Our team has been working hard to enhance the features and capabilities of our products, and we are excited to share some of the key updates with you.
Here are some of the biggest improvements we’ve released on the platform throughout 2023 and see what you could add to your property’s workflow.
New Mini App Editor
The biggest update we had on the platform was our new Mini App that combined the features of Agreements, Booklets, Menus, and Surveys all into one place, and with a much-needed upgrade to the editor.
Here are some highlights our new editor can do to help streamline your property’s operations:
Display Rules
Configure when a specific element (text block, table, input, etc.) should appear on the Mini App based on who is viewing it.
Some examples of display rules are:
- Reservation Status is Arrived: only show the pool gate code if the guest is on the property
- Arrival Date is Within 7 Days: have the map component appear as the guest’s arrival date gets closer
- Departure Date is Today: prompt the guest to rate their stay only on the day of their departure
Conditional Redirect on Submission
Once a guest submits their Mini App, do you want them to be automatically redirected to another page in the Mini App? Perhaps your website?
Set up a redirect on submission and add filters based on the reservation data to ensure guests are getting redirected to the correct place.
Verify the Mini App recipient with a one-time passcode
Ensure the person accessing the Mini App is the one you want to view it by selecting Verify Recipient. Before the guest can view the Mini App, the phone number on the reservation is texted a one-time passcode to ensure the person viewing and the person who made the reservation are the same.
If you have Verify Recipient on a QR Mini App, the viewer will be prompted to provide their phone number and our system will check if that number currently has a reservation at your property; if so, the passcode will be sent to the guest for them to access the Mini App.
Payment Processing
As a combination of Agreements and Menus, our Mini App can handle transactional payments ranging from a guest paying their balance due to purchasing a day tour to a local attraction. Like with Agreements and Menus, Stripe will need to be installed in Akia to process payments.
Learn more about payment processing with Akia here: Payments
Ordering Capability (Collections)
Want to allow guests to place an order for an item or activity at your property? Use our Collections (which uses features from our old Menus) to allow guests to add various things to their cart and create an order for your team to manage.
Some common use-cases are early check-in or late checkout requests where an order can be made (see below screenshot where Create Order is selected) but Akia doesn’t have to process payment on this order immediately. This allows your team more freedom in confirming who can make the request and if it can be approved or not.
Learn more about Orders in Akia here: Manage Order Requests
Learn more about the new Mini App editor here: Create and Edit Mini Apps
Inbox Improvements
Platform Visibility
We now show messages sent on all platforms in the same thread (sorted by the latest messages at the bottom), with messages from the currently-selected platform automatically visible. This allows your team to quickly see if a message was sent to the guest on another platform recently, or if the guest is trying to reach you on multiple platforms.
All other regular Inbox behaviors are still supported such as switching platforms to communicate via SMS or Email or needing to open the chat on another platform before sending any messages, this is just a modification for the unified Inbox to be truly unified.
Folders
We understand the inbox can sometimes get very cluttered, so we’ve added the following folders to help your team manage your chats. (If you have any contact groups, those folders will also show up underneath Assigned.)
- Home: The default inbox we all know and love
- Team Chats: Any team chats or task chats that you created or belong to
- Participated: All chats you (the user) have sent a message in within the past 24 hours
- Arriving Today: Chats for guests who have a reservation arriving today
- Assigned: Shows any conversations that are automatically assigned to you
- To automatically assign a chat to a user, click on the three dots next to a guest’s name and click Assign Recipient
Sidebar Configuration
To improve quick access to relevant data, our team has added inbox sidebar configuration so your team can ensure the most important sidebar widgets are easily accessible. (Tabs can be renamed and those without any widgets will not show up in the inbox sidebar to reduce confusion.)
Smart Tags
View guest information directly in the inbox thread list with smart tags. Any guest or reservation fields can be configured as a “smart tag” that will show underneath the guests’ names. The latest synced reservation will be reflected in the tags if the guest has multiple reservations.
Email Campaigns
Send out recurring or one-time email campaigns to guests via Akia! We can filter the audience based on their reservation details to target the desired audience and encourage them to keep your property in mind for future vacations.
CRM Capabilities
With our customer relationship management capabilities, you’ll be able to better track current, repeat, and valued guests. See how much a guest has spent on their reservations, how engaged and loyal they are to your business, and recent activity at your properties all on one page.
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New Integrations
Property Management Systems
- Streamline - https://www.streamlinevrs.com/
- LMPM - https://lmpm.com/
- RoomRacoon - https://roomraccoon.com/platform/pms/
- Sirvoy PMS - https://sirvoy.com/
Digital Keys
- Salto KS - https://saltoks.com/
- KeyCafe - https://www.keycafe.com/
Operations
- ALICE - https://actabl.com/alice/
- Book4Time - https://book4time.com/
Quality of Life Updates
Search bar in the magic wand
Too many results show up when you try and use the magic wand? We’ve added a search bar to each section to make it easier to find the token you’re looking for. (Supported wherever the magic wand can be found.)
View the token name instead of the character string
Too many Mini Apps and forget which random string of characters is the correct Mini App? We now have the name of the token/Mini App showing on the page for easier reference.
Manually verify guests
Akia couldn’t automatically verify the guest? No worries, click Manually Verify and after hitting the confirmation button the guest will receive all automations like if they were automatically verified.
Export Reports as CSV
For easier data management, Export your Reports to a CSV file for internal tracking and analysis. If you are exporting a Mini App Submissions or Agreements report, View All Submissions in a new browser tab with all of the submissions together, and you can right click on that page to Print/Save as PDF.
Conversation actions
We wanted to improve the way internal communication can be facilitated on the platform, and have introduced new conversation actions depending on what type of chat you’re in:
- Internal comment (guest chat) - While hovering on a message, click on the message bubble (💬) icon to write an internal comment to your team. This is useful for training new users or for writing handoff notes when your shift is completed.
- Reply (team chat) - Hover over the message and click the arrow (←) icon to compose a reply to that specific message. Your reply message will show the original message in the back and your message in the front, as well as mention who you are replying to above the message itself.
Mute and Archive guest conversations
Getting spammed by a no-reply email notifying you of new reservations for your property? Mute the guest so your team will still see the messages in the inbox, but will no longer get notified for new messages in the thread.
Like a zero inbox feel? Archive guest conversations once you’re done with them to hide them from the inbox. (When the guest messages back, it will show up in the inbox again.)
Generate QR codes in the platform
Instead of needing to reach out to our team to generate these unique QR code links, and generating the QR code, we have this available directly in the platform via the three dot icon:
Custom short links
Instead of the default shortened link (mi.ni.app/XXX or akia.to/XXX), you can have this be customized to your domain, like app.your_website/XXX to align with your branding.
This is available in higher tiers, so please reach out to us if you would like to configure custom short links for your property.
