Notes

Hello @smehia !

Which channel manager are you using? We had a very similar issue, and it’s up to the channel manager to put the notes in the correct context…

To sum it up, every comment that is contained within <distributor> section of the XML goes into a “Channel Manager” note in MEWS. Every comment within the <customer> section becomes a “General Note” in MEWS. So it is really up to the channel manager interface to put the comments in the appropriate section. That again seems to vary from source to source (Expedia is different than booking, differen than direct booking engine reservations, etc...) - it’s really a little bit confusing.

Our channel manager’s support (D-EDGE) replied that it is so by design - a fact that I contested. They put it on the wish list for future improvments. So in case you have the same Channel Manager, contact your customer success or account manager to prioritize it, too.

Regards,

Jean-Philipp

@j.spiess Nice to know, I will try and Contact Cubilis to see what they can do on their side, otherwize I will upvote the feature request as also suggested by @MarketaOupi 

Thanks a lot anyway

Regards

Stephane

Well @MarketaOupi @j.spiess , just got an answer from Cubilis Channel Manager (by Stardekk-Lighthouse), and it is quite disappointing…

They say they are sending the information the same way for each travel Agency

 The thing is, the information is exactly as I want went it comes from an Expedia reservation (meaning going in Mews as a “General” note not a “Channel” one ..

Does it have any relations with the travel agent name chosen in the Channel case of the travel agency profile ? Because there are often a few different ones for the same OTA?…

Well anyway, upvote for one of the 4000 ideas waiting seems weird to ask if the system works 2 different ways for the same information, one arguably “right” and the other “wrong” or maybe should i contact the integration staff to see if they can add a flag within Zapier integration for Zapier app to also recognize “channel” notes (which is exactly what my problem is at the moment) alongside “general” notes?…

Any input or contact I should try and reach ?

Thanks again for your help

Regards

Stephane

Hello @smehia !

Very interesting - it seems like the JSON Interface (MEWS API) interface used by Cubilis is structured differently than the XML Interface used by D-EDGE.

In the API documentation (https://mews-systems.gitbook.io/channel-manager-api/mews-operations/operations/reservations ) there is only one comment field. So I would think that it’s not possible for the channel manager to differentiate where the comment belongs to. My guess is that maybe you are right and it depends on the source. Maybe the MEWS side of the interface decides where to put the comments based on the source of the reservation. Maybe the MEWS developers or higher level support can give some insight - my guess is that this is a hard coded behavior based on some common best way how to handle it generally. So, most likely not an easy change …

Regards,

JP.

Well @j.spiess I turned to Zapier to see if they can add a tag on the channel notes too (taking the problem from another perspective) so i will be able to automate my tasks more efficiently

Maybe they will be willing to do something 🤞

Thanks anyway for your help and inputs on this

Regards

Stephane

New update on this case you all @j.spiess @MarketaOupi 

The way it is transfered depends apprently on the language used for some of the OTA

I changed the channel used to test and we have now 2 outcomes possible

For booking I switched from Booking.com to Booking.com Direct and now

And when the note is in french it goes in “General”

and under “Channel Manager” when it is in English ...

I don’t understand, but I’m still testing out other things

See ya soon 😅

Stephane

I paste the wrong photo for the case in “French”, here it is:

Hello All,

hope everything is well! This is Marina from Connectivity team.

When Mews receives reservations with comments, it uses keywords to determine the type of notes on the Reservation screen. The general keywords are "Expedia collect"; "hotel collect"; "approximate time of arrival"; "smoking preference"; "smoking yes/no". When Mews receives reservation with these words in comments, it translates them as notes with type "General", otherwise the note will have type "Channel manager".

So looking at examples that @smehia shared, the first one, in English, does not have any of the keywords mentioned, hence the type "channel manager". But the second example in French has words approximate time of arrival which determines the type of the note as "General".

If there are any improvements that you would like to see in a way that Mews determines the types of notes, please make sure to visit the feature request that Marketa shared and make sure to write your suggestion in the comments. The product team regularly checks on feature requests, so you feedback is valuable to us.

Best wishes,
Marina

Hello @MarinafromMews and @MarketaOupi !

Thank you for the information regarding the keywords used to select note type… That should be documented somewhere in help.mews.com !!!! Good to know! Does this apply universially, or just for JSON / API based channel manager connection? Also for XML based CM intergrations (like D-EDGE) ?

I have also voted for the feature request and added a comment.

Further question:  how does that keyword based type selection work together with the reservation record section bases type selection outlined by Jesse from your support in a support case recently? See below...

Is there some kind of hierarchy of criterias the system uses to assign a note type ? Or is it either / or ?

Best regards,

Jean-Philipp.

@MarinafromMews Thank you for the information

Again the problem is actually that Zapier does not recognize “Channel Manager” notes, only “General” ones. 

They are in discussion with Mews to see if they can add it in their integration system.

Meanwhile I’ll have a look at the thread on the “Feature Requests” forum and see what it is about 😉

Thank you all for your input

Stephane

Hello @smehia,

just to make your life easier, the relevant feature request is here 👈

As Marina said, add there your comments, I can see Jean-Philipp already did so! 👏🏽

Hello @MarketaOupi 

It is done, thanks 😉

Maybe a solution regarding my particular issue with Zapier Integration will be solved if Zapier could also read channel manager notes. They are looking at it right now with their contact at Mews. Fingers crossed 😁

Have a good day

Stephane

Hello @j.spiess 

thank you for your feedback!

With D-Edge, Mews uses both the key words mentioned above and the attributes that Jesse mentioned in his email. More specifically:

• Mews will create a note with type "General" from all comments under attribute customer
• Mews will create notes with type "Channel manager" for all comments under attribute distributor if they do not contain any keywords mentioned above. If a comment has any of the words, then Mews will create a note with type "General".

Hope it brings more clarity!

Best wishes,
Marina

…...well…. back in autumn 2021, when we changed hotelsystem to Mews, i wrote with mews regarding this issue - and got several answers telling us that there was no real “fix”… i dont have any hopes for any changes...😕….