Escapia Training Guide

Escapia Training Guide 2: Business Rules

© 2013 Homeaway Inc. 1

Class Prerequisites: Completion of Setup Training Session 1: Units, Owners and Contracts, and full configuration of all Units Owners and Owner Contracts.

Table of Contents Escapia Training Guide 2: Business Rules

Charge Templates …………………………………………………………………………….. 3

Journal Document Templates ………………………………………………...……. 3 Charge Template Setup ……………………………………………………………... 5

Recurring Charge Templates ……………………………………………………………….. 7 Deposit Policies (Payment Schedules) ………………………………………………..…. 10

Security Deposits ………………………………………………………………...….. 10 Other Deposits (Booking Payments) ………………………………………...…… 13

Seasons ………………………………………………………………………………………… 15 Rate Rules ……………………………………………………………………………………... 17

Unit Groups ……………………………………………………………………...……. 17 Create Rate Rules ……………………………………………………………………. 20 Testing Rate Rules …………………………………………………………………... 25 Copying Rate Rules ………………………………………………...……………….. 26

Completion Tasks ……………………………………………………………………………. 28


Business Rules Charge Templates, Deposit Policies, Seasons, Rates

This session will provide you with a basic understanding of charges, payment schedules, and pricing for your Units, within the Escapia Software.

IMPORTANT: Class Prerequisites: Completion of Training Session 1: Units, Owners and Contracts, and full configuration of all Units Owners and Owner Contracts. Part 1. Booking Charge Templates In general, Charge Templates are fees that can be added automatically or manually to bookings. These are fees that the guest pays, such as Cleaning Fees, Reservation Fees, and Damage Waiver. Step 1: Check for, or build a Journal Document Template (JDT) Journal Document Templates are essential in order to create all types of charges in Escapia. They determine how money moves between accounts. Many JDTs have been created in advance to assist you with getting started prior to creating new JDTs, it is a good idea to check to see if the JDT you wish to use already exists. If the JDT you wish to use does already exist, skip to Step 2. To create a new JDT:

Go To: Accounting> Setup> Journal Document Templates To create a new JDT, click on +New Journal Document Template

Fill in the required fields, indicated in bold.

Template Code: This is an internal field that helps you distinguish between templates. We recommend following the naming conventions we have established (Cstxxx for customer JDTs, SOxxx for service order JDTs, etc)

Journal Document Type: This determines where in Escapia this JDT will be available

for use. For fees paid by guests, in general, you will use Booking Charge as the Journal Document Type.

Description: This is the name of the JDT. This is visible internally, and potentially to

guests.


Statement Order: In this case, it is fine to leave the Statement Order at 0. If two charges

have the same posting date, this field determines the order in which they post on an Owner’s Statement, if it is an Owner Charge.

Once you have filled in the required fields, the next step is to Add the Journal Transaction Template. This is where you define which Accounts are used in the transaction. Click on the +Add Journal Transaction button. (The below is an example of a Housekeeping JDT)

Choose the appropriate accounts. For Booking Charges, the Debit Subledger Type will always be “Customer,” and in most cases the Debit Account will be “2000 Advanced Deposits.” The Debit Account is the account that the funds are coming from.

And, in the above example, we are paying the Housekeeping Fees to the business, so the Credit Subledger type is Business, and the Business Housekeeping Fees account has been selected as the Credit Account (the account receiving the funds). Once you have entered all required fields, Save the JDT. Step 2: Build a Charge Template


With the Journal Document Template in place, you are ready to build a Charge Template. Below, we will use the example of creating a Cleaning Fee to demonstrate setting up Booking Charges. Go to: Accounting> Setup> Charge Templates

To begin, click on +New Charge Template

This will open a blank Charge Template. We will look the required sections, indicated in bold, of a Charge Template below. Below, we will use the example of setting up a Housekeeing Fee.

Top:

Charge Template Type: This field determines where the charge is available in Escapia. In most

cases you will use “Miscellaneous Booking Charge” for fees paid by the guest.

Template Code: This is an internal field. This will determine the order in which the charge templates are listed in the Charge Template list. We recommend coming up with a naming convention that will organize your templates such that all similar templates will appear in the same section on the list. For example, all Housekeeping Charges might start with HK, or Clean.

Charge Description: This is the name of the charge. This will be visible to the customer.

Active: If the Charge Template will be available for use, choose yes. If it is expired, or not

available for use for any reason, choose no. Calculation Section:


Amount: The amount that will be charged to the guest this can be in dollars or percent

depending on the Calculation Method you use. The above example is a fixed dollar amount.

Calculation Method: Determines how the fee is calculated. There are many options, such as Per Booking, Percent of Rent, Per Adult, etc.

Journal Document Template: Choose the appropriate JDT, either an existing JDT, or one

created in the previous steps.

Posting Date: Determines when monies paid toward the Booking are allocated to the particular charge. In the above example, this charge will be due upon Arrival.

Charge Calculation Order: If more than one charge has the same Posting Date, this field

determines which will post first. Application:

Scope: Determines if the Charge applies to stays in all units, or in selected Units.

AutoApply: This field determines whether the charge is applied to Bookings automatically, or if it

is to be added manually on a case by case basis.

Effective Start Date: The date the charge will begin applying to Bookings. The default is the first of the year.

Reservation Type: Allows you to designate which Types of Reservations are charged this fee.

For example, you may have a different Housekeeping Fee for Owner stays vs Renter stays.


Upon Cancellation: Determines whether the charge is kept, or removed from the Booking if the

guest cancels. Taxation:

If the charge is taxable, place a check mark next to “This Charge is Taxable,” then select the applicable taxes.

If the charge is not taxable, skip this field. Once all required information is entered, Save the Charge Template. There is no limit to the number of Charge Templates you can create. Note: You will want to set up any Charges that are automatically applied, prior to entering reservations reservations are the main topic Session 3. Part 2. Recurring Charge Templates This portion of the setup is optional. Recurring Charge Templates represent bills, not tied to bookings, that are charged to owners on a recurring basis. Examples might include: Monthly Pest Control, OwnerWeb Fee, etc. There are two types of Recurring Charges in EscapiaVRS:

1. Recurring Owner Charge: Posts directly to the Owner’s subledger and not to the unit. This type of charge is useful if an owner has multiple properties, but is charged a single monthly fee regardless of the of the number of properties they have in the program.

2. Recurring Unit Charge: Posts directly to the Unit and allocates the charge to the Owner’s

subledger. Step 1: Verify that the appropriate Journal Document Template (JDT) exists


Prior to setting up a Recurring Charge Template, verify that the correct JDTs are in place. (See page 3 for more detailed information on building a JDT.) For Recurring Charges, the JDT should be one of two types depending on the type of Recurring Charge you wish to create:

First type: Recurring Owner Charge used for charges billed on a per owner basis rather than per unit.

Second type: Recurring Unit Charge used for charges billed per unit

Step 2: Set up the Recurring Charge Once you have verified that the appropriate JDTs are in place, you’re ready to create a Recurring Charge Template. At the end of this section you will find an example of how you might set up a monthly recurring Hot Tub Maintenance fee that is billed on a per unit basis. To get started, go to: Accounting> Setup> Recurring Charge Templates Click on +New Recurring Charge Template Below is an explanation of each of the required fields when setting up a Recurring Charge

Recurring Charge Type: Determines if the charge is billed to the Unit or to the Owner Template Code: Used for organizing the templates. There is no Escapia requirement here, the

template code should be something that makes sense for your organization.


Charge Description: The name of the charge. This is what the owner will see on their statements as a line item.

Amount: The dollar amount that is billed to the owner or unit Journal Document Template: The JDT that will be used (see previous step for information on

JDTs) Apply To:

Selected Units: Choose this option if only certain units will be billed for the charge (in the Hot Tub Maintenance Fee example, you would only want to bill units that had hot tubs). With this option, you will also need to click on the Select button to choose specific units.

All Units: Choose this option if all units will be billed the same fee Recurrence Pattern: Allows you to create daily, weekly, monthly, quarterly, and yearly

recurrence period. Start Date: The first date you will begin charging the fee Template Notes: Internal field, confidential to the business

The below is an example of how one might set up a monthly fee for Hot Tub Maintenance, that is charged per unit, for specific units (only those with hot tubs).

Notice the Recurrence Pattern, the fee is billed on the 28th day of each month. Also note that, when choosing “Apply to // Selected Units” a Select button becomes available. You will need to click the Select button to choose specific units that will be billed for unit specific fees like the above example. Part 3. Deposit Policies Deposit Policies allow you to define a payment (deposit) schedule for your bookings. They are used to determine when payments and security deposits are due from the guest, as well as when refundable


items, such as Security Deposits, are due to be returned to the guest. Step 1: Conditions

Go to: Accounting> Setup> Deposit Policies Click on +New Deposit Policy

On the Open Deposit Policy page you can set the conditions that a booking must meet in order for the Deposit Policy (payment schedule) to apply.

You may wish to have 2 or more different Deposit Policies depending on the number of days prior to a Booking’s arrival date the first payment is due. For example: Many companies choose to have a Standard Policy and an Eminent Arrival (or Last Minute Booking) Policy. The above is an example of the conditions you might set for a Standard Policy in this example, the Policy is applicable to Bookings with an Arrival Date that is more than 30 days from the date the Booking was entered. Step 2: Security Deposit (If you do not collect a Security Deposit, skip to Step 3)

Click on +New Deposit Template This will open a new, blank Deposit Template


Deposit Name: This is visible to your reservationists, and potentially to guests.

Deposit Type: This is where you define what is to be charged. A Deposit Type of Booking would

be used for a standard booking payment. A Deposit Type of Security would be used for a Security Deposit.

Document Template: Select the appropriate Journal Document Template from the dropdown.

Document Templates for the various deposit types are included with the Escapia software.

Cancellation Template: If the guest cancels, this is the template that will be used to refund any monies due to the guest. Again, this template should already exist.

Deposit Order: Determines where the Deposit falls in the payment schedule. Since the

Security Deposit is usually paid first, you can leave the Deposit Order set to 0.

Amount and Calculation Method: Determines the amount due from the guest at the time of payment. In the case of the Security Deposit, you will most likely used a fixed Dollar amount.

Due Date: Determines when the payment is due. If the Security Deposit is due when the

booking is entered, you would set the Due Date to 0 Days After Booking Entered. Here is an example of how a Security Deposit Template might look:


Once you have filled in the required fields, indicated in bold, click the save button to save your work. This will take you back to the Open Deposit Policy screen where you can see your template in the list of Templates used by the Policy.

Click Save again, to preserve your work. At this point, you will find yourself back on the Deposit Policy list page. Click on the name of the policy you just created to open it.


Step 3: Other Deposits (Booking Payments) In step 3, we are going to walk through setting up the rest of the Payment Schedule. The steps to add Booking Deposits are almost exactly the same as the Security Deposit above, however, the Templates are going to be filled out a little differently: instead of Security Deposit, you will choose Booking as the type, etc. Below is an example of what you might use for a Standard Policy with 50% due 15 days prior to the booking’s Arrival Date, and the Final Payment due on the Arrival Date. (Don’t forget to save twice between the creation of each template!) Click on +New Deposit Template Example of 50% due 15 days prior to arrival:


And, here is an example of a Final Payment Deposit Template:

Once you have saved all of your Deposit Templates, you can open the Deposit Policy and see the deposits in order (based on the Deposit Order you have assigned each Template). Here is what the Deposit Schedule in the above example looks like now that all 3 templates have been completed:

When you enter bookings, this schedule will appear on the folio, and can be shown in guest correspondence as well. If you elect to have more than one Deposit Policy, you can follow the steps above to create as many policies as are needed for your business.

Note: In the event that two or more policies are setup to apply under the same conditions, the system will choose a Deposit Policy at random.


Part 4. Seasons Seasons can be defined as: named ranges of dates that are used when creating Rate Rules. Seasons regulate what pricing applies during a specific date range. Each season can contain multiple date ranges, though you will only want to include date ranges that will have the same rate policies in a single season. Step 1: Determine your seasons You may have many varying seasons depending on how you handle pricing. Do your owners control their own seasons and pricing? Do all units adhere to the same seasons? These are important things to consider when plotting out your Seasons. It may be helpful to map your seasons in a spreadsheet or on paper prior to entering them into Escapia. An example of some common Season Names are: Holiday, Low, Peak, and Shoulder. You may choose to name your seasons by any method you wish, but we do recommend using a naming system that you will easily recognize. There is no limit to the number of Seasons you are able to enter in Escapia. Step 2: Enter Seasons As an example, we will setup a Holiday Season here. Note that in the below example, all date ranges in the Season will use the same pricing (Holiday pricing, in this case). You will want to limit each season only to date ranges that will use the same pricing and stay requirements.

Go to: Units> Setup> Seasons

Click on +Add Season This will take you to the Open Season window. Type a Season Name. In this example we will use Holiday. To begin entering date ranges, click on +Add Dates.

Enter your first date range. You can type in the dates manually, or click on the calendar to select a date. The Description is not a required field, however, it is helpful in organizing multiple date ranges.


To continue adding date ranges, click on +Add Dates again. Below is an example of what a Holiday Season might look like (keep in mind, the season encompasses all of the dates that the Holiday rates will be applicable). The below example covers 2 years.

Once you have entered all date ranges for a Season, click Save.

IMPORTANT: The dates in your seasons should not overlap. This can cause errors when attempting to retrieve rates later on. Enter all of your Seasons prior to beginning the Rate Setup. Here is an example of what your Season List may look like once you have entered all of your seasons:


Part 5. Rates This section is designed to supplement your Rate training session and help provide you with a basic understanding of Pricing Plans and Rate Rules. For a more in depth look, click here to view the Advanced Rate Engine curriculum, or click here to view a series of videos on the Advanced Rate Engine. Step 1: Determine pricing and stay requirements This is best completed with a spreadsheet. Create a list of properties, then plot out your seasons and the pricing for each unit during each season. Step 2: Unit Groups (If you do not have groupings of units with the same pricing structure, you can skip ahead to Step 3.) Unit Groups allow you to include multiple units in one record. If you have several units that each have the exact same Pricing Structure (ex. they will share the same rates, minimum stay requirements, etc) Unit Groups make it easy to assign a rate to that grouping of units all at one time. Example: If you have several 2 BR, 2BD properties that are priced the same and use the same Seasons, you may wish to include all of them in a Unit Group named 2BR, 2BD. Then, this group can be assigned to your Rate Rules, and you will only need to enter 1 rate for the 2BR, 2BD group, rather than filling in the rate for each individual Unit. Then, when you acquire a new 2BR 2BD property, rather than adding the unit to each rate rule and typing in the rate, you can simply add it to the Unit Group and it will take on the pricing and stay requirements of the group. To create a Unit Group go to: Units> Setup> Unit Groups

The fields across the top are search filters. Click on +New Unit Group This takes you to the New Unit Group page.

In the below example, we will create a group of 2BD, 2BR units. Fill in the required fields, indicated in bold.


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Name: Enter the name of the unit group. This is an internal field. Status: If you wish to use the group, choose Active from the dropdown. Description: Enter a description of the Unit Group. This is not a required field, and is

visible for internal use only. Much like the Season Description, the Unit Group Description can be helpful when entering several Groups of Units.

There are two columns in the Units section, Available Units, and Chosen Units. When you first navigate to this page, the Chosen Units column will be empty. To add units to the Chosen Units, hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard and select all units you wish to add to the group.

Click the Add button to move the Selected Units into the Chosen Units column.


Once you have selected all units that you wish to add to the Chosen Units, click the Save button at the bottom of the page.

This will take you to the Unit Group list, where you can see the full list of Unit Groups that you have created.

Step 3: Create Rate Rules


Rate Rules are the records which determine the actual price for a unit during the selected Season or date range. You will likely have as many Rate Rules as you do Seasons, perhaps a few more. In the below example, we will setup a Holiday Rate Rule for the 2BD 2BR Unit Group, and look at adding individual Units to the Rate Rule. In this case, we are going to require a minimum 4 night stay during the Holiday Season, in order for guests to obtain a rate during the Holiday Season. To begin setting up Rate Rules go to: Units> Pricing Plans

A note about Pricing Plans: Pricing Plans are groups or sets that hold or contain Rate Rules. When you begin, you should only have one Pricing Plan, the Baseline Pricing Plan. This Baseline Pricing Plan will already exist in the Escapia software. This Plan should be set as the Default, as it will be the Default Pricing Plan used on the Reservation Grid, and for Online Bookings.

Next, click on the name of the Pricing Plan to open it (the name is Baseline, in this case). From the Open Pricing Plan, you will see 4 different sections, the section this training will cover is the Rate Rules section.


To add a Rate Rule, click on +New Rate Rule, this will take you to the New Rate Rule page. Since this is your first Rate Rule, ignore the Copy section for now.

In the Rate Rule section, fill in the required fields, indicated in bold.

Name: Give the Rate Rule a name. This should be a short summary of the rate rule.

Status: In order to make the Rate available, choose Active. If you wish to test the Rate Rule first, you can also set it to a Test Status in that case you will just need to return to this page and change the Status to Active later on.

Description: The description is not required, but you may wish to enter a short

Summary of how the Rate Rule is intended to function, so that your staff can view it later.

The Rate Prorations, Rounding and Thresholds section pulls from your Rate Engine settings in the Reservation setup under Reservations> Setup> Reservations.Click the minus sign to the top left of this section to collapse it in general you will not need to make changes here.

The Rule Conditions and Actions section is where you will begin entering the conditions for, in this example, stays that occur during the Holiday Season. The settings here determine when to use this Rate Rule to calculate pricing. Booking Dates represent the date(s) a booking(s) is created. To prevent guests from creating same


day bookings online, you can add Booking Dates that are “Not within 0 night of first night of stay.” To expand the selection, click on the yellow + sign to the right.

Modify the filters as needed, again, in this example, we’ve chosen “Booking Date is not within 0 nights of first night of stay.”

Next, the Stay Dates determine when the rate is in effect.

To choose a season, click the yellow + sign to the far right of the Stay Dates.

Note: In general, you should only have one set of Stay Dates, or one Season, entered here, to prevent errors obtaining rates later on. For our sample Holiday Rate Rule, the Stay Dates will look like this:

In nearly all cases, you should choose the Any Night option. This will allow for bookings that


cross over more than one Season. The Stay Days section is where you will select nightly requirements. For example, if you require Saturday to Saturday stays, you would place a checkmark next to First Night, and choose |is|| one of|, then check Saturday. You would then do the same for the Last Night checkbox and select Friday. The Stay Days section is also where you input the Minimum and Maximum length of stay during the selected season. This is where we will enter the 4 night minimum for our example.

You can see from the example, that this Rate Rule will cover stays up to two weeks long, with a minimum of 4 nights.

In the Other section, you will define the types of reservations the Rate Rule will apply to. The Holiday Rate from our example will be charged only to Reservation Types of Renter, Group, Travel Agent, Owner Referral, and Long Term.

This is not where you will choose Units and define their Rates, that is done in the Actions section later on.

In the next step, we will create and fill in the Bulk Rate Grid. The Bulk Rate Grid allows you to insert rates for specific units and groups in a tabletype layout.This method of inputting rates is useful if you are dealing with multiple units that have the same conditions (above) but different pricing during the given Stay Dates/Season.

To add Bulk Rates, scroll down to the Action section and click Add Bulk.


This will add a range of days, and the beginning of a Bulk Rate Table.

To add individual Units to the Rate Grid, click on Select Units. This will bring up a list of Available Units. Hold down the CTRL key on your keyboard to select Units (note: you will not need to select any individual units that are already assigned to a group). Click Add to move the selected Units to the Chosen Units column; click Apply to finish choosing Units.

Once you select Units, you will notice a list of Units has populated to the Rate Grid. At this point, you can begin entering rates, or add any Unit Groups as well. To continue with our example, we’re going to add the 2BD 2BR Unit Group as well. To add a Unit Group, simply click the Select Unit Groups button, in the Actions section.


Follow the same steps as above, to select one or more Unit Groups. Select the group, click Add, then click Apply.

Once you have selected all Units and Unit Groups that will use this Rate Rule, you are ready to begin entering Rates. In our Holiday Rate example, since the Length of Stay (LOS) is between 4 and 14 nights, we will enter a combination of Nightly and Weekly rates. The weekly rate is optional in this case, if we had decided to use the nightly rate for the entire LOS, that would also have worked. However, in our example, we are discounting the weekly rate slightly if a guest stays a full week during the Holiday Season, in this case they will receive a discounted rate. Since the LOS is less than one month, there is no need to enter a Monthly Rate. If we filled in only the weekly rate, Escapia would attempt to prorate the weekly rate for shorter stays.

Notice the 2BD 2BR group at the top of the list? Unit Groups will be designated with a * preceding the group name, in order to differentiate them from individual Units. All Units in the Unit group will have the same price during the Holiday Season in our example. Once you have added pricing to the Bulk Rate Grid, click the Save button.


Note: It is important to save on both screens, so as not to lose your work. Step 4: Test the Rate Rule To test your new Rate Rule, go to: Units> Verify Pricing Enter Booking Criteria (a date range and unit) that corresponds to the newly created Rate Rule.

Click the Test button If the dates meet the criteria entered in the Rate Rule, you will see a table that breaks out the rate your guests and reservationists will receive.

Note: This quote only includes the base rental rate, and will not include charges and fees. You’ll learn how to retrieve a Quick Quote on the Reservation Grid, which will include taxes, and additional charges, during the Reservation Training. Step 5: Copy the Rate Rule If you have more than a few units, entering multiple rate rules one at a time may be cumbersome. You can use the Copy Rate Rule feature to copy an existing rate rule and update the criteria in the Rate Rule as needed. This will copy over everything from the existing rate rule, including long lists of units. To Copy a Rate Rule: Go to: Units> Pricing Plans, Open the Pricing Plan, Click on +New Rate Rule. In the Copy section, select Baseline as the Pricing Plan, then select the Rate Rule you wish to copy, click the Copy button


This will copy over all information from the chosen Rate Rule. All that is left for you to complete, is to adjust the Season, the Stay Days, the Rates, and any other updates you wish to make.


This concludes the steps covered in Training Session 2: Business Rules. If you have questions please contact Escapia Support at 18772382287 ext. 2, or email [email protected] . Once you have completed all tasks outlined on the following page, and are ready to schedule your next training session please contact [email protected]

Completion Tasks for Session 2: Business Rules Prior to scheduling your next training session, it is essential that you complete all of the following items covered in this document:

Enter all remaining Deposit Policies

Create Charge Templates

Enter Seasons

Enter Rates Resources:

For access to an online database of frequently asked questions, technical support articles, tutorials, and videos, the Escapia Support Home is available via the Escapia Customer Home page or directly at: http://support.homeawaysoftware.com/escapia

The Escapia Support Team can be reached by phone or electronically using the Contact Us button at the bottom of the Support Home page above.


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Escapia Training Guide