Guest Portal Verification Options Explained

The TablePath guest portal allows hotel guests to make bookings for during their stay (e.g. booking breakfast, lunch, dinner, activities etc.). The guest portal also shows guests the details of their hotel stay (arrival date, departure date, check-in time and check-out time) and the bookings they have made for their stay. To validate the guest is who they say they are, we need to gather some information to verify the details of their stay. We provide the following options for guest verification:

1. Verify using PMS booking number and last name.
2. Verify using third party booking number and last name.
3. Verify using full name, arrival date and departure date.
4. Auto verification using special URL.

There is also an option to allow guests make a resident booking without providing any details but please note that the synchronisation of details between your PMS and TablePath will not work for those bookings.

Verify using PMS booking number and last name

If you choose this option, the guest will be able to verify their hotel stay using their PMS booking number and last name. The best way to supply guests with their PMS booking number is via a pre-stay email with the booking number displayed within. Our recommended approach is to include a specific link in your pre-stay email so guests have faster access to the guest portal. Please see the 'Link' button in your guest portal for the specific link to add to your pre-stay email. There are a number of popular CMS providers listed but if yours is not, please contact support@tablepath.com for further assistance.

Verify using third party booking number and last name

This option works the exact same way as the 'Verify using PMS booking number and last name' method above except it allows searching on the third party booking number. This allows guests, who have made their hotel booking on a third party website (e.g. Booking.com) to validate using the booking number in their confirmation email.

If third party website bookings get inserted into the PMS with a prefix, you will need to list it in the 'Third Party Booking Number Prefixes' field. This is a comma separated list of prefixes that will be used to search for third party bookings. For example, if you receive bookings from Expedia and they get added to your PMS with the external booking number 'EXP-123456', you should add 'EXP-' to your list of third party booking prefixes.

Verify using full name, arrival date and departure date

This option allows guests to verify their hotel stay using their first name, last name, arrival date and departure date. While this is an easier approach for guests to verify their details, it is also a much less secure method of verifying hotel stay details. Because of this we do not expose the guests email address or phone number in the reservation widgets screen (this is only available to guests who verify with a PMS booking number or a third party booking number).

Automatic verification using special URL

This option allows you to provide a link to the guest portal for a guest who has just made a booking on your website. Normal verification (using the PMS booking number or third party booking number) on the guest portal may not be possible immediately after the hotel booking is made because it may take some time for the booking engine to send the hotel booking details into the PMS. This option allows automatic verification to allow the guest make bookings for their stay, without the details of their stay being in the PMS at that moment in time.

To get the link for your booking engine, please go to the Guest Portal page, view your portal and click the 'Link' button. If you're using the Avvio booking engine, please select 'Link For Avvio Confirmation Page'. Otherwise, please contact support@tablepath.com for help getting the correct guest portal URL.

Allow unverified resident bookings

This option allows guests make a resident booking without providing any details of their stay. This option is only visible after an attempt is made to verify their hotel stay, either by booking number and last name or full name and stay dates. If you enable this option, please be aware that the automatic synchronisation of details from your PMS into TablePath will not work for bookings made via this method.

Guests who make bookings using this method will have a hotel booking number of 'unknown' in the reservations portal and will always indicate guests who booked without verifying.