On Wednesday the 9th September, the Prime Minister announced new Coronavirus safety rules that will come into place on the 14/09/2020.
This article is specific to the Coronavirus advice for England. For the latest information for Ireland, Scotland or Wales please visit the relevant Gov website.
On Wednesday the 9th September, the Prime Minister announced new Coronavirus safety rules that will come into place on the 14/09/2020. The new rules state:
"From Monday 14 September, you must not meet with people from other households socially in groups of more than 6. This will apply indoors and outdoors, including in private homes. This rule will not apply to individual households or support bubbles of more than 6 who will still be able to gather together."
You can see the full update here: https://www.gov.uk/government/news/coronavirus-covid-19-what-has-changed-9-september
You can see the latest guidance for accommodation providers here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-outbreak-faqs-what-you-can-and-cant-do/coronavirus-outbreak-faqs-what-you-can-and-cant-do (Specifically see sections 3.3 - 3.6)
As a property owner you are probably thinking, what does this mean for me? Unfortunately we aren't in a position to tell you what you should or shouldn't be doing but we can highlight some features within the system to help you manage your guests and help make them aware of the rules.
Require Guest Information
In order to assist the NHS Test and Trace service you will need to keep a record of all guests that have stayed in your property. You can do this within SCRUMPY by requiring guest information for your bookings. To do this within your admin go to: Properties > (select the property) > Edit > Configuration. This will mean that bookings made at the property will be missing guest information until the number of guests entered matches the number of adults, children and infants a guest has indicated. The rule of 6 also applies to babies and chirldren.
Property Agreements
Within SCRUMPY you can define your own custom statements that guests must agree to before being able to book a property. You can add in a statement such as 'I agree that no more than 6 people can gather for this booking'. Here is a link to our help article on Property Agreements.
Terms and Conditions
You may want to update your terms and conditions to state the rule of 6 as then the guest will have agreed to this and is their responsibility if they choose to break the rules. It is very important that you are clear about your cancellation policy especially with the ever changing rules you will want to make sure the guest knows exactly what will happen if they choose to cancel their stay.
You can edit your terms and conditions within the edit section of a property. Here is a link to our help article on Booking Terms and Conditions. You also have the option to Show the terms on the property page as opposed to only showing them to a guest making a booking.
All guests making a booking online are required to agree to terms at the time of booking. If you create the booking on the guest's behalf they will be sent an email with the terms asking them to agree. It is very important that you keep on top of this. Within the 'Bookings' section you have an 'Awaiting Terms' list. We strongly advise taking a look at this and encouraging any guests that are yet to agree to do so.
Content Page
You can create a specific page on COVID-19 to add to your website in which you can state to the guest what you are doing to make the property safe and what they can or can't do. Here is a link to our help article on how to create a content page on your website. Once you have created it you can link to it from various places on your website. Please let us know if you would like assistance with this.
Creating a page that sits underneath a property listing https://help.scrumpy.co.uk/article/119-property-content-pages
Creating a sitewide content page that would require a navigational menu or button to link from https://help.scrumpy.co.uk/article/33-adding-content-pages-to-your-site
Move bookings to a later date
We understand that you or your guests may not wish to cancel their booking but to instead postpone it to a later date. You can do this by logging into your admin and going to viewing the booking in question. You will then simply need to go to the 'Details/Edit' section and change the start date and last night. All of the financials will remain the same.
Cancellation Management
In the unfortunate event that you have to cancel a booking, you can do this by clicking on the booking and going to the 'Details/Edit' section. If you scroll to the bottom you will see a 'Cancel' button. You will then have the ability to add Cancellation notes within here - this is for internal notes only but we advise that you record why this booking was cancelled. For more information on Cancellation Management take a look at our help article.
We will continue to keep an eye on the Government advice and update you with any news. Feel free to email help@scrumpy.co.uk at any time and we will be sure to respond or give you a call. We are more than happy to assist with any of the above or advise where we can on the current situation. Thank you for your continued support.