There are several scenarios where booking fees and/or surcharges can be used to recover some of the costs involved in administering transactions for your customers: 

  • Over the counter when you are processing transactions through Point of sale.
  • On your E-Commerce website, surcharges can apply per payment type via Windcave
  • On your E-Commerce website, you can charge a booking fee for reservation products only
While surcharges can encourage customers to use payment methods that attract lower fees (for example paying into your bank account), it can also drive customers to your competitors or even other websites where your products might be available. Many OTAs (Online Travel Agents) don’t charge fees.

We encourage you to carefully consider surcharges before you enable them and to closely monitor your website traffic for any changes. 


Options available for IBIS users at Point of Sale

  1. Enable a payment surcharge at point of sale
    IBIS has a built-in surcharge feature which can be enabled on payment types and charged easily at POS. Learn more about how to configure a surcharge for your frontline transactions.

    ProsCons
    Trackable: Allows you to monitor and report on surcharge values within IBIS, offering transparency and insight.Customer Interaction: Staff must inquire about the customer's payment method before selecting the appropriate payment type which adds additional time to the checkout process.
    Clear Receipts: Surcharges are prominently displayed on sales receipts, informing customers of the additional costs.Training: Requires staff training and monitoring to ensure they correctly handle surcharges.
    Adjustable: Staff can add, remove, or modify surcharge values at their discretion, offering flexibility in managing payments.


  2. Enable a payment surcharge via your EFTPOS software
    Talk to your EFTPOS provider about what options are available. Although the surcharge will not appear on the receipt printed from IBIS, it will show on the EFTPOS receipt. You will not be able to report on surcharges from IBIS, so you will need to report via your EFTPOS system, but it does eliminate the need to ask customers each time how they wish to pay, and guarantees staff are charging the surcharges.


Options available for E-Commerce customers

  • Enable a payment surcharge through Windcave for all transactions
    Windcave can enable a percentage or fixed amount surcharge for different payment types on your Windcave PxPay page. If you use the Windcave online payment type at POS surcharges would also be applied here. This is a good option for customers who want to apply a surcharge to cover fees for all item types in the IBIS E-Commerce site (retail, reservations, gift vouchers, admission, events and memberships).

    Because the surcharge is configured in Windcave, it will not show on the IBIS receipt or in the POS transaction when viewed in the IBIS application. By default, the customer will be charged in a separate but simultaneous transaction when they complete their payment on your E-Commerce site, however, talk to Windcave about incorporating it into a single charge.

  • Charge a booking fee for online reservation sales only
    This article explains how booking fees work in IBIS. This option only charges a fee on reservation sales. Any retail, admission, events or gift vouchers sold online would be excluded from this charge. 

    Communicating fees to customers

    Nobody likes to get sticker shock before they pull out their wallet to pay. It's important to think about how you communicate surcharges or booking fees to customers before they pay.


    We recommend clear signage at your front desk advising of surcharge fees. To keep things less confusing, sometimes charging a consistent fee across all payment types is easier than have a different charge for each.


    For online sales, we recommend advising customers as early as possible in the sales process by including information in your online description for your reservation products, and customising wording on your E-Commerce site by specifying these charges in the price caption on the cart page.