Staff Reservations

For Travel Directors

What is this site?
This site allows you to maintain your work commitments in a single calendar that all event planners you work with can view.

Ordinarily you'd have to email or fax every company you work with on a regular basis; now you can update it in one place and they'll know instantly whether or not you're available.

OK, so how does it work?
Create a FREE account, and then enter the events you've already got lined up into your calendar. Just go to the My Events page and click on the Create Event button. You'll enter a name for the program for your own reference (could be President's Club or any time period you want to block, like Vacation.)

Then let all of the event planners you work with that you're on StaffReservations.com and they should sign up too -- that way they'll always be in the loop.

Excellent. So how does an event planner book me for a job?

• An event planner adds you to her list of Favorite Staff.
• When she's staffing an event, she'll see if you're listed as busy or free on the dates she needs you for. If you're free, she'll issue an invitation to work the event and you'll get automatically get an email with the details.
• Click the link in your invitation to respond. You can mark the invitation as In Discussion, Accepted, or Declined.
  
  Use In Discussion if the planner just wants you to hold the dates for now, or, if you need to speak to the planner before committing. (Events you mark as In Discussion are displayed as Tentative to planners.)
• Once you change the status, every planner you work with will see that you're now booked (or free) on those dates.

What if I have to cancel on an event I already accepted?
You can do that from the My Events page too, but use it with care. There's no way for you to undo it, and the planner can't reinvite you. In addition, event planners are relying on you. You should call the planner and tell them why you've got to cancel after making the commitment.

What if I don't want a planner to see who else I'm working for?

Planners can't see who else you're working with. Ever.

An event planner can only see the names of events that she or her co-workers created. All other commitments will show as "An Event" in your public schedule, and that's it..

So... what else can I do?
You can fill out a personal profile. This is optional, but can help planners select you. Right now you can specify

• where you're based out of,
• which airports you prefer to use,
• how you rate yourself on some basic skills like computer programs,
• and what languages you speak.

You can also add a picture and a brief statement where you can describe yourself, where you've been, or the kinds of event you like to work.

Perhaps the most powerful thing you can do is create a Public Profile. This creates a bookmarkable address for youself that you can give to planners. Then they have access to schedule, even if they're not on StaffReservations.

OK, but how much does it cost?

Nothing. Nada. Zippo.

We don't charge for this service for travel directors. (In the future, there could be some premium add-ons, but the basic service will always be free.)

I'm sold... but how do I get the planners I work with to use the service too?

Tell them to sign up today! It's the most up-to-date way for them to know your schedule. During the beta, the service is free for event planners too. There's no reason to wait!

For Event Planners

What is this site?

If you're like most event planners, you know that staffing an event can be an onerous process. You need to keep track of dozens and dozens of schedules (perhaps even more!) of your favorite event staff. You have to hope they've updated their schedule recently. You probably keep track of their key information, but it's unlikely it's organized in a useful way.

Now, staffing your events is easy, quick, and painless. You create a favorites list of your preferred travel staff; when you have to staff an event, just enter the dates of the events and you'll know instantly who's available and who's not. One more click and your invitations are sent.

Well, how do I know if my favorite staff is already on the site?

Once you're logged in you can browse and search the TDs who have signed up already. If you don't see the folks you're looking for, send them the address of this site! Registration for TDs is open and completely free. There's no reason why they shouldn't sign up. It only takes a minute. Once they're all on the platform, you'll be able to check their calendars in one step.

So, how does it work? How do I use the site?

First, browse or search for your favorite staff and add them to your favorites. When you have an event, go to the Create Event page and enter the start and end dates of your event. Then go to Invite Staff and choose the staff you want to invite. Staff that have conflicts won't be selectable.

Once you select which staff to invite, customize the email invitation and hit send. The TDs you selected will get an email with the event information, and will come back to the site to accept or decline the invitation. They can also mark an invitation as In Discussion, which means they'll be calling you or emailing you with additional questions.

In Discussion shows on a TD's schedule as a tentative date; other agencies can still invite them, but with the knowledge that they could very well get turned down.

Sounds good! But there's more than one planner here.

No problem -- you can have multiple people from the same agency sharing information. If no one's available from your list of favorites, you can easily search your colleagues' favorite staff's schedules. Your co-workers can see who's working each others' programs with ease.

Is this all the site does?

No! TDs list their essential skills, their bio, and their location and local airports, but you can add to this information with custom questions. Chances are you maintain a list of Q&A for each staff member that's unique to your organization: make it a part of the bio on StaffReservations and any planner at your company can view it and update it.

You can also record custom notes for every TD. Record general notes about a TD or write down your post-trip notes for each staffer and they're available to all your planners in the future. New staff members get the benefit of your experience, all documented.

Note: your Q&A and your notes are private; no other planning company can see your information.

What does it cost?
During the beta, memberships are free. Eventually we'll work out the differences between free and paid memberships, but we'll give you plenty of notice before we start charging anyone for anything. For now, just use the service to your heart's content.