Supplier – Frequently Asked Questions
Add & Manage Products
- How do I load my products into the system?
- How do I set product pricing?
- How do I set up blackout dates if I don’t want to offer my product on certain dates (e.g. holidays)?
- How should I handle cancellations? / How do I set up cancellations?
- How do I save my changes / How do I know my products have saved?
- What’s the difference between an “Add-on” and an “Option?”
- How does Product Availability work?
- Why aren’t my Guest info / voucher notes / items displaying, even if I’ve set them up?
- Why doesn’t my product display?
- Why can’t I activate my product?
How do I load my products into the system?
There are 2 different methods available to have your inventory uploaded into your account and available for booking. They are: 1) API/XML integration or 2) manually uploading products through the product manager in your SIMPLENIGHT® account.
Manually (hosted): current SN users
Increased speed & performance since products are hosted with SIMPLENIGHT® Products must be added through the SIMPLENIGHT® interface
API integration:
If a supplier uses a third-party inventory management software, SIMPLENIGHT® will work to evaluate and integrate the system with the SIMPLENIGHT® platform.
How do I set product pricing?
To enter the sale price of your product, select the Pricing field located in the Items section of your product in the Product Manager.
If you have set up Options whose pricing fluctuates the total price of the product, you can set up price differentials under the Options menu in the Product Manager and then activate the desired Options that correspond to each Item created.
How do I set up blackout dates if I don’t want to offer my product on certain dates (e.g. holidays)?
You can set Blackout Dates by selecting Overrides at the bottom of your Product Manager category list.
In the Overrides section, you can also practice revenue management techniques by adjusting the pricing per item on any given date. This can be useful if you would like to have your products sold at a premium price during peak season or on holidays. You will also be able to adjust the available quantity for any item on any given date in the Overrides section.
How should I handle cancellations? / How do I set up cancellations?
Having and enabling a Cancellation Policy is mandatory before you can activate a product and have it available for booking in the SIMPLENIGHT® platform.
How you handle cancellations (when the traveler cancels an existing reservation) depends on what your policies are. While inside the Product Manager, you can set up 3 different types of cancellation policies:
- No Refund: The customer doesn’t get a refund if they cancel, period.
- Manual Refund: You will handle each refund on a case-by-case basis, including refund amounts.
- Automated Refund: You can set up an automated refund with certain rules including deadlines and penalties.
How do I save my changes / How do I know my products have saved?
SIMPLENIGHT® automatically saves any changes you make while you’re using the Product Manager. A green bar displays on the top of the screen whenever the system autosaves.
What’s the difference between an “Add-on” and an “Option?”
Add-ons are additional products/services sold at the time of booking, like a bottle of wine for a restaurant, a helmet for rentals, DVD or photos, etc. Add-ons are not mandatory for creating a product.
Options are variants of your product. For example, providing car options for a driving experience or including the several hotels in a city where a customer will be picked up for his or her tour.
How does Product Availability work?
The Availability section of the Product Manager allows you to create as many different schedules that apply to your product and the available items for booking. You can set schedules that always apply and never change, for a certain date range or for one specific date. When setting the availability schedules, you will be able to select which days of the week are applicable along with available start times.
Once you have created the availability calendars, you will then have to activate which availability calendar(s) applies to each item. To do this, select Items > Scheduling. Once you have selected the appropriate availability calendar(s) for each item, the default setting is set on Pending Confirmation which means that you will have to manually Accept or Decline each booking request made. If you would like to have your item set for a Free Sale/ Automatic Confirmation, please select the Automatically Accept button located in the Scheduling section when you are activating the appropriate availability calendar(s).
Why aren’t my Guest info / voucher notes / items displaying, even if I’ve set them up?
Chances are you haven’t yet toggled the slider to activate those options for your product! To activate these item details, go to the Items tab in the Product Manager and activate the toggle slider for each feature you would like to activate for each item created.
Why doesn’t my product display?
First, check to make sure that you’ve activated the product. To do this, you simply need to click on the Activate Product slider in the Product Manager so that its color changes from red to green.
Then check the Availability section in the Product Manager for each Item to make products display correctly.
Why can’t I activate my product?
If your product is not activating, please double check to ensure that all required fields are set for each item of the product that you have created. Please be sure to check that you have activated a cancellation policy, a schedule, entered a sale price and activated the toggle slider to Green in the General Information section for each item.
If you are still experiencing difficulties activating your product, please watch the tutorial video for uploading products that can be accessed from your Dashboard by selecting Tutorials or by contacting your account manager for assistance. Someone will always be glad to assist you.