I. INTRODUCTION
CARS+ provides several tools to manage rates and bookings. By using them, various messages can be generated regarding overbooking, and rental agents can be trained to handle those situations.
However, oftentimes reservations need to be restricted by parties using WebRes or organizations using certain reservation interface programs. Thus there is a need for the ability to easily turn off and on reservation bookings from all of these sources based on a variety of criteria. This can be accomplished by using a very powerful and flexible tool called the “Rules Engine”.
In all fields that allow multiple code entries (Locations, Classes, Etc) these should be comma separated with no spaces. Where you wish to combine a list of codes and groups (Location groups, Class groups) you must enter the group names last, after listing the individual records. e.g. LUA50,LUA51,+FF rather than +FF,LUA50,LUA51
The Rules Engine provides a way to easily enter “rules” in a spreadsheet type format for two types of records: Stopsell and OnRequest
A. STOPSELL
The "stopsell" feature allows you to create rules that turn bookings off and on based on any, some, or all of the following:
- date
- location
- rate product
- vehicle class
- rate segment
- source
Examples of situations where using the Stopsell logic is convenient are:
Turn off reservations for minivans over a certain weekend at all but the most lucrative rate.
Block the use of a particular rate for a holiday period at all airport locations.
When anticipated utilization is getting high, turn off bookings from a particular source that typically provides reservations at discounted rates.
Individual users can be defined so that if they encounter a "stopsell" block, they can overide it and save the transaction as a confirmed Reservation.
B. ON REQUEST
The OnRequest function allows you to create rules that force a reservation into a “request” status rather than a “confirmed” status. OnRequest rules have the same variety of options to govern them as Stopsell rules have (date, location, rate, class, source, etc.) When a reservation falls under an OnRequest rule, it is saved in CARS+ with a status of “R”.
OnRequest rules currently apply to WebRes, WebXML (reservation interfaces), and the Reservations program in CARS+. It is expected to be added to WebPlan as well.
Individual users can be defined so that if they encounter a "stopsell" block, they can overide it and save the transaction as a Request.
II. ACCESSING STOPSELL AND CREATING RECORDS
Stopsell is accessed by logging in to WebXG (the portal on Thermeon’s website. )
Select: Applications > Rate Management > Stopsell
Current records will display automatically. An example of some existing Stopsell records are shown below.
Enter data as follows:
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ACTION |
Using the dropdown menu, select: STOPSELL – this creates a rule that will block the reservation from being made. ONREQUEST – this creates a rule that accepts the reservation, but in a “request” status rather than a “confirmed” status. |
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NAME |
Enter a descriptive name for the record. This will help in locating the record in the future. Example:Type:Block MVAR at LOCAL |
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USER |
If this rule applies to all users, leave this field blank. To limit the rule to a particular user, including WebMXL interfaces, which each have their own user code, enter the user code. (This provides the ability to set up records for specific interfaces.) User tip: Use this field for testing. For example, enter your user code in order to test a rule. Once it tests satisfactorily, remove the user code to implement it system-wide. User tip: A field in the Edit User Access File record can exempt certain users from Stopsell blocks. |
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START DATE/ END DATE |
Enter the date range that the Stopsell or the OnRequest record will be in effect. Format is YYYY-MM-DD. EXAMPLE: Type 2014-05-01 (RET) The date above represents May 1, 2014. |
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LEAD MINUTES |
Lead minutes (lead time) is a feature designed to provide a minimum amount of operational time between the reservation booking and the pickup date/time. For example, entering 120 lead minutes means that when booking a reservation, the pickup time has to be at least 2 hours later than the current time. Additionally, those 2 hours must be hours during which the rental operation is open. The location’s Hours of Operation record defines when the location is open, and must exist in order to use the Lead Minutes feature. Note that the closing time on the Hours of Operations record cannot be 0000. Let’s use an example to illustrate lead minutes. Assume that a Stopsell record calls for 300 lead minutes for minivans (Class MVAR).(See screen shot below.) |
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Next, assume that the location’s Hours of Operation are 0700 to 1800 each day. Assume the current time is 5 pm (1700) when a customer calls to book a reservation for a pickup the tomorrow morning at 7 am. Since it is currently 5 pm, there is only 1 operating hour left in the current day. In order to meet the requirement of 300 lead minutes (5 hours), the earliest acceptablereservation pickup time is 1100 tomorrow; 4 hours after the location opens. (The 1 hour from today plus the 4 hours tomorrow morning make up the 5 hours or 300 lead minutes.) In CARS+ when a reservation is subject to a stopsell based on the lead minutes, the initial date/time requested is replaced with the earliest date/time at which the reservation can be made.The message displayed is: EARLIEST AVAIL P-U DATE/TIME ADJUSTED ON SCREEN – PLS REVIEW If acceptable, continue the saving process. If the adjusted time is not acceptable to the customer, you can offer to save the reservation in a Request status (status R) and offer to follow-up. (Request status reservations can be displayed in On-Line Res Display.More on this later.) |
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INCL LOCS/ EXCL LOCS |
Include Locations/ Exclude Locations These columns will accept Location Codes or Group Codes. DO NOT ENTER THE WORD "ALL". A blank in any field means "ALL". If a rule applies to only one location or to a Location Group, enter the code in the “Include Locations” field. When the “Include” column is blank and a Location Code or Group Code is entered in the “Exclude” column, it’s assumed that the Stopsell or OnRequest applies to all locations except for the one(s) in the “Exclude” column. Examples:
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INCL RT GRP/ EXCL RT GRP |
Include Rate Group/ Exclude Rate Group These columns will accept Rate Group Codes. If a rule applies to the locations of a Rate Group, enter the code in the “Include Rate Group” field. When the “Include” column is blank and a Rate Group Code is entered in the “Exclude” column, it’s assumed that the Stopsell or the OnRequest record applies to all locations that are not members of the Rate Groups in the “Exclude” column. Examples
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INCL RATE/ EXCL RATE |
Include Rate / Exclude Rate These columns accept a Rate Product Code. If a rule applies to a particular Rate product, enter the code in the “Include Rate” field. When the “Include” column is blank and Rate product is entered in the “Exclude” column, it’s assumed that the Stopsell or OnRequest applies to all Rate products except for the one in the “Exclude” column. Example:
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INCL CLASS/ EXCL CLASS |
Include Class / Exclude Class These columns accept Class Code or Group Class Codes. If a rule applies to only one Class or to a Class Group, enter the code in the “Include Class” field. Similar to the previous columns, when the “Include” column is blank and a Class Code or Class Group Code is entered in the “Exclude” column, it is assumed that the Stopsell or OnRequest applies to all Classes except for the one(s) in the “Exclude” column. Example
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INCL RT SEG/ EXCL RT SEG |
Include Rate Segment / Exclude Rate Segment The Segment field in the Rental Rates/ Rules record is a free form field that can be used to identify the type of business for which a rate is primarily used such as leisure, corporate, government, insurance, etc. Use these fields to include or exclude rates using the Segment Code. Example
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INCL SRC/ EXCL SRC |
Include Source Code / Exclude Source Code These columns accept Source Codes and Source Groups.A Source Group must be prefixed by a “+” to be recognized as a group. If a rule applies to only one Source Code, enter the code in the “Include Source Code” field. Similar to the previous columns, when the “Include” column is blank and a Source Code is entered in the “Exclude” column, it is assumed that the Stopsell or OnRequest applies to all Sources except for the one in the “Exclude” column. Example
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| INCL CDPID/ EXCL CDPID |
Include CDPID / Exclude CDPID These columns accept a single CDPID or a string of (multiple) CDPID's separated by a comma. Similar to the previous columns, when the “Include” column is blank and a CDPID is entered in the “Excl CDPID” column, it is assumed that the Stopsell or OnRequest applies to all CDPID's except for the one in the “Exclude” column. Example
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| BILL-TO OVERRIDE | This field is for a hierarchy level that ranges from 1 to 999, with 1 being the lowest. In the customer record the field "Cls Avail Override" is used to define what hierarchy level a direct bill customer needs to have in order to bypass the stopsell logic. By assigning a hierarchy level to a direct bill customer, reservations generated with that direct bill party will be able to override restrictions in the stopsell logic when their level is equal or higher to the level in the stopsell record. If certain direct bill customers should be able to override the record, enter an appropriate hierarchy level. EXAMPLE: Type 50 (RET) SAVING RECORDS To save a record, click “Save”. User tip: A record must be saved before a message can be entered for it.(Messages are addressed below.) REMOVING RECORDS To remove a Stopsell or OnRequest record:click“Remove”, this will cause that record to be highlighted, then click “Save”. MESSAGES When a transaction is blocked due to the Stopsell or OnRequest logic, the standard response message is (such as on the Reservations screen) is one of the following: STOPSELL INVOKED ONREQUEST INVOKED Obviously, these messages do not indicate what part(s) of the transaction caused the block. For instance, it could be the vehicle class, the rate code, or the source code or a combination of all of these. Therefore, messages can be added to each rule to provide the user with more pertinent information as to why the rule has been invoked. Click on the MESSAGES button at the end of each rule to enter an appropriate explanation that will appear on the program screen as a message. Note: The rule for the Stopsell or OnRequest must be saved before a message can be created for it. After clicking on the MESSAGES button, the screen will display as follows: |
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CONTEXT |
To create a new message, click “New”. On the MESSAGES page, select the context for the rule. That is, specify in what program the message should be used. For example, the message that appears in WebRes will likely be different from the one displayed in the Reservations screen. Click on down arrow to bring upa drop down menu of the choices as illustrated below. |
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Choices: WebXMLand Web OTA – these are reservation interface programs WebRes- Thermeon’s WebRes application WebPlan – Thermeon’s WebPlan application RESUPD – CARS+ Reservations program WebRent – Thermeon’s WebRent application Default – If the default is accepted, the basic messages display: STOPSELL INVOKED ONREQUEST INVOKED |
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LANGUAGE |
For those using other than English on browser based applications (WebRES and WebRENT), enter the two character ISO country code in browser format. (Check the languages in your own browser). For example, EN is generally the browser code for English. There are also variations such as EN_US and EN_GB. |
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MESSAGE |
Messages can be up to 65 characters. For example, on the Reservations screen, it would be helpful to display a message similar to the following one: Rate NAT blocked at airport locations through 15 June. An example of this message is shown below |
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To save the message, click “Save”. To remove the message, click “Remove”. User tip: Clicking “Remove” on the first screen will cause the entire record to be deleted; clicking “Remove” on the message screen causes only the message to be deleted.) |
III. REQUEST RESERVATIONS
A. Manually Saving a Reservation as a Request
When entering a reservation and the user is aware that they are encountering blocks from Stopsell rules, they can set the status of the reservation to “R” prior to saving it. This will place the reservation in request status and turns off the rules engine logic during the saving process.When saved, the following message will display:
SAVED AS REQUEST RES # xxxxxx
(where xxxxxx is the reservation number)
B. Encountering OnRequest Rules from the Rules Engine:
When an OnRequest rule is encountered for any reason other than leadtime, first either the default message (ONREQUEST invoked),or the message entered for the OnRequest record is displayed. Following that, the message shown below will display:
CANNOT BE CONFIRMED – SAVE AS REQUEST ONLY?(Y/N)
Enter:
N = Stop the saving process.This allows the user to adjust the class, rate product, etc. of whatever is causing the OnRequest to be invoked.
Y = Save the reservation in “R” (request) status.
IV. ON-LINE RES DISPLAY
A reservation in “R” status is picked up automatically by WebXML.However, for all other circumstances the booking party needs to be notified manually.Therefore, it is necessary to check for request status reservations throughout the day.
Request reservations can be displayed in On-Line Res Display by entering “R” (RET) at the “OPTION” field.
The column headings change for the Request status reservations (illustrated below).
| OPTION: R ONLINE RESERVATION DISPLAY Ln Cr Date Time Empl Driver Res# Date Time Cls Location SRC SDd LOCATION: ALL 01 04-06 1830 JEG SWEENEY,PHIL AA000V 06-06 0800 MVAR SNA ACC 02 04-06 2200 MMB WILLIAMS,EMMA PE0156 08-06 1230 CCAR SNA REP F1OPEN F2CLOSE F3RES F4REFRESH F5NEW LOC F6SEARCH F7HELP F8NXT-20 |
Notice that the create date/time/user along with the Location, Pickup date, Class, and Source are shown. The Location automatically changes to ALL. The requests are displayed with the oldest create date/time listed first.
To select a Request reservation, enter the line number.It will be brought up automatically on the Reservations screen. After determining whether or not it is possible to handle the request, one of the following actions should be taken:
- If is it not possible to handle the reservation request, change the status to “T” (Turndown).Turndown codes need to be set up and applied – see the separate chapters on Turndown logic.
- If it is possible to handle the request, change the status to “O” (open).(The Stopsell rules will not be invoked again when a request is changed to Open status.)
- Inform the customer of the status change.
User tip: The status of the reservation is changed in the D subwindow, Res Status field.
Reservation Edit Report – This report can be run for status “R” reservations.