Reservation module

I need a restaurant/hotel reservation module for my website.

Requirements :

- people should be able to make a reservation without having a profile

- reservation page must be integrated within the restaurant/hotel profile page 

- admin should be able to fill in the email address on the reservation page so when clients fill in the document it will be sent directly to the restaurant (email address not visible on the frontend)  or reservations should be visible in admin panel so admin can forward them to the restaurant

- the header of the email should contain a referral to my website(e.g. reservation through website name)

- fields of the form : name, email address, telephone, number of persons, time where persons and time must be selected.

- possibility for admin to add for each hotel/restaurant special actions which can be selected by visitors

Example can be found here

There is a module from Modzzz Lodgings (Places to Stay).
Ask Modzzz to build in the reservation option.
He will do it if he has time and you are willing to pay him.

But maybe there are other modules that you can look at from other vendors.
Or post a JOB with req and the budget in job section.

I saw that mod and it's only for people who log in and there is no possibility to edit the mod like I want it.

That's why I post my question on the forum :-)

Of course I'm willing to pay.

check this out: http://www.phpjabbers.com/free-hotel-reservation-form-script/

maybe ask someone to integrate this with your site.

Indeed, that's also a possibility. There are several modules on internet, but the problem is that they are functioning outside the dolphin script which means you have to pay a separate fee on yearly base.

I would like to have a form integrated in the Dolphin script which I can handle myself.

I will develop the Reservation Add-on to the Restaurants module for you. PM me to discuss.

tx Modzzz

 Told ya

 RE

That's a lofty goal.  For it to be useful, the system would have to interface in real time with all the restaurants front of house management systems.  That's a tough enough task for a web based reservation system for a single restaurant on their own website.   I can't begin to imagine the complexity of a reservation system that works with hundreds of restaurants on a third party site.  You need to give some serious thought to the viability of this before you start throwing money away on something that may only end up frustrating the restaurants, or their potential customers. 

In my opinion, all you need is a contact form on each profile.  Maybe just showing the email address to guests would be enough.... you can do that without any complicated mods.

It doesn't need to be that sofisticated houstonlively.

Most of the restaurant websites have such a module, I only need a system for the ones who don't have online reservation.

And a contact form might also be a good solution 

 Have you considered using something like Anton LV's Pages module to give each restaurant it's own space on your site?  I know Modzzz mentioned his 'Restaurant Module' and that's certainly an option... however to just create a restaurant, I counted 59 drop down selectors, and 25 input fields, for a total of 84 steps to create a restaurant.  Multiply that by over 600 retaurants, and your over 50,000 form fields to deal with.   @Modzzz.... maybe you can find a way to streamline that a bit??

A plain old pages module would keep things a little simpler.  It all depends on whether or not you plan on restaurant personnel interacting with your site, and also having regular members.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with the way you're doing it.... it keeps things simple. 

Here's another alternative for you. 

My complimentary 'Restaurants' module.

It's just a clone of the Boonex Groups module, with adjustments to language keys.  A list of categories appropriate to restaurants is included in the install sql.

@annabel
I will let you know the progress of the Reservations functionality to be plugged into my Restaurants module and my Lodgings(Places to Stay) module. In the meantime, I have made updates to the Restaurants module so you can opt to have a short posting form and the rest of the info can be updated as desired later. Login to the demo site here and check the updates. The other features such as Claiming a listing, promoting Events, posting special offers, allowing visitors to send inquiry etc. should make this an invaluable tool for your purpose. B.T.W, I also have a Pages module if you chose to go that route.

ok, it becomes overwhelming now 

Both modzzz and houstonlively, I sent you the url to my website and a url of a likewise website.

By now, I have about 700 members created in the database. Those I want to save in case I have to start all over again.

I'm a little bit confused now because when I check out the restaurants mod of Modzzz, it comes close to what I want. But what about the search options that I already included in my profiles? What about the keywords? The search fields?

But when I see the pages mod it also comes close to what I want.

So please advise what I should use to have the best solution which is almost similar to the website I showed you as a reference.

My guess is the pages, but I'm not sure anymore. And what about the profiles I already created ?

My guess is that the pages module is the easiest way to create all the profiles. I don't need to fill up all the fields now, that can be done later when the customer decides to pay for a page.

Personnel does not interact with the pages, I just need the ads module for creating job advertisements.

But what I do want (if possible) is people to join the site without their profiles being visible on the site. They should be able to put comments and make reservations as soon as a reservation form is available. But also without logging in or having a profile, people should be able to make a reservation. In that case they have to fill in all the fields on the form, in case they are member and logged in, some fields are already automatically filled in (name, address, phone, etc.)

Creating pages is easier because I don't need to create profiles so I can minimize the fields for joining for customers.

Of course I need a lot of search options in the pages module and results should show in one page without being redirected to several other pages.

I do not think it matters too much which module you use. The fields that you want to search by must be added to the module you use and the search form enhanced. Also, the posting form for the module can be adjusted a bit so that when it creates a Restaurant listing, a Profile is automatically created. All profile specific links and blocks in Dolphin can be hidden (such as the browse page).

 RE

@Modzzz

That's a much, much better concept.  Originally the input form was just too overwhelming.  A few observations/suggestions:

Readjust the css for the image in the logo block so that it doesn't distort... maybe just width:100% instead of fixed 100px width & height.

Your categories selector could use a few improvements.  I'd suggest calling it 'Type of Restaurant' for ex:

Fast food
Fast casual
Casual dining
Family style
Fine dining
Brasserie
bistro
Buffet
Café
Cafeteria
Coffeehouse
Tabletop cooking
Mongolian barbecue
Teppanyaki-style

I'm not sure what subcategories would be good fo on the entry form. Maybe it should be 'Cuisine'. Here's a list I used on that free module:

INSERT INTO `sys_categories` (`Category`, `ID`, `Type`, `Owner`, `Status`) VALUES
('Restaurants', '0', 'bx_photos', '0', 'active'),
('Afghan', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('African', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('American', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Argentinian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Armenian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Asian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Australian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Barbecue', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Belgian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Brazilian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('British', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Brumese', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Cajun', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('California', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Caribbean', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Chinese', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Cuban', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('English', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Ethiopian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Filipino', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('French', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Fusion', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('German', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Greek', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Guamanian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Hamburgers', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Hawaiian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Indian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Irish', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Italian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Jamaican', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Japanese', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Jewish', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Korean', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Kosher', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Lebanese', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Mediterranean', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Mexican', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Middle Eastern', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Mongolian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Moroccan', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Persian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Peruvian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Pizza', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Polish', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Polynesian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Portuguese', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Puerto Rican', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Russian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Sandwiches', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Seafood', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Soul Food', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Spanish', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Steaks', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Sushi', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Thai', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Turkish', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Vegan', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Vegetarian', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active'),
('Vietnamese', '0', 'bx_restaurants', '0', 'active');

 RE:

 @annabel

Modzzz's restaurant module is based on the same structure as the pages module, only it's more customized for your applications.  I have to say that yesterday, I didn't like it because of the overwhelming entry form.  His latest revisions make adding a restaurant a lot more sensible, and I no longer have any gripes about the module.... a lot can change in a day:)

The free one I did, is just a very basic one, that doesn't have the enhanced feature set of Modzzz's  module, and it probably never will.  The only thing I may add to it, is a few more location fields for a better map.   Mine would be better for sites where restaurants is not the primary focus, and people just want to have basic functionality.

Modzzz's restaurant module is a far better choice for your application.  If I were building a site focusing on restaurants, I'd use it.

houstonlively, we are getting somewhere.

I looked into the pages module of Modzzz and I decided that that would be the best option.

The reason I chose for that option is that I would like to have the possibility for other people to make a profile (which will contain only a few join fields) so they can add comments and make reservations. 

It's just logical thinking and I think it is the best option.

There only needs to be a solution to hide profiles on the site so only the pages will be shown.

I already sent Modzzz a PM about blocks, fields and features which I need and your suggestion for cuisine and type of restaurant (I already have 30 types) was also an idea. We're on the same level of thinking :-)

I think such a mod would be great for people who want a site for restaurants/hotels or even other business.

Modzzz' module will be perfect

I was just thinking ... in case I use the pages mod, I can easily hide the 'member' button on the navigation page (and all other pages). Problem solved, no profile will show up on the site :-)

I just need a login and join button, but that I already discussed with Modzzz to integrate it in the navigation menu on top instead of showing a separate block.

I guess I will be running into another problem. How to get all the profiles which I already created into the pages ?

I'm not really happy at the moment. I tried to purchase the pages module but modzzz is only taking Paypal. Since I don't have a paypal account, I have to create one. This will take another 1-2 days before I can transfer the money.

I'm running out of time and can't get any further with my website.

Any other option for a pages module that takes credit card ?

Or another solution for my problem as described in this forum ?

I don't understand why it would take 1-2 day to create a paypal account and send money.

Because you have to tie a bank checking account to it. The process of verifying the account can take up to 3 business days.

Or at least thats what i remember from when i created mine several years ago.

There used to be a way to pay with credit card through paypal without actually having to have a paypal account. I believe someone here mentioned that option was removed from the paypal checkout option.

Guess you have not purchased many modules from the market. They all require paypal. Some accept swreg but most are paypal.

As i mentioned in my post above this one. There used to be a pay by credit card option in the paypal checkout process so those without paypal accounts can use a credit card. Someone here once mentioned the option was removed by paypal. I don't believe it has been. I think it's still there, just well hidden because paypal obviously wants people to sign up. So i believe you just need to pay very careful attention during check out for the pay by credit card option because it will be out of plain sight.

 I was under the impression that you could send money immediately. That's the way it was back when I signed up... you didn't even need to tie it to a bank account.  PP has bugged me numerous times to hook in a bank account, but I refuse to do that just to send money with a credit card.  For a long time they severely limited my account in an attempt to coerce me into adding a bank account, so I just stopped using the account.  After a while they remove all limits, and haven't bugged me  about it since.

And i still believe you can despite hearing that the pay by credit card option was no longer available during checkout. I think it's still there, just out of plain sight to get more people to sign up. I could be wrong tho. It may no longer be there. It's been awhile since i have been on the buying side of things.

 Is it your own site, or are you building it for someone else?

you can use IDEAL to upload money directly. I don't know if it allows BE bank tho... I use it all the time... money is on PayPal account within 1 min. Creating a paypal account takes 5min. to verify bank account it takes more time same as emailaddress.

I think we threw a monkey wrench into annabel's machine.  Now she has too much to think about.

That's correct Deano, I'm still waiting for the money to appear on my Paypal account. I transferred it 2 days ago :-(

I did have a Paypal account years ago but I forgot the password. So I tried to reset the password, but than came the stupid security questions. Of course I forgot the answers. So I tried to create a new account, but I had to link a credit card or a bank account to it. You can already guess ... they wouldn't accept since my bank account was already linked to the first Paypal account which I couldn't open anymore.

On top of that, a few days ago I found out that fucking Microsoft was taking money from my credit card account every month for the stupid xBox of my son, although he did not prolong his subscription. Of course, they always sent me 'no-reply' emails so I couldn't find any contact address. Stupid me called the credit card company to block my card.

Since you can transfer money directly from your credit card to a Paypal account, I blocked myself and now I have to wait until the money is transferred from my bank account to my Paypal account.

So I picked up the monkey-wrench and started hitting myself :-(

Anyway, Merry Christmas to all of you and keep smiling 

OMG I will save you all from what I experienced with Paypal these last 4 days, but I suggest they ask potential customers for their DNA.

Their security system is more than ridiculous.

Just in case someone doubts about the problems I have with Paypal :

I created an account AND transferred money for Modzzz on the 18th of December :

Than it started : I tried to attach my credit card, but couldn't (because I blocked it myself, stupid me). They thought that was weird so I explained to them that I blocked it because of Microsoft's abuse). They wanted my ID so I sent it to them. One day later I got an email that it was not enough to get me full access. They also wanted a bank account status of my credit card. I explained that I don't want a creditcard connected to my account, so why did they need a status. They wouldn't listen, they needed a bank account status.

So I sent it. 

As you can see, that approvement is now pending.

So I tried to call them this morning ... answering machine ... Christmas Holidays until 2nd of January !!!!

The only thing I can do now is wait until someone will read my email and approve that bank account status, hoping that they are not creating another problem because the credit card from that status is blocked.

Paypal customer service sucks !!!

And guess what ? In their own Paypal community I can't file a complaint because my Paypal access is limited.

They are protecting themselves from negative feedback 

I would suggest market members to offer more means of payment because my guess is that there are other Boonex members running into the same problems with Paypal.

My Paypal account is finally restored 

Now I'm waiting for Modzzz to reply on my Skype message I sent him 6 hours ago.

Anyone heard from him today ????

Yes, he's around!

Good to hear your Pay Pal is working!

Yes, finally they accepted all my documets

I bought the 2 mods : Restaurant and Pages but what a disappointment.

Both mods have very limited search options. Imagine a 1.000 restaurants only in Antwerp, that's just 1 city in Belgium. The only search options in the restaurant and pages mod are keywords, categories, sub-categories, country (which I don't need), city and states.

No zip, no location, no kitchen type, no promotions, none of the fields in the restaurant creation page are searchable.

When I click on a restaurant to view the restaurants profile I can't go back to the homepage.

The search option in the menu returns ALL created restaurants instead of a search page (with the limited search options).

Guess this mod can be used if you have just a few restaurants on your website. Otherwise it's a clutter of restaurants on your website no one will even take the effort to search in.

Pity, it could be a great mod but I'm not willing to pay 400 $ for modifications in the search options.

So I'm ending up with two mods I can't use and I'll have to go on as I was doing before.

@annabel  - The real problem is that you, like a lot of other potential Dolphin site owners want to launch and run a successful website competing with major players in the industry by using either a bare-bone Dolphin installation or using a module for $50 without any customizations. Please do not misinform people that I tried to charge you $400 for "only search option modifications". You sent me complete specifications for modifying Dolphin so that you could compete with a Restaurant site that is established in your country. You wanted to be able to accept payment for flyers and have them printed on the site. You wanted a Jobs section so Restaurant Owners to advertise for staff etc, just to name a few of your requests. Please note these points :

1) All modules sold on this site have demo links. It is your responsibility as a client to check out the screenshots or demo so you know what the module actually does.

2) Each module has a support forum. If you feel that a module is missing some functionality that should be standard you can simply make a request for such functionality to be added. 

3) Module developers are not obligated to add bells and whistles to a module you purchase for Free. 

With that said, I will promptly refund your module purchase so you can seek out another restaurant module that has all the features you need.

 RE:

 That's one point I'd have to agree on... you need proper backward navigation.

Oops, don't misunderstand me here. All the functions I  asked for are already in the mod, the only thing is that none of the fields in the restaurant creation page is searchable.

As I said, there are thousands of restaurants in a country. How can one search a particular restaurant with only 6 basic search options as a state, a country, a category, a sub-category, a city and a keyword.

I didn't ask for a flyer thing (guess that was another customer of yours) and the ads section is already in the Boonex mods so I just wanted the possibility to add the block into the restaurants mod.

And yes, you have a demo site with only 1 restaurant added. How can I test the search option ? I saw all the different fields in the screenshot so I assumed they were searchable. My mistake because I found out that I couldn't search on those fields.

In our private messages I emphasized the importance of search possibilities and a way to add more fields. My list of specifications seemed to be integrated in your mod already. I particularly asked for certain fields to be searchable (with or without a multiple selector).

I certainly don't want a copy of an existing website in Belgium because I don't even like the layout of that site.

So this afternoon you told me that customizing the mod was going to cost 400$. I didn't realize that making existing fields searchable was going to cost that much. So I told you that I was going to use the existing mod which contains all the fields that I need and that's why I bought it. 

Sorry if we misunderstood but the only disappointment in your existing mods is the lack of search options. And therefore useless for me.

A category, a sub-category, a city and a keyword, properly implemented should narrow things down considerably.  What else is there?

I would say that 99.9% of the mods in the market are useless to me without some sort of customization.  In my opinion, $400  to customize a module to your liking, is a bargain.  If you think that's too much to spend on the focal point of your site, then you're not very serious about it. In the US, the services of an experienced professional coder, start at about $50/hr and can be as high as $120/hr.  That means $400 would buy you 3-8 hours of their time.

It all reminds me of a story a friend of mine once told me.  He was an airplane mechanic.  He told me of a customer complaining about a $52 invoice.  The customer complained, "All you did was hit it with a hammer. How can you charge me $52 just for hitting it with a hammer?" .... to which my friend replied: "I only charged you $2 for hitting it with a hammer. I charged you $50 for knowing where to hit it."

I'd say the key word here is keyword.

If we use keywords properly it's a very powerful search option.

Categories and sub-categories enable us to drill down to almost anything.

If we don't need city, we could use it for 'district' in a large city.

I had the searchable fields mod of Anton LV in mind when I made my specifications list. I didn't realize it would cost 8 hours of work to modify in a way that I could search on more fields.

I'm probably not expressing myself correctly due to my native language not being English.

The amount of 400$ is not the major problem, I know the hourly wages of a good coder and they are correct.

The major problem is the limited search options.

When the website is launched I can tell after about a month which modifications are necessary and at that point I will spend as much money as it needs to get it  as it should be. I already discussed that with the client so he knows he needs a budget for that.

I just can't launch the website with the restaurant (or pages) mod as it is now.

So I'll probably need major modifications for the site at the end of January.

This is what I had in mind.

If you look at the bottom of the view page, there is a bar with breadcrumb links that allows you to navigate back to the module main page and also the site main page. This breadcrumb bar is the standard navigation mechanism in all Dolphin modules.

my 2 cents here... if i need to have more then 4 search fields to find a restaurant then i doing something wrong
Also like Modzzz said, it takes a shit load of money and lots of coding to make a module great.
That is why when people see a website and think wow this is what i what or need... better call that site owner and ask how much money they have pushed into that.

Annabel, i hope you get the modules/site working as you want in time.