When Hours of Operations are set up for a location, the following rules are imposed (with possible exceptions):
Exceptions:
User tip: The program Import Holidays can be used to import holiday records from an Excel spreadsheet, such as:A. In the Location record a field is provided to indicate if the location has an after hours drop box. If so, the return date and time can be outside of the location's designated operating hours.
B. A field in the Edit User Access File can be used to designate users who can enter pickup and return dates outside of the designated operating hours or on days closed due to a holiday.
C. Thermeon's Customer Support Dept. can set up the GVT Record "NOCHKHRS". When this is set up, the regular Reservation and RA Open programs do not check for Hours of Operation. However, the Hours of Operation are in force for any transactions made through WebRes.
To navigate through the records in this file, use:
To access the program, type EDITHRS (RET) at any menu "OPTION:" field or the appropriate line number on the Location Control File. The screen will then display:
| OPTION: __ EDIT HOURS OF OPERATION 1 Location 2 Effective Date 3 Holiday EARLY FIRST FIRST SECOND SECOND LATE RES RESTRICT DEL/COL HRS OPEN OPEN CLOSE OPEN CLOSE CLOSE START END START END 4 SUNDAY 14 MONDAY 24 TUESDAY 34 WEDNESDAY 44 THURSDAY 54 FRIDAY 64 SATURDAY 74 Closed Message 75 Override Closed Message 76 Early Pickup Opt 77 Second Early Pickup Opt 78 Late Pickup Opt 79 Early Return Opt 80 Second Early Return Opt 81 Late Return Opt 1SAVE 2NEXT 3ERASE 4DELETE 5BACKUP 6 7HELP 8 |
To set up Hours of Operation, enter data as follows:
|
1. LOCATION |
Enter up to 6 alphanumeric characters to indicate the location.
Both owned and foreign locations can have records in this file. This
field CANNOT be left blank. Location Groups do not work for the Hours of Operation, a
separate record for hours must exist for every operating location.
However to clone from one location to the other without having to
re-key, ensure the location you wish to clone from is on the screen,
then enter the new location, make any necessary adjustments and save EXAMPLE: Type TUS (RET) |
|
2. EFFECTIVE DATE |
Using the selected date format, enter the date when these hours become effective. They will remain in effect until another record for this Location with a more recent effective date is reached. EXAMPLE: Type 111518 (RET) |
|
3. HOLIDAY |
This field is used to indicate if there are special hours (or no hours due to being closed) for a holiday.
EXAMPLE: Press (RET) User tip: The method used to enter holidays is addressed in a special section later on in this chapter. |
|
4. - 73. OPEN / CLOSE |
This series of fields is used to enter:
NORMAL HOURS The normal hours of operation on a weekly basis entered here remain in effect until another record with a more recent date is reached. If the office is closed on a particular day of the week, leave the OPEN and CLOSE fields blank. EXAMPLE 1: Office is open Monday - Saturday and closed on Sunday. Leave all fields blank on a day when the office is closed. EARLY FIRST FIRST SECOND SECOND LATE RES RESTRICT DEL/COL HRS Notice above that Friday hours run from 0700 to 0200 on Saturday morning. After closing at 0200, the location reopens Saturday morning at 0900 and is open until 1700. WARNING: If you use Stop Sell, WebRes, WebXG, FrontDesk or WebXML, you cannot set up a location's hours of operation to extend beyond midnight. Such a set up is not recognized by those applications. For operations using these add-on applications, the above set up must be done as follows: EARLY FIRST FIRST SECOND SECOND LATE RES RESTRICT DEL/COL HRS ### The "Second" Open and Close columns can be used when the office closes for a time during the day and then re-opens later on. EXAMPLE 2: Office closes for 2 hours mid-day Monday through Saturday (from 1300 to 1500).
### To indicate that a location is open 24 hours enter 0000 and 2359 at the start and end times. EXAMPLE 3: Office is open 24 hrs a day Monday through Friday, Saturday until 2100, closed Sunday.
EARLY & LATE HOURS WITH SURCHARGE APPLIED Some locations offer service outside of their normal business hours providing that a customer is willing to pay an additional fee (referred to here as a "convenience surcharge".) For example, the operation may open at 7 am, but the customer needs to pick up or return the vehicle at 6:30 am. Or the location closes at 9 pm, but the customer needs to pick up or return at 10 pm. These situations can be handled by setting up "Early Open" and "Late Close" times. Additionally, options must be set up in order for the convenience surcharge to be applied to the RA. (Refer to Fields 75 to 81 later on in this chapter for details about the options.) EXAMPLE 4: Offer early open hours Monday, Friday, and Saturday; offer late close hours Friday and Saturday. EARLY FIRST FIRST SECOND SECOND LATE RES RESTRICT DEL/COL HRS In the above example, normal opening time Monday is 0700. However, if the customer is willing to pay the convenience surcharge, they can return or pick up the vehicle as early as 0600. Normal closing time Friday is 2100. If the customer is willing to pay a convenience surcharge, they can return or pick up the vehicle as late as 2300. IMPORTANT USER TIP: If when reserving the customer
makes arrangements to pick up or return the unit during 'early open'
hours, 'mid-day close' hours, or 'late close' hours, the convenience surcharge will be applied
to the reservation. If, instead, they come in during 'normal' hours,
the convenience surcharge will be REMOVED from the RA. The actual opening time and closing time are used to apply or remove the surcharge. Since this is set up as a 'dependent' option, it will not be listed in the Shift/F5 pop-up window of RA Open. Mid-day hours with surcharge applied For offices that close for a portion of the day, a convenience
surcharge can be applied if the customer is allowed to return or pick up the vehicle during the closed mid-day hours. For example, in the hours
defined below, the office is closed from 1300 to 1500 hours. Set up a
"Second Early Pickup Option" and/or a "Second Early Return Option" (see
Fields 77 and 80 below) for a convenience surcharge to apply to their
rental.
IMPORTANT USER TIP: Similar to the convenience surcharge for early open hours and late close hours (above), the actual opening time and closing time are used to apply or remove the surcharge. RESTRICTED RESERVATION PICK-UP HOURS To restrict when customers can pick up vehicles during normal
hours use the columns "RES RESTRICT". The hours entered here override
the normal 'Open' and 'Close' hours for reservation pickup times.
Entering '0000' in both of these columns restricts reservation pickups
for the entire day. EXAMPLE 5: Sunday: Office is open Sunday from 1300 to 1700, but Sunday cannot be used as a pick-up time for a reservation. (Note that 0000 is entered in the Res Restrict Start and End times.) The office is open for returns and walk up rentals. Monday to Wednesday: The office opens at 0700, but
reservation pickups are not allowed until 0800. The office closes at
2100, and reservation pickups are not allowed after 1900. Thursday: The office is opened 0700 to 2100 and there are no reservation pickup restrictions. Friday: Office is open at 0700. Reservation pick ups are not allowed until 0800. Saturday: Office is open 0900 to 1700. Reservation pickups are not allowed after 1500. EARLY FIRST FIRST SECOND SECOND LATE RES RESTRICT DEL/COL HRS DELIVERY AND COLLECTION HOURS Many operations offer the service of
delivering the vehicle to an offsite location that the renter has
requested, such as hotel or a repair shop. The reverse is true at the
end of the rental. Rather than returning it to a rental location, the
vehicle is picked up
by the rental staff at a designated drop-off location. The final two columns on
the screen are used to define the normal delivery and collection hours
if they differ from the rental office's normal hours of operation. NOTE:
These fields also can have an indirect affect on the pickup and return
times on a reservation (see the note below the example). EXAMPLE 6: Although the rental office is open from 0700 to 2100 Monday through Friday, deliveries and collections can only be made between the hours of 0800 and 1700. Vehicles cannot be delivered or collected Saturday.
When delivery and collection hours are turned on, reservations
cannot be made with a delivery or collection time outside the defined
hours. The one exception to this rule is when an after-hours delivery and/or collection surcharge
option is defined. See the chapter on Edit Misc Control Fields for instructions on setting up an after-hours delivery and/or
collection surcharge. (Page 5, Field 17: Del after hrs Option and Field
18: Col after hrs Option.) Effect on Reservation Pick up and Return Times: According to the set up displayed above, it is acceptable to book a reservation with a 0700 pickup on Monday morning. But if on that reservation the car is to be delivered to the client, the soonest the delivery can be made is 0800. Upon entering 0700 as the delivery time on the reservation, the reservation agent will receive an advisory message and BOTH the delivery time and the pick up time on the Main Window will automatically change to 0800 (it is not logical to say that the rental will begin an hour earlier than the delivery of the vehicle). The same is true on collections. Returning a vehicle at 1900 on
Monday night is acceptable -- unless a collection is to be made. Then
the
latest the vehicle can be kept is 1700. Entering a collection time
after 1700 on a reservation will cause both the Collection Time and the
Return Time on the Main Window to be changed to the latest collection
time defined here. This Return Time adjustment also occurs
in RA Open when a collection is set up there. |
| 74. CLOSED MESSAGE |
This field refers to only holiday hours. Do not use it for a closed message for regular hours. See the section below for more information. |
| 75. OVERRIDE CLOSED MESSAGE |
This field refers only to holiday hours. See the section below for more information. |
| SURCHARGE OPTIONS The next group of fields is used to define the Option Codes that should be applied to the rental if the pick up and/or return are scheduled during the early, mid-day, and/or late hours when the office is normally closed. RA Open and RA Close will add or remove the surcharge option(s) as appropriate based on the opening and closing times and the RA times override anything that was or was not applied to a reservation. USER TIP: In order for these fees to work on one-way rentals, all locations involved MUST use the same Option Codes. Please refer to the notes regarding "Multiple Locations" following Field 81 below. When the pick-up or return dates/times for a reservation or RA are outside of normal hours but within the early and late hours defined, the following message displays: PICKUP/RETURN OUTSIDE NORMAL BUSINESS HOURS, SURCHARGE WILL BE ADDED. OK? Y/N If the user replies "N", the pick-up or return time will be removed from the reservation or RA.A different option can be defined for each of the 6 conditions. To do less set up, there must be a minimum of 2 options: one that will apply to 'pickup' outside of normal hours and another one for 'returns' outside of normal hours. The options should be defined with quantity not allowed, set up as a flat fee, and 'dependently' applied. |
|
| 76. EARLY PICKUP OPTION |
Enter up to 5 characters representing the Option Code that should apply to the rental if the pick up is scheduled during the 'Early Open' hours. EXAMPLE: Type PK-E (RET) |
| 77. SECOND EARLY PICKUP OPTION |
Enter up to 5 characters representing the Option Code that should apply to the rental if the pick up is scheduled during the mid-day hours when the office is closed. EXAMPLE: Type PK-M (RET) |
| 78. LATE PICKUP OPTION |
Enter up to 5 characters representing the Option Code that should apply to the rental if the pick up is scheduled during the 'Late Close' hours. EXAMPLE: Type PK-L (RET) |
| 79. EARLY RETURN OPTION |
Enter up to 5 characters representing the Option Code that should apply
to the rental if the return is scheduled during the 'Early Open' hours. EXAMPLE: Type RET-E (RET) |
| 80. SECOND EARLY RETURN OPTION |
Enter up to 5 characters representing the Option Code that should apply
to the rental if the return is scheduled during the mid-day hours when
the office is closed. EXAMPLE: Type RET-M (RET) |
| 81. LATE RETURN OPTION |
Enter up to 5 characters representing the Option Code that should apply
to the rental if the return is scheduled during the 'Late Close' hours. EXAMPLE: Type RET-L (RET) |
| NOTES ABOUT MULTIPLE LOCATIONS: Operations with multiple locations MUST use the same Option Codes for early and late surcharges. The option rates at each location can vary, (they can even be zero) but the Option Code must be the same. Otherwise this feature will not work properly on one-way rentals. |
PRESS "F1" AT "OPTION:" TO SAVE THE RECORD.
The holiday hours feature is used for dates with special operating hours or dates when the business will be closed.
Maintaining Holiday RecordsHoliday records can be maintained either by entering them directly through this program (refer to instructions below) or by importing a file produced by a spreadsheet program and merged into CARS+ by means of the program Import Holidays.
To set up holiday hours, enter data as follows:
| 1. LOCATION |
If the holiday hours apply to ALL locations, leave this field blank. If the holiday hours apply to a single location, enter the location code. For rental operations that have locations in more than one country, a Country Code may be entered in this field for a national holiday. NOTE: A Location Group Code cannot be entered in this field. EXAMPLE: Press (RET) |
|
2. EFFECTIVE DATE |
Enter the holiday date. EXAMPLE: Type 010120 (RET) |
|
3. HOLIDAY |
Enter a "Y" to define to designate this entry as a holiday. It may have special hours or it may be closed.
EXAMPLE: Type Y (RET) |
|
4. - 64. |
The cursor will jump to the day of the week corresponding to the date entered. Enter the special hours for the holiday, or leave these fields blank if the office will be closed for the entire 24 hours of the holiday day. EXAMPLE 1: To show that the office will be open from 1 pm to 6 pm, enter: 1 Location TUS EXAMPLE 2: To show that the office will be closed that day, leave the Thursday fields blank. 1 Location TUS |
| 74. CLOSED MESSAGE |
If the office is to be closed for the entire holiday day (as in Example 2 above) enter the message that should display if the pick up or return date entered is this date. EXAMPLE: OFFICE WILL REOPEN JANUARY 2 AT 6 AM (RET) If the office will be open for part of the day with special holiday hours (as in Example 1 above), leave this field blank. If hours are entered in the fields above and a closed message is also entered here, the Close Message will be ignored as the hours mean that counter is NOT closed for the entire day. |
| 75. OVERRIDE CLOSED MESSAGE |
This field defines the extent of the closing caused by the Close Message entered in the previous field. Enter:
EXAMPLE: Y (RET) |
PRESS "F1" AT "OPTION:" TO SAVE THE RECORD.
HOLIDAY HOURS AND LOCATION DROP BOXES
Locations that are defined as having a vehicle key Drop Box (Refer to the chapter Edit Locations) will allow for vehicle returns on holiday days when the 'Override Closed Message" field above is set to "Y". When entering the return date and time on either a reservation or when
opening an RA, the agent will be warned that the location will be
closed. Then they will be asked if the renter wants to use the Drop
Box. If the answer is "Yes", the return will be allowed (even if the
agent does NOT have hours of operation override privileges). If the
answer is "No", the return date and time will be removed and a different return date and time must be entered.
ERROR MESSAGES
If a date is entered for a pickup or return date on the Reservations program or the RA Open program for a closed date, the date will be rejected, and the following message will display:
LOCATION xxx IS CLOSED FOR THIS DATE.
where "xxx" is the location requested.
If a time is entered that is either earlier than the opening time or later than closing time, the following message will displayed:
OPERATING HOURS FOR xxx ARE 0700 TO 2100.
where "xxx" is the location requested.
WEB RES. For those Thermeon Customers using the WebRes product, this file is read when an individual is attempting to make a Web Reservation. Dates and times outside of those specified in this file will not be accepted, and the user will see similar messages to those shown above.
RESERVATION INTERFACE. As a general rule, programs that CARS+ uses to merge in reservations from an outside source (such as a national reservation center) ignore this file. That is, reservations that are booked at a national reservation center for dates or times that the location is not open will NOT be rejected by the reservation interface program. To prevent these kinds of bookings, communicate with the national reservation center.
OTHER FIELDS THAT AFFECT HOURS OF OPERATION
Settings in the following fields affect the hours of operation logic. Refer to these chapters for details:
Edit Locations: Field: Drop Box
Edit User Access File: Field: Override Hours of Operation
The following tables summarize the interaction of these fields for holidays.
| Feature |
Results and comments |
| The Pickup Location has a drop box |
A drop box has no impact on the pickup date/time. It affects only the return date/time. |
|
The booking/opening agent is allowed to override hours of operation. Example: Location opens at 7 am, but the customer wishes to pick up at 6:30 am. |
The user will be warned that the location is closed but will be asked if they wish to continue. |
| The booking/opening agent is not allowed to override hours of operation. | The user will be advised that the location is closed, and the date/time will not be accepted. A manager Override is offered. |
|
The location is closed for a holiday and field 54 = N |
No user -- not even one with the override hours privilege -- can book a pickup for a location that is closed for a holiday. |
|
The location is closed for a holiday and field 54 = Y |
The user will be warned that the location is closed for a holiday but will be asked if they wish to continue. |
RETURN DATE and TIME ON RESERVATIONS AND RAs
| Feature |
Results and comments |
| The Pickup Location has a drop box |
The user will be warned with the following message: BEFORE/AFTER-HOURS RETURN. DROPBOX AVAILABLE. CONTINUE? |
|
The booking/opening agent is allowed to override hours of operation. |
The user will be warned that the location is closed but will be asked if they wish to continue. |
| The booking/opening agent is not allowed to override hours of operation. | The user will be advised that the location is closed, and the date/time will not be accepted. A manager Override is offered. |
|
The location is closed for a holiday and field 54 = "N" |
No user -- not even one with the override hours privilege -- can book a pickup for a location that is closed for a holiday. |
|
The location is closed for a holiday and field 54 = "Y" |
The user will be warned that the location is closed for a holiday but will be asked if they wish to continue. |