Going live

1. Import your existing future bookings

Bookings you already have are imported from a spreadsheet saved as CSV. Use the template at docs/pilot/import-template.csv in the Riverdesk repository; the Riverdesk team will send it to you.

One row per cabin. Rows that belong to one booking share the same external_ref (your current booking number).

Column	Meaning	Example
external_ref	Your booking number	OLD-1002
channel_code	Blank for a direct booking, or the agency's code	nilecrz
vessel_code, itinerary	As shown on the Schedule screen	NILEDEMO, LXR-7
embark_date	Year-month-day	2026-12-07
market	international or egyptian_resident	international
category_code, adults, child_ages	The cabin, the adults and children's ages separated by ;	SUP, 2, 4;8
guests	Names in this cabin separated by |	Lukas Weber|Anna Weber
nationality	Two letters	DE
expected_total	The total you agreed, to check against today's rates	4876.00
paid_amount, paid_reference	Money already received, recorded as one payment	1200.00, TT 7781

How the import behaves:

• Every booking is made exactly like a booking in the office, so it takes real cabins.
• A dry run first prices everything and books nothing. It shows what would happen.
• Problems are reported, never forced: a date with no sailing, an unknown category, no room left. You fix them by hand.
• If your agreed total differs from today's rates, the booking is made at today's rates and the difference is reported, so you can adjust it.
• Running the same file again is safe: bookings already imported are skipped.

2. The go-live checklist

Before the first real booking, the Riverdesk team goes through this with you:

• Passwords and keys used during setup are replaced.
• Two-step sign-in is set up for every owner and finance person.
• People and roles are reviewed: no shared logins.
• Backups are verified, including restoring to a chosen minute ("point-in-time recovery").
• Alerts reach the office when something needs attention.
• The nightly outage pack arrives in your operations inbox.
• Documents print correctly in Arabic and English.
• Online platforms (such as nilecrz) have tested their connection on a test company.
• The import has been checked with your reservations manager.
• Staff have each taken a phone booking, answered a request, recorded a payment and printed a voucher.
• The Pilot dashboard shows all checks passing and no oversells.