1. Cloudbeds
  2. Configuration Hub
  3. Onboarding
  4. Self-Setup Guide

Onboarding Self-Setup (Step 1) - Add the Basics (Mandatory Information)

Juss Reyes
Updated

This article explains how to adding the basics to your Cloudbeds PMS as a part of your Onboarding Process, covering the most necessary customization options for your property.

Getting Started

1. Access your Cloudbeds PMS account for the first time
  1. With the link provided by your Sales Representative, click on Login to setup your password

Once your password is setup, you can always access your property from the Cloudbeds website or through your login page directly.

  1. Answer setup questions (country, time zone, currency),
  2. Click on Continue.

If you need any assistance during these first steps, reach out to our Support Team.

2. Access the Setup Guide

The Setup Guide does a great job of guiding you through the majority of the setup process. Navigate through all the tabs to complete your property setup successfully.

  1. Click on the Account icon
  2. Click on Settings
  3. The system will take you directly to the Setup Guide
  • Click on the Exit Guide button if you need to complete your property setup at a later time.
  • Note that the Setup Guide will appear automatically every time you go to the  Settings, until the Distribution step is complete for your onboarding account.

Add the Basics

Remember to click on the Save button at the bottom-right corner every time you finish filling out each one of the following pages.

1. Profile

The Property Profile section includes your basic property info and what customers will see on your booking engine. Click on the Profile tab to access the page, and complete the required information.

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. Property Contact Info

  1. Make sure your property type is correct
  2. Write your property name. This name will appear on your booking engine.
  3. Add your property contact email.
  4. 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.
  5. Add your property phone number
  6. Add your Website URL.

1.2. Property Address

  1. Add the Country where your property is located
  2. Add details about the address
  3. Include the State/Province
  4. Add the Street Address
  5. Add City name
  6. Add the Postal/ZIP Code
  7. 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. Property Photos

  1. Upload some Property Photos. These will be used on your booking engine.
  2. Add a Print Header image to be displayed when printing Dashboard, the Housekeeping Report, and Folios.
  3. Add your property description.
  4. Click Save.
2. Accommodations

To create the accommodation types correctly is one of the most vital settings for your property. Click on the Accommodations tab to access the page.

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.

2.1. Add a new Room Type

  • We strongly recommend creating distinct room types (example: Standard Dorm or Women's Dorm) and not separate individual rooms (example: Standard Dorm Room 1).
  • 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.
  1. In the Accommodations page, click on New Accommodation Type
  2. Name the new accommodation type
    • Remember that guests will see the names you input. We recommend using easy and simple titles like Standard Double Room for example.
  3. Select whether the room is a dorm or a private room
    • If it's a dorm, you'll add the number of rooms, room occupancy (number of beds), and then whether it is gender-specific
  4. Add the number of units of this type, the maximum occupancy and the number of adults and children included in rate (Booking Engine only)
  5. Add a description of the room for your guests
  • 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
  1. Add the accommodation amenities
  2. Upload Images of the rooms. The featured image will be displayed on booking engine
  3. Accommodation Naming & Organization (optional): Enter the room name for each individual accommodation. This information will be for internal use on the calendar and reservation page unless you use the below option.
  4. Save

Go to the Accommodation Types Overview to learn more.

3. Taxes and Fees

Enter all the taxes you charge on this page. This should include any sales, state or federal taxes, and any other taxes you may charge on top of a room night or a sold product.

  • 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

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.

Find out more about Adding and editing Primary & Third Party Reservation Sources

5. Policies

These are the specific details for how you handle the daily operations of your property.

Learn more about Policies.

6. Rates

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.

6.1. 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.

6.1.1. Set up Base Rates in the Availability Matrix
  1. In the Rates tab, click on +Long-Term Interval option
  2. Select the accommodation(s) to set the Base Rate
  3. Select the dates/days of the week to set a rate for. Not selecting a day within this range will restrict you from being able to sell inventory on those days unless there is a different interval for only those days added.
  4. Click on Add Date Range (optional) to add several periods. Note that the Base Rate and Restrictions have to be the same if you use this option.
  5. Select Base Rate as interval setting
  6. Enter the Room Rate
  7. Click Add Interval

Optional: Set up different intervals by selecting specific Interval Settings:

7. Import Reservations

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:
    1. Date
    2. Accommodation type
    3. First and last name
    4. Email (if you don't have one for your guest, simply enter a placeholder email (ex: guy@dude.abcef would work)
    5. The guest's country of residence
    6. Source (how was the reservation booked)
    7. 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.

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.

Register at Cloudbeds University to get access to all training videos.

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Comments

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    Hello

    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!

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  • Avatar
    Juss Reyes

    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!

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