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  Public Ticket #3705170
Usability for Hotel booking
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  • Kiran started the conversation

    Now starting to use Amelia I am kind of shocked after buying the lifetime pro version that Amelia is not made for Hotel booking - which I had assumed for example 

    1. there is no way to set the time from checkin to next day checkout - is there at least a way to remove the green appointment time sticker as this does not apply ?

    2. I do not see a way to remove the EMPLOYEE field - which does not apply  (see attached) ?

    3. I do not see a way to set rates for the villas for different seasons ?

    4. I do not see a way to remove the rate for different number of guests - the number of customers selection box - just multiples the the base price - is there at least a way to remove this box ?

    5. are there ways to modify the template that it does not say Appointment but for example RENTAL  (see attached) ?

    6. is there a possibility for me to get a refund 





    Attached files:  not usable for villa booking .jpg

  •  1,500
    Uroš replied

    Hello Kiran,

    Thank you for reaching out to us.

    I wanted to check with you first in regards to point number 6, are you requesting a refund?

    Looking forward to your reply.

    Kind Regards, 

    Uros Jovanovic
    [email protected]

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  • Kiran replied

    Dear 

    Uro&scaron

    thank you for offering a refund I would appreciate ths very much - I had just followed many youtube videos that praised Amelia for all kinds of booking also mentioning HOTEL BOOKINGS but now on trying to use it I see that they did not know what they were talking about as it is obviously not designed for Hotel bookings and all the issues that this would need to address - I see it is great however for Appointment bookings of all kinds - I Guess it would not take much to make it suitable for Hotel bookings if programatically a HOTEL BOOKING mode could be switchable

    Thank you for a positive reply

    Kiran

  •  1,500
    Uroš replied

    Hello Kiran,

    Thank you for explaining that.

    Our plugin currently supports time slot booking during one day, so if it is just renting of co-working space for a couple of hours a day, then it is possible to use our plugin for this. If, however you need multi-day booking then you should check out our new feature Events.

    You can either create rooms where services are and create an employee for each room (a different one, so they can be bookable at the same time) and hide the employee selection with a simple CSS (we will explain later on ) or you can create each room as a separate employee and create just one service to attach to each room. Just so you know each employee needs to have an email, so if you don't need a separate email for each you can create Gmail or Outlook the same email with +number, and they will be seen as a different one (a would later explain you this in more details, but you should know that you need to use Gmail or Outlook).

    If your employee email address is [email protected] you can make more employees with the same email by adding numbers like [email protected],[email protected]... )

    Then you can use the ameliabooking shortcode and on the front-end, you can hide in cutomize section dropdown with Employees.

    If you create just one employee and rooms as services, that means that rooms will not be bookable at the same time, since there is just one employee that is working (one employee/rooms one working hours - multiple employees/rooms multiple working hours). That is the reason why I offer you two other workarounds: rooms as services but with several employees hidden from the front end, or rooms as employees with one service.

    Kind Regards, 

    Uros Jovanovic
    [email protected]

    Rate my support

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  • Kiran replied

    Dear Uroš

    In your initial reply you wrote :

    I wanted to check with you first in regards to point number 6, are you requesting a refund?

    but now you do not make even any reference to my explanation the issues for my refund request because as you will agree

    ------     Amelia is not suitable for Hotel bookings for numerous reasons ------

    Nor did  you answer any of my other 5 questions :

    1. there is no way to set the time from checkin to next day checkout - is there at least a way to remove the green appointment time sticker as this does not apply ?

    2. I do not see a way to remove the EMPLOYEE field - which does not apply  (see attached) ?

    3. I do not see a way to set rates for the villas for different seasons ?

    4. I do not see a way to remove the rate for different number of guests - the number of customers selection box - just multiples the the base price - is there at least a way to remove this box ?

    5. are there ways to modify the template that it does not say Appointment but for example RENTAL  (see attached) ?

    because I guess even after seeing 

    and


    switching all to events would just allow to book several full days but not address my other issues

    When I read your reply it made my head spin when I read things like :

    - You can either create rooms where services are and create an employee for each room (a different one, so they can be bookable at the same time) and hide the employee selection with a simple CSS (we will explain later on ) ------ I dont know what is a CSS nor did you explain in LATER ON

    -  you can create each room as a separate employee and create just one service to attach to each room

    I DO NOT WANT TO BOOK SERVICES -  nor do I want to assign employees to rooms BUT SIMPLY

    I have 3 villas that all 3 can only be booked entirely for one or several days - price depends on season and number of guests 

    IT IS CLEAR to me that what you offer as WORKAROUND is not something that will work nor do you tell me how I could modify your 

    UI so it becomes usable for guests to simply book and pay one of the villas (see https://bestworldvision.net/book-now/)

    for one or several days and  guest would not see confusing references to employees in the the interface


    Please if you have 70 000 happy customers that user your plugin for automating service bookings - please be so kind to give me 

    a refund even if partial as this surely is no workaround


    thank you so much for your kind cooperation

    Kiran




  •  1,500
    Uroš replied

    Hello Kiran,

    Thank you for your detailed message and for outlining the challenges you've encountered while using Amelia for hotel bookings. I understand your concerns and appreciate your thorough feedback.

    Employee Field Customization

    Firstly, I want to address your query about the Employee field. While it is true that Amelia is primarily designed for service-based bookings where employees are a central component, there is a way to hide the Employee field. This can be done using CSS. The Employee field can be hidden from both the initial booking step and the final confirmation step. If you would like, I can provide you with the necessary CSS code to achieve this.

    Check-in and Check-out Times

    Regarding the check-in and check-out times, Amelia doesn't currently offer a specific feature to set check-in/check-out times as typically required for hotel bookings. However, there is an option to add custom durations for services, where customers can select from predefined appointment durations. While this isn’t a perfect solution for hotel bookings, it can offer some flexibility depending on how you configure the service durations.

    Setting Different Rates

    You mentioned needing different rates for your villas depending on the season. Amelia allows for setting different rates per employee, not per villa. This could potentially work if you treat each villa as a separate employee in the system, although I understand that this is not an ideal workaround. Unfortunately, the plugin doesn’t currently support seasonal pricing or varying rates based on the number of guests.

    Disabling the "Bringing Anyone with You" Option

    You can disable the "Bringing anyone with you" option by navigating to Amelia > Services > Duration & Pricing and toggling off the option to show "Bringing anyone with you." This will remove the customer selection box that you mentioned, simplifying the booking process for your guests.

    Modifying Labels and Text

    Lastly, to address your concern about the wording in the UI, such as changing "Appointment" to "Rental," this can be done using a tool like POEDIT. Here’s a step-by-step guide on how to make these changes:

    1. Download the Amelia plugin from CodeCanyon and save the .zip file on your computer.
    2. Unzip the downloaded .zip file.
    3. Download and install POEDIT.
    4. Open POEDIT and navigate to the extracted folder on your computer: ameliabooking/languages/fr_FR/wpamelia-fr_FR.po.
    5. Translate all the strings that you wish to change, such as replacing "Appointment" with "Rental."
    6. Save the translation.
    7. Finally, go to the ameliabooking/languages/fr_FR/ folder and copy the updated .po and .mo files back to your website at ../wp-content/plugins/ameliabooking/languages/fr_FR/.

    This method is demonstrated with the French language example, but you can select your language accordingly.

    Conclusion

    I fully acknowledge that these solutions may not perfectly address all of your needs, especially for hotel bookings, which Amelia is not specifically designed for. I understand if these workarounds do not meet your requirements and would be happy to discuss further, including the possibility of a refund if you decide that Amelia isn’t suitable for your use case.

    Please let me know how you would like to proceed, and I’ll do my best to assist you further.

    Thank you for your patience and understanding.

    Kind Regards, 

    Uros Jovanovic
    [email protected]

    Rate my support

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  • Kiran replied

    Dear Uroš

    I am very positively how much effort and time you put into answering my questions - few support teams do this 

    But this makes it even more difficult to for me to tell that  as you stated :

    ----Unfortunately, the plugin doesn’t currently support seasonal pricing or varying rates based on the number of guests.----

    this plugin is of no use - as it then will not allow customers to see actual prices or make their own booking without sending us  a booking request and then doing all in a conversation

    So in this case the whole possibility of the plugin is to show my calendar and this is what I could simply do by embedding my google calendar in my website - the fact that I is not even able to accept Ical imports from Airbnb or Booking.com but that I have to go through the complication of involving the  google calendar makes the it completely unfitting for a task simplification

    - I have no use for all the thousands of other features that are good for event or service management

    I am so surprised Amelia does not provide a simple solution as the HOTEL, EQUIPMENT/ Manpower RENTAL is such a huge market

    So please let me know how much Refund your company would be willing to provide

    thank you for your understanding

    Kiran



  •  1,500
    Uroš replied

    Hello Kiran,

    Thank you very much for the update on this.

    Really sorry to hear that Amelia does not fit your needs for Hotel booking. We constantly work on improving our product and make it more fitting for different use-cases, but we cannot cover them all at this time.

    I have approved your refund request and you will receive your money back in the next couple of days.

    If you wish to come back to Amelia, we will provide you with a 20% discount coupon for a license purchase.

    I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

    Kind Regards, 

    Uros Jovanovic
    [email protected]

    Rate my support

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  • Kiran replied

    Dear Uroš

    wow this is a very friendly gesture - specially given the fact how much time you already invested  on answering my questions 

    Amelia is certainly the best for all application areas that it is made for 

    again thank you for being so generous with your time and the solution

    Kiran

  •  1,500
    Uroš replied

    Hello Kiran,

    We are here to help yousmile.png

    Please let me know if you have any other questions.

    Kind Regards, 

    Uros Jovanovic
    [email protected]

    Rate my support

    wpDataTables: FAQ | Facebook | Twitter | InstagramFront-end and back-end demo | Docs

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