Stacking Functions within one Document Template.

 What are functions –  Functions define what your new Document is going to be, then the Trigger and Event decide what is going to happen when, or No Trigger creates the Document and it can only go manually. 

For this Article I am concentrating on the Reservation Confirmation Email.

What are the Triggers – The Trigger can be ON, AFTER or BEFORE an event.

What are the Events - The Triggers for ON and AFTER are; Reserved, Confirmed, Guaranteed, In-House, Departed, On Hold, No Show, Cancelled, Quote, Arrival Date, Departure Date, Date Change, Rate Change, Room (Class) Change.  The Triggers for BEFORE are: Arrival Date and Departure Date.

 

 

SINGLE FUNCTION - 

A simple example of a single function would be your Automated Confirmation Email – One trigger ON for the Event/Status of RESERVED.

This will prompt your email to go out automatically when the Status of your Reservation changes to RESERVED - Most reservations automatically come in with this status.

A simple example of Stacking Functions for your confirmation letter can look like this –

This stacking comes in handy when you have your Distribution set to have different sources come in as different Statuses/Events. Or if you manually change the status of your reservations.
 

An example of a Complex Stacking –

 

This particular Automatic Email has three stacked Functions each with a different Event - 1.) when the rates change, 2.) when the room class changes, 3.) when the date changes.  These are not And/Or options so if your guest changes all three things they will receive three emails. 

 I added a line in the body of the email for this particular client stating that "If you made multiple changes to your reservation you may receive duplicate emails."  If you would prefer your Guest NOT to receive multiple emails you can set up three separate Document Templates, each with one Trigger.  This is just an example of stacked triggers.

 

Assuming I am making changes to an already established reservation -

What happens when -
 

• I change one of the three: Date Change, Rate Change, Room (Class) Change -  I receive one confirmation email.  
• I change the rate to a manual override – I receive one confirmation email
• I change the Date, Rate (from manual override to Rack) and Room Class within the opened reservation - I receive three separate emails.
• I change the Date and the new date had a different Rate – I receive one.
• I change the Room Class to a Room Class with a higher or lower rate – I receive one.
• I change all three (with the rate change being caused by the date and Room class change) I received two.

To Be Noted - If the date change or room class change 'includes' a rate change (moving from a weekday rate to a weekend rate) that rate change will not prompt its own email confirmation.

I hope this assists you with using Triggers and Events within a Document Template and gives you some great ideas on how to set up more emails to help your guests stay informed and enjoy their stay.