Fresh from the Devs: Your Latest Merlin Software Enhancements
We’ve been hard at work, and we’re excited to announce a wave of new enhancements to the Merlin Software suite, released on September 14, 2025. These updates bring more power, flexibility, and efficiency to your daily operations, from the back office to your mobile apps. We’ve focused on delivering functionality that makes your life easier and your business more productive.
Here’s a look at what’s new and how it benefits you.
Enhancements for Front Office & Reservations
A key focus of this release was giving you more control and better insights into your reservations.
- Booking External Reference ID: A new field has been added to the Reservation by Occupation Dates Export 2. This is a game-changer for clients who use external booking engines, as it allows you to cross-reference bookings with your external provider’s unique ID, streamlining reconciliation and reporting.
- Reservation Flag Report: Need to quickly pull a report on reservations with specific flags? A new “Reservation Flag” filter has been added to the Reservation Report within the Front Office. This enhancement makes it simple to track special requests, VIP status, or any other flag you use to manage your reservations.
- Cleaning Credit Expiry Report: For resorts with points-based systems, keeping track of expiring credits is crucial. A new filter has been added to the “Points Due to Expire” report, allowing you to specifically view cleaning credit expirations. This helps you and your owners stay on top of expiring assets.
Enhancements for Sales & Marketing
These updates are designed to give your sales and marketing teams more accurate data and a more complete view of your customers.
- Verified Seller Columns: The Resales Data Grid now includes “Verified Seller” details. This provides your sales team with key information to help them qualify leads and manage resale opportunities more effectively, adding a layer of trust and clarity to the process.
- Note by Category Report Filter: To help you better understand and segment your customer communication, a “Communication Type” filter has been added to the “Note by Category Report.” This provides a more precise way to analyse notes and track specific types of interactions, enhancing your ability to measure marketing campaign effectiveness.
Enhancements for Merlin Web Apps and Portals
We’re continually improving our web apps and portals to provide more powerful functionality on the go.
- Rental App API – Pets Field: We know that accommodating pets is a major consideration for many guests. A new “Pets” field has been added to the Rental App API, allowing you to easily track and manage pet-friendly inventory and guest preferences.
- Valid/Invalid Transactions for ARIA: We have expanded the Web API services to now include “Invalid Transactions,” “-Points Transactions,” and “-Instalments.” This provides a more comprehensive dataset for your developers when integrating with third-party systems, such as the ARIA web application.
Enhancements to Back Office & Setup
Behind the scenes, we’ve made some powerful updates to your core system to improve functionality and data management.
- New Report for POS Items: Managing POS items is now more straightforward. A new page has been added to the Setup section to provide a clear, easy-to-use list of all POS items that are normally set up as Item Revenue Groups.
- Flywire API Integration: We have now integrated with the Flywire Payment Gateway API. This provides a new, robust option for processing payments, giving you more flexibility and a wider range of options to manage your financial transactions.
- Merge Function Logic Update: We’ve updated the logic of the existing Merge Function to ensure that pre-created instalments correctly pull through the Finance Interest Rate. This is a crucial update for maintaining accuracy in your financial data.
- Allocating Calls based on Roster: The outbound call list can now allocate calls to users based on their specific working days roster. This is a game-changer for call centre efficiency, ensuring that calls are routed to the right agents at the right time.
- Attaching EML Files to Notes: The functionality for adding attachments to notes has been enhanced to also allow the attachment of EML files. This provides a more efficient way to archive email correspondence directly within a name’s record, giving your team a more comprehensive communication history.
- Future-Dated Receipts for Memberships: The Booking Web App typically checks the current balance using the system date. An enhancement has been implemented to also take future-dated receipts into account, providing a more accurate view of a member’s standing.
A Stronger, More Efficient System
These enhancements, while individual, all work together to make your Merlin Software system more robust, intuitive, and efficient. We are committed to continuously improving our product to support the evolving needs of the timeshare and vacation ownership industry.
Need to know more?
We’re here to help you get the most out of these new features. If you have any questions about the latest enhancements, please don’t hesitate to reach out to our support team.
If you’re still using a legacy system and are interested in learning how Merlin Software can transform your operations and owner experience, please contact our CEO, Mike Ashton, to arrange a demo or to discuss your specific software requirements.
