Amenity Management
Managing your property's amenities, such as booking for residents or adding a new amenity, can all be done in your property's admin portal. In this guide, you will learn how to:
- Add a New Amenity
- Enable Reservation Payments
- Edit an Existing Amenity
- Manage Holidays in an Amenity
- Book an Amenity on Behalf of a Resident
- Approve Amenity Bookings
- View Property Amenity Calendar
- View Reservation Reports
Adding a New Amenity
Step 1
After logging into your property's Admin Portal, select Operations and then select Amenities under Property Services.
Step 2
Select Add Amenity at the top right.
Step 3
Complete the information below for the new Amenity.
- Name: Name of the Amenity Space
- Amenity Category: If this Amenity is under an umbrella category, it can be set up here. For more information on Amenity Categories, check out this article.
- Visible to all Resident Types: If this is selected all Resident Types will be able to view or book this Amenity. When deselected, it allows you to designate the Resident Type(s) that can view and book the amenity.
- Description: Include information about this Amenity Space.
Step 4
If this Amenity is not View Only it will open more options for you to configure your amenity space.
- Is this a view-only amenity: If Marked Yes this is not a reservable amenity, but something you would like your residents to utilize. E.G. Bike Room. If marked No this is a reservable amenity
- Should Amenity have a Calendar: This is a reservable amenity.
- Block Calendar with pending reservations: Select if you would like pending reservations to block off the calendar. Leaving this feature on will prevent double booking on this amenity.
- Type Of Booking: Can select between Day-Wise, Hourly, and Slot Based.
- Cost per hour: Include the cost per hour if applicable, otherwise enter 0.
- Additional Flat Price: If there is an additional flat price, include it here, otherwise enter 0.
- Show Amenity on booking site: If you are utilizing Rise Reserve, you can set that up here.
- Need Buffer Time: If your staff requires buffer time for set up or clean up time. Can specify in hours or minutes.
- Minimum Time Allowed: If the Amenity must be reserved for a minimum amount of time, this can be set up here. For example, the Conference Room must be booked for at least an hour. Can specify a maximum of 23 hours or 1380 minutes.
- Maximum Time Allowed: If there is a limit to how long a reservation may be for. For example, if the Conference Room can not be booked for longer than 4 hour periods. Can specify a maximum of 23 hours or 1380 minutes.
- Do you want to turn on the payments for this amenity?: If you are using VTS Activate for Multifamily for collecting payments.
- Do you want payments to be required?: If Yes, payment must be collected prior to submitting the Reservation.
- Unit approval required for this amenity?: If Unit must approve prior to accepting the amenity reservation.
- Staff approval required for this amenity?: If staff or admins must approve reservations before it is accepted.
- Do you want to restrict how far in advance users are able to book this amenity?: Can specify how far in advance Residents can make the reservation, in hours or days.
- Do you want to require users to book this amenity a certain duration in advance?: Can specify how far in advance Residents must make the reservation, in hours or days.
- Do you want to limit the number of times users can book this amenity?: Can limit bookings on either a Unit or Resident level specifying Reservation Frequency Limit within a span of x amount of days.
- Add email to receive amenity reservation invitation and cancellation: This allows you to get email notifications sent to specified email when Amenities are booked or canceled.
- Booking Questions: Any additional information such as catering requests or room setup.
- Disclaimer: Any disclaimers you would like Residents to know before they book the amenity.
Step 5
After completing the information about the Amenity, select Next at the bottom right. This will take you to Add Add-On Amenity / Select Layout. Here you can include different layouts that are possible for your Amenity space. For example, if you have multiple seating options for your Conference Rooms. You can even include photos. The Add-on Amenities allow you to offer additional resources in the Amenity. These are both optional.
Select Next when finished.
Step 6
Range Based Price is available if your property is using range-based pricing as opposed to hourly. If your property is not using Range Based Pricing, select Hourly Pricing.
The Maximum Time Allowed set for the amenity must be covered by the hour ranges. In the below example, the Amenity is available at max for 8 hours in an individual booking. The Range Based Pricing needs to cover those 8 hours. Based on the example screenshot below, here are the rates a user would pay based on the amount of hours they are booking.
- 1 Hour = $20
- 2 Hours = $20
- 2.5 Hours = $30
- 7 Hours= $50
Select Next.
Step 7
If your property is utilizing Door Controllers or Beacons for your Amenity space, it can be configured here.
Step 8
Under Opening/Closing Time you are able to specify the hours of operation for your Amenity. If the checkbox next to a day range is selected, they will have the same hours. Otherwise, you are able to specify different opening and closing times for each day. Holiday means the Amenity is not available on that day. Amenities are also able to be specified as Open 24 Hours.
Step 9
After you have finished the Amenity creation steps, select Submit in the bottom right corner.
Adding Multiple photos to your amenity space
Step 1
To add multiple photos to an amenity space select the three dots next to the Amenity, and select Edit from the drop-down.
Step 2
Select Attach Image. In the Finder window select the photo(s) you wish to add. Once you've selected Open, your selected photos will appear.
Step 3
After you've selected the photos you would like to upload, select Next and continue to the Opening/Closing time tab and then select Save Changes.
Enabling Reservation Payments
Step 1
From the Admin Portal, select Settings from the side menu, and then select Payments.
Step 2
Navigate to Ledger. Select the check box next to Track reservations on ledger.
Step 3
A new drop-down box appears asking for the Reservation Charge Code. Select the appropriate charge code and select Save Changes.
- If your accounting system is not integrating with VTS Rise you will need to set up charge codes.
- Select Advanced from the side menu, and then select Payment Settings. Select Charge Codes in the top navigation.
- Select Add Charge Code from the top right corner and follow the on-screen prompts
In order to enable our native payments feature, an account must be set up with our payment processors, Stripe or Dwolla.
Edit an Existing Amenity
Step 1
Select Operations and then select Amenities under Property Services.
Step 2
Locate the amenity you wish to edit and select the three dots to the far right of the amenity name. Select Edit from the drop-down.
Add Add-On Amenity/Select Layout:
Customize additional amenities or room layout options
- Add-On Amenities: If this is left blank, no add-amenities will be available to the resident.
- Select Layout: Provides the ability to share different floor plans. If not selected, this option is not available for residents to select.
Range Based Price:
Select whether the amenity should be utilizing Range Based Pricing or Hourly Pricing.
Opening/Closing Time:
Customize amenity availability.
These options are only available for calendar amenities.
Managing Holidays in an Amenity
With Activate Multifamily, Property Admins are able to set Holidays in Amenities to be closed during that date. It can even be set up on a recurring basis.
Step 1
Select Operations and then select Amenities under Property Services.
Step 2
Select the three dots next to the Amenity you wish to add Holiday dates to. Select Open from the drop-down.
Step 3
Once the Amenity is open, select More in the upper corner, and Manage Holidays in the drop-down.
Step 4
Select Add Dates in the upper right corner.
| Note: Add Days is to have dedicated days each week in which the Amenity will not be able to be reserved. This can also be done in the editing portion of the Amenity. |
Step 5
Add the Dates you wish the amenity to not be reservable. There is the option for it to repeat for 10 years as well as add additional Holiday Dates using the + icon. Select Submit when finished.
Book an Amenity on Behalf of a Resident
Step 1
Select Operations and then select Amenities under Property Services.
Step 2
Locate the amenity you wish to book and select the three dots located to the right of the amenity name. Select Book for a Unit from the drop-down.
Step 3
Complete the new reservation info and select Submit when finished.
|
Is Resident Facing: By selecting this, the reservation will appear on the resident’s app and portal under My Bookings. |
Approving Amenity Bookings
Option 1: From the Admin Portal Dashboard
Step 1
Locate Requests Pending Approval in the center panel of the dashboard. All pending reservations will appear here. Select Review in the lower right corner.
Step 2
Select the reservation you would like to approve or reject. Select Reject or Approve located at the lower right corner of the screen.
Step 3
If applicable, enter payment details. If no payment has been taken or needs to be adjusted, you may simply select Submit.
Option 2: From the Amenity Page
Step 1
Select Operations from the side menu. Next, select Amenities.
Step 2
Locate the amenity you wish to book and select the three dots located to the right of the amenity name. Select Open from the drop-down.
Step 3
The reservation timing, unit, and resident requested will be displayed. Select Reject or Confirm.
Amount Due: Will populate the total due from the reservation. If you wish you discount the reservation payment total, you may change this number.
Amount Paid: Enter any pre-payment information.
View Property Amenity Calendar
Get a big picture view of all the property’s amenity bookings by using the Calendar feature.
Step 1
Once logged in to the Admin Portal, select Operations from the left side menu. Next, select Amenities and then Reservations.
Step 2
Select the Calendar tab.
Step 3
Filter your reservation view.
Status of Reservation: This allows you to filter the calendar by the status of the reservation.
Amenity Name: Allows you to filter by specific amenity.
Reservation Reports
Activate Multifamily has reports admins can pull to view how their amenity spaces are being used.
Step 1
Select Advanced then Reports.
Step 2
After selecting Reports, there will be a drop-down with different report options. To view reports relating to Reservations select Total Count Per Category, Chargeable Reservations, or Total time Amenity is Booked.
Total Count Per Category Report
This report shows Property Admins the features being used at the property and how often based on the filtering options at the top. This gives the Property Admin insight into the Activate Multifamily features as well as how many reservations are made.
Chargeable Reservations Report
This report shows Property Admins the chargeable reservations at the property. This report can be downloaded as a CSV for further sorting. Property admins can also select the Service ID to view all the details about an individual chargeable reservation.
Total Times Amenity Is Booked Report
This report shows Property Admins the total times an amenity space was booked based on the filtering at the top. This report provides good data on amenity space usage at the property.