Getting Started: 6 Steps To Start Taking Bookings

So, you’ve signed up for Pitched Booking – thanks! We think you’ve made a great choice…

But how do you now start taking bookings? We’ve put together a quick 6-step guide here for you so that you can quickly learn how to perform simple tasks in the system.

1. In the top right of your screen click on the menu click ‘Settings’ and then ‘Unit Types’ on the drop down
2. Click ‘Select’ against the Unit Type that you wish to add your prices for
3. On the next screen, under the Unit Type Management heading, click ‘Pricing’
4. Click the ‘Add Price’ button (ignore the date filter next to this button)
5. A window will then load where you can add your price
6. Select the ‘Standard Tariff’ Rate Type from the drop down list
7. Then add the Valid From and To date for the price you wish to add
8. Rate Duration is price for the length of stay. So a ‘1’ here would indicate the price for a 1 night stay. The Min Duration is the minimum number of nights a guest needs to stay and Max Duration being the most.
9. Next, check all the days you wish to apply this tariff. This relates to the days of the week a guest can check-in. For example, if you only allow Saturday change-overs, just tick ‘Saturday’ from this list.
10. The field below is your price for that date range. So, if you’ve selected a Rate Duration of ‘1’, a Min Duration of 3 and a Price of 15. Then a customer would need to select 3 nights to be able to stay in that particular date range, and they would be charged £45.
11. Once you have finished click ‘Save’ and repeat the process for your other date ranges and other Unit Types. Please note you cannot have an overlapping date between the end of one price band and the start of another. For example, if one price band finishes on March 31st, the next price band must start on April 1st. It cannot start on March 31st otherwise the system will not know which price to charge the customer and will likely return no availability for arrivals on March 31st.

1. Click ‘Settings’ on the top right menu bar and then ‘Unit Types’ on the drop down.
2. Click ‘Select’ against the unit type you wish to add your content to
3. On the Unit Type Management screen first navigate to the ‘content’ tab
4. In the Description field add in the content for this Unit Type, describing it in around 50-75 words.
5. Click Save
6. Next, it’s time to add your images. Click the ‘Imagery ‘ tab, to the right of ‘Content’
7. Click the ‘Select Files’ button to upload images of your accommodation / pitches. Please try to keep the files small in size (under 250kb if possible) as this will aid the load time of your online booking. Add up to 4 images.
8. Once they have uploaded (you may need to upload one at a time, depending on file size) click the ‘Set Primary’ button against the image you wish to be main the main, featured image for that unit type.
9. Click Save, and then repeat these steps for your other Unit Types.

Your online booking steps are a critical part of the process in turning clicks into cash for your holiday business. Our online steps are simple, straightforward and streamlined – and you will need to add in certain elements before you can go live.

Step 1 of the online booking journey often presents users with a landing page where they can start their journey by checking availability for their desired dates. This landing page has space for 4-5 paragraphs of text. Many of our customers use this space to give an overview of their holiday business and reiterate any lead-in pricing or rules they may have. Take a look at Anchor Barrow Campsite’s first step as an example of that landing page -> https://anchorbarrow.searchbreaks.com/

You can amend the text on this landing page and your business contact information in the footer.

To personalise these area, please follow these simple steps:

1. On the top black menu bar, click ‘Settings’ and then ‘Online Booking’ in the drop down menu.
2. When the next screen loads the Settings tab will be visible, with many fields in here that need to be populated. Please add in your website address (if it’s not already been populated), your open date (this will make availability calendar start on this date), the max number of adults and teenagers you would like to be selectable. Please note the infants and teenagers fields are not currently active, so please leave these blank.
3. You will also see a field called ‘Holiday Date Offset’ – this handy options can prevent same day bookings. So, if you put a 1 in this field, it will not allow someone to book on the day of their search and will only allow them to select date at least 1 day into the future.
4. The BCC email is the field where you booking confirmation emails will be sent to, so please add in your relevant company email address here.
5. Next, head back to the top of the page and click on the tab marked ‘Content’. From where it says ‘Choose a Setting’ click the option marked BookingStepWelcomeMessage – this is the content that is presented on the first step of the online booking. Please add in your own personal content here. You can ignore the other fields.
6. Next, go back to this menu and click ‘Footer Content’ – you will need to populate this with your own details.
7. Next, navigate to the ‘Terms’ tab and add in your booking terms and conditions to this text area.

• Back Office Confirmation: a confirmation email you will manually send when you put a booking into the system)
• Online Confirmation: a confirmation email that will automatically be sent to a customer when they book online
• Balance Reminder: an email that will be sent to a customer who has not paid their outstanding holiday balance, sent a specific number of days before their arrival
• Pre Arrival: Sent to a customer close to their arrival date, outlining some basic info, such as directions, procedures etc.

The 4 templates will come pre-populated with generic content  – BUT we advise that you customise the emails with your preferred messaging.

Here’s how you can amend these templates:

1. Click ‘Email’ on the top menu bar and then ‘Email Templates’ from the drop down menu.
2. When this loads, you will see the 4 existing templates listed out. Click ‘Select’ against the one you wish to edit.
3. The email builder will then load. If you click into the email itself, you will see it is made up of various layouts and text areas. To amend text, simply delete/replace the text that is in place.
4. To add/remove layouts, simply click in the email itself and the layout will be highlighted in blue. In this blue box you will then see a dustbin icon – click this to delete the layout (including any text or images that may be in this section.
5. To add a new layout, using the option on the right hand side, under the Content, Rows & Settings tabs. You will see options for ‘Change Image’, URL and so on.
6. When you are happy, click the blue ‘Save’ button and then the ‘Return List’ button above this.

To link your Payment Gateway to Pitched you must do the following:

1. Click ‘System’ from the top right-hand menu and ‘Shuttle Payments’ from the drop down
2. On the next, underneath the ‘Setup Payment Gateway’ button you will see the Payment Action and Payment Mode buttons. Make sure Payment Action is set to ‘Payment’ and Payment Mode is set to ‘LIVE’
3. Next click the ‘Setup Payment Gateway’ button
4. Enter your email address and phone number in the Shuttle Payments pop-up window and allow it 10-20 seconds to activate.
5. Then add your full details
6. Then select your payment gateway from the list and click ‘connect’. This will take you to your payment gateway’s website where you will enter your login details to confirm the connection.
7. Your gateway is now set up and read to take booking and process payments.