How to use Deposit Only as Commission to discount the commission on a booking through Zaui Core and the Online Booking Engine

Overview

The 'Deposit Only as Commission' payment method is a hybrid of Commission and Wholesale reseller agreements. When used, this payment method allows commission-based companies to be paid their commissions at the time of booking rather than the usual commission payment which is made after the guest travels. This is a similar arrangement to Wholesale agreements, where the reseller collects the payment, then invoiced at a later date.

This article will cover the following topics:

1. How to use the Deposit Only as Commission transaction method
2. How to Configure a Commission Rate Type for a Company
3. How to enable the Deposit only as Commission Transaction Method
4. Creating Reservations as a Commission Agent on the Online Booking Engine
5. Creating Reservations as a Commission Agent in Zaui Core (Back Office)

How to use the Deposit Only as Commission transaction method

There are two ways to use Deposit Only as Commission.

1. Collect only the commission owed on the booking. This initial payment is designed to hold the booking. Full payment from the guest will be taken at a later time. This can be either before, on or after the travel date. This method can only be used for bookings via Zaui Core (Back Office). 
   
   
2. Pay commissions at the time of booking. In this case, full payment will be charged at the time of booking. The agent or company will keep the commission amount with the rest being sent to the supplier (you).

When using the second method described above, the reseller must pay for the booking using their company credit card, not the guest's credit card.   Then, the reseller collects the full payment, including the commission, in their accepted payment formats, whether it be cash, credit card, or charging it to the guest's hotel room.

How to Configure a Commission Rate Type for a Company

Follow Creating Companies & Agents in Zaui for the steps to create a new agent and company. Once you have your agent and/or company profile created, enable the Auto apply commission/net rate for online bookings under the Rate Type section. 

By enabling this setting, the system will discount the total cost of the booking by the amount of the commission owing to the agent or company making the booking.

You determine the commission by assigning a rate code in the following section, Rate Codes. 

To learn about creating a rate code, take a look at the steps outlined in this article. 

How to enable the Deposit only as Commission Transaction Method

Follow these steps to enable this transaction method for your system:

1. Navigate to Settings and click on Company Info in the drop-down menu
2. Once your screen has loaded, scroll down until you see the Accepted Payment Types section 
3. Click on the checkbox to enable Deposit Only as Commission
4. Scroll back to the top of your page and click Save 

Creating Reservations as a Commission Agent on the Online Booking Engine

To login in as an agent, you can follow the steps outlined in the last section of this article.  

Go through the booking flow and on the final checkout page, note that the commission amount is discounted from the total booking cost.

In this example the booking cost is $100, the commission is $10 and the remaining balance is $90.

The agent should charge the $90 to a company credit card and charge the full amount, $100, in one of their accepted payment formats, whether it be cash, credit card, or charging it to the guest's hotel room.

Creating Reservations as a Commission Agent in Zaui Core (Back Office)

If a commission-based agent or company calls your office to make a booking, follow the normal booking flow and be sure to assign the Company and Agent as per this article. 

Once you are ready to process payment, select 'Deposit only as Commission' as the payment type.

The system will then provide a summary of the commission amount the agent receives for the booking. 

By processing the booking, the system will add the deposit amount and update the outstanding balance to reflect the amount less commission. You can then proceed with paying the balance on the booking. 

Reporting on bookings made with Deposit Only as Commission

Bookings using Deposit Only as Commission will appear on each of the commission reports. You can choose to report by Agent or Company by navigating to Reports > Commissions > By Agent or By Company.

Each report will indicate whether commissions on bookings have been paid or not.

Only use this setting for companies where agents will be making bookings on behalf of their customers. Do not use this setting if customers will be making their own bookings, for instance when booking via a hosted link on a hotel website's activity page.