Keeping guest's dietary information consistent and meaningful is a large challenge for the kitchen staff. Retreat Portal now offers the ability to limit a guest's choices for specific dietary preferences and allergies during the registration process. This can replace the current free-form field which allows guests to type anything they want.
Retreat Portal supplies a default set of dietary preferences and allergies, but you can customize the list.
Review/Customize Dietary Options
Log in to Retreat Portal Console
Click the gear icon in the top-right and select Business
On the left-side click Misc > Dietary Options
You will see two tables. One for dietary preferences and one for dietary allergies. To create a new dietary preference or allergy click the Create button on the respective table. You can also edit existing entries by clicking the Edit link. You can enable/disable dietary preferences or allergies. By disabling an option it will not be shown to a guest during registration.
The ordering shown in the table is how the choices are shown to a guest. The dietary preferences are shown as a drop-down and the guest is limited to choosing just one value. The dietary allergies are shown to the guest as a two-column layout of options going from left-to-right, then top-down, where the text in the 'Description for guest' is shown to them. To change the order click the up/down icon in the Ordering column.
Description for guest is what the guest sees in the registration form. You can choose any description you like that you believe will have the best meaning for your guests.
Description for internal staff, chef, etc. is what is shown on meal reports, reservation forms, etc. You can choose the description that is best for your internal audience.
You cannot delete dietary preferences or allergies once they have been created, but you can disable them or change the description fields.
Changing a description does NOT alter any reservations or meal details that were previously created.
Important - it is up to you whether you want to give guests the choice to indicate they have no restrictions. But Retreat Portal must return some value for each checkbox, hence the use of a '-' for our 'No preference' and 'No allergies' options. The '-' is replaced with an empty string so as to not confuse your staff.
Enable Dietary Preferences and/or Allergies during Registration
To allow guests to see the set of dietary preferences and/or allergies to choose from during registration.
Log in to Retreat Portal Console
Click the gear icon in the top-right and select Marketing
On the left-side click Attendee Registration Info
In the middle section of the page. Click Hidden for Diet Note - this is the free-form text box where guests can enter anything they want. Click Optional or Required for Diet Preference Drop Down - this is the drop down of dietary preferences. Click Optional or Required for Diet Allergies - this is the set of checkboxes of dietary allergies.
When done click Save.
Important - making the Diet Preference Drop Down Required or Diet Allergies Required means a guest will be forced to click at least one choice. If you do this, then be sure you have one option that allows a guest to say they have no preference or no allergies.
To view what the checkboxes look like to a guest, open any program's registration page.