Think reservations vs Rezkey

Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum

Help Support Bed & Breakfast / Short Term Rental Host Forum:

This site may earn a commission from merchant affiliate links, including eBay, Amazon, and others.

Morticia

Well-known member
Joined
May 22, 2008
Messages
17,771
Reaction score
685
A couple of questions:
Are you required to use automatic credit card processing or do you have access to the credit card number?
If you have to use auto processing how much does it cost? A % or a flat fee or both?
How much does an allocator cost per month?
How much does Rezkey cost per month?
How much is Think Reservations?
If you switched from another rez program was there a fee to switch? I've been told it's $750 to switch from what have to another program. That's a big hit.
PS - not asking for a rah rah about either program, just need some info.
 
Reskey costs us $25 a month and so does MyAllocator. We don't do autoprocessing, but that's authorize.net and I think they are like $15 or $20 plus a transaction charge.
 
Reskey costs us $25 a month and so does MyAllocator. We don't do autoprocessing, but that's authorize.net and I think they are like $15 or $20 plus a transaction charge..
Generic said:
Reskey costs us $25 a month and so does MyAllocator. We don't do autoprocessing, but that's authorize.net and I think they are like $15 or $20 plus a transaction charge.
May I assume the price is based on number of rooms?
I'm going to call both of them next week but I'm looking for 'innsider' info first!
 
Reskey costs us $25 a month and so does MyAllocator. We don't do autoprocessing, but that's authorize.net and I think they are like $15 or $20 plus a transaction charge..
Generic said:
Reskey costs us $25 a month and so does MyAllocator. We don't do autoprocessing, but that's authorize.net and I think they are like $15 or $20 plus a transaction charge.
May I assume the price is based on number of rooms?
I'm going to call both of them next week but I'm looking for 'innsider' info first!
.
Yes, ResKey's pricing is based on the number of rooms. Don't know about MyAllocator or Authorize.net since we don't use them. Not required to use auto-processing; you can get the CC info to process yourself, or shunt the guests to PayPal. Never heard of "Think Reservations" so can't compare.
For ResKey, if you have existing data in a spreadsheet (or flat file database) you can probably format it in the way that ResKey needs for uploading (they'll upload the data, but you've got to format it). You can export data from ResKey at will, and there's no penalty for leaving (just make sure you've grabbed all the data you want to keep first!).
 
Reskey costs us $25 a month and so does MyAllocator. We don't do autoprocessing, but that's authorize.net and I think they are like $15 or $20 plus a transaction charge..
Generic said:
Reskey costs us $25 a month and so does MyAllocator. We don't do autoprocessing, but that's authorize.net and I think they are like $15 or $20 plus a transaction charge.
May I assume the price is based on number of rooms?
I'm going to call both of them next week but I'm looking for 'innsider' info first!
.
It depends on # of rooms
up to 4. $20 a month
all the info is on their website. Just read it there
no cost to change ... Who said there was?
 
Reskey costs us $25 a month and so does MyAllocator. We don't do autoprocessing, but that's authorize.net and I think they are like $15 or $20 plus a transaction charge..
Generic said:
Reskey costs us $25 a month and so does MyAllocator. We don't do autoprocessing, but that's authorize.net and I think they are like $15 or $20 plus a transaction charge.
May I assume the price is based on number of rooms?
I'm going to call both of them next week but I'm looking for 'innsider' info first!
.
Yes, ResKey's pricing is based on the number of rooms. Don't know about MyAllocator or Authorize.net since we don't use them. Not required to use auto-processing; you can get the CC info to process yourself, or shunt the guests to PayPal. Never heard of "Think Reservations" so can't compare.
For ResKey, if you have existing data in a spreadsheet (or flat file database) you can probably format it in the way that ResKey needs for uploading (they'll upload the data, but you've got to format it). You can export data from ResKey at will, and there's no penalty for leaving (just make sure you've grabbed all the data you want to keep first!).
.
OnTheShore said:
Yes, ResKey's pricing is based on the number of rooms. Don't know about MyAllocator or Authorize.net since we don't use them. Not required to use auto-processing; you can get the CC info to process yourself, or shunt the guests to PayPal. Never heard of "Think Reservations" so can't compare.
For ResKey, if you have existing data in a spreadsheet (or flat file database) you can probably format it in the way that ResKey needs for uploading (they'll upload the data, but you've got to format it). You can export data from ResKey at will, and there's no penalty for leaving (just make sure you've grabbed all the data you want to keep first!).
From what I understand, the DB for my rez software is so convoluted no one can import it. Thus, when a neighbor switched, to get the data they were charged $750 by the new company. (Which they shouldn't charge me because now they know how to do it, right?) I could make do with basic info and keep the old software for a month or so to refer to it for the notes I keep for repeats. Or, just say the hell with it and start over. I've probably got 50 guests whose info is really important and everyone else has only been here 2-3 times. Altho, that's good to know as well. But we do have all of that info in QuickBooks.
But you've answered the question about whether I need to use Authorize with RezKey.
 
If you go with Reskey you will have the best help line ever….. just post your problem here and tada!!!!!!!!
 
Another question:
If you use Authorize.net and you used to key enter credit card info to process deposits, do you find you are paying less to your processor using Authorize?
IE- does using Authorize actually save you money because you're not being charged for manual transactions?
I seriously hate the idea of handing over more money to another middleman. But will consider it if it actually saves money on the processing side.
 
Authorize is a convenience, not a saving. The only reason to pay extra to use authorize, and why Breakfast Diva and I use it, is that everything is real-time for the guest. They enter their CC info, it's validated, they get their confirmation number and confirmation e-mail, and the deposit money goes to my checking account, all automatically.
Also, we use, and pay a monthly fee for, the Authorize.net Customer Information Manager (CIM), which lets authorize store the guest's CC info long term, so we can go back later to charge any balance due without having to run the card again. If you don't use the CIM, you are personally responsible for protecting the guest's CC info, resulting in need for all kinds of yearly government certifications and regulations.
Guests like real-time booking. Click Reserve and it's done, like you'd get with Hilton or any other big lodging chain.
If you don't charge a deposit, no need for authorize. Just wait until they check in and run their card the way you do now. Or if you DO take a deposit, you can have the guest give you the CC info directly, but they you are legally liable for protecting that info, and required to not store it for later use.
I also use allocator, whose only purpose is to pass my ResKey availability calendar on to Booking. John at ResKey said he would look at having ResKey export the calendar directly to Booking so we wouldn't need allocator, but I doubt he'll ever get around to it.
 
Morticia said:
A couple of questions:
Are you required to use automatic credit card processing or do you have access to the credit card number?
We get the last 4 digits plus expiration and CVV2 in the actual reservation. The rest of the numbers are sent in a separate notification email.
 
Mort, there are several that use Think on the FB forum, ask your question there as well.
Most of the info for ResKey have already been answered.
With ResKey the CC info is separated at the time of booking, as Mama S explained.
As for your current data........
I did not bother having it transferred, as I had the data in spreadsheet form and searched by name when a guest was a repeat. By a year or so in I had most of my repeats info in the new system. Now if anyone comes back that has not stayed with me since the change, most of their data has also changed.
 
Mort, there are several that use Think on the FB forum, ask your question there as well.
Most of the info for ResKey have already been answered.
With ResKey the CC info is separated at the time of booking, as Mama S explained.
As for your current data........
I did not bother having it transferred, as I had the data in spreadsheet form and searched by name when a guest was a repeat. By a year or so in I had most of my repeats info in the new system. Now if anyone comes back that has not stayed with me since the change, most of their data has also changed..
I could search quick books for the data but the guest notes are not in there. That's the biggie for me. All the notes.
I'll have to say that 99% of my guests have not changed a thing since their last stay.
I don't store the credit card data so they do need to give that every time.
Scandalous, I know, but I'm still getting 50% of my bookings via phone. Everyone knows it's faster for them to call me because the info is in my computer! (Not actually, but that's what the guests think.) And a lot of them call a day or so before they're on the road.
 
From what I read, Think is $10 per room. Again they use Authorize.net or others that are about the same.
 
Reskey costs us $25 a month and so does MyAllocator. We don't do autoprocessing, but that's authorize.net and I think they are like $15 or $20 plus a transaction charge..
Generic said:
Reskey costs us $25 a month and so does MyAllocator. We don't do autoprocessing, but that's authorize.net and I think they are like $15 or $20 plus a transaction charge.
May I assume the price is based on number of rooms?
I'm going to call both of them next week but I'm looking for 'innsider' info first!
.
Yes, ResKey's pricing is based on the number of rooms. Don't know about MyAllocator or Authorize.net since we don't use them. Not required to use auto-processing; you can get the CC info to process yourself, or shunt the guests to PayPal. Never heard of "Think Reservations" so can't compare.
For ResKey, if you have existing data in a spreadsheet (or flat file database) you can probably format it in the way that ResKey needs for uploading (they'll upload the data, but you've got to format it). You can export data from ResKey at will, and there's no penalty for leaving (just make sure you've grabbed all the data you want to keep first!).
.
OnTheShore said:
Yes, ResKey's pricing is based on the number of rooms. Don't know about MyAllocator or Authorize.net since we don't use them. Not required to use auto-processing; you can get the CC info to process yourself, or shunt the guests to PayPal. Never heard of "Think Reservations" so can't compare.
For ResKey, if you have existing data in a spreadsheet (or flat file database) you can probably format it in the way that ResKey needs for uploading (they'll upload the data, but you've got to format it). You can export data from ResKey at will, and there's no penalty for leaving (just make sure you've grabbed all the data you want to keep first!).
From what I understand, the DB for my rez software is so convoluted no one can import it. Thus, when a neighbor switched, to get the data they were charged $750 by the new company. (Which they shouldn't charge me because now they know how to do it, right?) I could make do with basic info and keep the old software for a month or so to refer to it for the notes I keep for repeats. Or, just say the hell with it and start over. I've probably got 50 guests whose info is really important and everyone else has only been here 2-3 times. Altho, that's good to know as well. But we do have all of that info in QuickBooks.
But you've answered the question about whether I need to use Authorize with RezKey.
.
Okay chances are your program uses a relational database where your information is spread over a number of different tables of information, while that makes the information difficult to see at a glance if you're only able to download individual tables it is really not difficult to combine those tables back into a single file as each must have a key so that the tables "relate" back to each other.
If you are able to download those individual tables as a (.xls) Excel or (.csv) Comma Separated Value files chances are that I could combine them into a single file (former day job I was the database person). If you want to try that and email the attachments to me we could find out right quick if I could be of help, glad to try anyway, keep my mind busy.
 
Morticia said:
PS - not asking for a rah rah about either program, just need some info.
We switched beginning of 2014, and there is not a day that I don't say to myself: OMG, my life ohsomuch easier now with RK. First of all, I've worked with John on dozens of tweaks, bugs, enhancements and he is very responsive to fixes once one clearly establishes their case for change.
There are tons of features for customizing your reservation page, email templates, etc. What I appreciate most is the ability to compare # of rooms booked, $$, etc across the years on a past or future, weekly, monthly, or annual basis. I know every day exactly how our business is doing. I also love that you can visually tag each reservation with symbols that represent (as examples): Dietary Restrictions, Repeat Guest, Assorted Packages, Late Arrival, Trip Advisor referral (or anyone else), any thing you desire. The newish Quick Quote feature is also extremely helpful. I could go on and on, but that would be a rah-rah.
John is also working on or is trying to work on a new Reservation Page interface.
 
Mort, there are several that use Think on the FB forum, ask your question there as well.
Most of the info for ResKey have already been answered.
With ResKey the CC info is separated at the time of booking, as Mama S explained.
As for your current data........
I did not bother having it transferred, as I had the data in spreadsheet form and searched by name when a guest was a repeat. By a year or so in I had most of my repeats info in the new system. Now if anyone comes back that has not stayed with me since the change, most of their data has also changed..
I could search quick books for the data but the guest notes are not in there. That's the biggie for me. All the notes.
I'll have to say that 99% of my guests have not changed a thing since their last stay.
I don't store the credit card data so they do need to give that every time.
Scandalous, I know, but I'm still getting 50% of my bookings via phone. Everyone knows it's faster for them to call me because the info is in my computer! (Not actually, but that's what the guests think.) And a lot of them call a day or so before they're on the road.
.
Morticia said:
I could search quick books for the data but the guest notes are not in there. That's the biggie for me. All the notes.
I'll have to say that 99% of my guests have not changed a thing since their last stay.
I don't store the credit card data so they do need to give that every time.
Scandalous, I know, but I'm still getting 50% of my bookings via phone. Everyone knows it's faster for them to call me because the info is in my computer! (Not actually, but that's what the guests think.) And a lot of them call a day or so before they're on the road.
Another nice thing about ResKey, given your guest data doesn't change, is that when (IF) a repeat guest books again, using the same email address (I think, y'all correct me) they can have the system auto fill the details. This is an auto fill through ResKey data not what they have stored in their own computers. So you could use this as a plug to have the guest book online next time - as it is easy! OR you can go in as a guest when they call.
On the business end it is nice to have the list of previous stays show up at the top of the reservation.
 
Mort, there are several that use Think on the FB forum, ask your question there as well.
Most of the info for ResKey have already been answered.
With ResKey the CC info is separated at the time of booking, as Mama S explained.
As for your current data........
I did not bother having it transferred, as I had the data in spreadsheet form and searched by name when a guest was a repeat. By a year or so in I had most of my repeats info in the new system. Now if anyone comes back that has not stayed with me since the change, most of their data has also changed..
I could search quick books for the data but the guest notes are not in there. That's the biggie for me. All the notes.
I'll have to say that 99% of my guests have not changed a thing since their last stay.
I don't store the credit card data so they do need to give that every time.
Scandalous, I know, but I'm still getting 50% of my bookings via phone. Everyone knows it's faster for them to call me because the info is in my computer! (Not actually, but that's what the guests think.) And a lot of them call a day or so before they're on the road.
.
Morticia said:
I could search quick books for the data but the guest notes are not in there. That's the biggie for me. All the notes.
I'll have to say that 99% of my guests have not changed a thing since their last stay.
I don't store the credit card data so they do need to give that every time.
Scandalous, I know, but I'm still getting 50% of my bookings via phone. Everyone knows it's faster for them to call me because the info is in my computer! (Not actually, but that's what the guests think.) And a lot of them call a day or so before they're on the road.
Another nice thing about ResKey, given your guest data doesn't change, is that when (IF) a repeat guest books again, using the same email address (I think, y'all correct me) they can have the system auto fill the details. This is an auto fill through ResKey data not what they have stored in their own computers. So you could use this as a plug to have the guest book online next time - as it is easy! OR you can go in as a guest when they call.
On the business end it is nice to have the list of previous stays show up at the top of the reservation.
.
Copperhead said:
Morticia said:
I could search quick books for the data but the guest notes are not in there. That's the biggie for me. All the notes.
I'll have to say that 99% of my guests have not changed a thing since their last stay.
I don't store the credit card data so they do need to give that every time.
Scandalous, I know, but I'm still getting 50% of my bookings via phone. Everyone knows it's faster for them to call me because the info is in my computer! (Not actually, but that's what the guests think.) And a lot of them call a day or so before they're on the road.
Another nice thing about ResKey, given your guest data doesn't change, is that when (IF) a repeat guest books again, using the same email address (I think, y'all correct me) they can have the system auto fill the details. This is an auto fill through ResKey data not what they have stored in their own computers. So you could use this as a plug to have the guest book online next time - as it is easy! OR you can go in as a guest when they call.
On the business end it is nice to have the list of previous stays show up at the top of the reservation.
I just did it today, you can select and combine all. It was not doing it on its own and I wondered how a repeat guest slipped through the cracks. I found them, combined and now all prev stays show on their next reservation.
 
We are in the process of switching to Think Reservations and expect to go live within the next few days. We were mostly looking at them and ResKey.
While you can access the credit card number to process manually with ResKey, that is not possible in Think Reservations. However, in our case we do not charge any deposit and will continue to swipe cards at check-in. The cc stored by TR will generally only be used by us for cancellations and processed through Braintree. Braintree actually is fee-free for the first $50K, so it will take a very long time to reach that with just cancellations.
They migrate data from the old system as well as some of the other set up such as matching the look of your website.
 
So who is Think? Where are they located? I know nothing about them. They are $10 per room a month. Res Key Up to 10 units: $25 a month. Seems like reskey can do all think can cheaper.
 
We are in the process of switching to Think Reservations and expect to go live within the next few days. We were mostly looking at them and ResKey.
While you can access the credit card number to process manually with ResKey, that is not possible in Think Reservations. However, in our case we do not charge any deposit and will continue to swipe cards at check-in. The cc stored by TR will generally only be used by us for cancellations and processed through Braintree. Braintree actually is fee-free for the first $50K, so it will take a very long time to reach that with just cancellations.
They migrate data from the old system as well as some of the other set up such as matching the look of your website..
Holy Cow...
For the US: 2.9% plus 30¢ a transaction (the $50K is a come-on and only in the US.) And another 1% for foreign currency transactions.
For Canada 2.9% plus 30¢ a transaction. Plus 30¢ for a refund. No 1% foreign transaction fee in Canada. It also can't handle Canadian Debit (only Visa/MC debit, which we don't have in Canada. It says Visa Debit in Canada, but that doesn't really exist, it's actually a specially coded Canadian debit card, Interac, that has a processing deal with Visa in the US.)
My average rate was around 2% including fees and just 6c for a Canadian debit transaction.
 
Back
Top