22 February 2014

New online booking system

For some time the committee has been considering the possibility of an online booking system. We thought it would be useful to have, but we needed something that would fit our booking rules and practices and not increase the cost of your stays. We have now decided to adopt the system that is already in use for AAC lodges at Anton, Dinner Plain and Perisher. This system was developed by an AAC member and has evolved over the last few years to meet the varying needs of the different lodges. While it may not have all the bells and whistles you might ideally like, it should make booking more convenient for many members.

When complete, the new booking system will allow you to
  • see actual vacancies
  • see your bookings
  • submit booking requests online
  • pay for your booking online by Visa and Mastercard
  • pay for your booking by EFT (outside the system)
  • in future, book into other AAC lodges from the same system
The same booking conditions apply to bookings made through this system and through the booking forms. Some of these are automated, but others rely on you following the rules. Just because the system might not seem to enforce a rule doesn’t mean that it no longer applies. The booking officer has final responsibility for balancing lodge occupancy against individual member requests. Your booking is not confirmed until you receive an official email from the booking officer.

To use the booking system you must:
  • be a financial member of AAC Falls Creek or an affiliated lodge that also uses the same booking system
  • have provided a current email address to the club. (The system relies on your email address so it is essential that you keep your contact details up to date.)
You don't have to use the new system; you can continue to use the booking forms if you wish and the booking officer will give them equal treatment to those submitted online. Indeed you will still need to use booking forms when making bookings in the period before 1 March. Demand for school holidays and some other weeks can be so high that the only way of handling the bookings fairly is to keep all bookings manual for the "members only" booking period.

We are still sorting out some final details but we hope to make the booking system available to members in the next week or so. Our plan is to send all members an email with their username and password and instructions on using the system. Please advise ProAcct (03 9880 9600) if your email address has changed or you may miss out on getting your userid and password to access the booking system.

Because the booking system has much better occupancy information, we will no longer put the booking stastus on the blog.

We intend to demonstrate the booking system at the AGM. The instructions document should guide you through using the system, but we realise that some may prefer the reassurance of seeing a demonstration.

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