Discount When Converting from First Resort Software to RDP
Resort Data Processing is offering a discount to all
First Resort (FRS) customers who convert to the RDP software. Advantages
of the RDP system when compared to First Resort are listed below. Also please
see RDP Vacation
Rental System Overview.
| Reasons to Convert from First Resort to
RDP |
The following topics are covered in this
document. See
RDP
Vacation Rental Overview.
- Same ownership
at RDP for 24 years
-
Fully integrated Internet reservations with unit pictures and virtual
tours
- Your
existing hardware should work with RDP
-
Extensive
custom reporting with Crystal Reports, plus 100's of standard reports
-
E-mail integration for guests, owners, travel agents, etc.
- Yield Management integrated
with New Reservations
-
Share-with folios and multiple folios per guest
-
Powerful housekeeping capabilities - Forecasting, Scheduling, &
History
-
Work orders & asset management completely integrated to owner accounting
-
Powerful general ledger with full integration to various back office
systems
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Track guest credit card numbers
-
Integration to GDS, POS, credit cards, door locks, phone mail,
call accounting, etc.
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Sophisticated group blocking and group reservations
-
Customer Relationship Management (CRM) with frequent guest program
and e-mail marketing
-
Reservation
quotes, wait list, and denial tracking capabilities
- Booking Pace
and Occupancy Forecasting
-
Additional features related to condo and home owner accounting
The topics above are covered in this document. For additional
features related to condo and home owner accounting, please see
RDP
Owner Accounting Overview. |
Same Ownership at RDP for 24
years
Why Buy From RDP?
A Message from Barry Biegler
President and Founder of Resort Data Processing, Inc.
I founded RDP in 1981. For the last 24 years, we have sold
over 1000 systems for vacation rentals, condominium management, and
hotels. Bill Csete has been my partner for over 20 years and is
currently in charge of product development. We still run the company
day-to-day and continue to drive RDP's success, which includes 24 consecutive
profitable years. While we have had many offers to sell RDP, we
decided long ago to keep the company private and drive decisions based
on the long run and future generations.
The founders of First Resort have all left. FRS has been sold
several times: first to Resort Quest, and then again to Gaylord Hospitality
and now to another company. The brains behind FRS are gone,
whereas the founders of RDP are still here to help, which is critical
to the success of any small company.
Please give me a call on my personal line, 970-845-1157 and I will
be glad to discuss any area of the vacation rental business with you.
I have always answered my own phone directly and frequently talk to
our customers to make sure the RDP software is helping them make more
money.
Barry Biegler, President,
RDP
Direct Phone: 970-845-1157
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Fully Integrated Internet Reservations with Unit Pictures and Virtual Tours
RDP's Internet Reservation Module (IRM) allows millions of potential guests,
groups, travel agents, and owners to check availability and make commission-free
reservations 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. The IRM is designed to
work in conjunction with your existing marketing website. Reservations are
stored immediately in the same database as normal "phone-in" reservations with just
one database for true "last room" availability. Multiple pictures of each
rental unit can be displayed, along with full descriptions and a "virtual tour"
of each property.
Six years ago RDP had a conference with over 200 of our customers. We asked,
"How can RDP use the Internet to make life easier and more profitable for our customers
dealing with individual owners?". We spent three days answering this question,
and have now implemented the suggestions, which include:
| How the Internet Can Help Vacation Rental
Managers |
- Owners can make reservations via the Internet
- Owners can make reservations for their own guests
- Owners can display and print their owner calendar (see sample
below)
- Owners can view their newsletters online
- Collect owner payments over the Internet
- Send mass e-mails with "one click"
- Guests can view individual pictures and descriptions of every
room
A few sample screens from the Internet Reservation Module appear below.
For additional information, please use the following links:
|
| Internet Reservation Module
- Sample Owner Calendar |
|
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| Internet Reservation Module
- Show Available Rooms |
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Your Existing Hardware
Should Work with RDP
RDP software is designed to run on Windows 2012 servers or using "peer-to-peer"
networks. Workstations run on Windows 7 or 10. Most FRS
customers should be able to use all their existing hardware for the RDP software.
Extensive Custom
Reporting with Crystal Reports
RDP software includes much more report writing capability than FRS. RDP
uses Crystal Reports as the basis for over
275 standard reports. During installation,
RDP modifies those reports and creates new ones to meet the unique requirements
of each customer. After installation, customers can create their own reports
or modify existing reports using Crystal Reports 2008.
Crystal Reports is a full windows product and allows
the use of graphics, color,
charts, and fonts, which improve the look
of all guest correspondence. Please use the following links for more
information:
Email Integration for Guests, Owners, Travel Agents, etc.
E-mail is one of the most powerful and least expensive marketing tools currently
available and has been fully incorporated into the core RDP system at no additional
charge. E-mail features included in the system:
- E-Mail databases are created for
guests,
travel agents,
groups, wholesalers, and
condo/timeshare
owners.
- Reservationists can click one button to send a confirmation to the guest,
complete with maps and other attachments.
- Mass e-mails can be sent directly from the RDP System - with no third party
software required.
- RDP abides by all current regulations for anti-SPAM by allowing guests to
"opt out" of mass e-mails.
- Guest confirmations can be sent via e-mail, fax, or printed and sent by
mail.
- Crystal Reports can be created and distributed by e-mail.
- Reservations made by the
Internet Reservation Module (IRM) can send e-mail confirmations automatically
- Owner newsletter can be automatically sent via e-mail
Yield Management Integrated with New
Reservations
RDP has integrated yield management with the reservation
system. When combined with a careful study of the property's history and employee
training, yield management can significantly increase occupancy and the average
daily rate (ADR). Small increases in ADR can drastically increase property profit.
Yield Management Overview
Share-with
Folios and One Guest with Multiple Folios
RDP supports both share-with folios and a single guest with multiple folios.
A share-with occurs when more than one guest is in the room and wishes to split
the bill. For example, four guests could stay in a two-bedroom unit, with four different
folios. Up to 99 share-withs can split the charges for one room. A single
guest can have multiple folios. For example, the room charges can go to the
Folio A and incidentals to Folio B; or room charges can be billed to the group master
and incidentals for the guest. Please use the following links for more information:
Housekeeping Forecast, Scheduling & History |
The RDP system includes a very powerful
housekeeping system which is designed
to forecast housekeeping requirements, provide a daily cleaning schedule, and offers
complete history by housekeeper and room.
Forecasted
Housekeeping
Requirements |
The housekeeping module is designed to forecast the
total number of housekeepers needed each day in the future based on
current guests in-house and expected arrivals/departures. For
example the forecast report may indicate that a total of 124 rooms will
be dirty tomorrow for a total cleaning time of 101 hours. The
following day shows 214 dirty rooms with a total cleaning time of 194
hours. Use this information to plan the work schedules for housekeepers
to make sure there are not too few or too many housekeepers each day.
Features include:
-
Forecast cleans up to 365 days in advance.
-
Store individual estimated clean times in user-defined
tables based on room type and clean type (daily clean, checkout
clean, "midweek tidy", etc.).
-
Various Crystal
Reports are available which can be modified as needed.
-
Assign different "clean patterns" for each guest.
For example, in a condominium rental, one guest can
have "checkout only" cleaning while another can purchase "full daily
cleaning."
|
Daily
Housekeeping
Schedule |
The housekeeping module can automatically create a cleaning
schedule each day for each housekeeper based on the number of dirty
rooms, estimated clean time per room, and number of housekeepers.
A housekeeping status screen is the core element which tracks each
housekeeper and auto-refreshes as rooms are cleaned, inspected, and
other tasks are performed. Features include:
- Automatically assign dirty rooms to housekeepers based on
total cleaning time
- Print daily cleaning schedule for each housekeeper
- Track status from dirty to "ready for inspection" to "clean
and ready for guest"
- Rooms can be marked clean automatically using the in-room phone
|
Housekeeping
History
Housekeeper
Performance
Reports |
The third major element of the housekeeping module is
historical reporting. It is possible to measure the performance
of each housekeeper by tracking the estimated clean time and actual
clean time, as well as variance. You can also track each time a room
was cleaned and by whom. For example, if a guest checks in to
a dirty room, you can determine which housekeeper erroneously marked
the room as clean. Features include:
- Various Crystal Reports
available for customization.
- Enter actual cleaning time and compare to forecasting time using
the phone in the room. For example, the housekeeper can press
*1 from the phone when they enter the room, which stores the start clean time
in housekeeping history. When done, they press *2 to mark
the room as "ready for inspection." The end clean is
stamped on the room. The system reports the actual clean time per room,
forecasted time, and variance to track housekeeper performance.
- Inspectors can enter comments or notes on each clean.
- Inspectors can use the phone in the room to mark the room as
"ready for guest," which also stored the time the inspector finished.
Reports are available showing how much time elapsed between the
housekeeper marking the room as "ready for inspector" and the the
time the inspector completed the inspection.
- Track all cleans per housekeeper and tracks all cleans per
room.
- Assign a Clean Quality to the room. Run reports that show an
average clean quality by housekeeper.
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For more details, see
Housekeeping Forecast, Scheduling, and History.
Work Orders & Asset Management Completely Integrated with Owner Accounting
RDP provides a complete "Work Order and Asset Management" capabilities, fully
integrated with owner accounting. A brief overview of this module is below.
For more information:
The flow of events for a work order is as
follows:
-
When the guest calls the front desk to report the
broken toilet, the front desk clerk enters the work order on
their workstation using the Windows based "Add Work Order" screen (see
example below). The front desk
clerk can assign a priority to the work order; in this case, "high."
-
This new work order immediately appears on the Monitor Work
Orders screen as a "high-priority" work order request
to "Fix the toilet in Room 101." The Maintenance Department
can now assign this work order to a third party vendor (for example,
Bob's Plumbing) or to an internal maintenance employee.
Alternatively, the front desk clerk or front desk supervisor could assign a
person to the work order when it was first added to the system to eliminate this step.
-
Assume the work order was assigned to an internal
maintenance employee Tom. The work order system can
automatically notify Tom about the new work order in one of the following
methods:
- A notification can be sent to a mobile device. Tom can
view the complete detail of the work order on the device.
- A text-only e-mail or text message can be sent to Tom's mobile phone..
-
The work order monitor screen tracks the "open,
assigned" work order. Any workstation can access the Monitor Work
Orders screen to track the progress of all work orders.
- When the assigned contact (Tom) completes the work order, he
marks it as "closed" and can enter comments. This can be
done using a mobile device or any workstation. The work order is then
closed, and no longer appears as a high priority open work
order on the monitor screen.
- Work order history is maintained. For example, view all closed work orders for the day or any range of past days. A
wide variety of reports are available (i.e. Work Sheet report displays Open
work orders sorted by Vendor, as well as Contacts within the Vendor.)
- The cost of a work order can be charged to a guest, group,
or condominium owner. Assume the $75 cost of repairing the
toilet should be charged to the owner of Room 101. These charges can
be applied from the work order directly to the owner account along with a
markup (i.e., you may charge the owner $85 for the $75 repair.). These charges can be applied to the owner
statement.
- A complete history of all repairs for each fixed
asset is available. For example, you could enter the pool heater as an
asset, along with the serial number, description, the
vendor to call for repair, and other asset-specific information. Each time a work
order is generated for the pool heater, the vendor can be automatically
notified by email. The history of all repairs to the pool heater is
available.
Powerful General Ledger Offers Full Integration with Various Standard Back-Office
Accounting Systems
The RDP system includes a powerful general ledger which tracks all activity for
guests, owners, travel agents groups, wholesalers, credit cards, and other RDP entities.
The system uses your chart of accounts and produces a wide variety of financial
reports with daily, month-to-date, and year-to-date totals. The RDP general ledger
is fully integrated with a variety of third-party back-office systems. The
flow of data is as follows: (See
Overview - RDP General Ledger for details).
- During installation, assign account numbers
from your chart of accounts to every RDP transaction code.
- Within the RDP system, transaction codes are
posted to Owners, reservations, folios, groups, companies, travel agents, wholesalers,
etc.
- During the Day End procedures, the system moves
transactions into the general ledger components producing a
balanced daily G/L entry.
- The balanced daily journal entry is exported
to a network "transfer file."
- Your back-office system imports the transfer
file as a daily journal entry.
- The daily totals are transferred to your back-office
system, but the detail behind the total is in RDP. For example, if there
were 300 local guest phone calls made at $.50 each, the $150 total appears in
the back-office system. The detail of each of the 300 calls is in the RDP system
in the transaction detail
report.
- General Ledger history is stored forever in
the RDP system; limited only by available disk space. You have the ability
to inquire on any G/L account for any past date and display all transactions.
- Advance deposit ledger, guest ledger, and city
ledger reports are available from RDP.
- Monthly income statements, balance sheets, cash
flow reports, etc., are printed from your back-office system.
Track Guest Credit Card Numbers
For Up to 180 Days
RDP offers the tracking of credit card numbers, deposits, refunds, authorizations,
etc., based on Payment Card Industry Security Standards (PCI). A wide variety of credit card processors can be used. High speed authorization
(usually less than 2 seconds) is available using an Internet connection. Credit
cards can be swiped directly into the RDP System.
Integration to GDS, POS, Credit Cards,
Door Locks, Phone, E-mail, etc.
RDP interfaces with a wide variety of third-party devices. Please use the
links below for details.
Sophisticated
Group Blocking & Group Reservations
Please review our information on
Groups and
Conferences.
Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
with Frequent Guest Program
The Customer Relationship Management (CRM) module is designed to track all relationships
with guests to improve guest service and marketing. All guest visits are tracked
from one or more RDP systems. Points can be awarded for each reservation.
The number of points can be different for different seasons, room types, total dollars
spent, and other variables. Guests can make reservations by redeeming points.
Restrictions can be applied to control when "point reservations" are allowed.
A complete history is kept of all point reservations. Mass e-mails can be
sent with attachments.
Reservation
Quotes, Wait List, and Denial Tracking
When a guest calls the reservation department at the property or your
central
reservations office, the reservationist has four choices:
- File the reservation normally as a regular reservation.
- If the room is not available, the guest entered as a reservation on the
wait list for the dates and room type requested.
- If the guest elects to not make the reservation, a "denied reservation"
record is created to indicate why the guest did not complete the
reservation.
Booking Pace and Occupancy
Forecasting
RDP offers "Booking Pace and Occupancy Forecasting" reports to
analyze forecasted revenue and occupancy and compare the forecasts to the same time
last year. Over 40 reports are included, all of which can be modified with
Crystal Reports. A wide variety
of additional reports can easily be created to analyze data. For example,
on 2/1/2004, you could run a report that showed the total number of rooms booked,
and revenue for the period 3/1/2004 to 6/30/2004. The report includes totals
for the same time frame last year (i.e., on 2/1/2003, what was booked for 3/1/2003
to 6/30/2003). This allows management to analyze if the booking pace is ahead
or behind the previous year. Any date ranges are possible.
Each night the system takes a "snapshot" of all reservations
and stores this data in a forecast file. This data is stored forever; limited
only by available disk space. The data includes a wide variety of sorting
capabilities
Additional
Features Related to Condo/Home Owner Accounting
Some additional features in the RDP Owner Accounting system are listed below.
For a complete description of each feature, please see
RDP Owner Accounting Overview.
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