PMS - Hotel Software

PMS (Property Management Systems) are front-office systems and mostly used for hotels and facilities. When connected to a PMS system, the IACBOX asks for existing customer data and uses it to verify and authenticate credentials for the login process. Expenses can be directly booked on the hotel rooms bill. The setup will be provided by a PMS IT partner. This module can be enabled in the WebAdmin menu Login methods / Hotel software (PMS).

• In order to use the PMS interface on the IACBOX, it must be licensed.
• By using the PMS interface, ensure that the option Room Logon is activated in the WebAdmin menu Login page/Login order.
• At least one Ticket Template must be configured for the PMS.

Configuration #

Explicit configuration of the local PMS system is done by the local IT-Partner. The following screenshot demonstrates an example configuration.

• When the PMS Type, Character Set, IP Address and Port Number are configured and saved, the IACBOX will try to connect to the PMS. The connection status is displayed on the top of the PMS Settings Page.
• In case the Status indicator remains red, please refer to Troubleshooting.
• The PMS and the IACBOX must use the same character set.

Configurations

Available configuration options depend heavily on the type of PMS that is being used.

• Authentication: Authentication via Name, PIN, Birthdate, Arrival Date, Departure Date or any combination of these are possible.
• Verify Characters: How many characters are checked for verification.
• No charge mode: Guests will Authenticate via PMS credentials to receive a ticket free of charge

VIP Guest - Free Login #

This option allows for differentiation between default guests and VIP guests. If VIP Guest - Free Login is configured, a new configuration called PMS: VIP Guest - Free Login will become accessible below. Here the ticket limit, idle timeout and bandwidth can be configured.

• For FIAS based protocols the matching data field in the PMS system is the GV field and in some cases the A3 field. If one of these fields is not empty, then the associated users qualify as VIP guests.

Membership Group Mapping #

If Use VIP / Membership group mapping is enabled, a new option called PMS: Groups will be accessible below.

• Multiple user groups can be created. A separator can be configured in the IACBOX PMS configuration.

In this menu, VIP groups can be created and different ticket templates can be assigned to each. For example with different prices for gold membership, platinum membership (…).

• For FIAS based protocols the according data field for VIP groups is the A0 field in the PMS system.

PMS Blacklist #

With the PMS Blacklist it is possible to exclude rooms from the PMS logon.

Demo PMS #

With the Demo PMS, the PMS Login can be tested via predefined logon data.

Troubleshooting #

The most common problem with PMS systems is that the connection cannot be established. This problem can occur because of different conditions. For example the PMS system is not reachable in the defined network, or also the connection is not allowed over the configured port (Connection Refused). In order to test the connectivity try to establish a telnet connection with a random client in the same network (most of the time Office-LAN).

telnet 192.168.1.1 9099

Customer Logon Page #

The logon mask for the PMS authentication will now be displayed on the customer logon page.

After entering the required data, all configured PMS tickets are listed and can be booked by this guest.

Backend Specific Settings #

Resco XML Groups #

When using PMS Groups together with the Resco XML backend it is important to set the proper PMS Group Name parameters as well as creating the proper PMS Groups.

Let’s look at an example.
With the settings seen below we will check for the additional fields [AccountType],[CabinGrade] & [IsLoyalty]

Therefore our PMS Groups will have to look something like this:

All that is left to do is to map the desired Ticket Templates to the Group.

The Group name has to match the specific return values sent by the PMS for the specified parameters.

The following placeholders (similar to RegEx) can be used for Group Names:

• ? = Matches a single character
• * = Match Zero or more characters
• [ ] = Match single character with character specified within brackets
• ! = Negation of characters within bracket
• \ = Escape special characters

In case multiple groups match on a request, the ticket templates for all matched groups will be displayed.
Likewise if there are no matches, the “System Default Group” will be used.