The error message "Sorry, that email address is not registered with TakeABreak.com.au. Please check your email address and try again. If you require assistance, please email info@takeabreak.com.au." will be displayed if you incorrectly enter your email address. Make sure that you are spelling it correctly. Make sure that it is the account email and not the property email address if the two are different.
No. It is usually easier to manage multiple properties if you list them together under one account, especially as you can only have one account per email address. This also enables you to do combined invoicing, meaning that you don't have to fill out 5 Confirmation of Stays and pay 5 invoices, if you have 5 properties.
To update your rates, login and click on the Rates link at the top right. Select "No Rates", and a green + icon will appear. Click on the green + icon to add in rates. You do not have to enter the dates when setting up the base rates.
2. Click edit deals
3. Enter your deal and valid date and click 'Save'
Find out more about
Hot Deals.
Why is my price estimate dearer or cheaper than what is should be?
Accurate rates are an integral part of our system so the price estimate calculations are checked regularly to ensure that they remain accurate. Please view the rates as a customer and ensure that reading the rates make sense, next try selecting some dates on the calendar and check the price estimate matches the rates shown.
Some common reasons for estimates not matching the correct price are
* charge for extra people above X people - e.g. if you charge extra for the 3rd and 4th people then enter 2
* if you charge by days stayed make sure that there is a price entered in all 7 boxes - otherwise you are quoting nights as free
* If the first night of the booking is dearer than the others either enter the difference as a cleaning or per booking fee or enter your rates as days stayed and the first night as higher
Why is my property 'suspended'?
There are several reasons why your property might be suspended. Being suspended is not meant to be a "penalty".
The easiest thing to do is contact us TakeABreak Support and we can check your account and advise you on what needs to be done to reactivate your listing.
How do I update my calendar?
Where your property will be unavailable for any reason (repairs, bookings from other sources, you're on holiday etc) you can ‘block out’ your calendar. You will then receive no enquiries for the dates you block out.
Keeping your calendar up-to-date ensures you get the highest possible ranking on the TakeABreak.com.au site. Feedback from guests also shows that there is nothing more frustrating than making an enquiry only to find out that the dates they requested are not available.
To block dates just login and once the calendar comes up, select the dates along the row in line with your property name (the darker blue line) and click 'block dates' when the options come up.
Alternatively you can put in an owner-entered booking. Select the dates on the unshaded row and you will see the window to enter the booking details. The minimum is a name and the number of adults, but you can enter all the details if you wish. From this booking you can track all the history, use our responses to send payment requests and use our smart templates and todo reminders.
To convert an existing enquiry to a booking find it on your 'enquiries/bookings' list, click 'select rooms...' and tick your room. It will then show on the calendar and block out the dates.
Here is a link to a useful diagram which helps to explain more the calendar layout:
http://businessbreaks.takeabreak.com.au/FrontDoor/Kitchen/booking-system/how-to-use-your-calendar/calendar-diagram
Why can’t I find my property?
The quickest way to find your property on
www.takeabreak.com.au is to enter your property name in the keywords box on the left and click 'GO'. Please note that if your property name is also a location name it will pick this up instead. Another way to search is to select your State, Region and Locality and search.
If you are unable to find your property on TakeABreak.com.au site it may mean your listing has been suspended.
The easiest thing to do is contact us TakeABreak Support and we can check your account and advise you on what needs to be done to reactivate your listing.
How do I suspend my property listing?
1. Log in and click on Listings or go straight to https://www.takeabreak.com.au/manage/Listings.aspx.
2. Click on Details at the left hand side.
3. If you have more than one property listing select the property at the top of the page.
4. Where it says, Suspend Property Yes No, select Yes. You can choose an unsuspension date e.g If you know you are going away for 2 weeks and the listing will be unsuspended on this date.
5. Select the reason, e.g Due to illness, going away, long stay rental in place, property being sold, undergoing renovations or other. You can also add a comment.
Please note that this information is not sent to support, it is stored in the logs only. If you need to contact support please do so at support@takeabreak.com.au.
Scroll to the bottom of the page and click Save.
How do I delete my property listing?
Please contact
TakeABreak Support staff to find out what you need to do. In the meantime you may wish to suspend your listing to prevent you receiving any enquiries.
Enquiries and Bookings
How do I respond to an enquiry?
When a visitor to TakeABreak.com.au makes an enquiry about booking accommodation at your property, you will receive an email (SMS and fax options also available) advising you of their enquiry. You can then choose whether or not to offer them accommodation.
It is a condition of listing your property on the TakeABreak.com.au website that all accommodation enquiries must be responded to, if only to state the lack of availability of accommodation or to apologise for failure to respond in a timely fashion.
1. Enquiry arrives - Select your response
You will get notification of the booking enquiry by email. Do not reply to this email as it will not go to the guest. The enquiry email shows details of the enquiry such as dates, number of persons, enquirer's name and address as well as any additional questions or comments. It then offers you the following response options:
Make Offer - to confirm availability and pricing and request either no payment, deposit or full payment. This response also enables you to offer alternative dates and alternative properties.
Not Available - if you cannot accommodate this request
Phone - this option is only available for enquiries (not booking requests) and give you the customers phone number or can be used to log a respons in our system if you have already talked to the guest on the phone.
Duplicate - if the enquiry is a duplicate or for some other reason it is not appropriate to respond
Click on the link next to the appropriate response for this enquiry.
If the link doesn't open a new web page you can copy the link from the email and paste it into the address area on your browser and hit enter or click 'Go'.
If you don't have the email you can log in to your TakeABreak account, go to To Do and then click on the enquiry in the list.
2. Complete your response
If you are able to offer the guest accommodation you need to click on the Make Offer link. This will open in a new webpage. You will be able to enter the booking total, confirm the offer dates (this is where you can offer alternative dates if you are not able to accommodate them on the dates that originally enquired for) and even offer an alternative property if your property is booked an you have a similar property they may be interested in.
You can then add any additional text to your response in the white area 'Replace this text to personalize response and answer enquirer questions' that forms the middle section of your email response. This could include any extra charges (eg linen, breakfast if optional, etc), answering any specific questions the enquirer asked, or adding any additional comments, if you wish to personalise your response to the enquirer's specific requirements and dates.
Once you've completed the response template, you can preview the response to see what the customer will get just click send. You will get a copy of the email you have sent to the enquirer, and you can see on the screen exactly what it will say.
If it is not a booking request you can select 'Phone Response' and a
new window will open giving you the guest's phone number soyou can call them straight away and this information will be available from your account at any time
You must select one of the options in the email otherwise we will not know you have responded. In this case you will receive a reminder email and your listing may be temporarily suspended until you are able to answer emails again.
3. Arrange payment with guest or follow-up enquiry response
You can now correspond directly with the enquirer to finalise your booking, or send a request for deposit by clicking the 'Make Offer' email from the link that appears in your confirmation email. You may wish to follow up by phone if you have not had a response to your email within 24 hours (sometimes email is blocked by spam filters or the email address may be incorrect).
Any transaction entered into between you and the TakeABreak.com.au enquirer is at your own discretion and is your responsibility.
How do I tailor my response templates?
While the make offer response contains all the basic information to respond to a
booking request, we do encourage you to add extra information. You can edit the
introductory text and add extra comments there. You can answer any questions and
provide additional information about your property within the body of the
response - simply type this in where it says 'personalise your
response'.
NEW To save
you time, you can create a set of templates where you have pre-composed the
information to personalise your response. You can then choose a template, insert
it, then if necessary edit the text, to make it quick and easy to add more
information to your response. To set up templates, log in, click on
'accounts/properties/rooms' then double-click on your account name. Select the
'Response templates' tab and click 'New'. Give the template a name so you can
select it when you're sending the response then enter your text. Note that links
and html code will not work.
How do I view and edit bookings or enquiries?
From the Enquiries/Bookings list
1. Click here and log in to your TakeABreak account or go to http://www.takeabreak.com.au/ologin.htm.
2. Click on Enquiries/Bookings. You can search by name, booking reference, etc.
Canceled bookings are not listed unless you do a search.
To use the optional advanced search options at the top left tick 'filter'.
3. Click on the Enquiry or booking you wish to view further details including response history or take actions such as sending an offer or balance request.
From the Calendar:
1. Log in and click on Booking Calendar
2. Click on the booking you wish to update
Why does my property have a low conversion rate?
A good conversion rate reflects a property that successfully sells itself to visitors. Therefore, properties with better conversion rate are listed at the top of a region list and get considerably more enquiries and therefore more bookings. Properties with an extremely low conversion rate are removed as they are not able to meet the needs of TakeABreak enquirers (for whatever reason).
The most common reason for a low conversion rate is getting multiple enquiries for dates with no vacancies. You can avoid this by ensuring your calendar is up-to-date.
Another common reason for a low conversion rate is limited or inaccurate information on your rates. If the enquirer finds your property is more expensive than they had anticipated you are unlikely to get a booking. To update your pricing information click on Rates at the top right.
For more information and ideas on getting more bookings see our page on Maximising your Bookings.
What are response times?
When you create your property listing you can identify an expected response time for enquiries. The default response time is 24 hours but you can change this under the 'Details' tab of your property listing.
If you do not respond within the response time that you have specified, our system will send you a reminder email. If you still do not respond, your property listing will be temporarily suspended and an apology for the failure to respond will be sent by us to the enquirer.
Your average response time will be shown on your property listing so it's in your interest to respond as quickly as practical. Sometimes enquiries are made very late at night and obviously these will need to wait until the next morning to answer.
Please note that if your property listing is suspended this is not meant to be a penalty. We understand there can be many reasons which lead to a failure to respond. We are simply taking the listing offline until we hear from you to let us know you'll be able to respond to future enquiries. This is to prevent further potential guests making enquiries which can't be answered in a timely fashion.
Email bounces
Sometimes when you email a response to the enquirer, the email will "bounce". This means the email is not delivered to the enquirer. When this happens the system will email you to let you know
Usual reasons for a bounce are typos or non-working email addresses. In these cases your best action is to phone the enquirer (our bounce email will include their phone number for your convenience)
Please note that due to the nature of the internet there will be cases where the email doesn't get through that are not detected by our system.
Fees and Gift Vouchers
How are my fees calculated?
We understand that some enquiries do not result in bookings and we will only invoice you when visitors referred through our system have actually stayed in your property. We do this by sending you an email at the start of each month regarding the enquiries you received through our system for stays in the previous month.
This Confirmation of Stays email enables you to correct the information we send and indicate which enquiries actually turned into bookings, and how many nights the guests actually stayed. You then generate your own invoice.
We trust that the vast majority of operators will report accurately and will be happy to pay what amounts to a small advertising fee. We utilise mystery shoppers in addition to surveying visitors on a regular basis to get feedback on quality and check whether the stay happened.
You also have the option of signing up for our Online Payment System which enables you to take deposits through the TakeABreak system (see below).
How do I process a Confirmation of Stays request?
You an access the Confirmation of Stays form by clicking on the link in the email, or alternatively:
1. Log in to your TakeABreak account at http://www.takeabreak.com.au/ologin.htm.
2. Click on Listings. If your Confirmation of Stays is due there will be a link on the status page.
3. Alternatively click on Reports then Invoices.
4. Click on 'Click here to review outstanding bookings and generate an invoice for this property only'.
When the form has opened it will display all the enquiries you received through our system for stays in the previous month.
1. In the boxes on the right-hand side, change the number so it correctly reflects the stay. If the guest did not stay, enter a zero.
2. Click on the button at the bottom of the guest list to select your preferred payment option - BPAY, credit card or cheque.
Your confirmed stays will then be summarised for you to check.
3. If the stays are correct, click on ‘Generate Invoice’ and the system will automatically email you an invoice detailing the full amount owing and listing payment instructions.
Gift Vouchers
TakeABreak® Gift Vouchers are a payment system like a cheque, except that the payment is honoured by TakeABreak.
Processing a Gift Voucher is actually quite simple, read about
Gift Vouchers here.
For further information on the TakeABreak Gift Voucher system, or if you have any difficulties or problems, please contact us directly on
support@takeabreak.com.au
