The idea behind this site is to allow page owners to create pages that promote an accommodation venue and to publish them. The published pages are searchable for the general public.

There are two main type of users:

The Public

These are people that have come to the site to look for an accommodation venue. They can search and view the published pages of the site.

Page Owners

Page owners are people that create, edit and publish pages. They would be anyone who is trying to promote an accommodation venue.

- Any Person / Company promoting an Accommodation Venue.

- Accommodation venue providers (i.e. Guest House Owner or Hotel Chains).

- Accommodation booking agents. Agents who have a list of venues that they are trying to find people to stay in.

- An existing accommodation advertising site (yes, other sites are welcome to add their info).

2 General Help

1) What is a Site Member?

A Site Member is anyone who logs into the site. They can be Page Owners, Content Managers or Site Administrators.

2) What is a page owner?

A page owner is someone who has an account on the site and has created a page.

3) I keep getting an error when I do something, what must I do?

Please email our support team.

Steps to Contact Support:

1) Scroll to the bottom of the page and look for the ‘Contact Us’ link and click on it.

2) Email ‘Support’

4) How come the Share menu for Facebook and Twitter is not always visible?

The tool was crashing on Internet Explorer 8. So we turned it off for that. It will work for other browsers.

3 Logging In and Password Help

5) How do I login?

Steps to login:

1) Look at the top right hand side of the site for the ‘login’ link.

2) Click the login link
You will be taken to the Login Page

3) Enter your User Name and Password

4) Click ‘Log in’

6) How do I get a new password ?

Steps to get a new password:

1) Find the ‘login’ link at the top right hand side of the site and click on it.
You will be taken to the login page.

2) Click on the ‘Want to get a new password?’ link.

3) Enter your User Name an click ‘Submit’

4) The system will email a new password to you.
This password is generated by the system and we do not know what it is. It is also stored as a hash in our database so we can’t see what it is either.

7) How do I change my password?

Steps to change your password:

1) Login

2) Click ‘start page’

3) Scroll down to your profile details

4) Click on ‘Change My Password’
You will go to the Change My Password page.

5) Enter your old password, your new password and the confirm new password fields an click ‘Change Password’
Your password will be changed to the new password.

8) My account was deactivated how do I login again?

Email support and they can reactivate your account again.

To contact support:

1) Scroll to the bottom of the page.

2) Find the ‘Contact Us’ link and click on it.

3) Find the ‘Support’ link click on it.

4) Your email client will load up an new email window to send us an email.

The Start Page is the starting page for a page owner. It lists all the things that a page owner would owns. For example their profile details and their accommodation venue pages. It is the starting point for a page owner.

When page owners login they are automatically taken to this page.

2) Where are my accommodation venue pages?

Your pages are listed on your Start Page. Click ‘start page’ at the top right hand side of the page to get to your Start Page.

3) What is my public profile?

Your public profile is what is displayed about you to the public. It lists information about you and it also lists what pages you own.

Every user has a public profile. If you want to display information about yourself then you can add information to this page. There is a link to your public profile off the search results and individual accommodation venue pages. And for any features that we add to the site that reference a user we will have a link pointing to your public profile.

4) How do I get to my public profile?

Steps to get to your public profile if you are logged in:

1) Click ‘start page’

2) Scroll down to the Public Profile section on your Start Page.

3) Click ‘View this User’s Public Profile’

Steps to get to your public profile if you are not logged in but have a published accommodation page:

1) Do a search for your accommodation venue page.

2) On the search results there is a link called ‘Page Owner’s Profile’

3) OR click on the accommodation venue page and look for the ‘View Page Owner’s Public Profile’ link.

If you are not logged in and don’t have published pages then you cannot view your public profile.

5) Why can't I change my user name?

User Names have to be unique in the system.

6) Why can't I change my email address?

The site currently does not cater for this. We are able to do it if you contact the Technical Team. If more users request that this functionality will be added then we will put it in.

7) What is the difference between my public email and my login email?

Your public email is the email that is displayed on your public profile. It is for the public to use.

Your login email is the email that you entered when you registered or the one that the Content Managers entered for you when they setup your account. This email address is the one that we will use to send your password if you request a new one.

5 Accommodation Edit Page Help

1) What is the Accommodation Edit Page?

The Accommodation Edit Page is the edit page for a particular accommodation venue. This is where you edit the information an images for a given accommodation venue page.

From here you can:

- Publish or unpublish a page.

- View the public page (for published pages only)

- View the preview page

- Edit the Images Section

- Edit the Information Section

- Edit the Rooms & Rates Section

- Edit the Map Section

2) Give me the quick steps of what I need to create and publish an Accommodation Venue Page?

Steps:

1) Go to your ‘start page’

2) Click ‘CREATE – Accommodation Page’

3) Click on the newly created page in the ‘My Accommodation Pages’ section

4) Click on each of the ‘Edit - ... ‘ buttons on each of the sections and edit and save the info

5) Click ‘PUBLISH – Page’.

6) Done. To view the public page click on the ‘VIEW PUBLIC – Page’ link.

3) How do I create an accommodation venue page?

Steps to create an accommodation venue page:

1) Login and go to your ‘start page’ by clicking on the tab at the top right hand side of the screen.

2) Scroll to the ‘My Accommodation Pages’ section

3) Click ‘CREATE – Accommodation Page’
A new page will be created and listed in the table beneath the link. The link will say
‘Edit: New Accommodation’.

4) How do I get to an accommodation venue’s Accommodation Edit Page?

Steps:

1) Login

2) Click the ‘start page’ tab at the top right hand side of the page

3) In the ‘My Accommodation Pages’ section look for the accommodation which you wish to edit. (i.e. Apples End Guesthouse)

4) Click the ‘Edit: Accommodation Name’ link. (i.e. Edit: Apples End Guesthouse)

5) How do I add or change my images?

Steps to add an image:

1) Click the ‘Edit – Images’ link.
It can be found just above the Images section on the Accommodation Edit Page.

2) Enter a caption.

3) Click browse and select the image you wish to upload

4) Click Upload.
The image will now be uploaded to the site. In edit mode the images are shown as thumbnails.
Note: it is a known issue that the image preview does not work when in edit mode.

5) When you are done uploading images click ‘I am Done Editing Images’ at the bottom of the Images Section.

6) How do I publish or unpublished a page?

When a page is unpublished it cannot be seen by the public and will not appear in their searches.

Steps to publish or unpublish a page:

1) Go to the Accommodation Edit Page that you wish to publish or unpublish

2) Look for the the ‘PUBLISH – Page’ link or the ‘UNPUBLISH – Page’ link.

3) Clicking on this link will either publish or unpublish the page depending on whether it is currently published or unpublished.

7) What is the preview link and when should I use it?

The preview link is to show you what your page will look like when it is published. You should use it when you are editing an unpublished page and want to see what it will look when it is published like without having to publish it.

8) What is the View Public page link and why is it only visible when my page is published?

The ‘VIEW PUBLIC – Page’ link takes you to the url of the public page that your are currently editing. Only you and Content Managers are able to access the Accommodation Edit Page. The link is only displayed when a page is published. This is due to the fact that the public page does not exist when the page is unpublished.

9) My page is broken, what must I do?

Email the Technical Team.

Steps to find the Technical Team’s Email:

1) Scroll to the bottom of the page.

2) Click on ‘Contact Us’

3) Look for the ‘Technical’ link on the Contact Us page and click on it.

10) How do I delete a page?

Steps to delete a page:

1) Go to your Start Page

2) Find the page that you wish to delete in the ‘My Accommodation Pages’ section.

3) Click ‘Delete’

11) What is duplicate copy and why is it bad?

Duplicate copy is text that is duplicated on two different web pages. For example if there is a webpage at http://www.ApplesEndGuesthouse.com/Welcome.htm that has a welcoming text paragraph like “Welcome to the Peaceful Apples End Guesthouse...” and then this same paragraph is copied into one of the fields of this site then that is duplicate copy. The Search Engines penalise both sites for having duplicate copy and both sites will be listed lower in the search engine rankings. This is why it is bad and should not be done. If in doubt then leave out duplicate text.

Lists of facilities should be ok however we try to change the text slightly as well. For example if on your existing website you have ‘- Scrumptious breakfasts’ then we try to change that to ‘ – Delicious breakfasts’ or just ‘- Breakfasts’ when we capture it into our Facilities field.

12) How do I edit my pages info?

Each section has an Edit link just under it’s heading. For example the Information Section has an ‘Edit – Info’ link just under the heading.

Steps:

1) Click on the ‘Edit – Section Name’ link that can be found just under each section.
(i.e. for the Information Section: ‘Edit – Info’)

2) Make your changes on the fields

3) Click the ‘Save – Section Name’ link at the bottom of the section.
(i.e. for the Information Section: ‘Save – Info’)

13) Tell me about the different sections of my page?

There are 4 main sections to the Accommodation Edit Page

1) Images Section
This is where you can upload, display images and add a caption per image. There are currently 10 images that you can upload.

2) Information Section
This section is the information about your venue. The fields with the red background are the required fields.

3) Rooms & Rates Section
This section is where you can enter information about different room types and their respective rates. For example if you have a double room and a single room that get billed out at different rates then this is where that information will be entered.
You can also specify a time period for a particular billing rate (i.e. high season vs low seasonal rates)

4) Map Section
This section passes your address from your page’s Information Section to Google Maps who then try to map the location. If your address is not known by Google Maps then we suggest either tweaking your address or hiding the map.

14) Why do I have to edit and save each section I independently?

We’ve tried to make each section as modular as possible. This allows us to be more flexible in the future. So it requires each Section to be independent of the others.

15) What is the rooms and rates section about?

This section is where all the information about different room types and their rates are edited.

- This section allows one to enter different room types.
(i.e. Honeymoon suite, Single Room, Double Room)

- Over different time periods
(i.e. ’15 Oct to 15 May’, ’16 May to 14 Oct’)

If you have one venue that is being rented out as a whole and it does not have multiple room types (i.e. a house) then we suggest you:

- Add one line item for the whole venue (i.e. Whole Venue)

- Or leave this section out

16) How to I add a Room Type?

Steps to add a Room Type:

1) Scroll down to the Rooms & Rates Section

2) Click ‘ADD ROOM TYPE – Rooms & Rates’

3) The 'Edit Room Type & Time Periods' edit form will be displayed.
This form allows you to:

a. Enter a description for the room type (i.e. Double Room)

b. Enter a time period (i.e. ’15 Oct to 15 May’) that the rate is valid for.

c. Enter a ‘Rate per Night’ for the given room type per night for the given time period (i.e. 500)

4) Click ‘SAVE – Room Type’.
Do each of these steps per room type

17) How do I show or hide the map?

If Google Maps does not pick up your address then you might want to hide the map. To do so then do the following:

Steps to hide the map:

1) Scroll to the Map Section

2) Click ‘HIDE – Map’

Steps to show the Map:

1) Click ‘SHOW / REFRESH – Map’

18) How does the map know where my venue is?

The Map passes the address from the Information Section to Google Maps and then Google Maps tries to locate the address. This means that if Google Maps cannot find the venue then it won’t be mapped.

19) How do I change what the map shows (i.e. my own Google map link)?

This is currently not supported. We plan to put in a field where one can cut and paste a link out of Google Maps and this is what will be shown. However this functionality is not in the site. If you would like to see it there then please email the Technical Team to motivate it.

20) I changed my address but the map is still showing the old address, what
must I do?

Click ‘SHOW / REFRESH – Map’ this will refresh the map. This happens after the address has been changed.

21) No matter what address I enter the map does not show the correct
address, what can I do?

The site passes the address from the Information Section to Google Maps who then try to map the address. If Google Maps cannot map the address then we suggest:

- Trying a different address (i.e. rewording your existing address)

- Hiding the map

22) How many pages can I create?

As many as you want. We encourage people to add lots of pages. If this gets abused we’ll change the policy but for now we want you to create lots of pages. Say for example you are a booking agent and have 20 different venues for your guests to stay in then you can create a page per venue. Please go ahead and do this.

23) Someone has created a page for me other than the site’s Content Managers, it is my venue, what should I do?

Say for example you are the manager of Apples End Guesthouse but you can see that someone else has already created a page for your venue.

We suggest the following:

- Contact them and ask them to remove the page

- If they don’t comply then email us at Support and we will address the issue.

24) How can I help?

- Keep your content up to date.

- Fill in as many of the fields on your Accommodation Edit Page as possible.

Thanks J