Create a Promotion

1. Login to Inntopia RMS or Inntopia CRS and click the Promotions tab. The Promotions screen appears with any previously created, active promotions listed.

   

   To view inactive promotions, check the Show archived promotions box.

2. In the Add Promotion area, enter the name of the promotion in the Name field. Promotion name is limited to 50 characters and appears to both agents and online customers.
3. In the Dates Available fields, click on the calendar icon to select the first day the guest can stay with the promotion (arrival date) and the last date of the stay for the promotion (departure date), or enter the dates manually in the format mm/dd/yyyy (or dd/mm/yyyy depending on the default language for your RMS account).
4. Click Create. The promotion appears in the list of promotions with valid dates shown with the dates you entered.

You can add a promotion name and description in each language (supported by your website) in which you want the promotion to appear.

1. From the Options drop-down list corresponding to your promotion, select Descriptions. The Descriptions window appears with the language tab of your default Inntopia RMS language open. The name you entered for the promotion appears in the Name field on the default language tab.

   

2. Click on the language tab that corresponds to the language in which you want to enter the description.
3. In the Name field, enter an optional alternative name for the promotion. This name appears to online customers for a specific language setting. If there is no language name defined, then the default promotion name appears to customers.
4. In the Description area, enter an optional detailed description of the promotion. Description is limited to 2000 characters.
5. When you are finished entering the description, click Save.

Show Me Setting Descriptions

Fields with an asterisk are required.

• Dates Available* – Defaults to the dates entered when the promotion was created.
• Booking Dates* – Defaults to the dates entered when the promotion was created.
• Length of Stay Requirements* – Defaults to 0 – 99.
• Promotion Code Required to Book – Determine if Promotion Code is required to book. Default is No.
• Promotion Code – A unique numeric, alpha, or alpha-numeric code for the promotion.
• Child Age Requirements – Defaults to 0 – 17. Fixed Price per Person per Day discount only.
• Advance Booking Requirements – Indicates a specific number of days in advance of the arrival date that a guest can book the promotion. Promotions with advance booking requirements are presented in search results to the call-center agent and online consumer only when the min and/or max requirements are met in search criteria.
• Promotion Cross Reference Code – Use if you have an integration from which you need to pull rates or if you want bookings from Inntopia to push back to your remote, third-party system with the promotional rate. Required for Distribution API resellers. Must be configured in your third-party system to ensure bookings will be accepted.
• Group Code – If you have an integration with a PMS and are using group block functionality, use this field to enter the group block code from the PMS. Otherwise, leave this field blank.
• Discount is Set By – Choose who has control over setting the discounts: either you or the suppliers whose products are included in components of the promotion.
• Display Type – Defaults to Itemize and Mask Discount at each level.
• Blackout Intervals – Enter a span of dates during which the promotion won't be available.

1. From the Options drop-down list corresponding to your promotion, select Settings. The Settings window for your promotion appears.

   

2. To change the dates the promotion is available, in the Dates Available fields, select the first day the guest can stay with the promotion (arrival date) and the last date of the stay for the promotion (departure date), or enter the dates manually in the format mm/dd/yyyy (or dd/mm/yyyy depending on the default language for your RMS system).
3. In the Booking Dates field, select the dates the promotion is available to be reserved by an agent or customer.
4. In the Length of Stay Requirements field, you can enter a minimum and/or maximum stay requirement of the promotion. Entries in this field determine when a promotion is offered based on the number of nights searched and whether or not the search meets or exceeds the stay requirements. This setting will not override any product-level min/max stay restrictions.
5. To create a private promotion that can only be fulfilled using a Promotion Code:
1. In the Promotion Code Required to Book field, select Yes.
2. In the Promotion Code field, enter a unique code for the promotion. The code is limited to 20 characters and can contain letters and numbers but no special characters (%, &, !, etc.).
6. If you are using the Fixed Price per Person per Day discount type, in the Child Age Requirements min and max fields, enter any child age requirements.
7. In the Advanced Booking Requirements field, enter minimum and maximum values.
Show me examples for entering min/max values

Min	Max	Description
0	0	Promotion can be booked as long as it is within the available date range of the promotion.
7	0	Promotion is available for booking up to seven days prior to the arrival date. This type of requirement is typically used to encourage early booking.
0	1	Promotion is only made available within one day of arrival. This type of requirement is typically used to book excess inventory close to arrival.
1	7	Promotion is only made available between one and seven days prior to arrival. This type of "window" requirement is typically used for last-minute deals and is within a narrow time frame close to arrival.

8. If you have a promotion cross reference code, enter the code in the Promotion Cross Reference Code field.
9. If you are using the Agilysis-Visual One, Maestro, or SMS integration, or the Commerce Supplier API, in the Group Code field, enter the corresponding group block code from the property management system (PMS).
10. In the Display Type drop-down list, select how you want the promotion’s component discounts displayed to consumers by choosing one of the following:
• Itemize and mask discount for each item (recommended) – original price of each item is shown with a strike-through and total discount is shown at the bottom of the itinerary.
• Itemize and show discount at each level – shows discounted price of each component with the original price shown with a strike-through throughout the reservation process.
• Do not itemize (showing only promotion price) – shows entire discounted price at the end of the reservation process with no individual discounts appearing for components.

Note: You can only set the Display Type for promotions that have multiple components available.

11. In the Discount is Set by field, select who will have authority to set discounts for the promotion components:
    • Me – Discounts for all products in components can be set and controlled by the person creating the promotion.
    • Supplier – Discounts of products included in components are set by invited individual suppliers via the Promotions tab in their own Inntopia RMS system.
12. To enter blackout dates, in the Blackout Intervals fields, select the beginning and ending dates of the time period for which you want to designate the promotion as unavailable and click Add. (These dates must fall within the Dates Available for the promotion.) The blackout interval you entered is listed below the date fields.

To cancel a blackout interval, click the interval’s corresponding Remove button.

13. When you have finished entering Settings details, click Save. The Promotions page appears.

Select the sales channels (resellers) for which the promotion is valid. The promotion will only be available for selling through the sales channels you select.

1. From the Settings drop-down list corresponding to your promotion, select Sales Channels. The Sales Channels window appears listing all the valid sales channels (by display name and supplier ID) for your company.

   

2. Find each sales channel through which you want to sell the promotion and click their corresponding check boxes.
3. When you have finished selecting sales channels, click Save.
4. To deselect a sales channel, repeat the steps above and uncheck the sales channel’s corresponding check box.

You can add or edit a deposit schedule for your promotion. For a complete description of deposit schedules and instructions on how to add one to a promotion, click here.

You can add or edit a cancellation policy for your promotion. For a complete description of cancellation policies and instructions on how to add one to a promotion, click here.

1. From the Options drop-down list corresponding to your promotion, select Customer Requirements. The Customer Requirements window appears.

   

2. From the Information Requested drop-down list, select the type of information you want to collect from guests.

   

3. In the Requirement Type drop-down list, choose whether the requirement is Optional, Required, or Optional Deferred.
• Optional – Customer Requirement is presented to the guest but is not required to complete check-out.
• Required – Customer Requirement is presented to the guest and is required to complete check-out.
• Optional Deferred – Customer Requirement appears on guest’s My Account screen in their eComm account and is not required to complete check-out.



4. In the Submission Type drop-down list, choose whether the requested information applies Per Person or Per Itinerary.



Note: When setting up the Date of Birth customer requirement for Age Validation products, you must select the Required Submission Type.

5. In the Display Order drop-down list, choose the number corresponding to the order in which you want the customer requirement to appear to the agent or guest. If you have only one customer requirement, set this field to 1.
Notes:
• Display order applies only to what the guest sees on the online display during check-out.
• Display order does not apply to Optional Deferred customer requirements as they only appear in the My Account screen in eComm.
6. To indicate that a grouped customer requirement will be decremented as each option is selected, check the Force Unique Selections box. Otherwise, leave this box blank.



7. To add the customer requirement, click the Add icon . The Customer Requirement is listed.

   
   

8. To modify a customer requirement, click its corresponding Delete icon and create a new customer requirement.
9. To remove a customer requirement, click its corresponding Delete icon .
10. When you have finished creating customer requirements, click Save.

About Components

Components are the individual parts of a promotion. A component contains one or more products of the same category, such as lodging or activity, from one or more suppliers. For example, lodging products as part of a Stay-and-Ski package make up a "component" of that promotion. Components can be any product type within your inventory, but each component is comprised of products from a single supplier type category such as lodging suppliers, activity suppliers, etc.

Components can be comprised of any or all of one or more suppliers' products. Promotions made up of multiple category-type products will have one component for each category type in it. For example, to build a promotion with lodging and activity products, event vouchers, and a lift ticket, your promotion would have four components.

Note: For suppliers that are selling promotions from their own websites and want to have multiple product-type categories in their promotions, they must either supply multiple product types themselves or they must be part of a P2P network that gives them access to multiple product types. Suppliers cannot discount another supplier's products; suppliers can only discount their own products.

Required vs. Optional Components

Components of a promotion are either required or optional. A required component is necessary for the promotion to be booked, whereas an optional component is not. A consumer can choose which, if any, optional components to add to their promotion. All promotions must contain at least one required component.

For example, a sample promotion has four components: lodging, activities, events, and lift tickets. Of those four components, the lodging and lift ticket are required components, whereas events and activities are optional components. To reserve the promotion, the consumer must choose an eligible lodging product and an eligible lift ticket product. The consumer then has the option of adding additional eligible items from the remaining activities and events products.

1. From the list of promotions, click the name of the promotion with which you want to work. The Add Component area appears.

   

2. In the Name field, enter the name of the component.
3. In the Category Type drop-down list, select a category for the component.
4. Click Create. The component appears in the list of components.

   

5. Click the component’s corresponding Options button and from the drop-down list, click Settings. The Settings page appears.

   

6. In the Name field, enter an optional alternative name for the promotion. This name appears to online customers for a specific language setting. If there is no language name defined, then the default promotion name appears.
7. If this is a required component, leave the Required check box checked. If the component is not required, uncheck this check box.
   

   Note: For a promotion to appear in standard search results, it must have at least one component that is required (typically lodging if the promotion includes that component). This required component rule does not apply to private promo- or package-specific searches.

8. In the Default Start Day field, enter the default day of the itinerary on which a non-lodging component becomes valid. This default start date will only apply if the online customer does not choose a day they want the component to become valid. The valid default start dates span from check-in date to check-out date. For example, a customer can decide whether they want to ski on the day they check-in (Day 1) or start skiing on the day after they check-in (Day 2). If no day is chosen by the customer, the day you select as the Default Start Day is the day the component becomes valid.
9. From their corresponding drop-down lists, select the Default Quantity, Min and Max Quantities, and their Quantity Types.
About Min, Max, and Default Quantities

Components can be set to have a minimum, maximum, and/or default quantity for the component. These amounts can also be qualified by type. Setting each of these amounts and quantity types is optional for both required and optional components. If you enter an amount but do not choose a Quantity Type for it, the Quantity Type defaults to Per Itinerary.

• Default quantity – The basic, or suggested, amount of a promotion component that you want to be purchased as part of the promotion. This amount appears in the Qty drop-down list in search results; however, the customer or agent can select an alternate amount from the Qty drop-down list. If you do not set a default quantity, the system defaults to one.
• Minimum quantity – The amount of a promotion component that must be purchased as part of a promotion. When you set a minimum quantity, the Qty drop-down list begins at this number; therefore, the customer cannot purchase a lesser amount of this product.
• Maximum quantity – The amount of a promotion component that can be purchased as part of a promotion. When you set a maximum quantity, the Qty drop-down list ends with this number; therefore, the customer cannot purchase a greater amount of this product. If you do not enter a maximum amount for a component, the system defaults to 50 meaning the online customer can choose up to 50 of that component.

Note: Promotion components set up with RTP and/or Siriusware interfaced products that require itemized guest information such as DOB, height, weight, shoe size, etc. should have min/max/default quantities of ‘1’ so that these items appear as separate line items on the itinerary.

About Quantity Type
If you set a minimum and/or maximum quantity, that quantity must be qualified by choosing a particular Minimum or Maximum Quantity Type. (If you do not choose a Quantity Type when entering an amount, the system enters a default of Per Itinerary.) For example, you can set up a package or promotion with a lift ticket component requiring the customer to purchase at least two, but not more than six lift tickets per Person to purchase that component of a package or promotion. In search results for a party of four people, the Qty drop-down list goes no lower than 8 and no higher than 24.
The default quantity can be qualified by choosing a particular Default Quantity Type. For example, for a Ski and Stay package or promotion of five days, you can set the Lift Ticket component to have a default quantity of 4 tickets Per Person. When that package or promotion appears in search results, the quantity of lift tickets is pre-set to 4 tickets for each person on the itinerary.
Depending on what Quantity Type you choose when setting a minimum quantity, the system displays a separate drop-down list for selecting products for each person included on the itinerary. For example, if the lift ticket component is set to Per Person and the itinerary contains two adults and two children, the guest or agent can choose a different lift ticket for each person (including children) on the itinerary. If the lift ticket is set to Per Adult, the guest or agent can choose a different lift ticket for each adult on the itinerary. If you wanted child lift tickets to be separate, you could create an additional optional component of a lift ticket set to Per Child.
Show Me Quantity Types
• Per Itinerary
• Per Person
• Per Adult
• Per Child
• Per Total Nights of Lodging
• Per Person per Nights of Lodging
• Per Adult per Nights of Lodging
• Per Child per Nights of Lodging
• Per Person per Night, Minus One – Offer a component for one day less than the days included in the package. For example, offer three days of equipment rental for a four night stay.
• Per Night of Lodging Plus Departure – Offer a component valid for each night of lodging plus the day of departure. For example, offer five days of water park tickets for a four night stay.
10. Click Save. The component information appears within the list of components on the Promotions page.
11. Continue to add components to the promotion until all products to be included in the promotion have been included.