Cash Reward Suite Enhancements
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      Automated Reservation Processing

      Single File Export Setup

      This configuration consists of a single report created by an individual property. 

      The purpose of the request report is to automate the rewards approval process on behalf of your hotel. By providing The Guestbook with a daily report export of reservation activity and final guest folio amounts, we can properly maintain the accuracy of reward eligible reservation records in our database and process rewards for your guests with minimal manual effort from your team.

      File Requirements:

      Mandatory fields: 

      Field

      Field Description

      E-mail Address

      Guest Email Address

      Last Name

      Guest Last Name

      First Name

      Guest First Name

      Confirmation Number (PMS)

      Internal Confirmation Number from the PMS

      Status

      Reservation Status (i.e. Reserved, Canceled, No Show, etc)

      Arrival Date

      MM/DD/YYYY

      Departure Date

      MM/DD/YYYY

      Rate Code

      Ie. BAR, AAA, ADV

      Rate Plan Name

      Ie. Best Available Rate, Flexible Rate, Advance Purchase Rate

      Source of Business

      i.e. Web, Direct, Group, GDS

      NET Total

      Room Charges, excluding taxes and fees

      Booking Engine Confirmation

      External Confirmation from the Booking Engine

      Property Code

      A unique non-digit code that is created by abbreviating and capitalizing the property name ( e.g., LCR for Le Chalet Resort).

       

      • Files need to be configured to include all reservations on the books that are scheduled to depart within the last 2 days and everything 365 days in the future.
      • Filters: If possible, you may filter out reservations on the books that have non-direct Source or Origin codes. For example, you do not need to send us reservation details for booking made through an Online Travel Agency (OTA) such as booking.com, expedia, priceline, etc.
      • As part of the setup, Hotels are required to provide us with a complete list of PMS codes, both for exclusions and calculation of eligible charges
        • Reservation status codes & definitions. i.e. x = canceled
        • Source codes & definitions. i.e. EI = Email Blast
        • Rate codes & definitions i.e. GBLV10 = 10pct off BAR
      • Files need to be in a Comma Delimited file (CSV) format, should have a unique file name and contain the headers (fields)  listed above.
        • Filename format (PROPERTYCODE_RESV_YYYY_MM_DD_VERSION.CSV)
          • TGB_RESV_2021_11_16_01.CSV 
      • These files will need to be scheduled to be delivered to The Guestbook daily, via email,  to integrations@theguestbook.com
      • Sample File: [insert link]

      To get started:

      1. Please review the file requirements above. If you are unable to create a custom report in your PMS to meet the above requirements, you may need to reach out to your Account Manager or customer support team of your PMS provider for assistance.
      2. Please generate a sample reservations file based on the above requirements and send it to your Guestbook Partner Success Manager. The Guestbook will validate that the sample meets the requirements. If requirements have been met, your Guestbook Partner Success Manager will have you proceed with scheduling the report for daily delivery.
      3. Audit - An audit process will last approximately 1-2 weeks to ensure proper reservation and reward processing. 

      PMS Configuration (Email forwarding Process):

      Identifier:

      • PMS Identifier * : A unique non-digit code that is created by abbreviating and capitalizing the property name ( e.g., LCR for Le Chalet Resort).
      • Email Identifier * : Enter what we should look for in subject and body to identify the property. This could be the name of the hotel

      Reservations Import:

      • Date parse formats * : The format of the dates within the file. Please refer to the table below:

      Date

      Date parse format

      08/24/2025

      %m/%d/%Y

      08-24-2025

      %m-%d-%Y

      2025/08/24

      %Y/%m/%d

      2025-08-24

      %Y-%m-%d

      24/AUG/25

      %d/%b/%y

      24-AUG-25

      %d-%b-%y

       

      • Pms rev status reserved codes: Codes separated by semicolons  that indicate a reserved or prospect reservation (i.e., RESERVED;PROSPECT)

      • Pms rev status checked in codes: Codes separated by semicolons  that indicate  a reservation has been checked-in (i.e,, CHECKEDIN)

      • Pms rev status cancelled codes *: Codes separated by semicolons  that indicate  a reservation has been cancelled (i.e., CANCELLED;NOSHOW)

      • Pms rev status checked out codes *:  Codes separated by semicolons  that indicate  a reservation has been checked-out (i.e, CHECKEDOUT)

      • Exclude rate codes: Codes separated by semicolons that indicate that a reservation is not to be rewarded (e.g.,TDIRW3). The status of these types of reservations will be set to No Rewards - Excluded Rate Type
      • File Column Delimiter *: The column separator in a file. This field is by default set as a tab. Please reference the table below to the field accordingly:

      Columns With Delimeter

      File Column Delimeter

      Confirmation Number, Email

      ,

      Confirmation Number   Email

      \t

      Confirmation Number | Email

      |

       

      Reservations CSV Columns Mapping: 

      • Add the column names of the file to the corresponding column mapping field.
      • Mandatory column mapping:

      Mandatory Column Mappings

      email

      first_name

      last_name

      resv_status

      actual_checkin_date

      actual_checkout_date

      ext_ref

      resv_name_id

      confirmation_no

      room_rev

      property_code

       

      Transactions Import:

      • Eligible charges query * : The query that includes the transaction codes we’ll take into account.
        Ex: “transaction_code IN ('1000', '1001', '1002', '1003', '1004', '1005', '1007', '1012', '1100', '1102', '1103', '1104', '1105', '1107') “
      • Import Transactions *: This indicates if the property will send transaction files.
      • Use Simplified Processing Logic *: Uses the simplified logic for processing transactions. This will only require the Eligible charges query field to be set


      Transactions CSV Columns Mapping:

      • Add the column names of the file to the corresponding column mapping field.
      • Mandatory column mapping:

      Mandatory Column Mappings

      resv_name_id

      transaction_date

      business_date_of

      transaction_code

      transaction_desc

      revenue_amount

      net_amount

      gross_amount

      property_code

      * mandatory fields



      Troubleshooting

      Common errors with uploading files:

      1. The forwarded files are not being uploaded in our system.
        1. Ensure the filename is in the correct format as listed in the requirements. The most common error with the filename is the missing keyword for the type of data (i.e., RESV, RESERV, RESERVATION, or TRANS)
        2. Verify that a unique value is set for the pms Email identifier field and that this value is included in either the subject line or body of the forwarded email (e.g., Yotel MIA, TCR_RESV, etc.).
        3. Verify that the forwarding rules on the integrations@theguestbook.com account are correctly set for the property

      Common errors with date formats:

      1. After processing the pms file, the actual_checkin_date and actual_checkout_date columns are blank, when viewing the imported records. 
        1. Verify the date format on the file and adjust the Date parse format pms field according to the following values from the below table:


      Date

      Date parse format

      08/24/2025

      %m/%d/%Y

      08-24-2025

      %m-%d-%Y

      2025/08/24

      %Y/%m/%d

      2025-08-24

      %Y-%m-%d

      24/AUG/25

      %d/%b/%y

      24-AUG-25

      %d-%b-%y

       

      Common errors with processing files:

      1. No pms records are created after processing the files
        1. Verify that the values entered within  the pms Reservations CSV mapping fields are  matching the column names from the files.
        2. Verify that the pms File Column Delimeter field has the correct file column separator. 
          1. The columns from CSV files are usually separated by commas. However, in some instances, they’re separated by tabs or pipes.
            To view the column separator of a CSV file, open the file in a text editor app such as Notepad and TextEdit. Once the delimiter is determined, please update the pms File Column Delimeter field based on the table below:

      Columns With Delimeter

      File Column Delimeter

      Confirmation Number, Email

      ,

      Confirmation Number   Email

      \t

      Confirmation Number | Email

      |

       

      2.  Within the file, if its column delimiter is a comma and there are amounts that include commas such as $1,500, the file will not be processed. There are two options to mitigate this issue:
        1. Change the column delimiter of the file to either a tab or pipe, update the  File Column Delimeter field, and then re-upload the file. 
        2. Remove the comma from the amounts and re-upload the file.


       

      Resources:

      Generic PMS Data Export Requirements_The Guestbook