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Explanation of product setup
Products represent the lesson types you offer at your school.
To manage products:
Navigate to Product Setup → Product Details → Products & Services
The following is an example of how lesson types are arranged under categories.
Ski Category
Private Ski Category
AM Private Ski Lesson
PM Private Ski Lesson
All Day Private Ski Lesson
All Day Freestyle Ski Workshop
Group Ski Category
AM Adult Group Ski Lesson
All Day Adult Group Ski Lesson
AM Child Group Ski Lesson
All Day Child Group Ski Lesson
Snowboard Category
Private Snowboard Category
AM Private Snowboard Lesson
PM Private Snowboard Lesson
All Day Private Snowboard Lesson
All Day Freestyle Ride Workshop
Group Snowboard Category
AM Adult Group Snowboard Lesson
All Day Adult Group Snowboard Lesson
AM Child Group Snowboard Lesson
All Day Child Group Snowboard Lesson
Each of your products can have up to 10 independent options, labelled A-J (see below). Options record information such as the Number of Days the lesson runs, Start Time/End Times and Ability Level.
Here are some examples:
Number of Days {1, 2, 3, 4, 5}
Ability (4 Levels) {First Timer, Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced}
Fixed Start Time {10:00}
Fixed End Time {12:30}
Number of Days {1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7}
Ability (5 Levels) {First Timer, Beginner, Intermediate, Intermediate/Advanced, Advanced}
Custom Start Time {09:00, 09:30, 10:00}
Fixed Duration Time {04:00}
Number of People {1, 2, 3, 4}
Option A is connected to the rate for the product. If Option A has choices 1 to 7 days, when entering rates you will have slots for 1 to 7 days.
Options can be set as compulsory with the Compulsory check box. If Compulsory is checked for Ability Level (as Option B above) guests and agents will not be able to proceed with a booking until a choice is made for this option.
Lessons must have start and end time specified. This can be done by setting a Start Time and an End Time, or with a Start Time and the Lesson Duration.
Keeping options in the same location across lessons is recommended for clarity. i.e. Start Time is always set in Option C. It is acceptable to leave an option as Not Used in some products to help achieve this.
The Ability Level option must be in a consistent location if you wish to use group lesson automatic level progression. (An optional function to help estimate number of instructors needed when offering multi day group lessons.)
It is not possible to change option ordering after a product has been used in a booking.
Images saved on products will show on the booking widget.
Option A in Product Setup is connected to the rate for the product.
Descriptions of your categories and products appear on your website booking widget. Text descriptions convey information to potential customers, assisting them with product selection.
Text descriptions can be entered in the following languages:
English
Japanese
Chinese Traditional
Chinese Simplified
Korean
French
If additional languages are required, please let us know.
You can control which fields are present for your customers and which of these fields are compulsory.
To manage these:
Navigate to Product Setup → Guest Fields
Selecting the Guest - Booking Element Association Required checkbox means guests booking via widgets must choose a guest for every booking element (lesson).
Show - field will be present on booking widgets.
Show and Require - guest cannot proceed without entering a value.
Managing user logins
One of the first setup steps is to provide system access to team members. To manage logins for team members:
Navigate to Account → Users.
We recommend you create separate logins for each team member as this provides:
The ability to limit access to sensitive information i.e. instructor pay to your HR team.
The ability to limit access to advanced or managerial system functionality only to those who are qualified to use it.
The ability to track changes made to bookings and payments to the user who made them.
The ability to create tasks for specific users to complete.
The ability to remove access for a specific user when they leave the team, without needing other users to update their password settings.
Setting roles grants users permission to access / change different areas of the system.
Each team member should be granted the minimal set of user Roles that are required for them to fulfil their duties.
Only users with Manage Pay & Timesheets permission can view wage and payment information.
Only users with Schedule+ User/Viewer permission can edit/view Schedule+.
All users can view all other areas other than wage and payment information mentioned above; however, only users with appropriate permission can create, edit or delete information.
All users are able to see the name, email address, telephone number and permissions of other users.
Users can edit their own name, email address, telephone number and password.
When a new RoomBoss account is created, you begin with a single user login that has access to all RoomBoss roles in the account. This is the Super Administrator user.
The following actions can only be done by a Super Administrator:
View log in count, last log in and account creation date.
Add, edit users or change permissions.
Manually update user passwords.
The following pages relate to managing your pricing strategy
The combination of Rates and Price Adjustments control the price of your products and services. Pricing is managed by setting rates and then adding price adjustments to cover any discounts and promotions.
If you are looking for travel agent commissions, .
Using lesson and activity categories
Lesson and activity categories are an important part of your account setup and are used to:
Collate related products (lesson types) together at the time of purchase.
Control the availability of products.
Report the number of instructors required to teach booked lessons.
Control the size of group lessons. (Maximum customers per group.)
Act as the bridge between lessons booked for clients and instructor management via scheduled activities.
To manage your categories:
Navigate to Product Setup → → Categories tab
The following is an example category setup:
Ski Category
Private Ski Category
Group Ski Category
Snowboard Category
Private Snowboard Category
Group Snowboard Category
Please note that there are two levels of categories (parent and child category).
Following the points above, this example category setup would:
Allow a customer on your website interested in Private Ski lessons to filter lessons and more quickly find what they would like to book.
Let you control how many instructors are allocated to private versus group lessons, and ski versus snowboarding.
Allow you to quickly see the total number of ski and snowboard instructors needed to teach the lessons booked.
Let you control the size of group lessons; note if child group lessons have a different size to adult group lessons, a new category would need to be added.
Assist scheduling by comparing how many instructors are scheduled onto lessons with the number of instructors needed to teach the lessons booked.
Images set on the category will show on your booking widget.
Setting up and enabling rich messages
The Rich Messages feature allows you to set up branded HTML templates for customer communications.
Rich Messages can be:
Account Wide - messages displayed or emails sent to all guests.
Vendor Specific - messages displayed or emails sent on a per vendor basis to guests.
To manage Rich Messages:
Navigate to Product Setup →
PDF invoices and receipts can be issued from the Edit A Booking screen, customers also have an option to download them via their Guest Intranet page.
Within invoices and receipts Rich Messages are used to control:
Your company name and address.
Terms and conditions, and any ancillary booking information (such as the need for equipment and a lift pass).
The Guest Intranet is a one-stop-shop for your customers to view details of their booking and make payment. With Rich Messages you can additionally convey:
Booking requirements - mandatory prerequisite of lift pass/equipment and meeting location.
Terms and conditions.
Emails can be sent to customers automatically via a number of triggers, customised messages can be sent depending on the situation:
Thank you email after the customer makes an enquiry or a booking.
Reminder email prior to an invoice being due, or chase up email after due date passed.
Confirmation email after a payment is received.
Notification email on cancellation of booking.
Courtesy email prior to lesson start date to remind the customer and provide more information plus offer additional services (upsell).
Thank you email after the lesson end date. Optionally including a link to the RoomBoss survey module to receive customer feedback.
Email triggered by clicking on the Send Email button on the Edit A Booking page.
All your auto emails can include a QR code which can be used to identify your guest (and find their booking) at check-in.
Once setup of Rich Messages are complete, you will need to enable the sending of Automated Emails:
Click Edit Details
Enter your account credentials
Click on the checkbox of your required automated email
Click Save
This page is about how to manage Rates within RoomBoss
To manage your rates, navigate to Product Setup →
Rates for each product can be entered with a date range to control seasonality.
As previously mentioned , Option A is connected to the rate for the product. The above example has 7 slots as Option A for this product has choices 1 to 7 days.
Question: Can I offer products online at zero cost?
Answer: Yes. Rates can be set to zero. Products with zero cost can be added by your customers into the shopping basket, and included at checkout.
Navigate to Account →
For more information about Rich Messages please click .
Role
Permission
Manage Bookings
User can create, edit or cancel existing bookings.
Manage Stock/Allotments/Stop Sell
User can create, edit or delete existing agent allotments. Set and edit stop sells (prevent a product being sold over certain dates), and manage channel manager stock.
Manage Booking Channels
User can grant, remove or edit agent access and commissions and portal site listings.
Manage Rates
User can create new and edit or delete existing rates or price adjustments.
Manage Products
User can create new products, edit or make existing products inactive, edit vendor settings and edit rich messages (advanced use only).
Manage Pay & Timesheets
User can access and make changes to instructor pay and timesheets.
Custom ID Mandatory on Purchases as Agent
Checking this box will require the user to enter a Custom ID when making bookings of any 3rd party product. (Can remain unchecked for Snow School use.)
Merge Guest Admin
User can use the Merge Guest function (advanced use only).
Bulk Invoice Admin
User can use Bulk Invoice/Payment function.
Website Configuration Admin
User can setup and edit Website Configurations (booking engine).
Currency Exchange Rate Admin
User can set exchange rates used on website booking engine.
Edit Payments
Once payments have been recorded they can only be edited by users with this permission (users must also have Manage Bookings permission to access the invoices).
Bring Into Package Admin
User can use Bring into Package function.
Bulk Schedule
User can access Bulk Add to Schedule functionality.
Schedule+ User
User can access the Schedule+ page for allocating lessons and rostering activities.
Schedule+ Viewer
User can view the Schedule+ page.
Check-in User
User can access the on-mountain lesson check in function.
Messenger
User can access the instructor messenger function, with ability to contact some/all instructors via the instructor portal.
Instructor Availability User
User can make changes to the Instructor Availability page.
Manage Sales Desks
User can setup/change sales desks.
Schedule List Admin
User can Bulk Edit activities and set completion on Schedule List.
Price Components Admin
User can setup and edit Price Components (manage price breakouts for tax, etc).
Edit Gross Price Role
User can Edit Gross price of a booking (role in addition to Manage Bookings).
Edit Sell Price Role
User can Edit Sell price on booking (role in addition to Manage Bookings).
This page is about how to use Price Adjustments within RoomBoss
Using Price Adjustment is optional, and allows you to manage context-dependent changes in price. For example:
"Early bird special" to reduce the price of bookings made before a certain date.
Seasonal sale to reduce the price of bookings in shoulder seasons.
Combination of the above.
A single price adjustment can apply to one or many products, multiple price adjustments can be applied to a single product. We recommend testing your price adjustments using the Price Calculator.
To manage your price adjustments, navigate to Product Setup → Price Adjustment.
Question: Where can I find the Discount Codes that have been used during booking?
Answer: Within RoomBoss, Price Adjustment reflects the term 'Discount Code'. This is also known as a 'Coupon'. These can be found in the Reports that you generate on the Search Bookings page.
Question: How can I display the Discount Codes in the generated report?
Answer: To identify what discount code / coupon was used when the booking was created, first create a custom report on the Search Bookings page clicking the button on the bottom right corner after performing a search. Click then on 'Custom Report ...' and '+ New Custom Report'.
Make sure to add the Report Column 'Applied Adjustments' to this custom report. Alternatively, you can add all fields by clicking the two arrows pointing right, and then search for this column in the spreadsheet after downloading the report.
The Applied Adjustment column shows the name of the adjustment linked to the Discount Code that has been used by the customer when making a booking.
Managing instructor availability automatically or manually
There are two ways to confirm bookings:
This works by receiving booking requests and confirming them manually.
If you wish to use this method, you do not need to set instructor availability in the system.
RoomBoss confirms bookings automatically, the number of instructors available for work requires setting. Customers and agents can make confirmed lesson reservations if there are instructors available. If no instructors are available, customers may still make booking requests for your manual confirmation.
To set instructor availability:
Navigate to Product Setup → Instructor Availability Management, select the desired date range and click on Show.
The number of instructors available to work is specified at the Category level.
This allows you to be more flexible to offer various lesson products in parallel, while reducing the need to manage availability for each lesson individually.
For example, in the following lesson setup:
Private Snowboard Category
AM Private Snowboard Lesson
PM Private Snowboard Lesson
All Day Private Snowboard Lesson
All Day Freestyle Ride Workshop
Setting instructor stock within the Private Snowboard Category allows all lesson product types in that category to be automatically confirmed as long as there are available instructors.
Even if there is just one available instructor left in Private Snowboard Category, it's still possible to automatically confirm all four lesson types. (One more lesson of any type can be booked.)
For advance sales (i.e. before instructors are added to the system), you may commence sales by specifying the number of instructors to sell in each Category.
Once instructors are added into the system, you can derive the number of available instructors based on actual availability to reflect instructor availability for sales.
To do this, instructors must be associated with a parent category: Ski or Snowboard.
To toggle instructor Available / Not Available status, click on the desired date.
Available / Not Available status and override category can be set for multiple days by clicking on the instructor's name.
Setting an instructor as unavailable for a period will remove all allocations for that period.
To set days as Not Available and parent category associations:
Available / Not Available status and parent category association will be reflected in the filtering on Schedule+, it is not possible to allocate lessons or schedule activities for instructors on days they are Not Available.
To check the number of available instructors:
Select Vendor from the drop down menu
Select Start date and End date
Select Draw Total Instructors & Unavailable Instructors from the Instructor Work Days page from the drop down menu
Click the Show button
The Available Instructors By Parent Category and Daily Summary tabs will display live numbers for Total Instructors and Unavailable Instructors. These will be displayed by parent category and can be used to update the numbers available for sale.
Setting up policies, access and commissions for booking channels
This section relates to controlling how bookings can be made via your website and by agents.
It is possible to control how close to the lesson start date bookings can be created (and for agents also edited).
Setting a smaller number of days prior to the lesson start is beneficial to encourage sales (value 0 meaning same day). However, a smaller number of days can create more last minute schedule changes for your team.
To manage your booking window:
Navigate to Product Setup → → Policy
An agent's ability to make bookings is controlled by booking window settings in conjunction with agent-by-agent access settings.
To control the level of booking access and commission for each agent:
Navigate to Product Setup →
The three levels of agent access are:
No Access - agents are unable to view or book your lessons, this is the default setting until you make changes.
Request Access - agents can view your lessons and pricing, and can make booking requests within the booking window you specified.
Reservation Access - In addition to Request Access, agents can make confirmed reservations as long as there is sufficient Instructor Availability.
To set agent commission, enter the amount in the Commission column.
Automated and customising invoice generation
This function allows you to automate the creation of invoices when new Reservations are made or Requests are changed to Reservations.
To access the setup page:
Navigate to Product Setup →
Invoice Strategies can automatically create invoice(s) taking into account the situation:
Booking Source
Direct bookings via manual entry.
Direct bookings via website booking engine.
Travel agent bookings.
What month the booking took place.
How far in advance the booking is made prior to the lesson date.
This gives you the flexibility to automate policies such as bookings made far in advance are deposit now and final payment later, or bookings made close to the lesson date need to pay in full now.
Setting up widgets and enabling optional currencies
This section relates to the booking pages (widgets) to be added to your website. We will perform initial setup to customise booking widgets to match the style of your website, and will provide you with URLs and integration details.
If you wish to go further with styling, it is possible for your web developer to take over. We are available to communicate with your web developer directly, however it is possible for you to independently manage the settings by navigating to:
Account →
These are the two settings required in order to customise styling:
Website Subdomain E.g. book.bestskischool.com
Custom CSS URL This can be provided by your web developer, and will be used by widgets.
To enable customers to view pricing in different currencies:
Navigate to Account →
Click the Enabled checkbox under Multi Currency.
Select your choice of Default Currency from the drop down menu.
To select which rates to use, click on the radial button for:
Click on the Use Rates from Web
or
Use Rates Specified by Me
To specify rates, navigate to Account →
The final pricing will be in the currency you've specified when setting rates. The pricing in other currencies is indicated to the customer as being indicative only.
Optional Point of Sale payment solution with Square
RoomBoss can be setup to to work with the Square Point of Sale (POS) system to process credit card payments onsite. Transactions processed via Square will be automatically updated in RoomBoss. This will automatically set the correct payment amount and mark the booking as paid in RoomBoss.
To use this feature, you will need:
A Square account.
A Square credit card reader.
A mobile device (tablet/phone) with the Square Point of Sale app installed.
Payments can only be processed on a mobile device (tablet/phone) with the Square Point of Sale app.
Please contact Square for questions about the app/reader setup.
If you wish to use the POS solution, it is not necessary to use Square as your main payment gateway. You may continue with your existing gateway and use Square only for POS.
Please feel free to contact us if you are interested in this feature.
Managing instructor log ins and contracts
To add instructors:
Navigate to Product Setup → → Resources
This page controls the basic instructor settings:
ID - An optional field that can be used to insert an ID from an external HR system.
Name - The instructor's name.
Email Address - Messages to the instructor can be sent to this email address from within RoomBoss.
External ID - The instructor's RFID, if one exists.
Status - Active and Inactive (once the instructor leaves employment you should set them to Inactive.)
More detailed information on the instructor is set via their contract.
To setup instructor contracts:
A contract is required in order to calculate instructor pay, these are set on the Contracts tab.
Select your ski school from the Vendor drop down menu, click Next
All the existing contracts will be displayed
To create a completely new contract, click on the Create button
Enter the instructor's details as requested (or edit the new copy), enter ability levels and relevant Tags
Click Save
Details that can be saved with the contract include a default parent category (see Managing Availability With Live Instructors), Level and Tags, these provide a way to filter instructors by their abilities when allocating lessons to instructors.
On the Custom Rate tab, you may set the name and choose the number of pay rates available.
Tags can be used to quickly identify a suitable instructor when a customer has special needs (e.g.: The customer wants a lesson to be taught in Cantonese). You can configure what Tags are available by navigating to:
The RoomBoss SSMS has a portal where instructors can log in to view their upcoming schedules, lessons, and their pay. After adding an instructor, their login credentials are automatically generated, these credentials will need to be sent to the instructor.
To view instructor login details:
This page will show for each instructor:
Name - the instructor's name.
ID - the instructor's login ID.
Password - this allows you to Change password or Send reset link to an instructor's email address by clicking on the corresponding link.
Created - date and time the login was created.
Last Login - date and time of the last login.
Login Count - total login count.
Instructors can log into the portal from here:
Instructor login IDs are generated by RoomBoss and cannot be changed.
It is possible to set a limit on the number of days into the future instructors can view via their login.
To set this, log in as Super Administrator
Managing and scheduling activities
The RoomBoss SSMS allows you to schedule instructors to a variety of activities(both teaching and non-teaching).
There are a number of options on how to use the schedule which will be discussed during setup. However the generally recommended approach is to:
Add activities to instructor schedules for upcoming week(s)
Assign lessons to instructors scheduled to activities that match the lesson type for upcoming lessons.
The benefits of this approach:
Lets instructors know in advance when they will be working, and what work they will be doing.
Allows you to ensure you have enough instructors working to cater to bookings made.
Helps in the lesson allocation process, especially for larger ski school.
To manage activities:
Navigate to Schedule → → Show / Refresh → Manage Activities & Add to Schedule
It is possible to add activity types for lesson and non lesson scheduling, these are color coded to make them easier to find.
Following the generally recommended approach:
One activity is added for each lesson category.
Activities can also have default start and end times which can be used to aid scheduling.
Private lesson categories have Pay Level as No Pay.
Instructor pay will be calculated when a private lesson is allocated to the instructor.
Group lesson categories have Pay Level as Lesson Rate.
The system works in this way as commonly there is no allocation of group lessons to instructors. (This is not known in advance and often done at line up.)
Setup for sales processes
This section outlines the required setup steps in order to commence sales.
Setting up and managing instructors and activities
This section outlines the setup steps required for winter operation.
The default association is set on the instructors contract on the page. However, it can be overridden on a day-by-day basis.
Availability can be managed on the page.
Navigate to Schedule →
Navigate to Product Setup → .
You can set up various levels of page access and booking conversion tracking, these are not required in order to commence sales and are outlined in the section.
Navigate to Product Setup →
To create a new contract based on an existing one, click on the copy icon
Product Setup →
Navigate to Product Setup →
Navigate to Account →
More information on adding activities to instructor schedules is presented in the following section on .
Enabling online payment and configuring payment options
To allow you to accept online payments, a payment gateway will need to be added and configured.
Navigate to Product Setup → Online Payment Settings.
Click Payment Gateways icon at the top of the screen.
Set a Name for the Payment Gateway (for internal use).
Select the desired Payment Account Type from the drop down menu.
Checkout - www.checkout.com
ECPay - www.ecpay.com.tw
PayPal Standard - www.paypal.com
PayPal Website Payments Plus - www.paypal.com
Paygent - www.paygent.co.jp
SoftBank Payment - www.sbpayment.jp
Square - www.squareup.com
Stripe - www.stripe.com
Zenryo Payment - www.zenryo.co.jp/payment/
Flywire - https://www.flywire.com/
Enter the requested credentials for your payment account in Payment Account ID.
To Tokenise Guests' Credit Card information, select the Save Customer And Card checkbox. See for more information.
Click the Add Payment Gateway button.
Please note that full Guest address information is needed in order to store Credit Card details for the Flywire gateway.
Payment Strategy is a mechanism to direct customers to different Payment Gateways based on certain conditions.
Each Payment Strategy has:
a default Payment Gateway - which customers will be directed to by default.
and Exceptions - if a customer meets the condition set for an exception, they will be directed to the Payment Gateway set by the exception.
Exceptions work in the order they are entered. Customer will always be directed to the Payment Gateway set by the first exception matched.
Navigate to Product Setup → Online Payment Settings.
Click Payment Gateway Strategy icon at the top of the screen.
Set a Name for the Payment Gateway Strategy.
Click on the Default Payment Gateway drop down menu to choose from your previously defined Payment Gateways.
You are able to set exceptions where under certain conditions an alternate payment gateway will be used. Conditions include:
Guest Country - set alternative payment gateways for different countries.
Invoice Due Date - select a payment gateway depending on the number of days and hours until the invoice is due.
Package Start Date - select a payment gateway depending on the number of days and hours until the packaging will start.
Viewing Language - select a payment gateway depending on the selected viewing language of the booking widget.
Click on Add Payment Gateway Strategy to save.
For further information regarding Payment Gateway Strategy please click here.
RoomBoss allows you to control how your customers make bookings and send inquiries from your website booking widget. This is done by using the Send Inquiry and Book & Pay widget buttons.
Send Inquiry - Allow customer to send an inquiry about lessons they are interested in. Book & Pay - Allow customer to book online and make payment.
To decide which buttons appear to your customers:
Navigate to Product Setup → Online Payment Settings.
Click Online Payment Settings at the top of the screen.
If the Enable Book & Pay option is enabled (checked), both the Book & Pay and Send Enquiry buttons will be visible on your online booking widgets. Book & Pay bookings allow customers to secure their reservations immediately by making a payment via your payment gateway.
If Enable Book & Pay option is disabled (unchecked), customers will only have access to the Send Inquiry button, from which you receive booking requests.
Visibility of the button also depends on the availability of the instructor. If Book & Pay is enabled but no inventory is remaining, Send Inquiry will be shown.
If Hide Request Button if Book & Pay Possible is enabled, either Book & Pay or Send Inquiry will be shown on the page (not both):
If direct booking is possible (there is instructor availability), only Book & Pay will be shown.
However, if direct booking is not possible (no instructor availability), only Send Inquiry will be shown.
Enable Book & Pay must be enabled before Hide Request Button if Book & Pay Possible can be enabled.
If Book & Pay is displayed on the booking widget you may also set an Auto Cancel, so bookings are automatically cancelled if a customer does not make payment.
Navigate to Account → Edit Account Details
Under Auto Cancel Booking, click on the Enable Auto Cancel of Bookings checkbox.
Click on thebutton next to Add Exception.
You may add additional exceptions by clicking on thebutton.