Software Update (v2.73)

Bookster ShowTime

Two Month Widget

Our ticket and event booking software, Bookster ShowTime now includes a two month wide widget for placing on your site.

See the the two month widget in action on the Rosslyn Chapel website.

Bookster ShowTime is quick, easy and is letting us trial online booking without any fuss

Simon Beattie, Interpretation Manager

Sold Out!

Theatre production company, Nonsenseroom sold out their run of "A Christmas Carol" at Rosslyn Chapel over Christmas.

Congratulations to all the cast and crew!

Bookster Self Catering

Upgrading to Bookster Pro

• Want unlimited properties?
• Need advanced discounting?
• Need more flexible rates?

It is now possible to easily upgrade from a standard Bookster Self Catering account to a Bookster Pro account from within your Bookster account.

Platform: Properties

• Remove "Dashboard" from member console
• Remove Clean up properties entry type console
• Addition of "Parking details" to property entry type
• Add ability to search on exact number of bedrooms

Platform: Administration Console

As part of an ongoing effort to improve our platform (which we have dubbed "Version 3") we are opening up administrative areas of our platform formally the reserve of Tribalogic employees.

As part of this process, Administrators now have access to edit "Directories" and "Websites" if they have sufficient privileges to do so.

Platform: Payment Gateway Support

Verified by Visa / Mastercard SecureCode

Sagepay payment gateway users now have the choice to activate 3D Secure (Verified by VISA & Mastercard SecureCode) for added security when payments are taken via our booking screens.

Platform: User Reviews

The Semantic Web

In order for search engines and other automated content readers to pick up user ratings and understand that is what they are we have implemented RDF formatting on our user rating averages.

RDF formatted user rating now possible (see www.w3.org/RDF/)

The basic format of our user rating averages is:

	<span xmlns:v="http://rdf.data-vocabulary.org/#" typeof="v:Review-aggregate">

		<span rel="v:rating"><span property="v:average">5</span>/5</span>

			 based on <span property="v:count">4</span> user reviews of 

			<span property="v:itemreviewed">Lakeside House @ Old Church Lane</span>

		</span>

	</span>

	

Example: Let In Edinburgh.

Smarter Page Replacements

We are trialling smarter page replacements.

Page replacements allow text within a page to change depending upon syndicate and now also upon search arguments.

Currently using Regular Expressions (eek!) to match URLs... we promise to make it more friendly as more of our clients use this feature.

If you are interested in using page replacements on you site, get in touch!

Platform: Under The Hood

• Upgrade to Zend Framework 1.10.0
• Reworking of primary search code in preparation for future
• Give uber administrators access to Services
• Booking settings now fall back through: Syndicate > Website > Directory

Client Profie - Gareth Thomas: Rental Reserve

Gareth Thomas is the Marketing & Development Director for Rental Reserve

Rental Reserve operate marketing websites for self catering apartments and holiday homes across the UK allowing real time online bookings to be made by customers.

We conducted a little question and answer session to get an insight into what makes Rental Reserve tick:

You have been operating Rental Reserve for a couple of years now, how are you finding the self catering industry?

There's a fantastic community out there. It's a little hidden and took a while to find, but we're working on giving the industry a voice. From small single property owner/manage set-ups to larger investment backed operations. Everyone has something to add to the discussion - making the industry a better place for everyone.

Why should property owner list their site with you?

We're quite unique in the way we work with property managers. We engage with our clients to build long term relationships that work well for them and us. Because of our commission model, it's essential to us that we get as many quality bookings as possible. Which ensures we're on the same path as the people we work with.

Why should holiday makers book through Let in Edinburgh?

We have the widest collection of quality properties with instant availability and price information. This creates a competitive environment where the guest can choose from the best quality and get a great deal. Seeing so many properties side by side makes it so much easier to book the right property, as does the instant online booking we provide.

As with our support for property managers, we're only ever an email or phone call away to give help and advice whenever needed.

Your Edinburgh site, Let In Edinburgh, has been particularly successful - where next?

That's a good question! Luckily we're spoilt for choice as we enter the next phase of the business. We already have a few plans in the pipeline for both national and international websites. We'll take the same ethos and ideas that we've developed whilst growing Let In Edinburgh to our next location, and we can't wait to see what awaits!

Which areas of your sites are you most proud of?

We've been working hard to improve the quality of properties on offer. The rewards for this work are really starting to come through now, both in terms of the feedback we get and our bottom line figures. It's actually really enjoyable to train clients on our software, especially when they start to see the results.

How did the Tribalogic Platform help you kick start your business?

We carried out a lot of research before choosing which platform to use. As an internet-based company, our website (and the software behind it) are effectively the equivalent of bricks and mortar in a traditional shop.

Nothing even came close to what Tribalogic offer. I'm confident in saying we would not be anywhere close to our current position if it wasn't for the running start the software gave us.

How has the Tribalogic Platform helped you grow your business?

The platform is so scalable that it's ready to grow when we are. Nothing is added to the software without thinking a few steps forward. Beyond the software though, the support of the team is what really makes working with Tribalogic the logical and enjoyable choice. To know your dealing with experts is priceless. To want to go back and work with them over and over is what really makes the difference for us.

Relavent Links

• Rental Reserve
• Let In Edinburgh

Products Rental Reserve Use

• Property Agency Websites
• Bookster Pro

Nonsenseroom tickets live with Bookster Show Time

We are delighted to announce the online sale of Nonsense Room Productions Christmas show using Bookster Show Time once again.

Following the highly successful use of Bookster Show Time to sell tickets through their own website for their Edinburgh Fringe shows, they have decided to use it again for their Christmas event.

See nonsenseroom.co.uk for more details and to book your tickets today!

Embedded on Visit Midlothian

Visit Midlothian have also embedded the Bookster Show Time calendar on their site allowing visitors to book tickets to A Christmas Carol

Explaining Directories, Syndicates and Websites

I have posted a little explanation of some of the basic concepts in our platform on to our support forum.

Hopefully this helps to explain some of general ideas around which our platform is based:

• Directories;
• Syndicates;
• Websites.

Take a look on support.tribalogic.net

Software Update (v2.68)

We have updated the Tribalogic Platform to version 2.68. Here are some of the the major improvements we have pushed out in this release.

Edit Dates On The Fly

Allow surfers to adjust their dates from within a search

Our property agency websites can now be setup to give surfers the ability to change date ranges and party size while they are within their search results.

No more visits back to the home page to alter dates!

For examples of this in action, check out:

• Let In Edinburgh
• The Edinburgh Address

Bookings: More Details

Hold your booking information in Bookster

Bookings in Bookster Self Catering and Bookster Self Catering Pro now allow the storage of additional information related to your bookings.

This allows for use of Bookster / Bookster Pro as more of a management tool.

Add the following fields to your booking:

• Arrival time
• Departure time
• Security deposit
• Security deposit refunded

Look for the "management" link when viewing a booking in the console.

More details in booking Excel export

Get all booking info into your systems

As well as allowing more details to be stored with each booking, we have also added more columns to the bookings list Excel export.

The following columns are now included:

• Outstanding balance
• Party size
• No. of extras
• Arrival time
• Departure time
• Security deposit received
• Security deposit refunded

Payment Gateway Options

More payment gateway integrations

In what has been a extraordinary undertaking, we have completely rewritten how our payment gateway integration works in order to allow support of additional payment gateways within our platform.

We now support:

• Cyber Source
• PayPal
• Sage Pay (aka Protx)

Adding additional payment gateway solutions will now be easier than it was previously.

Other Updates and Improvements

• [update] - Improve the loading time of location selector in members console
• [bugfix] - Fix the featured entry click count from Joomla modules
• [bugfix] - Stop En Suite turning itself on when it should not
• [bugfix] - Fix the add period link of the extra tab in IE8