This article walks you through the most common areas in Cloudbeds PMS where you can update your property information and core settings. You can use these steps anytime; for example, when setting up a new property, making operational changes, or reviewing your configuration.
Remember to click on the Save button at the bottom-right corner every time you finish filling out each one of the following pages.
Add the Basics
1. Property Profile (Property page)
The Property Profile section includes your basic property info and what customers will see on your booking engine.
How to access it
To access your Property Profile settings page, open your Account > click on Settings
> go to Property
> and complete the required information in Property Profile.
Make sure that your Property Profile information is correct. This information is used to establish your connection with Google Hotel Search. Learn more here.
1.1 Update your Property Contact Info
- Make sure your property type is correct
- Write your property name. This name will appear on your booking engine.
- Add your property contact email.
- First name and last name of the contact person for your property. Keep in mind that this is the information that will be available on your booking engine, so you may not want to have your full name listed as a contact. You will also want to ensure that the property email is accurate and accessible to users as any guest inquiries will be sent to the property email address.
- Add your property phone number
- Add your Website URL.
1.2 Update your Property Address
- Add the Country where your property is located
- Add details about the address
- Include the State/Province
- Add the Street Address
- Add City name
- Add the Postal/ZIP Code
- Add property address and make sure that the location is defined correctly on the map.
If the location of your property is not displaying in the correct location on the map, drag the marker to the correct location to update the coordinates.
- The website URL has a limit of 100 characters.
1.3 Update your Property Photos and Description
- Upload some Property Photos. These will be used on your booking engine
- Add a Print Header image to be displayed when printing Dashboard, the Housekeeping Report, and Folios.
- Add your property description
- Click Save
2. Accommodation Types (Property page)
Creating Accommodation Types correctly is one of the most vital settings for your property.
How to access it
To access your Accommodations settings page, open your Account , select Settings
, go to Property
and open the Accommodations tab.
The information in the Accommodations page affects both your Cloudbeds PMS and Booking Engine accounts as well as the inventory and availability of your distribution channels.
Best Practice
- We strongly recommend creating distinct accommodation types (room types) (example: “Standard Dorm” or “Women’s Dorm”) instead of separate individual rooms (example: “Standard Dorm Room 1”, “Standard Dorm Room 2”, etc.).
- Creating separate individual rooms instead of room types will make your inventory incompatible with the majority of distribution channels. For more information and details, see: Distribution Channel Mapping Guidelines.
Steps to create a new accommodation type
- Click on New Accommodation Type
-
Name the new accommodation type
- Guests will see the accommodation name you enter. Use clear, simple titles such as Standard Double Room.
-
Enter the Accommodation Abbreviation
This abbreviation is used internally (for example, on the Calendar).
-
Select whether the accommodation is Private or a Shared dorm room (with beds)
- If it’s a dorm, complete the dorm-specific options (for example, beds/occupancy and whether it is gender-specific).
- Enter the Number of units, the Maximum occupancy, and the Max Adults and Max Children
- Enter Adults included in rate and Children included in rate (Booking Engine only)
- Add the Accommodation description
- (Optional) Add amenities for the accommodation type
- (Optional) Upload images for the accommodation type (featured image shows on the Booking Engine)
- (Optional) Accommodation Naming & Organization: Enter the room name for each accommodation. This information will be for internal use on the calendar and reservation page unless you use the below option.
Click on the Edit Room Names button to rename individual rooms or beds inside of an accommodation type
- To delete a room, you will update the number of units for private rooms and/or number door rooms. By reducing the inventory count, it will remove the accommodation from the bottom. Once this is done, it cannot be reversed, so only do this if you are certain. See How to Delete an Accommodation Type
- Click Save
Go to Create and manage your accommodation types to learn more.
3. Taxes and Fees (Finance page)
Use the Taxes and Fees page to create and manage regional, state, or federal taxes, as well as any other taxes or fees you may charge on room nights or products.
How to access it
- From your Account
> click Settings
> and go to Finance
- Create new or edit the information in the Taxes and Fees tab
If all of your taxes and fees will be included in the total room rates, create them as Inclusive in Cloudbeds PMS. Learn how here.
- Example: If you enter a rate of $100 and do not set up any, the guest will pay $100 because all taxes and fees are included in the rate.
-
If your taxes and fees were not included in the total room rates you added, then you will need to fill this out. Learn How to create Taxes and Fees.
- Example: If you enter a rate of $100 and set up a tax of 10%, the guest will pay $110. This is because all taxes and fees are not included in the rates you have entered. Your 10% tax has been added to the rate.
4. Sources (Property page)
Create, enable or disable the sources (Primary and Third Party Sources) from which you receive the reservations. Configure tax/fee for specific source meaning that it will be automatically applied to the booking once it comes from the selected source.
How to access it
- From your Account
>
- Add new, review or edit the information in the Sources tab
Find out more about Adding and editing Primary & Third Party Reservation Sources.
5. Policies (Property page)
These are the specific details for how you handle the daily operations of your property.
How to access it
- From your Account
- Review or edit the information in the Policies tab
Learn more about Policies.
6. Rates (Rates and Availability page)
Once your accommodation types have been created, it's time to add your rates in the Availability Matrix. This section allows you to quickly control what prices are displayed for each room type based on the date.
Include the Base Rates for any period, including specific days of the week and minimum or maximum length of stay limitations. These are the Standard Rates for your rooms.
Per-person Rates are used for customizing your Booking Engine and are not sent to your Distribution Channels. To allow the greatest level of flexibility, Cloudbeds PMS sends out a standardized Best Available Rate across all your channels. This helps ensure a consistent sync with your multiple OTAs.
How to access it
- From the Main menu
> go to Rates and Availability
- Click on Availability Matrix
How does more availability help me get more bookings?
Loading plenty of availability (both long-term and last-minute) means you are more visible to more bookers on a global audience, and thus more likely to get bookings.
Also, travelers like to plan ahead, so you will appear in more search results for if you load availability further out into the future. We recommend at least 12 to 18 months of future inventory, and to keep this updated continuously.
Learn more about the Availability Matrix.
7. Import Reservations (Reservations page)
Overview
You're almost there! Make sure to complete your reservation import before moving on to Distribution, adding all current and upcoming reservations for your property.
This is an absolute requirement as it is what creates the availability for your property and helps prevent overbookings. For most people, we recommend just adding reservations manually since it will help build a great understanding of the reservation creation process.
Things to note:
Importing your past reservations is not required, but can be useful for reporting and maintaining a past and repeating customer list.
- Only the following info is required to create a booking:
- Date
- Accommodation type
- First and last name
- Email (if you don't have one for your guest, simply enter a placeholder email (ex: guy@dude.abcef would work)
- The guest's country of residence
- Source (how was the reservation booked)
- For reservations previously created on OTAs to be automatically updated with possible future modifications, enter their valid third party ID.
Options to Import Reservations
Reservations from the following channels can be imported at the moment of connecting your property to Cloudbeds PMS:
- Booking.com
- Expedia
- Airbnb
- Goibibo
- Remember to inform your Onboarding Coach to perform this action after connecting your property.
How to access it
- From the Main menu
- Click on Reservation Import Options
The Manual Quick Import tool will appear in the description.
Option 1 (recommended) - Manual Quick Import
Manual Quick Import tool allows quickly import many booking at once by filling out the selected fields.
Option 2 - Reservation Import Service (paid service)
To use this service, make sure you have at least 100 reservations to import, which is the minimum requirement.
Learn more about the Reservation Import Service.
Option 3 - Add Reservations Manually
If you are only adding a few reservations to the system (under fifty or so), we also suggest adding them manually by clicking the Add Reservation button. This can also be done in the top right of the reservations page, calendar, and dashboard.
Doing this will allow you to gain familiarity with creating reservations and is used by many properties as a training exercise for their staff.
To learn more about creating new reservations, take a look at one of the following knowledge base articles:
Your Next Step: Distribution
Now that you've setup the core of your property, your Onboarding Coach will provide assistance to enable Distribution. Remember to review all the sections of your Step 1 first, before moving on to this next step.
Comments
You should allow customers to self serve move on to distribution. Onboarding help is not real time, and this setup is very straight forward - just my tip!
Hello!
Thank you very much for sharing your suggestions about a self-service for Distribution.
We will forward your valuable contribution to the corresponding teams for review. Please, remember that you can always access our Cloudbeds Community and share your ideas.
Kind regards!
La verdad se tardan mucho en el tema de distribución. Bloquean esto, cuando uno desea pasar al siguiente paso toca trabajar al ritmo de los asesores. esto les esta costando clientes que desean solucionar un problema y no tomar uno nuevo.
Hola, Brayan Martinez,
Muchas gracias por compartirnos tus comentarios respecto al paso de Distribución durante el proceso de Onboarding.
Tus comentarios son muy importantes para nosotros. Hemos creado un ticket en tu nombre y escalado tus comentarios con el equipo correspondiente, de manera que puedan revisarlo en la brevedad posible.
Un saludo,
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