CellarPass Platform Update Completed | 1/24/23

We completed our scheduled platform update at 4:28AM on 1/24/23 that introduced many improvements throughout the ecosystem.

These release notes are designed to alert you of these changes and help you understand that some of these new features require your further input or may have a varying-level of impact on your account's current setup.

As with all release notes we distribute, we strongly recommend that you take a moment to review them and share them with your fellow team members.

GENERAL CHANGES
We have made tremendous strides on adding new features, improving existing features and fixing reported bugs.

1. NEW! Apps & Integrations Interface
   We have overhauled the design downloading and registering your iOS or Android device with our Guest Link Pro and TablePro apps. You can now more-easily find our apps on the Google or Apple App Stores using your device's camera, then quickly registering them using a QR code.
   
   
2. NEW! Email Templates
   We will be including new templates for Reservations and Ticketed events and will continue to release others in the near future to align with our new branding, layout and simplicity. These new designs have been completely redesigned and have been tested against the major email clients.
   
   Customization to our templates are no longer done in the templates themselves, but you will be able to insert copy into these templates and enjoy many improvements we've included in this update related to how emails are sent and how they are displayed.
   
   The move towards these templates is to follow industry standards, increase email deliverability and  create consistent user experience. Read on to learn more about how you can inject copy into the RSVP Confirmation, RSVP Cancellation and Ticket Sales Receipt with this upgrade.
   
   The "from" name will have your [[DestinationName]] displayed instead of CellarPass. The "ReplyTo" will be replaced with your customer service email address that is managed in the new Notifications & Alerts "Contact Settings" section. This is found in the top left section of Business, Notifications & Alerts page.
   
   
3. NEW! Sending Invitations to Team Members
   The system now records which invited any new User including their email address, date, time and the Role they assigned. We also have added filters to whom you can invite to ensure our service terms are followed.
   
   
4. Improved User Interface
   We continue to make changes to our existing user interfaces across the platform to be more in line with the next generation of CellarPass, codenamed "Synergy". We have completed another WAVE compliance audit and made adjustments to comply. You will notice our form fields are larger and easier to read.
   
   
5. NEW! Account Manager Bio
   For 2023, no matter the type of Reservation subscription you are signed up for, you have been assigned a new, dedicated Account Manager. You can learn as who your account manager is by logging into your CellarPass account, on the bottom left, just below the main navigation, you will see their name. Clicking on the account manager's name, you will see their bio and contact information. be sure to say hello to your account manager!
   
   

RESERVATIONS
We have made tremendous strides on adding new features, improving existing features and fixing reported bugs.

1. NEW! Bookings by Channel Report
   You can find this by clicking the "Graph" icon on the RSVP Dashboard page. This is designed to help you understand where your reservations are being booked and the value they deliver. On average, CellarPass refers 54% of all bookings, where our competitors typically only deliver 22 - 27%. If you are not achieving our average referral rate, we recommend you contact your account manager as there's simple tricks to boost this rate.
   
   
2. NEW! Guest Check-In Reminder
   We cannot tell you all enough times that checking in guests is to your benefit to increasing your visibility on CellarPass.com. Not only will your referral bookings increase, but you will receive valuable feedback from guests. This upgrade will show a message if you have not checked guests in the last 10 days to nudge you along. Want to learn how easy it is to check in guests? Download Guest Link Pro or (TablePro) and help us, help you.
   
   
3. NEW! Cancellation Reasons
   You can now prompt your guests or admins when a reservation is cancelled to select one of 10 popular choices for reservation cancellations. These choices can be customized for your account. You can learn more how to set this up here.
   
   
4. NEW! Reservation Confirmation & Cancellation Templates
   With this upgrade, we are introducing system-wide templates that are no longer customizable which has become the industry standard. This ensures that emails are delivered and not end up in spam folders.
   
   If you had any custom messaging in your Reservation Confirmation or Reservation Cancellation templates, we recommend reviewing this article on how you can easily inject custom messages into these templates. You can learn more about this feature, here.
   
   
5. Cancelled Reservations
   We fixed the issue with the displayed Reservation status was not always immediately showing after cancelling a reservation in the details view.
   
   
6. Review Widget Installation
   This update does apply some changes to all versions of the embedded widget. We strongly recommend that you review all of your embedded widgets to ensure they are working properly.
   
   In the coming weeks, we will be implementing another significant change to the embedded widget and will be sunsetting several of our legacy versions. This is unfortunate requirement to continue to meet strict security needs of current PCI Compliance and proposed changes that are being discussed in forums regarding X-Frame code and embedded widgets. Since we take data integrity and customer privacy seriously, we will always follow industry standards and requirements to ensure we protect our passing status for PCI Compliance.
   
   

TICKETED EVENTS
We have made tremendous strides on adding new features, improving existing features and fixing reported bugs.

1. NEW! Ticket Confirmation Templates
   With this upgrade, we are introducing system-wide templates that are no longer customizable which has become the industry standard. This ensures that emails are delivered and not sent into the spam folder.
   
   If you had any custom messaging in your Ticket Sales Receipt, you will want to review this article on how you can inject custom copy into the Ticket Sales Receipt.
   
   
2. Ticket Service Fees & Refunds
   With this upgrade, CellarPass ticketing service fees are no longer refundable. The good news is that this can be configured on an event level in case you want the guest to be fully refunded (in the case they paid the service fees) and have this deducted from your payout*.
   
   
3. Ticket Payout Report
   We have completely redesigned the Ticket Payout Report providing additional details about your Event's payouts.
   
   

GUEST LINK PRO v2.4
We have made tremendous strides on adding new features, improving existing features and fixing reported bugs. You will need to update Guest Link Pro as part of this update.

1. NEW! Unpaid and Paid Labels
   We've revised the reservation list to include PAID or UNPAID labels to alert you whether a reservation has been paid in full or not.
   
   
2. NEW! Cancellation Reasons
   The same feature that allows you to select a Cancellation Reason when cancellation a reservation is now available in TablePro.
   
   
3. App Download and Login Redesigned
   We've redesigned the admin panel so that it provides easier access to download TablePro and login.
   
   
4. NEW! Calendar Notes
   We are pleased to announce that you can add Calendar Notes to your Calendar using Guest Link Pro.
   
   
5. Redesigned Daily Summary
   We've included some improvements to the design of the Daily Summary in Guest Link pro v2.4.
   
   
6. NEW! Search Reservations By Confirmation #, Phone & Last Name
   We have optimized the search of a guest's reservation when searching by their Confirmation #, Last Name, and Phone.
   
   
7. Flat Fee versus Per Person Fee Label
   We found some scenarios where this label was not updating properly in different interfaces. This update corrects this issue.
   
   NOTE: The latest version of Guest Link Pro will still provide you the option to select a different Confirmation template when booking. Our new standard template will be sent no matter what template is selected. A near-future update to Guest Link Pro will eliminate this feature.
   
   

TABLEPRO v2.4
This is our biggest upgrade in 6 months that includes over 100 improvements, new features and bug fixes. You will need to update Guest Link Pro as part of this update.

1. NEW! Unpaid and Paid Labels
   We've revised the reservation list to include PAID or UNPAID labels to alert you whether a reservation has been paid in full or not.
   
   
2. NEW! Cancellation Reasons
   The same feature that allows you to select a Cancellation Reason when cancellation a reservation is now available in TablePro.
    
3. NEW! Performance Enhancements
   We have re-written many parts of TablePro app to store more data on the device so that fetching commonly-used reservation data does not constantly hit our servers. Be sure that "Push Notifications" is enabled in Settings, General for optimal performance.
   
   
4. Redesigned Daily Summary
   We've included some improvements to the design of the Daily Summary in TablePro v2.4.
   
   
5. Redesigned RSVP Details View
   We've included some minor design enhancements to the RSVP Details view, making it easier to read pertinent information.
   
   
6. Event Date Added
   We've added the Event Date above the reservation's start time so that it's clear the date in which the reservation is taking place.
   
   
7. Flat Fee versus Per Person Fee Label
   We found some scenarios where this label was not updating properly in different interfaces. This update corrects this issue.
   
   
8. UPCOMING! Batching Printing of Chits
   We're currently experimenting with batching printing of Chits for an entire day's manifest. This button is available to those with connected printers and is still buggy. We expect to have this work more consistently with the next release of TablePro v2.4.1.

NOTE: The latest version of TablePro will still provide you the option to select a different Confirmation template when booking. Our new standard template will be sent no matter what template is selected. A near-future update to TablePro will eliminate this feature.

CELLARPASS WEBSITE
We have made tremendous strides on adding new features, improving existing features and fixing reported bugs.

1. NEW! The Year of 'Things to Do'
   2023 is going to be all about Things to Do, meaning our website is expanding to include other activities that are commonly-booked when guests are on vacation; from hotel rooms, bike tours, day trip operators and much more. We refer this new project affectionately as "CPTTD" (CellarPass Things to Do)
   
   We have inked a partnership with Google in October that gives us developer-level access to help them build out this category, bringing you new eyeballs than ever before. We are very excited about this opportunity and what it will bring value to our visitors and guests.
   
   To compliment our project with Google, we have begun to launch all new pages that include our new partnerships with other booking engines; Fareharbor, Booking.com, OpenTable, TripAdvisor and many more to come!
   
   
2. NEW! Optimized Webpages
   We have spent the last 3 months working with Google engineers to make sure our webpages meet their strict criteria for incorporating performance enhancements from design that effect CLS and LCP to SER. If you know these acronyms, then you know how hard of a task this.
   
   
3. Search Availability Results
   We have completely re-written our Search Availability feature that is available on our homepage. Search results are 12.5X faster and now comply with Google's latest CLS and LCP recommendations.
   
   
4. Forgot Password Redesigned
   The Forgot Password feature on our website has been redesigned with this upgrade. This improves the performance and upgrades the user experience so that it's more clear as to what happens next.
   
   
5. Business Page Photo Gallery
   We have completely redesigned our photo gallery that is found on your business page. This not only helps our pages load 10X faster, but provide a more interactive format for visitors.
   
   
6. NEW! Regions Launched
   With more businesses joining the CellarPass network, we're pleased to launch new regions across the country; Arizona, Pennsylvania, Colorado, Missouri, Michigan and many more.
   
   
7. NEW! CellarPass Business Website
   We have completely redesigned our website that is geared towards marketing our services to businesses. No doubt, this will never be a finished product, but the new architecture will give us more capability to share our latest blog articles with other businesses, learn more about our platform, benefits and how to sign up.

HIGHLIGHTS & RECOMMENDATIONS
As we mentioned there's a few major changes with this upgrade that will effect some users more than others. We will use this section to highlight some of the areas that you will want to review to ensure you are ready for the planned upgrade. For features that can be configured ahead of the upgrade, we have noted those below.

1. If You Have Customized Our Email Templates
   If you have many any changes to our default email templates (RSVP Confirmation, RSVP Cancellation or Tix Sales Receipts) you will be effected by this update as we are moving to a centralized email template system that no longer offers customization. We've highlighted some articles to help you better understand how you can no inject custom messaging into our standard templates, whether that's related to Reservations or Ticketed Events.
   
   
   1. Reservation Email Templates
      You will have a new field available for your Reservation Events that will allow you to provide some addition information to your guests. If you had this custom messaging in your templates, we recommend preparing this content ahead of the update so you can copy and paste it into your Reservation Events:
      1. Confirmation Message (this content will be inserted into the Confirmation Email). This can be a customized message regarding this event. This new field will be available in the Event Details tab of the Reservations event editor.
         
         
      2. Cancellation Message (this content will be inserted into the Cancellation Email). This can be a customized message that is sent such as "We're sorry that we will not be able to meet you." in the cancellation email message. This new field will be available in the Event Details tab of the Reservations event editor.
         
         NOTE: using HTML is not supported in email templates at this time.
         
         
   2. Ticketed Event Email Templates
      You will have a new field available for your Ticketed Events that will allow you to provide some addition information to your guests. If you had this custom messaging in your templates, we recommend preparing this content ahead of the update so you can copy and paste it into your Reservation Events:
      1. Confirmation Email (this content will be inserted into the Confirmation Email). This is a general message that is intended for all Ticket Levels. This messaging is available in the Registration & Fulfillment tab of each ticketed event.
         
         
      2. Ticket Level Message (this content will be inserted into the Confirmation Email). At a per ticketed event, you can now insert customized messaging for each ticket level. This could be anything from providing additional instructions on where to check in at the event, pickup Will Call tickets, age restrictions and more. This messaging is available in the Registration & Fulfillment tab of each ticketed event.
         
         NOTE: Using HTML is not supported in email templates at this time.
         
         
2. Notifications & Alerts
   You will want to review this page to make sure your team members are notified when tickets are sold, Reservations are booked or cancelled. This is a feature you can setup, TODAY.
   
   
3. Contact Settings
   When we send emails out, we will be using this email address as the ReplyTo email address. This is one of the easiest ways for your guests to get a hold of you. This is managed in the Contact Settings, which is also available at the top of the new Notifications & Alerts page.
   
   
4. Publish Your Ticketed Events Now!
   Over 67% of visitors searching our website are searching for events that are taking place June through September. If you don't have your special events, you will miss out on this traffic, so get your events built now! We offer plenty of complimentary training and scheduled workshops to help you become a seasoned pro.

Have an idea on a new feature or how to improve an existing one? We're all ears! We'd love to hear from you as many of the features you use every day are suggested features from other users.