E-Certificate Generation Rules

To open the E-Certificate Generation Rule screen, select the Rules button from the E-Certificate Type -New or Edit screen. Use the E-Certificate Generation Rule screen to configure generation rules for an e-certificate. These generation rules can be based on either a membership upgrade or a first stay for the guest membership.

The guest's current membership level will be considered to determine if the generation rule needs to be applied. For example, if a member is upgraded to a RED level and the generation rule does not include a RED membership level, the e-certificate will not be generated for the guest. In the event of a membership level upgrade, the level upgraded to must match the rule's current membership level at the time of evaluation.

Note: Through the OPERA Scheduler utility, a scheduled OPERA job (Generate E-certificates procedure) will run in the background and check at regular intervals for profiles that meet the generation rule's requirements.

e_certificate_generation_rule

Search Criteria

E-Cert Code. Enter an E-Certificate code to search for a specific code.

Based On. Select the down arrow and choose either Member Upgrade, First Stay for Chain, Award Points, or Tier Points. This is the rule on which the E-Certificate is currently based.

Membership Type. The membership type to which the rule is applied.

Begin Date. Select the calendar tool and choose the beginning date for the rule. You can also enter the date as text. This is the date from which the rule is applied.

Show Inactive. Select to filter search results to display only "inactive" rules.

Results Grid

Rule Based On. The rule on which the E-Certificate is currently based. This is either Member Upgrade, First Stay for Chain, Award Points, or Tier Points.

Membership Type. This is the membership type to which the rule is applied.

Membership Level. This is the membership level to which the rule is applied.

Begin Date. Begin date from which the rule is applied.

End Date. End date for the rule.

Last Process. Last process id.

Last Process Date. Date on which the rule was last processed.

Adding and Editing E-Certificate Rules

Select New to add a new E-Certificate Rule or select Edit to change an existing rule.

E-Certificate Code. (Read only) The E-Certificate code for which you are configuring the generation rule. This is the key used to identify the E-Certificate code.

Rule Based On. Select the down arrow and choose Award Points, First Stay for Chain, Member Upgrade, Member Re-Qualify, or Tier Points. This is the rule on which the E-Certificate is currently based.

Award Points – The member will receive an e-certificate once a defined number of award points is reached.

First Stay for Chain – The first time a member stays in a specific hotel chain that is part of a larger enterprise, the member will receive an e-certificate. For the next stay in the same chain, the member will NOT receive an e-certificate of that type. This is to encourage members to broaden stays across all chains.

Member Upgrade – As part of the benefit of upgrading, the member receives an instant e-certificate once he or she is upgraded (based on the level configuration in the rule). For example, a member of the Classic level is upgraded to Platinum level. Upon upgrade, the member receives a Platinum UPGRADE e-certificate. This encourages members to produce more activity as the higher the levels, the better the e-certificate benefits.

Member Re-Qualify – This rule is based on whether a member requalifies for a membership upgrade. When a member requalifies for an upgrade and this rule is applied, the member will be entitled to an e-certificate.

Tier Points – This rule is based on the cost required for the member to earn an e-certificate. This cost analysis for the member is based on stays, nights and/or revenue criteria. When the Tier Points rule is selected, additional fields for Stays, Nights, Revenue, Calculation Period and Expiry Period appear on the screen.

To determine when the points will expire, the calculation period can be set to Rolling or Calendar and the expiry period can be used to define the number of months until expiration. If a cost field is left empty, it will not be evaluated in the calculation routine that generates the e-certificate.

Example 1 of Tier Points Usage

Two programs: Select and Signature

Rule Based On = Tier Points

Select program

4 Total Stays / 8 Nights / 4,000 Revenue based points

Signature program

6 Total Stays / 12 Nights / 6,000 Revenue based points

When the member reaches any of the 3 criteria defined in each program, an E-Certificate will be generated for the member.

Example 2

When the e-certificate is generated, the guest pays for the e-certificate with points that are deducted from the membership. The number of points deducted is based on the values defined for the Stays, Nights, and Revenue.

Using the Select program, a member stays for a total of 9 nights. An e-certificate is generated for the guest. From those 9 nights, 8 are deducted leaving the guest with 1 night towards the next e-certificate (see the table below).

Select program	Nights	Stays	Revenue
May 10	2	1	500
May 14	3	1	600
May 21	4	1	300
Cost	-8	-4	-4000
Balance	1	0 (reset)	0 (reset)

Membership Type. Select the down arrow and choose a membership type from the list of values. This is the membership type to which the rule is applied.

Membership Level. (Auto-populates with the membership level of the selected membership type.) This is the membership level to which the rule is applied.

Begin Date. Select the calendar tool and choose the begin date for the rule. You can also enter the date as text. This is the date from which the rule is applied.

End Date. Select the calendar tool and choose an end date for the rule. You can also enter the date as text.

Number to Issue. Enter the number of E-Certificates to generate for a member each time the member meets the criteria for an E-Certificate. For example, if set to 5, each time a member meets the requirements for an E-Certificate, 5 certificates will automatically be issued to the member.

Note: Once these E-Certificates are issued to the member, you will not be able to manually issue any additional E-Certificates of this type to the member. If the member is a "No Show," the E-Certificates will be lost and additional E-Certificates cannot be issued to the member. If the member cancels the reservation, the E-Certificates will be regenerated and issued to the member's profile. If the member is downgraded after the E-Certificates are issued, the E-Certificates will remain on the member's profile.

Inactive. Select to make the generation rule "Inactive."