Managing the Online Booking Portal

Every new Zaui system will come with a Default Portal, which you can customize. A Portal is a URL for your Online Booking Engine, which is where customers will be able to purchase your tours/activities online.

In this article, we will go over the different configurations you can manage for your Internet Portal and will cover the following topics:

• Portal Settings and Configuration
• Date Restrictions and Threshold Settings
• Gift Certificate Settings
• Analytics and Adwords Configuration
• Internet Booking Branding Management
• Booking Screen Setup 

For information on creating and managing additional portals, check out this article.

Portal Settings and Configuration

1. To edit your Portal Settings, select Settings > Online Bookings > Portals. 
2. Click on the Default Portal Name.

• Enable Internet Bookings for this Portal is checked by default.  This is the global flag in the system that will either enable or disable internet bookings for this portal.
• If the above is not ticked, the Disable Internet Bookings Message will display if an attempt to make an online booking is made.
• By enabling Alert my staff when a booking occurs, an email will be sent to the Reservations Email that is configured in your System Settings every time an online booking is made.
• Send individual activity PDF's with email to customer will send PDF vouchers for each activity along with confirmation emails to customers. 
• Send Bar Code images in email will automatically create and send individual bar codes for each item on the customer booking. These are created as individual images and can then be used for automated check-ins when scanning the bar code. 
• Enable printable ticket/voucher will display a link to a printable ticket or voucher for the activities that the customer has purchased online.
• Display sold out tours will advertise your tours on the home page even if they are sold out; customers will not be able to add the sold-out tours to their cart.
• Display spots remaining per activity will display the number of seats/spots remaining per activity.
• Enable calendar filter will show a calendar widget on the home page for customers to filter the tours by date.
• Auto collapse activity groups online will auto-collapse your package categories on the Online Booking Engine.
• Auto collapse product groups online will auto-collapse your product categories on the Online Booking Engine.
• Combine point to point activities into a single group will place all point to point activities under the shuttle and scheduled service category.
• Point to Point Group Name for portal will enable you to rename the category group name for your point to point group to what you would like, ie - Jasper Shuttles. 
• Allow promo codes with affiliate bookings will allow affiliates the use of promo codes online. Keep in mind that affiliates already have a commission or net rate, therefore the use of promo codes would allow further discounts. 
• Default language will set the default language of the Online Booking Engine. 
• Custom Home Link URL will enable a custom home URL from the portal. The default will bring the user back to the home page of the portal. You can set this to bring them back to your website if you like.
• Payment Gateway enables a unique payment gateway for this portal only. For instructions on setting up additional payment gateways, check out this article. 
• Enable Multi Currencies will allow online customers to choose which currency they wish to pay with based on system-created currencies. For instructions on setting up multiple currencies, check out this article. 
• Display lowest price calculation per activity will enable the calculation for the lowest price online for your customers. 
• Enable deposit ONLY for online purchases enable this to charge either a flat or percentage deposit of the booking total. The remaining balance will be left outstanding. 

Date Restrictions and Threshold Settings

Set the Minimum Time or Maximum Time Required to Make an Internet Booking  (for specific activity-types) to limit how close to the activity's departure time customers are able to make online bookings. As well as how far into the future they are able to make a booking. 

In the example below, customers can make Regular, Point to Point and Interval activity bookings up until 1 hour before the start of the tour, and can make Custom activity bookings up until 48 hours before the start of the tour.

Keep in mind this section is to set system-wide restrictions that will apply to ALL your activities.  If your threshold settings vary based on each of your tours, you can configure the threshold times at the activity level. Check out this section of the Knowledge Base and select the activity type you are setting up.

Gift Certificate Settings 

If you would like to sell Gift Certificates online, you can enable either or both of the following flags:

• Offer Custom Amounts allows the customer to enter the amount for the gift certificate they wish to purchase.
• Offer Preset Denominations allows you to set the denominations, up to a maximum, that you wish to offer to your customers for purchase. Denominations of 25 to a maximum of 100, for example, will create options for $25, $50, $75 and $100. 

Analytics and Adwords Configuration 

This section allows you to set up and configure a specific google analytics account for which to start tracking traffic statistics. 

New to Google Analytics? Check out this article.
New to Adwords? Check out this article. 

Internet Booking Branding Management 

This section is where you can customize some of the branding for your Online Booking Engine. 

The Primary Colour will impact the Calendar Dates, Path to the Activity Page, More Information and the Cancellation Policy title colours.

The Secondary Colour will impact the Tour Name, Month in the Calendar, Duration, Time, Total Price, Notes/Restrictions and any Add-on Packages Titles.

The Call to action colour will impact the buttons reading Add to Cart, Continue, Checkout, Cart Number etc. 

Booking Screen Setup

Here, you can customize the customer information you require pertaining to:

• Customer Details
• Shipping Info
• Billing Info
• Additional Billing Info (address and postal code)

Fields can be renamed by clicking on the name of the field.

Custom text can also be added to the checkout page of the booking engine. Click Add Custom Text, enter the text and select the position (where the text will appear on the checkout page). 

Any changes to Booking Fields or Custom Text made in a portal other than the Default portal will take priority over settings made in the Default portal. Otherwise, settings in the Default portal will be the same across all portals.

Customer Details 

Default fields are enabled initially (First Name, Last Name, Email, Mobile Phone, Comments). if you wish to add/remove fields, uncheck Use default booking form fields. This is required if you are using custom fields and wish to enable them online.