• Introduction
• The Mailing List
• Reservations
• Reports
• Other ROAM Modules

 

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Introduction

 
ROAM was first conceived and developed in 1995. Its design was based on the input of a number of rafting companies that were searching for a new computerized reservation system. Development is on-going and is still based on the feedback and input from current users.
 

When a company purchases ROAM they are encouraged to request enhancements, suggest improvements and are entitled to customer support. Every user of ROAM runs an identical version, and any improvements or changes made are automatically provided to all users. The cost of support, updates and enhancements are included in a yearly support fee. There is nothing else to buy.
 

ROAM is an on-going project. As your business changes we will continue to update and enhance ROAM to keep pace. As more companies start using ROAM more ideas and enhancements are suggested, programmed and passed on to the other users. Everyone benefits from everyone else.
 

As the Internet starts playing an ever-increasing role in our everyday lives it is important that ROAM keep up. We are working on this in two stages: the first is the ability for people viewing your web site to have access to up to date availability and pricing; the second stage is for people to be able to make a reservation directly from your web page. These features will be available in a future version of ROAM.
 
 

The Mailing List
 

• The Mailing List is where names and addresses of all customers, prospects, contacts, vendors and any other people you wish to store, are kept.
• All entries are categorized by group or company type, how they found you, and by their preferences.

• The date the entry was made as well as the last time they made an inquiry is also tracked.
• ROAM will track all reservations a person has made as well as track all activities they have participated in, whether they made the reservation or not.
• When entering a new address the ZIP code is used to locate the city and state, reducing data entry errors.
• Mailing labels can be generated, and batched to print all at once.
• Name and address information can be merged into letters.
• A mailing list entry can contain multiple first names. This is to avoid multiple mailings to the same address, reducing mailing costs.
• Free form notes can be entered for each mailing list entry.
• Any emails sent to you from a worldwide web-based form can be merged into the mailing list.
• When an inquiry is made the person can be tracked in the Follow-up system.

The Follow-up system
 

• The Follow-up system is used to track inquiries that have not made a reservation.
• Two weeks after an inquiry is made, but no reservation has been made, the inquiry will appear in the follow-up system.
• Inquirers can then be contacted by phone, email, or mail. The method of contact, and date can be recorded. Also, if contacted by phone, notes can be made of the conversation.
• The inquiry can then be moved to stage two, meaning in another two weeks if they have not booked a reservation they will again appear in the list of people to contact.
• There are a total of 3 stages at which point the inquiry is removed from the follow-up system.
• Actions within the follow-up system included: Notes; Rolling over; Letter, label or email generation; Booking a reservation; Removing from system; Viewing past actions and notes; or Recording call details.
• When the inquiry is first made, notes can be entered which are passed along to the follow-up system.

Searching the mailing list

• The mailing list can be searched in any of 8 different ways, including by name, company name, email address, zip code and phone number.
• When searching by name or by company name either full or partial searches are allowed.
• All matching entries are displayed one line per entry, the user can then select one and view the full information. If needed the summary can be re-displayed and another entry chosen.
• ROAM can efficiently handle a few hundred thousand entries in the mailing list.
• To prevent duplicates the mailing list is searched before someone is entered

Maintaining the mailing list
 

• No entry can be deleted from the mailing list if they have any history.
• Entries can be combined and duplicates eliminated.
• All changes made to the mailing list are tracked, as well as who made the change and the date and time it was made. The value before the change is also recorded.

Reservations
 

• Reservations can be made for any combination of:

• Activities such as rafting, kayaking, hiking, hunting, horseback riding.
• Lodging, anything from an open campsite to a luxury suite.
• Rental Items like a wetsuit, kayak or snowmobile.
• Meals, either a meal plan, individual meals or a restaurant reservation.
• Other charges such as user fees, NSF check charges, cancellation fee.
• Packages, which are a combination of the above items.

• Activities:
• Can be single day or multi-day.
• Can be active for a range of dates or only on specific dates.
• Can have multiple start times and group sizes per day.
• Each day of the week can have different start times and group sizes, individual days can be over-ridden.
• A meal can be automatically booked for each activity participant.
• Guide requests can be made and recorded at reservation time.
• Overbooking is controlled by means of privilege levels and passwords.
• Charges are by participant.
• A checklist of questions can be setup so that when someone reserves an activity the reservationist is prompted to ask the questions.

• Lodging:
• Can be for an open campground, tent site, cabin tent, cabin, room, suite or any other type of lodging.
• Sites or rooms can be assigned either at reservation time or at check-in.
• Overbooking is eliminated, as a reservationist cannot book more rooms than available nor even select a previously assigned room.
• A meal can be automatically booked for each lodger.
• Can be for any number of nights.
• Charges can be per person or per room.

• Rentals:
• Items can have a start and return time, which allows items to be rented more than once per day without causing an overbooked situation.
• Can be for 1 or more days (less than a day if start/return times are used).
• Charges can be per person or per item.

• Meals:
• Can have optional seating time.
• Can be booked for any number of days.
• Charges can be per person or a fixed charged.

• Other charges:
• Can be for anything that doesn't fit into one of the above categories.
• Can be charged per person or a fixed rate.

• Packages:
• Packages are simply a combination of one or more of the above items all charged at one price.
• Packages can be for a fixed period of time or a period of time determined at the point the reservation is made. If variable day, the charges are calculated accordingly.
• Substitutions can be made within a reservation.

• All items can have multiple rates such as a retail rate or a wholesale rate.
• Each rate is broken down by the month and per day of the week.
• Rates can also be set for any individual day or range of days.
• Within a rate there can be up to four prices such as for seniors, adults, children
• Any item can have the price over-ridden (security protected).
• Any item can be discounted, either a pre-determined amount or on-the-fly.
• Any item can have a number of free participants.

• Up to 99 payments per reservation can be made by the person who made the reservation or made by anyone else.
• Can be cash, check, money order, credit card, gift certificate, rain check, transfer from another reservation, payment made from retail point-of-sale system or from 2 user-defined payment methods.
• If a credit card payment, the computer can authorize the payment while the customer waits.
• Notes may be entered about each payment.
• Which reservationist took the payment is recorded.
• Payments are balanced daily with money on hand and then payments are locked.
• For any payment type a receipt can be printed in case someone makes a payment other than the person making the reservation.

Notes

• All notes taken on a reservation are entered under one or more note categories. The purpose of the note categories is to ensure better organization of notes. For example if there are notes pertaining to meal preferences then the reservationist can enter the notes under the appropriate category. Then when any report having to do with meals is printed these specific meal notes can be printed. Any other notes would be ignored.

• For every item entered on a reservation, or for the reservation as a whole, a roster can optionally be filled out.
• The roster is a way to keep track of who is on a reservation or in the case of an item roster who is associated to that item
• For example if there are 20 people on a trip and 2 people call and reserve wet suits then the roster can record who these people are.
• Information such as age, height, weight and size can be recorded

Deposits and Payments

• Based upon what items are reserved the computer calculates deposit and payment dates and amounts
• These amounts and dates can be over-ridden

Confirmations/Invoices

• Whenever a reservation is made or changed a confirmation can be printed. A file copy for your records can also be generated
• A custom letter can also be generated at the same time

Reports

Operational reports

• Trip List - List of scheduled trips, sorted by river/time or just time.
• Trip Sheet - One page per trip, listing all participants. Page heading includes guides and trip leader.
• Trip Manifest - All participants, by trip, including roster information and any other reserved items.
• Lodging List - List of who is arriving/departing.
• Lodging Calendar - Week at a glance of occupied units.
• Lodging Inventory - Availability of 3^rd party lodging.
• Rental List - List of what equipment is scheduled to go out and for how long.
• Meal List - List of meals needing to be prepared or ordered.

• Daily Payment Register - list of all payments taken on the previous day, in order to balance with payments on-hand.
• Payment List - List of all payments that passed through and balanced on the Daily Payment Register.
• Sales by General Ledger Account Number - breakdown of sales by general ledger number, for a range of dates or monthly totals for comparison purposes.
• General Ledger Distribution - Detailed report showing which reservations have impacted which general ledger accounts.
• Sales Tax Remittance - Listing by sales tax code indicating what amount is due.
• Tax Exempt Reservations - Report to track which reservations are tax exempt.
• Commissions Due - Commissions due directly to someone or a third party.
• Past Due Report - Listing of all deposits/payments that are overdue as of a given date.
• Overpaid Reservations - List of all reservations due a refund.

• Sales by Activity - Indicates which activities are generating the most secondary income (lodging, rentals and meals).
• Sales by Inquiry Code - Number of inquiries, reservations and sales value broken down by inquiry code.
• Sales by Zip Code - Sales broken down by State and Zip Code.
• Top 20 Sales - Lists top 20 customers or top 20% of customers.
• Detailed Sales - Detailed report listing sales by activity, lodging, rentals and meals.

• Activity User Days - User days broken down by river or river section. Used to compare year-to-date figures with prior years.
• Reservations by Group Size - Reservations listed in order by their group size.
• Multiple Reservations - Tracks customers who have booked more than once
• Group Size Comparison - Year by year comparison of average group size by day of the week.

• Search and Print - "Fill in the blank" search criteria for pulling names from the mailing list.
• Inquiry Code Conversion - Indicates which advertising methods are generating the most sales.
• Inquiry Reports: By State/Zip, Group Type, Preferences, Status.
• Unconverted Inquiries - Listing of inquiries by date, which have not yet made a reservation.

Other ROAM modules

Guide Scheduling

• Guides can be scheduled either automatically, based on certain criteria, or manually.
• Allows the guide scheduler to keep better track of which guides are working and which are not.
• Also keeps track of who is available to work.
• A number of reports are generated showing when guides are scheduled to work, gross pay earned, who has not been scheduled, and who has been requested the most often.

Point of Sale

• Used in a store to record sales and track inventory.
• Can work with a laser scanner, credit card swiper, a cash drawer and receipt printer.
• On screen credit card processing.
• Create purchase orders and receive goods into inventory.
• Reports track sales, payments, cash-drawer balance.

Restaurant Point of Sale

• Track patron orders by individual or for a whole table.
• Servers select items from menus broken down by food category.
• On screen credit card processing.
• Food Costing.
• Tip tracking.

 
 
 
 
 
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