Introduction
Bookingkit differentiates between vouchers, coupons (only valid within a certain promotion period) and flexible offers. It is briefly explained what the differences are and what you should pay close attention to.
Vouchers and generic vouchers
Your customers buy so-called value vouchers whenever they purchase one directly from one of your experiences or as a generic voucher.
Vouchers can be redeemed for each of your offers directly after purchase, and thus work like a payment method in and of itself. The value of vouchers is always an absolute number. Vouchers generate instant revenue as they are sold directly online. If there is still a credit left on the voucher after redemption, it will be retained as the residual value and can be later redeemed for another booking.
Now, what exactly is a generic voucher? Put simply: your personal voucher shop with bookingkit! To set it up, you merely add an experience without a defined date, so that only the “Purchase Voucher” button is shown. We recommend you set up your voucher shop on your website in a way that makes it easily noticeable.
Practical tips
It is impossible to get a discount on vouchers. This implies that promotional coupons cannot be used when purchasing vouchers.
When paying for an experience/booking, vouchers can be redeemed in combination with coupons. To do this, the customer simply has to enter the codes one after another.
The import of externally generated vouchers into bookingkit is also possible. See: own generated vouchers.
In the order tab you can see which experience a voucher was purchased for when you click on the information symbol “I”:
First things first: Do you sell single-purpose or multi-purpose vouchers?
You can define this under the settings tab under VAT.
If you sell several services or products and the place of delivery of the items or the provision of the services has not yet been determined, you can sell multi-purpose vouchers that are free of VAT. In this case the VAT will be added only at the time of the voucher redemption. With single-purpose vouchers, on the other hand, the VAT is charged immediately at the time of purchase.
Additionally, the expiry date of a voucher can be similarly defined under the account settings. It applies to all vouchers that are purchased or created as of the day this setting was set up. If a voucher is added to an order after it has already been paid for, a booking fee will appear on the respective invoice. The value of the voucher can then be reimbursed via bookingkit, for example ("outside of bookingkit").
Coupons
Coupons (aka promotional coupons) can be redeemed more than once within a promotional period and can be used, for example, for newsletter or seasonal promotions (e.g. Christmas / Easter). These are either absolute numbers (e.g. 5€) or percentage discounts (e.g. -15% from the order). Promotional coupon codes could be sent out as part of the after-sales mail or in the e-mail campaign, and thus engage your existing customers and win new ones. More on the coupons here.
Practical tips
Only one coupon can be used for one booking.
Just like with vouchers, we can import externally generated coupons for you. Please keep in mind that we are currently unable to limit coupons only to specific experiences, they can be redeemed for your entire offering.
Note on accounting
Since customers receive a discount when they redeem coupons, VAT only applies to the resulting amount after redemption. Here you can find out where you get the data about redeemed coupons.
Flexible Tickets
Flexible Tickets are a special type of product-specific voucher that you can use to grant a discount for certain experiences. For which scenarios and offers you can use this offer, you can find out here.
Practical tips
Flexible Tickets work great if you want to market an experience in specific time slots/events or to grant a discount for the purchase of multiple tickets (e.g. 5 for the price of 4 etc.).
Note on accounting
Just like with coupons, VAT applies to the final price. Please note that accounting issues may have to be clarified with a tax advisor and bookingkit only provides basic information you need for successful accounting.
My customers cannot redeem their codes!
Here is a list of some of the most common causes, including explanations:
In general, if the redemption of a voucher code fails and the booking is not completed, the code is automatically reloaded by the system after 24 hours.
Original order of the voucher is not marked as paid: The order containing the code must be marked as successfully paid. Only then will the corresponding code be activated by the system for redemption.
Wrong code: Please make sure that code was entered correctly. Pay attention to possible special characters and keep in mind that codes are case-sensitive.
Validity: Please check whether the code is still valid. You can easily use the search function in https://admin.bookingkit.com/ to check the validity.
Paying a voucher with a voucher: It is not possible to redeem a gift voucher or coupon to purchase a voucher. The reason is simple: Suppose a customer could purchase a voucher using a coupon, then they could double the discount of the coupon code by using it in combination with the voucher to book an appointment. One could also simply extend the validity of their soon-to-expire voucher code by purchasing a new voucher code if it would ve possible to purchase a voucher with an already acquired one.
Use of several coupon codes in one order: Please note that coupons cannot be stacked. Only one coupon code can be used per order.
Voucher codes not imported: If case you have sold vouchers outside of bookingkit, make sure to get them uploaded into your bookinkit account in time.
Single-use: Please note that in some cases codes can only be redeemed once!