Newspaper Sun Res Import

This guide explains how to configure RMS for Sun Newspaper Bookings and import reservations from the Sun Newspaper promotion file.

Overview

Sun Newspaper Bookings are a UK Holiday Park promotion run by the Sun newspaper, offering guests low-cost holidays at participating parks. When a guest books through the promotion, the Sun Newspaper promotion sends the property a reservation file directly. RMS imports this file using the Newspaper Sun Res Import option in the Data Import Utility.

Please Note! Properties do not create or edit the import file themselves. It is generated by the Sun Newspaper promotion and provided directly to the property. Do not attempt to build or amend this file manually.

Please Note! RMS is highly configurable. Some Terminology, User Access & Permissions, Images, Labels, and Functions used in these articles may differ from your setup. CLICK HERE to find out more.

Prerequisites

The property is a UK Holiday Park participating in the Sun Newspaper promotion. This arrangement is made directly with the promotion, outside RMS.
Category records exist for the accommodation types offered to the promotion.
A Security Profile with access to Setup, Rate Manager, Accounting Options and the Travel Agent module.
Run all setup and test imports in the Training Database before using Live.

Step 1 - Category and Accounting Setup

Configure the property's Category records and accounting settings before creating rates or packages.

Unit Codes: Add the unit code supplied by the Sun Newspaper promotion to the Code field on each Category record. One unit code can be assigned to multiple Category records if the property has several matching accommodation types.
Additional Guest Field: Rename one Additional Charge Label (Additional Tariff Spare Field 1 to 5) to "Sun Additional Guest" for use in billing extra guests. Spare fields 6 and 7 are not available for this purpose.
Extras Account: Enable the Extras Account, optionally renaming it "Sun Account", by turning on Split Account Required on the Accounting Options Account screen.
Charge Redirection: Enable Charge Redirection in Accounting Options. This is used later to redirect Sun package charges to the Extras (Sun) account.

Step 2 - Rate and Package Setup

Set up one Direct Rate for each price point the property offers to the promotion, then configure the Sundry packages that make up the Sun billing.

Configure one Direct Rate Type for each price point the property offers. Point the Rate Type's lookup at a Rate Table with no pricing (a zero-priced Rate Table).
Add a Property Rate Rule for the Rate Type against each property using it.
Create a Sundry package for each billing element: Holiday Tariff, Linen, Entertainment Passes, and Extra Guests. Split the packages so the guest pays some elements directly to the main accommodation folio, and the promotion pays others to the Extras (Sun) account:

Guest Pays	Newspaper Promotion Pays
Entertainment Passes	Holiday Tariff
Linen
Extra Guests

Holiday Tariff Package: This package drives the main billing. Set it to Show on Account and Post to Extras (Sun) Account. Price it to match the configured rate (for example £9.50). Because Sun Bookings cover a fixed number of adults for a fixed duration, set Min Charge Per Period to the standard number of occupants multiplied by the fee per person (for example 4 occupants x £9.50 gives a minimum charge of £38 per night). Apply the charge On the 1st Period so it posts on the arrival date.
Linen Package (if the property charges for linen): set Show on Account, Show on Housekeepers Report, Exclude in Commission Calculations, and apply On the 1st Period.
Entertainment Passes Package: configured like the Holiday Tariff package, but without a Min Charge Per Period, since the guest only pays for the passes needed for the people on the booking. Set Show on Account, Exclude in Commission Calculations, and apply On the 1st Period.
Extra Guests: the Sun Bookings base price includes a set number of guests. To charge for additional guests, use a separate package linked to the Additional Guest spare field configured in step 1. Set Show on Account, Show on Housekeepers Report, and Exclude in Commission Calculations.

Step 3 - Travel Agent Setup

Configure the Travel Agent record used for Sun Newspaper Bookings.

Rate Assignment: Assign the Sun Rate Types to the Travel Agent Rates record.
Commission: Configure two Travel Agent Commission entries for the Sun Newspaper Travel Agent: an agent collect percentage, and a flat Total Amount fee to cover the booking fee.
Charge Redirection: Redirect the Sundries used for commission to the Extras (Sun) account, using the Charge Redirection setup from step 1.
Allotments (optional): If several Categories share one Sun unit code, add Guaranteed Travel Agent Allotments for the Category and Rates against the Travel Agent record to control how many bookings are made in each Category. Without allotments, RMS fills the first matching Category by Code before moving to the next.

Step 4 - Import Process

Once configuration is complete, import reservations from the file supplied by the Sun Newspaper promotion.

The reservation file provided to properties is a fixed-width plain text file (.txt). Each line is one booking, and every value occupies a set number of characters rather than being separated by commas. There is no header row: RMS treats the first line of the file as booking data.

What the import file contains

Each line of the file holds the following values, in this order.

Value in the file	Characters	How RMS uses it
Booking ID	6	Stored on the reservation as the Voucher No.
Accomm Code	6	Matched against the Code field on Category records to decide which Category to book.
Holiday Date	8	The arrival date. Read in DD/MM/YY format.
Nights	1	Length of stay, used to calculate the departure date. The field holds a single character, so the longest stay the file can carry is 9 nights.
Lead Title, Lead Initial, Lead Surname	4, 1, 20	The primary guest on the reservation.
Address 1, Address 2, Address 3, Town, County, Postcode	30, 30, 30, 30, 20, 8	Written to the primary guest record. RMS remaps these: Address 1 goes to Address 1, Town goes to Address 2, Address 2 goes to Address 3, Address 3 goes to Address 4, and County goes to State.
Day Phone	20	Written to the guest's Mobile field.
Eve Phone	20	Written to the guest's Phone (AH) field.
Head Count	1	Not used. RMS calculates occupancy from the guest ages instead.
Age 1 to Age 8	2 each	Used to calculate adults, children and infants, and to populate the Guest Spare Field when Import Guest Age is ticked.
Insured	1	Written to the reservation's Note 1 as "Insurance Taken: Yes" or "Insurance Taken: No".
Park Code	3	Not used by RMS.
Guest 1 to Guest 8: Title, Initial, Surname	3, 3, 12 each	Added to the reservation as additional guests.
Email	Remainder of the line	Written to the primary guest's Email field.

Values RMS works out during the import

Several reservation details are not read from the file. RMS derives them as follows.

Adults, children and infants are counted from the eight age values, not from Head Count. An age above 17 counts as an adult, 3 to 17 counts as a child, and 1 to 2 counts as an infant. A blank age or an age of 0 is not counted as an occupant.
The departure date is the Holiday Date plus the number of nights. Arrival and departure times come from the default times on the Category that RMS books.
An existing guest is only reused when the title, initial, surname, address line 1 and evening phone number all match a guest already in the database. If any of those differ, a new guest record is created.
Additional guests are always created as new guest records and are never merged with existing ones. Guest 1 is skipped if it repeats the lead guest.
The lead guest's age is only captured when the lead guest's initial and surname match one of the eight guest rows. This is the value written to the Guest Spare Field when Import Guest Age is ticked.
The Category and Area are chosen by RMS, not by the file. RMS checks the Travel Agent's remaining allotments for the Categories carrying the unit code, then takes the first available Area. If the Category has Allow Booking by Category enabled, no Area is assigned.
Booking Source, Market Segment and Sub Market Segment come from the import settings and the selected Rate Type, not from the file.

Please Note! Always run the import in the Training Database first, before importing into Live.

Import

In the side menu of RMS, go to Utilities > Import > Newspaper Sun Res Import.

Set Import Type to Newspaper Sun Res Import.
Select the Agent record set up in step 3.
Set Booking Source, or use the "Use Source from [Tariff Type]" option to take the booking source from the selected Rate Type.
Select the Rate Type associated with the file. If the Rate Type has a Market Segment or Sub Market Segment configured, RMS applies these to every reservation imported.
Optionally enable the Advanced Filters:
- Set Res Status: tick to apply a Reservation Status (Confirmed, Quote or Unconfirmed) to every imported reservation. Useful if the property's default operation uses Quote status.
- Set Res Type: tick to apply a Res Type to every imported reservation.
- Import Guest Age: tick to import guest ages into a Guest Spare Field. Only Guest Spare Fields with a label that are not Yes/No or Date type are available for selection.
Validate the file, review the import summary for errors, then run the import.

What validation checks

Validation tests every line in the file before any reservation is created. A line that fails is reported against its line number in the import summary and is skipped; the remaining lines still import. RMS checks that:

The Accomm Code is present. Reported as Accomm Code Must Be Supplied when the field is blank.
The Accomm Code matches a Category. Reported as Accomm Code Not Found In Database when no Category carries that Code.
The Holiday Date is present. Reported as Holiday Date Must Be Supplied when the arrival date is missing or cannot be read as a date.
The number of nights is greater than zero. Reported as Nights Cannot Be Zero.
An Area is available for the dates requested. Reported as There is no Area available to associate to this Reservation, after RMS has checked the Travel Agent's remaining allotments. The wording follows the property's own labels, so it may read Site, Room or Unit instead of Area.

Each line is then put through the standard reservation validation, so any rule that would block the reservation if it were entered by hand also blocks it here.

Verification

Confirm the setup is working correctly:

Imported reservations use the correct Category, Rate Type and dates from the file.
The Holiday Tariff, Linen and Entertainment Passes charges post to the correct accounts: guest-paid elements to the main accommodation folio, and promotion-paid elements to the Extras (Sun) account.
Commission calculates correctly for the Sun Newspaper Travel Agent on the next commission run.
If Advanced Filters were enabled, imported reservations carry the expected Reservation Status, Res Type, or guest age values.

Common Setup Issues

Issue: Bookings all land in one Category even though multiple Categories share a unit code.
Fix: Configure Guaranteed Allotments for the Category and Rates against the Travel Agent record so RMS distributes bookings instead of filling the first matching Category.
Issue: Extra guest charges do not appear as expected.
Fix: Confirm the Additional Guest spare field configured in step 1 matches the field referenced in the Extra Guests package.

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