Cloudbeds Reservation Import Service - Everything you need to know

• Your property set up must be completed: Right after the importing, channels will be activated and your system pushed live.
• Sources must be created (especially if you work with taxes): In this case, they must be configured and linked to their Sources. Refer to your Onboarding coach if you have questions. Learn more about how to add or edit primary and third-party reservation sources.
• Room Types should be set similarly from the importing source (the other PMS/OTA) and preferably with the same or similar name. If any changes are made to the room set up when switching to Cloudbeds, please provide us with a room matching list, for example:
  • Female Dorm will cease to exist, import all-female dorm reservations to Mixed Dorm.
  • The standard room will now be called the Double Room.

• During the import you should stop all activity related to reservations and payment processing in the previous system and your channels, we will start to import reservations and advise once the import is complete, this can take approximately 24 hours.
• In case you can't stop your reservation activities, take note of modifications and manually check after the import is complete.
• If you receive a direct reservation (e-mail, phone, etc.) during the import process, you can manually add them to your account. In this case, please cross-check your availability with your previous system/OTA.

After the import is completed, you will be ready to activate your channels, and the new booking engine will be prepared to be installed on your website.

In case you choose to import past reservations, it is important to be aware of the following information:

• Checked out will have all charges posted in the system; this includes taxes and fees where available. 
• For checked-out reservations, if the payment date is missing, it will be posted on the date of arrival.
• Payments will be added as Imported from the previous system if payment type data is not available.
• Normally, we import past reservations with full payment (room revenue + taxes+fees), this can be changed on demand, in case you prefer to keep outstanding balances on historical data. 
• Normally, canceled and no-show reservations are not imported, this can be changed on demand, in case you prefer to keep your cancelled reservations.

If provided by your previous system or file, we can extract and import the following:

• Main Name (First and Last Name)
• Email Address: If not provided or incorrect, a “fictitious" email address will be generated so the reservations can be imported.
• Country: If not provided, a default country will be generated based on the property's country
• Phone number
• Address 
• City 
• State 
• Postal Code 
• Arrival Date 
• Departure Date
• Booking Date 
  • If not available, the check-in date will be used as the booking date for past reservations, and the date of the import day will be used for future reservations.
• Number of Rooms 
• Number of Adults and Children
• Total Reservation Amount
  • Reservations will be imported with the total amount split equally between days, so in case you will edit reservations with different daily prices, balance due needs to be adjusted accordingly.
• Room Type:
  • Reservations will be imported to the correct Room Types, and if available, the exact accommodation will be allocated.
  • In case the allocation is not available, Room Types and Occupancy will still be correct, and the reservations will be ready to be assigned either manually or automatically.
• Reservation Source: Where the reservation came from (OTAs, Website, etc.)
  • For OTAs, if clearly stated, we will import it as "Hotel Collect" or Channel Collect. If not, they will be imported as Hotel Collect by default
  • If one of the sources is not created on Cloudbeds PMS, we will use the “Website / Booking Engine" as a default source.
• Third-Party Reservation ID: If not provided, it will be blank. May cause issues:
  • OTAs may send changes to a particular reservation. If the OTA Reservation Number is not included in the reservation, a new reservation may be created causing a duplicate, or, depending on OTA, no update will be received. That means modification on OTA will need to be manually adjusted.
• Status: Reservations will be imported as Confirmation Pending so the property can verify if the information is correct and then Confirm it.
  • Both Confirmation Pending and Confirmed reservations are valid reservations and affect availability in the same way. It is merely a visual flag to help the property identify reservations that must be checked for issues before confirming it.
  • Checked In reservations will be imported as Confirmation Pending as well since the system does not allow reservations to be imported as such.
• Notes: Any information provided as “Notes” from the source will be included in the Notes of the reservation. Also, any relevant information that can’t be imported into a specific field will be added here.
  
  • Some PMS have more than one place to store Notes, but not all of the notes are exported. In that case, only what’s provided can be automatically added.
• Payments
  • If provided by the source, the payments will be added to the reservations.
  • Payment Types: If the Payment Type is clearly identified, it will be added to the reservation
  • Payment Date: If the Payment Date is clearly identified, it will be added correctly. Otherwise, the system will import It using the Booking Date OR Arrival Date (for in-house reservations).
• Product Sold: We can import the total amount for the products sold within each reservation, if available, we can also import the item name, quantity, and payment date.
• Groups: If a set of multiple reservations is part of an existing group, and the information is available, this can be associated with the group name in your Group module in Cloudbeds.

Any information that is not imported automatically can be added by the property, manually after the import is done. It is not possible to edit the booking date.

• Any information that is not provided by the source. Example: Some PMSs have fields for Notes, but they are not exported in the Reservations file.
• Credit Card Details: Credit Card details are normally encrypted and not exported along with the reservation files. For security purposes, this information is normally not accessible in bulk.
• Custom Fields, even if created on Cloudbeds PMS. However, we can add this information to the reservation notes. 
• Any extra charges not related to the Room Rates, if available. We will provide you with a list of reservations that need to be adjusted accordingly. We can also add this extra charge amount to the reservation notes.

• If the reservation was imported without the third party reservation ID, Cloudbeds is not able to match them and update the reservation imported. Most likely, Cloudbeds PMS will create a new reservation with the new information. Keep an eye for those reservations, just in case.
• If you receive a modification/cancellation from an OTA account that is not connected to Cloudbeds PMS, it will not be received. In that case, you should manually find them on Cloudbeds PMS and make the adjustments necessary.

Cloudbeds PMS may generate reports differently from your previous PMS. For that matter, the Occupancy Report may not be accurate and should be seen as a reference report rather than official data.

If you have added or removed room types or number of rooms in the meantime, the report can generate different numbers.