Webervations / RezOvation to Eviivo Transfer Termination Date

We knew that Innkeepers were going to eventually have to make the change away from RezOvation. We've heard different deadline dates, all the way to March 30, 2019. Recently, a client told us, "We heard that all clients needed to be switched by the 30th." Meaning, JANUARY 30, 2019. Obviously, sooner than we had heard previously. After checking the RezOvation website, we see this:

"On February 15th 2019 the RezOvation and Webervations services will cease to operate. If you have not already done so, please contact an Eviivo representative at your earliest convenience at rezo@eviivo.com to ensure you are registered for our training webinars, and confirmed for your Go Live appointment. Don’t get left out in the cold and miss your chance to get migrated! Click here to watch an introductory video and review the steps you need to take to upgrade to eviivo suite, before HomeAway discontinues the provision of these services on February 15th 2019."

So, as far as we know RIGHT NOW, if you are still using RezOvation or Webervations, you must have changed over by February 15 or you will not have a reservation system in place from that date forward. It's possible that Eviivo is encouraging people to move forward so that they don't have a massive rush the second week of February. Unfortunately, we've also heard from our clients that it's pretty difficult to reach anyone at Eviivo. You may contact them via email at: rezo@eviivo.com or by completing a request form.

The important thing to note is if you use RezOvation or Webervations and haven't yet done anything, you are quickly running out of time, and you must either work with Eviivo or choose to move to a different company as soon as possible. Finally, as we shared last year, you need to complete a support request to get on the schedule for a reservation conversion. Please do not assume that we can do the work the day you contact us. We need lead time to make sure we have everything we need to assign this work to a programmer.

www.BookDirect.Education

Due to the continuing efforts of Google to bypass your website and keep potential guests on their own platform to sell rooms via OTAs (thereby making money for themselves, while at the same time costing you money via commisions), Acorn, PAII and AIHP have joined together - with innkeepers - to promote the #BookDirect movement. We are determined to educate the public about booking with the property directly for the very best experience, rather than booking via an OTA that advertisies on Google, TripAdvisor, etc. Visit the industry BookDirect Education site and read about what is happening in our industry and other industires regarding the #BookDirect movement. Also, we encourage you to SIGN UP TO VOLUNTEER. We must band together to educate the public and work to make the playing field equal for all lodging properties.

Acorn Support Pricing 2019 - A Must Read

As many of you know, Ed McDermott is no longer handling Support requests. Jevon Wright stepped in when Ed was called away for personal reasons and began handling both front line and support programming work.

Then the perfect storm hit our industry. BedandBreakfast.com sold to Expedia. RezOvation sold to Eviivo. And the amount of support our Innkeepers required rose exponentially, along with an increased number of incoming calls to support, including an influx of support tickets requesting help for these and many more items affecting our industry today.

Reservation system change-overs became a full-time job, and we realized the only way to handle this workload was to separate the hard-core support programming work from the front-end phone support and QA work that continues to grow daily.

Kim Skinner (support@acorn-is.com) joined Acorn as our front-line support person in October. She manages support tickets, support emails and answers the support line from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Mountain time Monday through Friday. She is in charge of project managing the programming support work which is being assigned to our programmers, Jevon Wright and Duane Ford, who are both helping manage the increased support needs of our clients.

Which Brings us to 2019 Support Pricing

I want to take a moment and clear up any misconceptions that support requests are included in any of our marketing programs or hosting services. They are not. Support work requests are billable at $85 an hour, as they have been for many years now. In order to keep your costs for support requests as low as possible, we ask that you open a support ticket on our website, rather than sending an email directly to support. You will find the Support Ticket link under the Contact tab. Using this system saves both time and money and helps Acorn provide a timelier response to your needs.

Regarding Phone Calls and Support Emails

As I mentioned above, the support line is available Monday through Friday from 9:00 AM to 4:00 PM Mountain Time. If you need help, we are here to assist you.

• PAYG (Pay as You Go) Clients are billed by the minute, with a 15-minute minimum, for any and all phone call / email processing time spent. This is in addition to any time spent completing the work requested in your Support Ticket.
• Advantage Plan Levels 1, 2, 3 and 4 The only difference is that Advantage Plan clients may use our phone support line and / or our support email address to ask questions regarding their support request (within reason) at no additional cost.

The only caveat to these guidelines is if a client's Website or Email account is down due to no fault of their own, then these issues will not be charged to the customer.

Finally, clients are responsible for all billable support time up to 1 hour per Support Ticket, at which point, if we have determined the work effort is going to be more than 1 hour, you will be provided an itemized support bid, based on your request, that you will need to approve in advance of work commencing on your request. Support bid estimates are ONLY provided for support requests that exceed one hour ($85) of time to complete and QA test.