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- The Supplier & Venue Solutions Product News Team
Cvent Passkey Q1 Releases
Please find below, details of the following Q1 releases
California Fee Transparency Law Compliance
All Hotels - Enhanced Hotel Card UI with Expand/Collapse Feature
Event Overview - Dates
Room List/Report Download Updates
New Tooltips for Enhanced Visibility into Planner Accounts Statuses & Email Activity
1. California Fee Transparency Law Compliance
Expected Release Date: 12 March, 2025
Background
The California Legislature in the US passed two measures stating that hotels who impose mandatory fees must include those fees in displayed room rates. These measures apply to both hotels and short-term rentals and are intended to create clearer price comparisons for consumers by making it illegal to impose mandatory hidden fees without disclosing them as part of displayed or "published" room rates. Important to note is that government imposed taxes are not subject to these new rules.
There are many ways for hotels to become and/or maintain compliancy with these laws, but to help our customers more easily comply, we have enhanced Passkey's "Taxes and Fees" capabilities on both the Hotel and Event levels to accommodate both "included" and "excluded" taxes and fees. Though the law is specific to hotels in California, these enhancements apply to all hotels.
What are "included" versus "excluded" taxes and fees?
Taxes and fees marked as:
"Include in displayed rate" are added to a room's base rate to form the displayed rate.
"Exclude from displayed rate" are not added to a room's base rate to form the displayed rate and are calculated as additional taxes & fees during the checkout process.
Example scenario:
In the example below, there is a $50 per night resort fee included in the displayed rate and a 15% per night occupancy tax excluded from the displayed rate. Assuming the base room rate is $100, the displayed rate on the booking site would be $150 ($100 base room rate + $50 "included in displayed rate" resort fee = $150 displayed rate). The 15% per night occupancy tax that is excluded from the displayed rate is added to the subtotal on the Reservation Summary screen.
Details / Taxes configuration screen
Passkey Booking Site
What happens when the feature is launched?
Existing taxes and fees configured on both the Hotel and Event level screens will inherit the "Exclude from displayed rate" value. This is equivalent to existing functionality.
Changes made on the Hotel level will propagate to the Event level on event creation.
Customers can convert existing taxes and fees to "Include in displayed rate" or add new ones as needed.
The new "Displayed Rate" calculation applies to the Passkey Booking Site which is Passkey's only self-service booking channel for attendees. The legislation does not require updated display rates in other Passkey Booking channels such as the Call Center, Multi-Room Booking tool or Rooming List Manager.
2. All Hotels - Enhanced Hotel Card UI with Expand/Collapse Feature
Release Date: 5th March 2025
Overview
We are excited to introduce an improved user experience on the All Hotels page for hotel customers who manage multi-hotel events with a collapsible and expandable hotel card user interface. This enhancement allows users to view essential details at a glance and expand the card to see additional information effortlessly.
What Problem Does This New Feature Solve?
Previously, users had to navigate through multiple sections to gather hotel-related details, leading to inefficiencies and a less intuitive experience. With this release, users can conveniently access key hotel data in an organized and structured format.
Key Highlights of the Release
The enhanced hotel card UI will now allow users to expand the card to see detailed hotel information or collapse it for a cleaner view. The expanded view will display the following details:
Number of Sub Blocks: Total count of sub blocks, including rooms and attendee types (waitlist rooms included) at both event and hotel sub-block levels.
Number of Sub Blocks with Inventory: Total number of sub blocks with allocated inventory (waitlist rooms included).
Peak Inventory Night: The event date with the highest amount of inventory across hotels (and note that there can be multiple dates).
Peak Picked Up Night: The date with the highest number of sleeping rooms occupied during the event.
Total Room Nights Picked Up: The total number of rooms booked across all days.
Total Room Nights Blocked: The total number of room blocks assigned to the event by the hotel.
Unprocessed Reservations: The number of reservations pending processing by the hotel in Passkey.
Impact and Benefits
Better Visibility: Users can quickly grasp key hotel-related metrics without navigating away.
Efficient Inventory Management: The ability to view the number of sub-blocks with inventory and peak nights helps event organisers optimise room allocations and track availability in real time.
Enhanced Efficiency: Streamlined workflow by reducing clicks and improving accessibility to critical hotel data.
Better Planning: By providing insights into picked-up nights and blocked room counts, users can accurately assess demand trends and adjust booking strategies accordingly.
Improved User Experience: A structured and interactive interface that enhances navigation and usability.
3. Event Overview - Dates
Release date: 19th February 2025
Overview
We have introduced a new popup display on the Event Overview page that provides quick access to essential event-related dates, language, and currency details. This enhancement improves visibility and simplifies navigation, ensuring users can access and update critical event information effortlessly.
What Problem Does This New Feature Solve?
Previously, users had to navigate through multiple sections to view and edit key event details. This update eliminates unnecessary steps by consolidating important information in a popup, making it easier to access and manage event settings.
Key Highlights of the Release
New Popup for Key Event Details
Users can now view the following dates in a popup:
Event Dates
Reservation Open Date & Close Date
Booking Website Open & Close Date
Call Center Open & Close Date
The popup also includes sections for:
Event Language
Event Currency
Seamless Editing & Navigation
Clicking Edit in the Dates section redirects users to Details → Dates & Details for modifications.
Clicking Edit in the Event Language & Currency section redirects users to Details → Details for updates.
Any changes made in these sections will be automatically reflected in the Event Overview page.
This enhancement ensures quicker access, better visibility, and a more intuitive workflow for managing event information.
4. Room List/Report Download Updates
Release Date: 19th February 2025
Overview
We have improved the Room List/Report download process to enhance usability and simplify data extraction. These updates streamline the selection process and improve the readability of the downloaded report, making it easier for users to access relevant information.
What Problem Does This New Feature Solve?
Previously, the Room List/Report download process required manual event selection, and the downloaded file contained numerous columns, making it challenging to interpret key data. With this update, the process is more intuitive, reducing complexity and improving efficiency for users.
Key Highlights of the Release
Step 1 Enhancements – Event Selection Logic
If the Reservation Access Date has passed, the event will now be automatically selected by default.
If the Reservation Access Date has not yet passed, the system will display a list of available events, allowing users to choose
Enhancements – Improved Content Clarity
The instructions and content in Step 2 have been simplified to provide a more user-friendly experience.
Room List/Report Download File Updates
The Excel report now includes fewer but more relevant columns, making it easier to read, comprehend, and utilize the data effectively.
These enhancements aim to make the Room List/Report download process more intuitive, efficient, and user-friendly.
5. New Tooltips for Enhanced Visibility into Planner Accounts Statuses & Email Activity
Release Date: 23rd January 2025
Overview
We are excited to announce the release of new enhancements aimed at providing users with better visibility into planner account statuses and email activity. These updates introduce tooltips that display account creation and modification details, as well as email status tracking, ensuring users stay informed about key planner activities at a glance.
What Problem Does This New Feature Solve?
Previously, users lacked a quick and easy way to view planner account creation and modification details or track email activity.
With this release, users can now:
Easily track planner account creation and modification status, including the exact date and time.
Monitor email activity to ensure planners receive and engage with the necessary communication.
Key Highlights of the Release
Tooltip for Planner Account Updates:
Users can hover over a tooltip to instantly view:Planner account creation status: “Not Created” or “Created.”
Last modified status with exact date and time.
Email Activity Status:
A detailed tooltip displays the status of planner emails, including:Whether emails have been sent, received, and opened.
Timestamp for each email activity.
These features empower users to efficiently manage planner-related tasks, improve communication follow-ups, and ensure nothing slips through the cracks.
Visit our Cvent Community with questions
Questions about anything we’ve rolled out in this window? As always, you can get product questions answered in the Cvent Community via the Open Forum. Also, attend our Product Update webinars, where our Cvent product experts are available to answer your questions!