Should I use PIMS?

How to communicate with your potential renters - how to turn site visitors into enquiries, and enquiries into bookings.
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French Cricket
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Post by French Cricket »

I've changed my mind 8) . (Well, I am a Libran and I do it at least 12000 times a day, every day :lol: ).

At e-richard's suggestion, I've decided to give PIMS Lite a try out. If nothing else I get a decent calendar, a To Do list and some stats at the end of the year - that's probably worth 29 quid a year on its own.
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Sue Dyer
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Post by Sue Dyer »

Brilliant, thanks for the help and sorry for the thread creep!
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Casscat
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Post by Casscat »

French Cricket wrote:I've changed my mind 8) . (Well, I am a Libran and I do it at least 12000 times a day, every day :lol: ).

At e-richard's suggestion, I've decided to give PIMS Lite a try out. If nothing else I get a decent calendar, a To Do list and some stats at the end of the year - that's probably worth 29 quid a year on its own.
That's been my philosophy really, and I do find it useful to store guest info, see everything laid out in front of me in terms of bookings and enquiries, use templates (which I personalise) and store attachments. I am not on site and my manager has access too which means I can add notes and reminders such as special requirements for the welcome pack or little extras such as when someone mentions they are celebrating their anniversary or a birthday.
Hells Bells
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Post by Hells Bells »

Richard have you thought about asking PMP to include you as one of their online booking options? They have freetobook and supercontrol, but I think PIMS would be give another choice to their customers.
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Nemo
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Post by Nemo »

French Cricket wrote:I've changed my mind 8) . (Well, I am a Libran and I do it at least 12000 times a day, every day :lol: ).

At e-richard's suggestion, I've decided to give PIMS Lite a try out.
Love it FC. A girls prerogative after all. :wink: You have nothing to lose but some time in trying it out, but I'm sure like us all, you have plenty spare. :lol: Hope you find it as useful as most of us converts.
Annew
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Post by Annew »

I echo Nemo - perfectly alright to change your mind and I am absolutely sure PIMS will work for your new set up. Richard is hugely helpful and PIMS revolutionised booking management for me.
If you want to find me, Google The Barton Poughill!
booboo
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Post by booboo »

So... if you get an inquiry from a listing site.. Do you have to enter that all into PIMS by hand?
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greenbarn
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Post by greenbarn »

booboo wrote:So... if you get an inquiry from a listing site.. Do you have to enter that all into PIMS by hand?
PIMS only auto-fills if the information has come through the PIMS form you can set up on your website.

For enquiries from listing sites etc, I enter the minimum I need in order to respond - so that's name, email address, property (as we have more than one) and dates. I cut and paste the email address, and I also cut and paste any particular comments. Very simple. I then click to send an email, either freehand, from a template or usually a template plus additional tailored stuff. If the enquiry then converts, I send a link to the PIMS booking form which the guest completes.

So - most of the information is entered by the guest at the point of booking, rather than by my error-prone fat fingers.

HTH
booboo
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Post by booboo »

greenbarn wrote:
booboo wrote:So... if you get an inquiry from a listing site.. Do you have to enter that all into PIMS by hand?
PIMS only auto-fills if the information has come through the PIMS form you can set up on your website.

For enquiries from listing sites etc, I enter the minimum I need in order to respond - so that's name, email address, property (as we have more than one) and dates. I cut and paste the email address, and I also cut and paste any particular comments. Very simple. I then click to send an email, either freehand, from a template or usually a template plus additional tailored stuff. If the enquiry then converts, I send a link to the PIMS booking form which the guest completes.

Thanks for GB! Next year, if all goes to plan, we hope to have 4 holiday apartments in the old town of Ptuj. I know I will need something. I may tinker with the free trail over the winter.



So - most of the information is entered by the guest at the point of booking, rather than by my error-prone fat fingers.

HTH
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French Cricket
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Post by French Cricket »

I thought I'd just do a quick update on this ...

I merrily played with PIMS for several days and found it to be excellent ... BUT I couldn't find any way of setting it up to retain the kind of human flexibility within which we work :cry: . The problem was quite simple: because we rarely do same day changeovers (and leave at least one, sometimes 2 or even 3, days between bookings), I needed to be able to update the calendar separately from the booking management system - and although PIMS does almost everything else, it can't do that, as everything is integrated with everything else. Which, of course, is its point.

So with great reluctance, and in spite of a huge amount of help from e-richard, it and I have parted company. And I'm back to my old system. Heigh ho.
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