<p>During these 2 months we have learned several lessons, and we noticed we had problems to solve. The first problem was that the hybrid plattform (SAAS + Joomla!) understanding was not easy at first. Hence we have completely redesigned the home page, explaining the most graphically as possible that CloudHotelier is a platform composed of two "pieces", a Joomla! website and a Cloud control panel.</p>
<p>The second problem was not simply a matter of comuniación. It was much deeper and affected the bowels of CloudHotelier code: the subscriptions. Until now, subscriptions were not "bought" per user but per website. Therefore, a user must pay for every website he wanted to develop. Thus, the user could create as many businesses, hotels and other users as he want, the limit was in the number of websites and the number of hotels in each site that would include.</p>
<p>The new membership system has been conceptually designed to simplify the product and adapt it more to the reality. Now, subscriptions allow administrator users to create a limited number of companies and hotels, according to his type of subscription. Thus, the costs are much more understandable and the possibilities of the system are much clearer, without the need of a calculator.</p>
<p><strong>New Rates</strong></p>
<p>We have also adjusted our rates to the reality of the market and our 'direct' competitors. I said "direct", in quotes, because there is not yet on the market a product as CloudHotelier, with a system as flexible as CloudHotelier hybrid platform, and specifically designed for development of hotel websites.</p>
<p><strong>The new developer fee of € 49.90 a month is a huge business opportunity</strong> for many developers because it allows the realization of up to 20 websites with hotel booking engine. With this we hope to increase our network of certified integrators, with which we are currently not having much success (only a certified company, but we have 2 companies in the certification process).</p>
<p><strong>New look</strong></p>
<p>We have also taken the opportunity to provide the control panel a new modern look and adapted to the visual image of CloudHotelier home. Here I leave a couple of screen captures (<a href="/images/home_flat.png" target="_blank">home</a>, <a href="/images/panel_flat.png" target="_blank">panel</a>).</p>
<p><strong>Coming soon</strong></p>
<p>Now that we have resolved the issue most important / urgent / deep we will dedicate our efforts to further develop the product with the improvements that we have pending. From now on we will concentrate our efforts on the development of training materials, tutorials and videos.</p>
<p>We will also continue to actively develop the Joomla! extension and we will continue to add functionality to the control panel. We have set the following schedule:</p>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Within 1 month</span></p>
<ul>
<li>Release a new Theme</li>
<li>Compatibility with Joomla! 2.5</li>
<li>New "payment" method: credit card number collection as guarantee</li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Before 2 months</span></p>
<ul>
<li>JQuery javascript framework support</li>
<li>New Layout for hotels with room rates (regardless of opcupación like booking.com)</li>
<li>New View "Availability Calendar"</li>
<li>New view "My Booking" with options to cancel / modify</li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Before 3 months</span></p>
<ul>
<li>Guest reviews</li>
<li>Emailing platform integration</li>
<li>Discount Coupons</li>
</ul>
<p><span style="text-decoration: underline;">Before 6 months</span></p>
<ul>
<li>CloudHotelier client development for WordPress</li>
</ul>
<p><strong>Conclusion</strong></p>
<p>Well, not bad at what lies ahead. We are convinced that CloudHotelier is an excellent product that fills a great need in the market, the hotel website with booking engine.</p>
<p>Many times people who are outside the tourism sector is not aware of the great opportunity we have in this market, where we've observed an unstoppable advance of the number of direct bookings that are made within the hotel websites. Just as online shopping grows, it is increasingly common that book over the Internet, visit the hotel website, and if it guarantees us, make a reservation directly.</p>
<p>We can not reveal the volume of reserves that have benn processed through our system, but the satisfaction of end customers (hoteliers) is evident in the few weeks of having the system installed, when they begin receiving online reservations.</p>
<p>We hope these new changes will encourage you to work with our product, and to participate in this venture, which has only just begun.</p>