (units), RV Parks (Site), Yachts (Boat), corporate housing and others.

Reservation Sources for Every Need

The RDP system allows short term and long term reservations for Hotels, Resorts, Condominiums, Vacation Rentals, Timeshare Resorts, RV/Campsites, Yachts, Parking Places and more. The system is designed to allow simultaneous reservations from internal reservationists, RDP’s commission free Internet Reservation Module (IRM), Global Distribution Systems (GDS), Online Travel Agents (OTA) and other 3rd party reservation systems.

RDPWin

RDPWin is the core of the RDP software suite. The feature set spans the breadth of the hospitality industry. Some of the features are listed below, but to really experience what this system can do for your property, contact an RDP sales representative for a demo.

Multi-user, networked system with remote capabilities
Easy navigation using a menu bar or Dashboard
Fast, reliable database
User management with permission structure to limit access in certain areas
Customized labels throughout the system
Hundreds of configuration options
Display grids for allowing sorting, grouping, exporting and more
Quick Find routines
Multiple Windows allowed
Interfaces to many 3rd party systems

Internet Reservation Module (IRM)

The IRM booking engine conducts business 24 hours a day, 365 days a year
All reservations are commission free
The IRM is completely customizable, with total control as to the look and feel, pictures, descriptions, amenities, labels and much more. Match your marketing web site look and feel and add your own menu and banner sections.

IRM Phone & Tablet Reservations

Many guests use their phone or Tablet to browse for a room and make reservations.

The IRM is a completely responsive web application that detects the type of device (phone, tablet, desktop) and automatically adjusts the layout, size of pictures and text to match the display size.

GDS, OTA & Meta Search Interfaces

RDP has an extensive collection of interfaces that allow other 3rd party companies to access RDP availability and rates and to add reservations directly into the RDP database. This is in total sync with internal operations on RDPWin and free on-line reservations from the IRM.

Interface directly with GDS companies like SynXis/Sabre.

Direct OTA interfaces like Booking.com and Expedia are available.

Aggregators of Meta Search companies such as SiteMinder, Red Awning complete the options allowing reservations from Flipkey/TripAdvisor, HomeAway/VRBO and many more.

API & 3rd Party Partners

RDP maintains an Application Programming Interface (API) which allows 3rd parties to access the RDP database. It is commonly used to access reservation and guest data for analysis. It can also be used to obtain rates and availability. In some cases, 3rd parties will also add new reservations to the system.

One of the RDP partners creates a specialized marketing web site that mimics the IRM. This web site will show available rooms and rates, collect the reservation information and make the reservation all through the API. This process is totally compatible with all the other sources listed here. The reservation is available to RDPWin and last room availability is correctly adhered to.

Common Reservation Features

Below are just some of the reservation features that are common for each market segment: hotel, condo, timeshare, campground, corporate housing, yachts and others. There are specific features for each market segment shown in that part of the website. While these features work a specific way, RDP is always open to changing the system to accommodate specific needs.

Tape Chart

A major feature of the reservation system is the Tape Chart. It provides an overall view of each room in the property and the reservations for each room as a reservation bar on the room number line. Many customers use this as their starting screen (configurable).

Search for reservation by name, room, reservation number, etc.
View all reservation detail by clicking on a bar
After a bar is selected, use all the reservation options, like Post Charge, Check-in/out, Add Room, etc.
Make a new reservations with a click & drag
- Show Available rooms for certain dates
- Use Room Preferences to narrow search
Move a reservation bar to another room by dragging the bar
Change the reservation dates by clicking and dragging the bar ends
Color coded reservation bars by:
- Reservation type (paying guest, comp, owner, Exchange, etc.)
- Group
- Comp
- Deposit Paid & Partially paid
- Maintenance
- Lock-off
- VIP
Lock-offs are fully supported
View historic, checked-out reservations for prior dates

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Assign Room Type or Room Number

Most hotel customers assign a room type during the reservation process and then assign the room number prior to or at check-in. A room number can be assigned or changed at any time. This process works well when overbooking is part of the normal reservation process. There are extensive overbooking threshold features in the RDP system that also can apply to the IRM and GDS/OTA interfaces.

However, other customers requiring last room availability, like vacation rental managers, will assign the room number during the reservation process. Rooms can be changed for the guest at any time. Room preferences can be used to make sure the guest has the type and amenities desired for their stay. When assigning a room, the system will display existing reservations to assist in optimizing back-to-backs.

The IRM can also be configured to assign either a room type only or a room number or even show room types, but assign a room number in the background.

Maximum people can be configured on both a room type and room number to assure that the correct size room is assigned for the guest.

If the Owner Billing module is used, the system will pay the owner of each room used by the guest the correct amount.

Itinerary & Concierge

This part of the system is a great way to track and charge for all the extra events that happen on the property or any other ad hoc items guests can purchase. There is extensive capability within this module.

This optional module provides the ability for RDPWin & IRM to create itineraries for guests. An itinerary consists of activities. Each activity is part of a Vendor definition.

For example, a vendor might be ‘SPA’ and have activities such as ‘Massage’, ‘Jacuzzi’, ‘Hot Stone’, Pedicure and more. Any of these activities can be added to the reservation to create an itinerary. The activity can be added with RDPWin or by the guest when making a reservation on the IRM. The IRM also has the ability to allow a non-guest to purchase an activity on-line.

Hourly, Inventory or neither.

Hourly activities can be scheduled down to 15 minute increments. RDPWin will display a tape chart for the activity and allow one to be schedule by click and dragging the correct times. This allows no overbooking for a specific massage table.

Inventory activities decrement a total availability count when one is assigned to a guest. These might be for a ferry with a certain number of seats or a Luau or anything that has a limited number of items. The inventory can be on an activity or a vendor.

Pricing

Activities can have no price at all, a fixed price or pricing that is dependent on the room number, room type and season. It can be a fixed price for an activity or based on the number of people on the activity. The resulting cost shows up as a charge on the guest folio automatically and is adjusted with any changes.

Tickets or coupons can be printed to access the activity.

Yield Management

When making a new reservation or changing an existing reservation, the Yield Management screen is available to select the appropriate rate depending on the current occupancy of the entire property or the selected room type. Select the room type and rate plan and then either accept the standard, configured rates or manually override them.

All room types are displayed with the number of available rooms remaining for each day of the stay
Available rate plans are displayed depending on the occupancy, min nights and other factors
Rates and rate plans for the room type and rate plan are displayed for each day
Daily rates and rate plans can be overridden on a daily basis
Property wide occupancy stats are displayed
- Available Rooms
- Rooms Sold
- Occupancy %
- Group Blocks
- Maintenance

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Reservations and Work Orders

RDP reservations and Work Orders and Assets module are fully integrated.

For example, if a room has been damaged and will be out of service for four days to complete repairs, when the work order is entered for this room, the system will remove the room from availability by adding a Maintenance reservation.

This allows the maintenance department or front desk to easily put a room out of order. When the work order is closed, the maintenance reservation can be removed to free up the room.

The Work Order module allows for both work orders that are room number specific or tasks that are reservation specific. Tasks will always remain with the guest even if the guest changes rooms.

Reservations displayed in RDPWin each have a tab for both work orders and tasks.

Reservations and Housekeeping

RDP’s Housekeeping system features are the most extensive in the industry.

Each reservation can be assigned a cleaning pattern by reservation type (short term, long term, owner and more). Each pattern is comprised of clean types like daily, mid-week, tidy and check-out. Clean types are configurable by each customer. So a short term reservation can have a daily clean each day and a check-out clean on the departure date. A long term reservation can have mid-week cleans and a check-out clean. These are totally configurable for your needs.

The patterns can be overridden for a specific date and reservation
Clean types can be assigned clean times
Clean types can be assigned a cost
Costs can be billed to the guest or an owner
In-house housekeeping or outside vendors can be assigned and payables tracked
Customizable checklists
- Used to make sure room attendant completes all tasks
- Specific to room type or even room number

Long Term Reservations

Long term reservations can be created for guests staying more than 30 days (minimum long term length of stay is configurable). A long term reservation can calculate monthly rent with the ability to override and pro-rate the rent.

Require long term reservation for stays longer than a specified number of nights
Rates can be entered manually or a rate plan can be used
Next month’s rent can be due on a configured day of the month
Require 1st month’s rent due a certain number of days prior to arrival or from the reservation entry date
Set a tax rate for all reservations longer than a specified number of nights based the tax rules
Email or send statements monthly to notify guests of rent due or of other charges that have incurred
Create leases for the guest to sign

Change Tracking

RDP software has a complete change tracking system. All changes in system are recorded as soon as the change is committed to the database. The user, date, time and entity are recorded. Change tracking will determine the exact field that was changed and then record the old value and the new value for later use.

Each of the entities below have a Change Tracking tab which shows the changes made for each update. This also allows for the reconstruction of the entity for any given date and time.

There are 10 standard reports for viewing things like Room Moves by Date. There is also an Analysis option to allow sorting, grouping and filtering to help determine who made what changes and when.

It is also very easy to see which employee made which changes on any of the entities below.

Changes are tracked for these entities:

Reservations
Rooms
Guest History
Travel Agents
Groups
Owners
Activity Vendors
And More

Room Rate Calculation

Room rates can be determined based on room type, room number, season, day of year, number of people, group, weekends and more. Daily rates, weekly rates, monthly rates and other time periods are allowed. The combinations are extensive. Please contact an RDP sales representative to discuss your particular room rate requirements.

Packages allow existing room rates to be bundled with additional components. See Room Rates and Packages below for more information on packages.

Any calculated room rate can be overridden either for one specific day, a range of days or an override can be entered for the total room charge for the entire stay, removing the daily rates entirely
Tax rates, commissions to travel agents, management fees and owner portions are calculated on each room charge
Best Available Rates can be configured so that depending on the occupancy, the appropriate rate plan will be used (Yield Management) – See Best Available Rates below
Rate Plan Patterns can be established to use certain rates on certain days of the stay instead of being based on day of year – See Rate Plan Patterns below
RDPWin, IRM and GDS/OTA interfaces can each have specific room rates and rate plans
Rates can be restricted from use by length of stay, day of week, group only, start date and end date
Percentage or dollar discounts can be easily added to an existing rate plan to make a new rate plan
Complimentary rates are also a standard feature and can be applied for any day of the stay

Additional Reservation Charges

The system can automatically add additional charges to the guest folio. The charges below are configured by the property by specifying the description, amount, GL account, pricing, interval and more. These additional charges can be specific to RDPWin, IRM or both.

Daily Charges

A charge for items like parking fee, crib, golf cart, pet charge or any other add-on can be configured to be added automatically or on demand. Daily charges can be either a fixed amount or a price based on the day of year (season), room type or room number. They can be turned on/off at any time during the stay or configured to be active automatically upon making the reservation. If the number of nights changes, the additional charges will reflect the changes. Even though these are called Daily Charges, any interval can be used, like every 2 days, weekly, etc.

Other Charges

This category of additional charges are a one time fee for things like resort fee, destination fee, cleaning fee and anything else required by the property. Pricing can be a fixed amount, amount based on total room charge, total package charge or total charge including all additional charges with or without taxes. Other Charges can be specifically applied to only a paying guest, owner, guest of owner, owner referral, group, long term, special or comp reservation or any combination. These charges can also have a maximum cap price.

Room Rate and Packages

Packages are a huge part of rate calculation and allow existing room rates to be bundled with any number of additional components. The components can be charged one time during the stay on the arrival date or change of rate plan or on a daily basis. To the guest, it is one charge on the folio, but in the system, these bundled charges are broken out both statistically, in the RDP accounting ledger and the GL accounting ledger.

Single charge on guest folio
Combine packages and standard room rates on one reservation
Automatic price calculation based on room type, room number, seasons, weekend, holidays, and more
Unique GL account numbers for each component
Daily and one time components
Manual price override with optional management password
Detailed package breakout on the folio, in Stats and GL ledgers
Rate restrictions apply (minimum stay, arrival range, etc.)
Distinct packages for the IRM

Best Available Rates

Best Available Rates (BAR) are a collection of rate plans that correspond to specific calendar dates. This allows rate fluctuations based on holidays, special events, weekends and seasons. Rate Plan cutoffs control which rates are allowed based on the occupancy percentage (either property wide or by room type).

Customers use this feature extensively to stay competitive with other hospitality companies, often changing the BAR daily.

If reservations are changed (room type, room number, arrival/departure dates or people), the system will display both the old rates and the new calculated rates and allow the choice to be made by the user.

Rate Plan Patterns

Rate Plan Patterns are a collection of rate plans that are based on the day of the stay rather than a calendar date. They can be used to offer a free night during the stay or a discounted rate after a certain number of days. The pattern is based on the the room type or room number and the number of days of the stay. Each day of the stay is assigned a specific rate plan or package.

For example, if there is a policy to have the 4th night free, then any reservation less than 4 days will have the assigned rates. If a reservation is 4 or more days, then every 4th day will be assigned a complimentary rate of zero. See the table below.

Day #	Controlling Rate Plan PAT1	Controlling Rate Plan PAT2
1	RACK	RACK
2	RACK	RACK
3	RACK	RACK
4	COMP	10DC
5	RACK	10DC
6	RACK	10DC
7	RACK	20DC
8	COMP	20DC

Guest Folio

Every reservation can have a guest folio with complete detail of all charges and payments. For some reservation types, like Complimentary stays or Owners, a folio may not be necessary.

Charges can be easily added, changed or deleted (reversed)
Charges and payments can be transferred to a different reservation
Guest charges can be transferred to an owner account
Room charges and recurring guest charges are posted during the night audit/close day process
For a group, charges for a group member can be automatically posted to the group leader so one payment can be made by the group leader for all group members. Some charges can be posted on the group leader folio and others on the group member folio
A charge summary tab shows the totals for the folio in categories such as room charge, tax, other charges, payments, balance due, group master charges and group leader charges
Charge descriptions can be overridden
Package charges show the daily total for the guest to see. Within RDPWin, the breakout of the package can be seen
Folio charges can be configured (and changed) to be included in travel agent commission or owner portion
Tax rates can be different for each charge
Charges can also be configured to be daily (or other sequences like every other day), or one-time, such as resort fees
Folios can be printed or emailed for the guest to view

Credit Card Interface – RDPPay

RDP’s credit card interface is fully compatible with the reservation process and is fully PCI compliant. Guests can securely enter their credit card information while making reservations on-line with the IRM. When on property, the guest can use secure credit card terminals to apply payments. No credit card data is held in the RDP database since it is all tokenized.

All support for the entire credit card process through RDP Support
End-to-end encrypted transactions
Integrated reporting and reconciliation in RDPWin
Works with RDPWin, IRM and all mobile products
EMV & non-EMV credit card terminals
Signature capture
Apple Pay & Google Pay
Multiple credit cards on reservations
Works with Owner payments
Tools to help you through the PCI DSS reporting process

Advance Deposits

RDPWin & IRM can be configured to automatically calculate advance deposits. This is an extensive feature. Up to 2 deposits can be collected prior to arrival. If needed the remaining balance can be collected during check-in.

Deposit confirmation emails are automatically sent based on the deposit due date.

If a reservation is cancelled, the advance deposit can be refunded fully, partially refunded or held on account to be used on a future reservation.

Deposits can be configured with the following parameters:

Due Date
- X number of days after booking (Normally Deposit 1)
- X number of days prior to arrival (Normally Deposit 2)
- On a specific date
Deposits can be calculated be as a percentage or dollar amount on the following:
- Entire Stay
- Total Room Charge
- Nightly Rate
- Specific amount
- Remaining Balance (Deposit 2)

Security Deposits

Security Deposits are considered a special case of Other Charges (see above). A security deposit can also be added by the IRM. The process for security deposits is as follows:

Security deposit is calculated when the reservation is made based on configuration
The folio charge remains on the folio through the check-in process
The reservation is checked-out
If a charge is posted to the reservation after check-out, it can be deducted from the current security deposit balance or not
Once all the charges have been settled against the security deposit, the remaining amount can be refunded fully or partially

Room Preferences / Guest Requests

Each room or room type can be assigned specific attributes. The attribute category can be things like smoking/non-smoking, pets allowed, floor, view, number of beds/baths. For RV parks, these can be length, hook-ups, pull-through and more. For yachts, they could be berths, Air conditioning, fly bridge, water maker, etc.

When making a reservation, along with the room type, the preferences can be entered to narrow the search for the appropriate room type or room with those attributes for the guest.

These preferences can optionally be used with the IRM
Guest preferences are stored on each reservation
For RV parks and others, a condition can be applied to the preference
- Equals
- Less than
- Less than or equal
- Greater than
- Greater than or equal
- In

Denial Tracking

Denial Tracking is an optional module. Please contact an RDP sales representative for pricing.

With denial tracking, if a new reservation is started and a rate is quoted and then abandoned, the system prompts for the reason the reservation wasn’t made. These reasons are configured by each property and can be added on the fly during this process. The Source of Business is also requested. This information is then stored in the database.

A set of standard reports are provided to view reservation denial details by arrival date, calendar date, reason and user.

There is also an Analysis screen which allows ad hoc reporting on this information.

Lock-Offs

Some properties have rooms that are built to be flexible. A simple example is where two rooms have a connecting door. This configuration could be 2 one bedroom units or 1 two bedroom unit.

Lock-offs can become quite complex. The RDP system allows for a master room, which encompasses all parts of the room, mid-levels, which are part of the master and sub-units, which can be part of a master room or a mid-level.

Reservation availability will automatically account for these configurations to display all possibilities that are available. When a reservation is made in the lock-off piece availability is automatically adjusted, so if a sub-unit is rented, then the appropriate mid-level, master or other sub-unit will be flagged as unavailable.

The Tape Chart and the Available Rooms screens both display and account for the lock-off information.

Guest History

A new guest history number (database record) is created for each new reservation if that guest has not stayed prior. In the case of a repeating guest, an existing guest history number will be added to the reservation. This creates a many (reservation numbers) to one (guest history number) relationship. A guest history number can have an unlimited number of reservations related to it.

The benefits of this are:

Automatically fill in the name, address, phone and other fields when making a new reservation for a repeat guest
Marketing to the one guest history number instead of multiple reservations
Track all reservations for a specific guest

Customer Relation Module (CRM)

For RDP customers with only one property and no frequent guest program, Guest History will suffice. Some customers, however, have multiple property locations with the property’s databases on the same computer system. In this case, an umbrella entity, the CRM, can be used to tie all the information together. The CRM also provides a points system for frequent guests.

In order to find out more about the CRM, please contact an RDP sales representative.

Groups & Companies

Many RDP customers work with groups, which might consist of a family needing two rooms, a one time event where many rooms are needed or a corporate account where employees return on a regular basis. RDP’s Groups & Companies module is included as a standard module to handle these situations.

A group master can be defined in the system with many attributes including tax code, rate plans before/during/after, default arrival and departure dates and whether the group has a block or not.

The group block will reserve a certain number of room types or rooms for a group. A reservation made for a group with a block, with decrement the rooms remaining to be assigned to the block. The system will keep track of overbooking the block.

The Add Room function allows a quick way to form a group with an existing reservation
Sharewiths form a group within the same room
A group master or group leader can be added to any individual reservation
The Group Reservation feature will quickly add many rooms or room types to one group master or group leader
Group Change feature allows bulk changes to all reservations in a group
Group leaders allow subsets of reservations for a specific group master or company
Billing of charges can be to a guest, a group leader or a group master or any combination
Rooming list feature to assign a guest to a room in the block is available in RDPWin and on the IRM

Owner Billing

The reservation system is fully integrated with RDP’s Condominium Owner Billing module, which is designed for managing individually owned properties rented on a short-term or long-term basis. Reservation features that apply to this module include:

Owner, Owner Referral and Guest of Owner reservations
Reservation revenue flows to owner statement
Management fees are automatically deducted
Travel agent commissions and credit card fees are deducted and can be split by any amount with management or fully paid by the owner
Owners can make reservations, check account status, pay their balance, enter work orders, view statements and documents and more using the IRM Owner Portal
Direct charges can be posted
Global post charges to all owners or a filtered set of owners
Owner recurring charges
Owner charges related to reservations
Owner statements emailed and available on-line
Tax forms (1099-Misc and 1042S) generated
Statistics and Reporting of revenue and payments
Past balance due tracking
Interest and Late Fees can be applied
Fully integrated with the Work Order module
Documents and Newsletters emailed or on-line

Travel Agent & Wholesaler

Up to 3 travel agents can be added to each reservation as needed. A commission structure is assigned to each travel agent and can be overridden at any time.

Any travel agent can be set up to pre-deduct the commission. This often happens for wholesalers, who hold back the commission and send the net amount to the property.

Some of the travel agent features are:

Commission on selected guest charges (room charge only OR room + certain additional charges)
Track reservations for each travel agent
Print or email statements
Generate commission checks
Generate tax forms
Define owner split for paying commissions
- Even split
- Management pays all
- Owner pays all
- Split based on owner revenue share

Confirmations

Confirmations are entirely designed by each customer. HTML emails can have the same look and feel of your marketing site.

Confirmations can include any reservation detail
Folios can be included in the confirmation
If using a lock system interface, the lock key code or gate code can be included
If itineraries are used, activity listing can be part of the confirmation

When making a new reservation, the system can email the confirmation at that point or send it automatically in a batch with other confirmations.

A confirmation can be sent for the following:

New reservations optionally requesting a deposit
Deposit received
Second deposit request/received
Prior to arrival
Reservation changed
Reservation cancelled
Return of security deposit
After check-out with optional survey link
Manually at any time

Confirmations can either be a Crystal Report that is attached to an email or the preferred method which is an HTML email template that is filled in by the system when sent to the guest. The HTML email can be styled to match the property’s marketing web site and provides a much better experience for the guest.

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Registration Cards

Registration cards can be customized for each property. Multiple reg cards can be used. Some properties print out the reg cards the night before the next day arrivals. There is also an option to print the reg card during check-in.

With the RDPPay credit card interface, the reg card can be loaded into the credit card terminal so that a guest can read and sign the reg card on the credit card terminal. The exact reg card and signature are stored in a secure location and can be viewed on the reservation tab and emailed or reprinted if needed.

Reporting & Mass Emails

Crystal Reports is used for all RDP reporting. There are many reports included with the system. With the Crystal Reports editor, anyone can alter or create new reports using any data from the RDP system. For example, it is common for the Arrival report to be modified so that certain important information shows. It is also normal for new customers to request custom reports.

As part of the Reporting module, RDPWin can send mass emails to reservations (By Arrival, By Departure, All In-house, Deposit Due, Entry Date or Change Date), guest history, CRM, groups, travel agents and owners. These can be newsletters or any other communication.

To see a complete list of reports, please contact an RDP sales representative.

Statistical Reporting

There are many areas of statistical reporting built in to the RDP systems. There are statistical screens as well as Crystal Reports.

The main stat categories are:

Revenue By:
- State
- Country
- Geographic Area
- Market Code
- Source of Business
- Room Type
RDP Ledgers
General Ledger
Package Components
Surveys (optional module)

The system tracks month-to-date and year-to-date revenue. Drill-down flows from monthly totals to daily amounts to specific charges with access to the reservation information.

Over 70 statistical Crystal reports are standard in the system.