The Basics of Building a Reservation Schedule

This article covers the basics of building an event schedule which is managed through accepting reservations.

This article walks you through the basics of building an event schedule which is managed through booking a Reservation. We recommend that you save your changes every 5-10 minutes as the system does not automatically save changes on a predetermined time interval. This will prevent you from losing your changes along the way as the system will automatically log you out after 20 minutes of inactivity*.

1. Log into the CellarPass backoffice by going to http://www.cellarpass.com/manage
   
   
2. In the left-hand menu, select Reservations
   
   
3. Next, select Create & Manage
   
   
4. If you are editing an existing Reservation-based event, click the Edit button to the left of the event name. Or click the + New Event button in the top, right-hand corner.

The Event Details Panel
The Details Panel is used to set the basic details about the Reservation-based event such as Event Name, Start & End Dates, Booking Lead Time, marketing copy and more.

1. From the Event Status dropdown, we recommend you select Active (Private) as you build your first event. This will prevent it from appearing in your widget. When ready, be sure to update this to Active (Public).
   
   
2. If this event is Private, meaning that you typically book Guests into this event over the phone, click the Active (Private) option in the dropdown. Doing so it will never appear in your Widget or anywhere else unless an Access Code is used.
   
   
3. Enter the Event Name as you would like for it to appear in your confirmation emails and in your widget.
   
   
4. The Sort Order is an advanced feature that allows you to force the order in which this Event will appear in the widget. Setting a lower number will have the event appear near the top, where a higher number will appear towards the bottom. For example, entering "0" (with no other events set as "0", this event will appear first. Setting other events as "1", "2", "3" and so forth will have those appear in linear order.
   
   
5. Enter an Event Start Date in the Start Date field. This would be the first date when you would like your event to start.
   
   
6. Enter an Event End Date in cases where you may offer a seasonal program and would like have your event to stop. Leave this blank if you do not wish to send an end date.
   
   
7. From the Book Lead Time dropdown, select the number of days (or hours) in advance the event would require in order for a guest online would have to book a reservation. For example, if you set 48 hours, the system would prevent any guest from booking a reservation less than 48 hours in advance. We recommend you set this to the minimum to increase your opportunity for online bookings. Setting 48 hours would cut off the weekend for any guest is searching to secure their reservation on a Thursday or Friday.
   
   
8. From the Cancel Lead Time dropdown, select the number of days (or hours) in advance the guest could cancel their reservation.
   
   
9. From the Event Type dropdown, select the best option that would describe your event. Selecting this option is very important as guests can filter their searches on CellarPass.com
   
   
10. In the Description field, enter a description that best fits the event itself, not your property. We recommend you keep the text focused on what the guest will expect from their experience, rather than include information about your property's history or grounds. This should be considered marketing copy that will lure the guest to book this reservation over another option you may offer.
    
    
11. From the options available in the Deposit Policy select the one that is best for your type of experience. If you have elected to integrated with a payment processor, you'll have additional deposit policies provided to you.

12. You will notice a "Ignore $0.00 Grand Total" checkbox above the deposit policy. Check the box if you wish to NOT REQUIRE require the credit card when the Grand Total = $0.00.  

13. In the Fee Per Person field, enter the value the guest is expected to pay (before any discounts are applied).
    
    
14. If you have elected to calculate Sales Tax, check the Charge Sales Tax checkbox.
    
    
15. From the Location dropdown, select the location in which this event will take place. If you need to add more locations, go to Settings, Location Manager.
    
    
16. From the Confirmation Template dropdown, choose the Email template that will be sent to a guest when a reservation is booked.
    
    
17. From the Cancellation Policy dropdown, choose the Email template that will be sent to a guest when a reservation is booked.
    
    
18. If you would like the names of the additional guests on the reservation, check the Additional Guests checkbox. If you want to require this information, check the Require Guest(s) checkbox. Unless this is totally necessary to your experience, we don't recommend using this option as it will streamline the guest checkout.
    
    
19. If you have elected to integrate with one of our eCommerce partners, enter the SKU/Item Lookup Code, that you would have used to charge the guest for the event fee(s).
    
    
20. If you would like to learn more about how a guest learned about your property, you can set the How Did You Hear? options. Please note that this is only displayed to guests when they checkout directly from your website.
    
    
21. We recommend uploading an event image, located on the right-hand of the page. This will be displayed with your Event schedule in the CellarPass Widget. You can upload images now, but this feature will not be displayed in the widget until CellarPass 3.0 is released later this year.
    
    
22. We recommend that you click the Save button often to store your settings.

The Event Schedule Panel
The Schedule Panel is used to set your schedule, the days of the week and times that guests will be able to be booked.

1. Locate the Reservation-based event that you would like to set (or modify) a schedule through Reservations, Create & Manage.
   
   
2. Click the Edit button to the left of the Event you wish to modify.
   
   
3. Select the Schedule option. Here, you will notice several rows, offering the different times, or if you have not yet built a schedule, you'll have at least one time slot as an example.
   
   
4. In the Start Time field, select the timepicker to select the time as to when the event time (slot) will start.
   
   
5. In the End Time field, select the timepicker to select the time as to when the event time (slot) will end.
   
   
6. If you do not mix different reservations (parties) for the same time slot, we recommend you check the box for Auto. This will consider the event as "private" and will prevent guests from booking a secondary reservation against the specific date and time.
   
   
7. In the Min field, enter the minimum recommended number of guests required to book a reservation.
   
   
8. In the Group field, enter the maximum size of a single group can be to book a reservation.
   
   
9. In the Capacity field, enter the total number of guests that the event slot can hold. If you have checked the Auto checkbox, we recommend entering the same value in the Group and Capacity fields.
   
   
10. The next few checkboxes handle which days of the week the event takes place. Clicking the All checkbox will enable Monday through Sunday, making it available 7 days a week.
    
    
11. Lastly, this is a good time to click the Save button.
    
    
12. If you need more time slots, click the Add Time button in the top left. Then follow Steps 3 - 10.

Reviewing & Testing Your Event Schedule
Now that you have built your event schedule, you can review the results to make sure it's setup the way you like. The best place to test this, if you are not yet live on CellarPass.com yet, is either through your Widget Code or the Event Calendar. Note, if you selected the Active (Private) event status option, these will not appear in your widget. You can use Access Codes to preview your event.

Reviewing and testing your event schedule via the Widget method is one of the best ways as this is how your guests will view your schedule, whether that's on your website or CellarPass.com

1. Log into the CellarPass admin panel by going to http://www.cellarpass.com/manage
   
   
2. Next, select the Content link in the left-hand navigation menu.
   
   
3. Then, select the Widget Code submenu link.
   
   
4. In the Reservation Embed Link copy the URL in this box. Then paste this URL into your internet browser.
   
   
5. Select some different dates and click the Search button to view the different days of the week in case you don't offer your event daily. 
   
   
6. Feel free to go through the booking steps to the point where you are asked to Confirm the booking. When you are satisfied with your results, you are ready to go live!

Reviewing and testing your event schedule via the Event Calendar method is an alternative, quicker way to view your schedule as it will appear similar to an Outlook schedule.

1. Log into the CellarPass admin panel by going to http://www.cellarpass.com/manage
   
   
2. Next, select the Calendar link in the left-hand navigation menu.
   
   
3. Today' schedule will automatically appear. You will see your events and their associated time slots, including their configured location.
   
   
4. Double-clicking the time slot will take you through the steps of booking a reservation.

*Some local networks, especially mobile networks, can automatically disconnect your internet connection due to lack of activity, which may be less than the CellarPass 20 minute timeout period. This is out of our control and we recommend that you save often if you are using a mobile device or on a network that could artificially timeout your session.