IBIS Technology

You can sell your reservation products on the IBIS E-Commerce website or to agents using IBIS Ticketing, Agent Portal, or via an Integrated Partner.

TABLE OF CONTENTS

• Manage online security for your reservation products
• Display product descriptions online
• Set up cutoff times to close online bookings
• Configure online product groups for activity products
• E-Commerce reservation settings
• Charge booking fees
• Charge a deposit only
• Secure a booking with a credit card (deferred payment)
• Set up online booking notification emails
• Holding spaces for online bookings

Manage online security for your reservation products

When you sell your reservation products online, you can control how much of the system is visible outside of your organisation. IBIS has developed online policies to control how much information you share. 

Online policies are configured for every account (agent) in the Accounts screen and when required, Operator Product.  See below for a description of the online policies/functions:

In the screens mentioned below, the Online Policy is still used. Visibility over your system can be controlled as follows:

Display product descriptions online

When you set up your Operator reservation products to sell online, we recommend you create a description that will display on both the E-Commerce website and to agents booking your products through Online Exchange. This description is useful for advising customers of any specific details about your products such as duration, what to bring/wear, what is included, etc.

You can display product descriptions as follows: 

• A system default for all products
• Product group descriptions
• Product specific descriptions

Online description at the system level

You can have a generic online description for all products, also known as upselling points, displayed by default for your products.  These can be configured in the Online display settings screen.  If you are operating multiple business units, this setting can be found in the Business unit setting screen.

Online description at product group level

You can also have a description display when an online product group is selected. This description is configured in the Product groups screen. If a customer navigates to your page using a link to a product group, or if the product group is selected from the optional product droplist, the product group description will display. A product group description would override the default system-level description if selected.

Online descriptions at the product level

Lastly, a product-specific description can be configured so that once the product is selected this information will display on the E-Commerce site. This can be configured in the Operator products screen, under the Online description field. If a product-specific book now link is used to navigate to your website or if a product is selected from the optional product droplist, this description would override both the product group description and the system-defined upselling points on the departures page.

HTML coding can be used within the Online Description, if additional formatting is needed. This can be tricky if you are unfamiliar but there are free Word to HTML converter tools that can help or send an email to [email protected] for assistance.

Set up cutoff times to close online bookings

Operators can specify when to close online bookings. A closed booking means your products will no longer be able to be booked online and will display a customisable 'closed trip' message (System setting). 

There are 3 different closed offset cutoff types: 

• System-level cutoff time
• Product level cutoff time
• Account-level cutoff time

System-level cutoff time

A system-level closed time offset controls all online bookings. This displays a "Closed" message once the cutoff time has passed. To set a closed trip cutoff time for ALL products in your system, follow these steps:

1. Open the System settings screen (or Business unit settings if you operator more than one business within your IBIS system).
2. Under the Website section, specify the Closed trip offset time in minutes before departure (e.g. 60 if 1hr before departure)
3. Update the Departure closed message text - keep it short as it will display in a small area on your website. E.g. Call 0800 555 1234 for last-minute availability.
4. Find the setting Increase pax offset and set this value to match the Closed time offset. For bookings made via API, or if a booking is already in progress on your E-Commerce website, customers will be prevented from completing the sale if the cutoff time has been reached.
5. Save your changes.
   
   

   The Edit booking and Decrease pax offsets prevent additional edits or cancellations to bookings made via APIs or Online Exchange. IBIS has a 20 minute cancellation window built in for brand new bookings made via API or Online Exchange. This gives the agent a small window to correct an error or cancel a booking if the guests payment was not successful.

Product level cutoff time

The product level cutoff hides the departure so it can no longer be booked online.

If your product-specific cutoff time is less than your system cutoff, make the system cutoff 0 and only use the product-specific cutoff times for all products. If the product-specific cutoffs are greater than the system cutoff, you can use both. 

If you are using our latest version of E-Commerce, the product level cutoff time can be set to whatever you choose. 

1. Open the Online product rules screen from under the Setup > Online Sales menu.
   
2. Select the product from the list, then click Add policy
3. Specify the Online cutoff (in minutes) BEFORE departure as follows: 
   • Increase places - an edit with the addition of pax or create a new booking
   • Decrease places - an edit to decrease pax or cancel a booking
   • Edit places - an edit of non-operational importance such as a name change, voucher # or notes. The edit time cannot be less than the minimum specified for the increase or decrease time!
4. Save your changes.

Account-level cutoff time

You can set agent-specific cut-off times. This displays a 'closed' message for agents booking through the agent portal or via API (the latter will just not return any departure times).

Agent specific API cut off times can only be greater than the closed time offset specified in System settings - E-commerce Reservations.

1. In the Accounts screen, select the account you wish to set a cutoff time for.
   
2. In the details panel on the right, drill into the Online properties. 
3. Specify the API cutoff time in hours (h) or days (d). E.g. 1d for 24h). 
   

Configure online product groups for activity products

Online product groups are used on both the E-Commerce website and for agents booking your products via Online Exchange. The purpose of an online product group is to make it easier for your customers or agents to narrow down the selection process for choosing products on your website. To set up an online product group, follow these steps:

1. Open the Product groups screen under the System menu.
2. Click Create new, then fill in the details as prompted, then click Save.
3. Once your online group is added, click Edit.
4.  To associate items with the online group, tick the selection box for each product. Products are organised by the Group 1 field in the Operator Products screen.  
5. If you are setting up a new product group, ensure you add a description so customers know what it's for.
6. Save your changes.
7. If this online product group will be used on your E-Commerce website, we recommend you upload an image to display on the group tile.
   
   

E-Commerce reservation settings

Open the System settings screen in IBIS Online and scroll to the E-Commerce Reservations settings to update the following: 

Charge booking fees

You can now add booking fees to your IBIS E-Commerce reservation products to help recoup your costs for online transaction/credit card fees. 

1. Open the Retail items screen, then click Add
2. Enter a name for your item, e.g. "booking fee", set the item type to non-stock and leave the price set at $0.
3. Tick the sell online setting for the item (found under the Online properties grouping).
4. Save and confirm your change and make a note of the PLU code for the item.
5. Open the System settings screen in IBIS Online, then scroll to the E-Commerce Reservations group (if you don't have access, please contact IBIS support for assistance).
6. Enter the item PLU into the Booking fee setting using the following format:
   • For a percentage fee, enter the PLU code|% e.g. 1254|3%. The fee is calculated over any reservation-type item. 
   • For dollar value, enter PLU code|$. E.g. 1254|$5. The fee will be added once to your cart, irrespective of the value or number of bookings added to the cart.
7. Save your changes. You have now successfully set up a booking fee!
   
   

   We recommend that you include information in your product descriptions and terms & conditions if you will be adding a Booking fee so it is clear to the customer before they get to the cart.

   
   

   

Charge a deposit only

You can take deposit payments for reservations on your IBIS E-Commerce website. When a deposit is paid online, there will be a balance outstanding on the booking screen that should be paid before or on the day of travel. 

1. Open the Operator products screen.
   
2. Add the Deposit rule column to your grid (or find the field under the Online section on the right-hand panel). 
3. Add your deposit value in one of the following formats. As soon as the keyword is added, the deposit tickbox will be visible on the IBIS E-Commerce website.
   • X% = where X is the percentage of the pax booking value (excludes add-ons).
   • $X = where X is a fixed dollar amount per booking
   • $Xpp = where X is a fee per person in the booking (excludes add-ons)
     
4. If your email confirmation does not include the balance for a booking, you might want to ask us to add this on for you, so that it's clear to the customer that they still need to pay. 

Secure a booking with a credit card (deferred payment)

If your operation is weather-dependent or you sell combo products that cannot be confirmed right away, you may decide it's better to not charge the customer's credit card until you can confirm the booking. IBIS has a store credit card function designed to allow this.

A stored credit card is a two-step payment process where an 'authorisation' transaction verifies that a card is valid and has sufficient funds. If approved, the authorised amount is held until the transaction is completed, or an expiry time is reached, which is usually 7 days for Visa and MasterCard and 14 days for American Express transactions.

IBIS only stores a payment token that allows you to charge the customers credit card via the Windcave PxPay 2.0 payment gateway at Point of sale. We do not store any credit cards numbers in IBIS. You will need to contact Windcave to enable some specific functions, see: Integrated PxPay at Point of sale.

To set up the stored card trigger for your online bookings, follow these steps:

1. To enable products sold online to trigger the stored credit card option, enable the setting in the Reservation items screen. You can use the default reservations item to enable the function on all products or click Add to create a new item for use with specific products.
   
   
2. To specify which products should trigger the stored credit card prompt, open the Operator products screen and enter the PLU code of the reservation item(s) you set up against the products, then click Save. N.B. If the stored credit card setting was enabled on your default reservation item PLU, you don't need to specify the PLU codes for the individual products.  
   
   

   If these products should NOT be booked by agents or integrated booking partners, enable the direct only setting under the Online group at this time.  

   
   
3. When customers purchase any products sold via the E-Commerce site and the sale contains a product using the stored card-enabled PLU code, they will be informed the reservation is subject to confirmation.
   
4. Once the booking is completed online, your team will be notified when a BCC email is received for the confirmation request. Your staff should action anything required to complete the booking (e.g. if this is a combo booking, confirm the combo portion of the activity).  
   
   

   There may be instances where your customer purchases other items online that need to be paid instantly such as gift vouchers, retail items or admission tickets in conjunction with a stored card product. In these scenarios, you will receive an email, to alert you to the booking and any additional items purchased. These additional items will appear in your Find sale screen (POS) under Held Sales. Process the payment following the steps below.

   
   

5. To charge the stored card, take the booking to Point of sale and select the payment type Eftpos online, then Use this card to complete the payment.
   
   

Set up online booking notification emails

When reservations are booked online, IBIS can send optional notification emails to alert you each time a booking is created or amended. This is particularly useful if an agent is making changes or cancellations to a booking through Online Exchange. 

To configure:

1. Open the System settings screen in IBIS online.
2. Under the E-Commerce Notification section, select your preference under the Booking change notification email setting. Choose to always send a notification email or only send a notification email if a note is added or a booking is edited.
3. Specify an email address in the Online booking notification email address setting. If you want to send to different emails, separate each with a comma. 
4. Save your changes.

Holding spaces for online bookings

The IBIS E-Commerce website has a space-locking feature that will hold seats for a short amount of time while customers complete their payments. This ensures that the spaces are not snapped up by someone else while a purchase is in progress. While these seats are held, the available spaces will not be available for your staff to book via the Availability screen. 

Some actions that a customer performs. such as refreshing their screen, will extend the lock, but we do not allow the locks to be refreshed indefinitely. We can modify the lock behaviour as follows: 

• Specify the minimum number of times spaces can be locked. E.g. 5
• Disable space lock completely (check spaces on user details and proceed to payment, but don't lock)
• Space lock on the payment page only