Configuration Guide

Preparing for your Retreat Guru implementation.

This article is intended for new client centers engaged in a guided implementation with a Retreat Guru onboarding specialist.

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Here’s what we will cover during the onboarding process: 

• • Configure application components for Programs, Rentals, Venues, Registrations, Questions, Lodging, Rooms, and Users. 
  • List on the retreat.guru marketplace to attract more program participants.
  • Tailor transaction categories, taxes, emails, and the registration form.
  • Review existing processes to maximize your benefits with Retreat Guru.
  • Test transactions, run reports, confirm results with your accounting team.
  • Integrate Retreat Guru with your website.
  • Integrate payment processing.

In short, we’ll cover everything you need to go live.

We will engage your super users – those with a deep understanding of your organization and its processes, and who serve as functional area experts.

For example, we may designate super users on the registration team, front desk reception, programs, finance, and in other areas. These super users should have a predilection for all things technical and be skilled at helping others. 

We’ve found it best to follow a train the trainer approach, enabling your super users with a solid understanding of Retreat Guru that will allow them to lead their teams through the implementation, and to provide ongoing support to their co-workers. 

During the implementation phase, the typical weekly schedule calls for our Project Consultant and your Project Leader to meet in multiple online video sessions per week for planning, consultation, and training.

Between these online sessions, additional hours will be needed to complete your homework - reviewing your current policies and procedures, gathering images, preparing a data import (if needed), and configuring Retreat Guru components.

During the implementation phase, you will have full use of the Retreat Guru suite of software and services, including access to Retreat Guru’s online knowledgebase (tips and tricks, how-to videos, helpful articles, and more), in-application context-sensitive help, and access to our support team via handy web chat, email, and online video sessions.

Thank you for considering us as a valued partner to better-enable you to do what you do best – delivering programs that impact lives.

 

Sections included in this guide

• • References and links
  • Policies, practices, and workflows
  • Scenarios
  • Images
  • Payment processing
  • Data import
  • Website integration
  • Rooms
  • Venues
  • Transaction categories
  • Questions
  • Teachers
  • Emails
  • Programs
  • What's next

 

References and links

• • What the Retreat Guru RMS can do for you - information about our Retreat Management System and a brief overview video.
  • Retreat Guru Resources for Leaders - help articles and videos related to features, best practices, troubleshooting, and more.
  • retreat.guru - the marketplace for new people to find your center, learn about your programs, and register online.
  • Retreat Guru Configuration Worksheet - ask your Retreat Guru onboarding specialist for your custom worksheet to facilitate information gathering in preparation for implementation. The completed template will serve as your guide when configuring Retreat Guru. Reference a view-only copy.

Policies, practices, and workflows

How are you currently doing business? What’s working well that you don’t want to change? What are the pain points that you’d love to resolve?

Policies and business practices that may influence the way we configure Retreat Guru include:

• • Pricing - how do you price your programs and services?
    • All-inclusive? Are accommodation and meals optional?
    • Earlybird and other discounts? Do you provide incentives for booking well in advance of the program start date? Lower prices for seniors, students, staff, returning guests, volunteers, locals, or other segments?
    • Seasonal pricing (peak and non-peak), or special pricing for weekday bookings?
    • Are donations accepted during your online registration process?
    • Extra nights? Can I book extra nights in advance or after my program? Is the cost of those nights the same as nights during my program?
  • Applications - must I apply in advance for some programs? Do you screen applications to ensure they meet certain criteria? Do you use applications for scholarships, volunteer, or training programs?
  • Deposits - must a guest pay in full, or do you offer the option of making a deposit (a partial payment) at the time of registration? Do you allow participants to make installment payments?
  • Cancellations - if a guest cancels their registration, do you charge a cancellation fee and refund their remaining balance? Do you offer the option of keeping the remaining balance on account, to be applied towards another future program?
  • Waivers and agreements - must I agree to certain terms and conditions before arrival? Do you require a signed paper form, or will an online checkbox suffice?

Consider these and other policies and practices that may affect how we configure Retreat Guru. Have the relevant information ready to discuss with your onboarding specialist.

As we configure Retreat Guru to support your operations, it’s important to identify common workflows and the steps your teams follow to accomplish mission-critical tasks. Key workflows may include:

• • Registration - for holiday stays, program participants, conference attendees.
  • Rentals - for your B2B activities like inquiries, quotes, contracts, and invoices.
  • Check-in - preparation for arrival day and greeting your guests.
  • On-property - common transactions and changes made during a stay.
  • Check-out - preparation, the guest statement, and departure day.
  • Post-departure - say thank you, solicit feedback, encourage a return.
  • Reporting - who needs to know what, when?

Have a copy of your training guides and operations manuals on hand during your implementation sessions.

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Scenarios

Identify common scenarios, real-world examples of registrations, stays, and transactions that have occurred at your center. This is a great way to prepare. Consult with your registrars, front desk team, conference manager, bookkeepers, and others to map out common situations. Examples include:

• • Move a guest from one room to another during their stay.
  • Automatically manage lodging inventory to avoid overbooking.
  • Accept a cancellation, charge a cancellation fee, and hold balance paid for their future use.
  • Reserve a block of rooms for a particular program or event.
  • Register a (past) participant for a different, future program.
  • Set seasonal lodging prices, peak and off-peak, and offer special pricing for weekdays.
  • View the availability of venues and beds when considering a rental request.
  • Ensure that roommates of the same gender are assigned to a shared room.
  • Manage a waitlist when a program has reached capacity.
  • Offer early bird pricing to people booking before the program start date.
  • Solicit donations during the online registration process to fund your scholarship program.
  • Display or print a participant roster for a program leader.
  • Send personalized bulk emails to all participants within a program.

Compile your list for us to review during your configuration sessions to ensure we can meet your business needs.

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Images

Do you have high-resolution images that show off your property? Photos of your property entrance, gardens and grounds, bedroom accommodations, meeting rooms, dining room, sample menu items, spa or fitness room, and other facilities? If so, great. If not, now is a great time to organize a photo shoot.

Bedroom accommodations

We will upload images of your bedroom accommodations to Retreat Guru for viewing by your guests during the online registration process. You can display multiple images per Room Type. 

You don’t need images of every room, just samples that represent the types of rooms that your guests can book. For room images, the ideal aspect is 1000 pixels wide by 600 pixels high.

Programs and events

We will set a featured image for each of your programs and events. This image will appear in the program listings on your website and the online registration form. For program featured images, the ideal aspect is 600px by 600px.

Retreat Guru Marketplace

The ideal image aspect in the Retreat Guru Marketplace is 720px wide by 400px high. These images can include grounds and gardens, maps, menu samples, amenities, and more.

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Payment processing

Retreat Guru recommends integrated credit card payment processing with Paysafe. 

With our Paysafe partnership, you will experience faster sign-up, access to the best rates, and enjoy seamless integration. 

Check with your onboarding specialist to see if your center qualifies for payment processing with Paysafe.

Features: 

• • Accept online payments with Visa and Mastercard
  • Send online payment requests to participants before the program begins
  • Payments are connected directly to your participants' registrations
  • Manage all transactions easily in Retreat Guru
  • Keep the credit card on file for easy check-in / check-out.
  • Funds settle to your bank account quickly

PaySafe Merchant Support Portal

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Data Import

Under certain software subscription plans, Retreat Guru may offer to import historical and future registration data. Check with your onboarding specialist to see if your center qualifies for a data import.

The data import must be completed before go-live.

Historical data

Import of historical data is typically limited to first name, last name, email, program name, program start date, and program end date - we do not import historical transaction data (purchases and payments). 

Data for the import must be submitted in CSV format using the templates provided by Retreat Guru.

Future data

Import of future data may contain additional files and fields, including data that will populate custom questions. Import of future data is subject to the following conditions:

• • Data must be submitted in CSV format using the templates provided by Retreat Guru. 
  • The data structure of the import must match the structure of the data within the RBG application.
    • The only files that can be imported are registrations, programs, teachers, transactions (charges and payments), rooms, and lodging types. We may also be able to import certain text files (please consult with your Retreat Guru representative).
    • Each entry in the registration file must be for a single individual attending a single program with a contiguous date range.
    • If a room is assigned it must be the same room for the entire stay.

You will validate the accuracy of imported data prior to going live.

Many clients prefer to enter future program and registration data manually, as part of their training plan. This approach is recommended by Retreat Guru when you have a relatively small data set, for example, only a few hundred records.

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Website integration

After configuring your programs in Retreat Guru, you’ll likely wish to list them on your website. The three most common ways to integrate Retreat Guru with your website are:

• Link a button - display a button on your website to redirect the viewer to the program description page you've configured within Retreat Guru or directly to that program's online registration form.
• Use a plug-in - Retreat Guru offers a basic WordPress plug-in and a generic plug-in for use with some non-WordPress sites. These plug-ins allow you to place simple shortcodes on your webpage that pull content from Retreat Guru for display.
• Use the API - the Retreat Guru Application Programming Interface (API) may be used to pull data from Retreat Guru for display. This approach requires the skills of a web developer and provides the most flexibility of the three integration methods.

The image below shows a sample site using the WordPress plug-in.

If I click on Our programs, a new page will open with a program listing.

If I then click on Body, Breath, and Beat, I will be taken to the program page on your website that displays more information and includes a REGISTER NOW button.

 

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Rooms

A room in Retreat Guru represents an actual guest room - the space you rent to a guest for stays of one or more nights. 

A room at your center may be one like most hotels feature, with four walls and an ensuite bath, or a room may be a suite that features two or more separate bedrooms. A dormitory room may feature 6 or more sets of bunk beds. Or, a room may be a tent site!

If you have a property map that identifies the names and locations of your rooms, please provide a copy to your onboarding specialist.

Refer to your Retreat Guru configuration worksheet (a Google sheet) provided by your onboarding specialist. You may also reference a view-only copy.

Step 1 - enter room names

Your online registration form will show only your Room Types (also known as Lodging Types). Room Types are categories or sets of rooms sold to your guests in a certain way. We’ll talk more about Room Types later. For now, we’ll concentrate on your actual rooms.

Worksheet tab: Rooms

Enter room names that are familiar to your team and unique. For example, a room might be named Green Frog Room, Room 24B, or Corner Room by the Old Oak Tree, or Men’s Dorm, or Tent Site #6. Room names will not be visible to the public. 

If applicable, identify the building and floor associated with each room. If two or more rooms are connected, within the same suite or via a passage door, note that information. 

Consider other accommodation options you provide and describe those to your onboarding specialist.

• • Special options - do you have tent sites or spaces to park personal recreational vehicles? 
  • Commuters - do you allow guests to stay off-site, in accommodations provided by others?
    That is, do you allow someone to participate in your programs as a commuter?
  • Non-public rooms - do you have rooms allocated for internal use? For example, rooms reserved for staff, volunteers, visiting teachers, or caretakers.

Step 2 - list beds per room

For each room, identify the number and type of beds in the room. For example: 

• • Room A - 1 Queen
  • Room B - 1 Full and 2 Single
  • Room C - 3 Single XL
  • Room D - 4 bunks (8 beds)
  • Room E - 1 Queen and 1 Queen pull-out
  • Room F - 1 Queen plus 2 Single plus space for a cot
  • Room G - space for 6 sleeping bags
  • Tent Site #6 - space with a platform for a 2-person tent.
  • Lot #4 - parking space with hookups for a recreational vehicle (24ft or less).

Step 3 - set capacity per room

You can sell a room hotel style, sometimes called a private, where a single registration books the entire room. As the name implies, this is how a traditional hotel sells its rooms. Chris books the room and may invite other people (for example, her family) to share the room, but Chris pays the bill. 

You can also sell a room shared style. Unlike traditional hotels, retreat centers often assign strangers to share the same room - this is the shared style.

You can also configure a room to sell it either hotel-style or shared style.

The maximum capacity for a room sold hotel-style may differ from the maximum capacity for the same room sold shared style. If you use the hotel-style to sell a room that has one queen bed, you would probably allow a maximum of two people in the room.

But, if you sold the same room as shared style, it’s unlikely that you would assign two strangers to share the same bed! In this case, you would set the maximum capacity for that room when sold shared style to one person.

For each room, indicate the max capacity if sold hotel-style and the max capacity if sold shared style.

For rooms sold hotel style, you may also wish to set a minimum capacity (an optional setting). If the Seaside Room has 2 queen beds, 2 single beds, and a queen pull-out, your policy may restrict availability for families that include 3 or more people. If this feature applies to your property, indicate such on the sheet.

Step 4 - enable gender matching

For shared-style rooms, you will likely want to ensure that people of the same gender are assigned. Retreat Guru can auto-assign rooms based upon this matching - the gender of the first person assigned to a room will restrict the gender for that room. You can also restrict a room to a specific gender - only people identifying as that gender will see that availability. For example, a dormitory for women.

For each room sold shared style, indicate how you wish to sell it: smart gender auto-assignment; Co-ed (allow male and female); Only male; Only female. If you wish to include other gender identifications, ask your onboarding specialist to assist you with this configuration.

Step 5 - describe room features and amenities

These descriptors are not visible on the registration form and are not otherwise visible to your guests. They are admin-only fields, intended as a helpful guide for your internal team. You may easily add or modify this information anytime, even after your go-live date.

The view may be a determining factor in your pricing scheme - you may charge more per night for an oceanfront room than a garden view room. You may also charge more for a room with an ensuite than for a room that shares a separate bath facility with other rooms. Enter a category for the view and indicate whether the room has an ensuite or shared bath. You may wish to include additional descriptors to indicate accessibility, and interconnections, and to identify amenities like a bar fridge,
bar sink, electric kettle, desk, dresser or closet, or TV. You may also wish to describe the bath in more detail. Does it include a shower stall, shower over the bathtub, and jacuzzi tub?

Here’s an example admin view from a Retreat Guru client site:

Step 6 - describe room types

Your online registration form (guest view) will show only your Room Types (also known as Lodging Types). Room Types are categories, or set of rooms sold to your guests in a certain way. 

Worksheet tab: Room_Types

Enter room types that will identify the options available for your guests when they view the online registration form. 

For example, you may sell rooms 102, 103, 104, and 105 as Forest View Private w/ ensuite, at $150 per night during the peak season, and $140 during off-peak season. In this example, the room type is hotel-style, meaning that the registration will take the whole room - you will not assign strangers to this room.

Room types are visible to the public. They will appear on the online registration form as lodging options.

Because of the room type flexibility available in Retreat Guru, this configuration step can be quite confusing! It’s usually best for us to complete this section together, so you might just skip this for now.

The image below shows a sample online registration form. Under the Price section, the lodging options are displayed: Single; Double; or Quad. Each of these - Single, Double, Quad - are the Room Types that are available for guests registering for this program.

During our configuration sessions, we will discuss seasonal pricing, additional person pricing, early-bird discounts, special pricing for certain days of the week, the option to allow extra nights to be booked, and much more. There’s lots of fun ahead!

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Venues - meeting rooms

Retreat Guru allows you to configure your venues (meeting rooms) so that you can assign these to specific programs or events. Only your registrars may view this information - it is not public, and it is not viewable by your guests.  

Worksheet tab: Venues

Enter your venue information into the worksheet. You may easily add or modify this information anytime, even after go-live. Here’s an example admin view from a Retreat Guru client site:

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Transaction categories

Within Retreat Guru, a transaction is an exchange of value. Transactions are grouped under a registration, and registrations are grouped within a program — everything takes place within the context of a program. 

For example, you register for the program “Yoga with Goats”, and make transactions to purchase tuition, accommodation, and meals, and to pay for that program. 

Transaction categories can be tax-exempt, or you may assign one or two tax rates for a given transaction category. An example of tax rates is shown below.

Worksheet tab: Tax_Rates

Consult with the person who does the accounting for your center, and enter your tax rates into the worksheet on the Tax_Rates tab.

Here are some other key definitions and associations used within Retreat Guru that are related to transaction categories:

• • Transactions include purchases, discounts, taxes, deposits, payments, and refunds.
    Even if an item (a product or service) is free, it must be purchased (via a $0 transaction). 
  • A program (sometimes called a stay) has a start date and an end date. 
  • The transaction date is the date that the transaction is performed.
  • Every transaction is assigned to a transaction category with these characteristics:

• • • id/slug - unique identifier created automatically by Retreat Guru for each transaction category. 
    • Name - short description of the transaction category that will appear
      on the guest statement.
    • Type - built-in categories are included for program (tuition or registration fee), lodging, transport, financial aid, discount, card payment, card refund, cash payment, cash refund, and more. You may add additional custom categories, like meals revenue, store revenue, conference revenue, lodging discount, and more.
    • Revenue Type - determines when the revenue will be recognized. It’s generally best practice to choose a revenue type and set all transaction categories to the same revenue type. The most popular setting with our client centers is Last Day.
      • First Day - revenue recognized on start date of the stay or program.
      • Last Day - revenue recognized on end date of the stay or program.
      • Nightly - revenue distributed equally across stay dates. 
      • Trans Date - revenue is recognized on the transaction date.
    • GL code - a general ledger code may be assigned to each transaction category, to correspond to the appropriate account within your accounting system.

When you enter transaction categories in Retreat Guru, your configuration may look something like this:

The GL Code can include a department number or other identifiers required by your accounting system.

For example, your accounting system may use 4100 to identify Tuition revenue and 1000 to indicate that the revenue should be reported within the Education Department. The resulting GL code may then look something like this, 4100-1000.

The Retreat Guru Configuration Worksheet shows the built-in transaction categories and suggests others that may apply to your center. 

Worksheet tab: Transaction_Categories

Consult with the person who does the accounting for your center, and enter your transaction categories into the worksheet. And if applicable, enter the tax rate(s) for each transaction category.

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Questions

Within Retreat Guru you may configure questions to collect the participant information you need to complete bookings and provide services. These questions can be defined as follows:

• • Registration specific - questions applicable to a person’s participation in a specific program. For example, a discount code entered by the participant during online registration, or requested roommate, or acceptance of terms and conditions.
  • Guest edit link only - these questions do not appear on the initial online registration form but will appear when the participant clicks on the link you send in a follow-up email. This allows you to initially present a quick and easy online registration form to collect only the information needed to complete the registration (for example, name, email, gender). The follow-up email, which can be configured to send automatically, can collect additional details like dietary preferences, emergency contact info, and medical conditions.
  • Person-specific - questions applicable to a person, regardless of their program choice or current registration. For example, their first and last name, email, postal address, gender, birth date, dietary preferences, accessibility requirements, or medical condition.
  • Waiting list - in addition to name, email, and gender, you may include a few additional custom questions on the waiting list. These will appear on the waiting list for all programs.
  • Admin only - registration-specific or person-specific information that can only be viewed internally, by your registrar or another team member with appropriate credentials. Admin-only questions do not appear on the registration form and cannot be viewed by the associated person (the participant).
  • Rental inquiry form - these questions will appear only on the rental inquiry form. They will not appear on the registration form. Use these questions to collect information from prospective renters, like group size, preferred dates, company/organization name, requests for meeting space, sleeping accommodations and meals, and more.

You may also configure conditional questions - those that appear only if the answer value of a previous question matches a certain condition. We will talk more about those during our configuration sessions.

How should you prepare?

Obtain a copy of your current registration form, a sample registration record, check-in or arrival form, and similar documents, and have them ready to review with your onboarding specialist.

Consider questions you need to ask on the initial online registration form, which you may defer until the follow-up email. And, consider what admin only information you want to track.

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Teachers

You may add teachers, or program leaders, within Retreat Guru. You can assign one or more teachers to a program, and a teacher can be assigned to one or more programs. Here’s a sample list in Retreat Guru.

Name, biography, and headshot

For each teacher, you’ll likely want to gather the following information:

• Name - public-facing, what your participants will see.
• Biography - a brief blurb about the teacher. Include a hyperlink to their website.
• Headshot - recommend color, 120px by 120px.

Categories and display order

Teacher categories can help you organize your teachers for display purposes. For example, you may create categories like core faculty, guest leaders, meditation teachers, interns, and assistants. A teacher may be assigned to one or more teacher categories. Enter your teacher categories in the worksheet.

Worksheet tab: Teacher_Categories

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Emails

Retreat Guru can be configured to automatically send emails when certain triggers occur. You can configure default emails for all programs, or customize emails on a program-by-program basis. 

Here are some of the standard email templates available within Retreat Guru.

• • Registration email - sent when a person completes an initial registration.
  • Pre-arrival email - sent x days prior to the program start date.
  • Post-departure email - sent x days after the program end date.
  • Guest payment request email - to request a payment.
  • Payment notification email - acknowledges receipt of a guest payment.
  • Registration cancellation - notice of a participant’s cancellation.
  • Waitlist notification - sent to a person on the waiting list when a spot opens.

You may configure Retreat Guru to send a copy of each email sent to your participants, to one or more addresses within your organization. For example, you could have a copy sent to your registrar.

The email templates can include shortcodes to personalize the content.
Here’s an example of a registration email template.

You may also create custom email templates. Here’s an example of a custom email template named Getting Here that provides helpful travel planning information.

In preparation for your configuration sessions with your onboarding specialist, consider how you would like to employ these automatic emails and the content that you’d like to include.

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Programs

Everything takes place within a program - a person registers and makes purchase and payment transactions within this context. See, Configure a New Program and Configure a Program Hosted Online.

Program categories

Program categories help you organize programs for display and reporting purposes. For example, you may create program categories like core program, visiting teacher, conference, special event, admin-only, walk-in guest, or application. A program may be assigned to one or more categories. 

Worksheet tab: Program_Categories

Program configuration

The most common configuration for programs is fixed dates with lodging-based pricing.

Fixed dates mean that the program is offered only at a specific time, for example, the program Yoga with Goats is offered 21-25 September 2020. You may offer Yoga with Goats each month, but in the context of Retreat Guru, each monthly instance of Yoga with Goats is a program.

Lodging-based means that you offer a program that includes accommodation choices. You may also choose to offer a package that includes nightly accommodations, a registration fee, meals, materials fee, and other components. Within Retreat Guru, you will use the package builder to individually enter each of these components.

You’ll likely need the following information to configure your programs:

• • Program name or title - public-facing, what your participants will see.
  • Program start date and end date - also public-facing.
  • Teacher or program leader name(s) - selected one or more from the list compiled previously.
  • Featured image (600px by 600px) - uploaded to Retreat Guru media library.
  • Program description - text with basic formatting, hyperlinks, video, images.
  • Program price - the tuition or registration fee component of the total price.

Other program configuration methods include:

• • Hotel-style - guest chooses their dates.
  • Packages - fixed-length stays, guest chooses start date.
  • Ongoing - a dateless program, often used for walk-in guests or staff tabs.

Discuss these other program configuration methods with your onboarding specialist to determine if they are applicable to your center.

Duplicating program templates

If you offer the same program multiple times during the year, you can create a master program, or template, that you can duplicate to create each future instance of that program. A timesaver!

For example, if you offer Yoga with Goats each month, January to December, you can fully configure a master program, and duplicate it 12 times. Then open each of the 12 instances, and adjust the start and end dates, teachers, and other variables. 

Registration form questions

You may configure a default question set for all programs, or choose registration form questions on a program-by-program basis. See Questions.

Capacity and waiting list

You may configure a program to accept an unlimited number of registrations, or you can set a maximum person capacity on a program-by-program basis. You may change the maximum person capacity at any time, even after registration is open and registrations have been received.

As you compile your program list, you may wish to indicate maximum capacity.

You may also wish to enable an automatic waitlist when the maximum capacity has been reached.

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What's next?

Thank you for reviewing this guide in advance of your first meeting with your onboarding specialist. To prepare for your first meeting, consider:

• • Goals - review your reasons for launching this project. What benefits do you expect to receive? What pain points do you hope to leave behind?
  • Leadership - ensure that your project leader is positioned for success with the responsibility to make decisions, the ability to lead your cross-functional team, a deep understanding of your mission and operations, and consistent availability to serve as your primary point-of-contact with Retreat Guru.
  • Timeline - what milestones and constraints will influence implementation? What other initiatives are critical to the success of this project? Preparing your data for import, completing integrations, or updating your website?
  • Acceptance - develop use cases or scenarios that must be demonstrated. Rank features and functionality as: critical for go-live, must have within a few months of go-live, and nice to have.

Consider this sample onboarding checklist and be prepared to develop a custom checklist with your onboarding specialist.

Easy-peasy, eh?

 

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We look forward to continuing this journey with you.

If you have questions or comments, contact your friendly support guru.