Latest NEWS and update information

I am very thrilled with the progress made, I now feel I am on top of all the enquiries.

Marcella, February 2010

Previous Updates

PIMS 3.0 Release news ( Nov 2010)

PIMS 2.5 Release news ( Mar 2010)

PIMS 2.0 Release news ( May 2009)

PIMS 1.5 Release news ( Jan 2009)

PIMS 4.0 released - August 2011

This release is rich in depth rather than just quantity of features.

While the main thrust of all the additions were built to support the new PIMSforms™, there are also numerous other features that enhance the overall value of PIMS - even without using the new forms.

PIMSforms™ (subscribers with the Gold plan or higher)

There are many ways to interact with your guests and postential guests on your own website, and these new capabilities ensure that you're never duplicating effort in PIMS itself. Whether its a simply contact form or taking on-line reservations, you want to be able to communicate in exactly your own way and appropriate to each property and in the language of your own website. PIMSforms™ does all that and is now even easier and more powerful than ever.

Rather than simply view some screenshots, you can experience a variety of examples for yourself at our mythical holiday rental website GBVacations.com. Visit this website and experiment with each of the properties separately.

Remember that everything you see at this website can be tailored to suit your own website in terms of look and wording.

Also see more details on incorporating PIMS into your own website.

Enhanced rate card

As well as streamlining the setup of the rate card(s) for each property, we've added a few new capabilities to ensure accurate automated quotations:

Short Breaks (subscribers with the Gold plan or higher)

A short break is by definition any holiday less than 7 days. You now have a very flexible set of rules that you can apply to the calculation of short break costs.

Mandatory additional costs

If there are additional fees to be charged that may not be dependent on the duration of the holiday (e.g. a fixed end of stay clean which is charge once per booking) these can be added automatically.

Fixed changeover days

If you have fixed changeover days for some or all seasons, these can be specified and appropriate action taken for enquiries that contravene these rules.

Minimum length of stay

Similarly, you can specify a minimum length of stay for any seasons. These can be used in conjunction with short breaks to ensure that only your short break start/end days are acceptable, when the enquiry is for less than one week.

More robust sending of emails

As well as checking more carefully that all email addresses are properly entered (its surprising how easily these sort of mistakes can lose bookings), we now also offer the option to send emails using SMTP. This should further minimise the chances of outbound emails to your enquirers being despatched to their Spam boxes.

More flexible exports to Excel

All users will find additional options for exporting the bookings data to Excel, and for Gold subscribers and above, you can also create any number of your own bespoke reports using any combination of over 60 possible fields in your PIMS data.

Synchronise PIMS calendar with Listing sites

These features were actually released in mini interim releases prior to the launch of Version 4.0. This illustrates the benefit of cloud based solutions where software can be updated without the user having to download and install anything.

HolidayLettings

As soon as your enquiry becomes a confirmed booking in PIMS, your HolidayLettings calendar is marked as booked for you.

HomeAway

If you keep your PIMS bookings up to date, and you subscribe to any of these HomeAway sites:
   - Holiday-Rentals
   - HomeAway
   - VRBO
   - FeWo-Direkt
   - VacationRentals

Your calendars will be kept up to date on these sites and also on their sister sites that are linked with your subscription to any of the above.