Gift Card Management
Quick Answer: Gift Cards are an optional feature on GuestPoint only available to GuestPoint Premium/Enterprise Licence types. Our Gift Card Management system allows you to add gift cards and use them as pre-paid payments towards Reservations on GuestPoint.
Please note that our Gift Card system is a simple tracking & consuming system. It does not provide you an online platform to purchase Gift Cards from.
It also does not link to our GuestPoint POS nor does it link to our latest GuestPoint Booking Engine.
It does still work on our older Version 1 and Version 2 GuestPoint Booking Engine.
It also does not link to our GuestPoint POS nor does it link to our latest GuestPoint Booking Engine.
It does still work on our older Version 1 and Version 2 GuestPoint Booking Engine.
Gift Cards on GuestPoint - What Do They Do?
Gift Cards are a GuestPoint Premium/Enterprise PMS Licence feature.
On our system, we view Gift Cards as a "deposit" where your guest can pay for the Gift Card with a pre-paid amount. This Gift Card is then held as a "Deposit" and it can then be consumed anywhere on the GuestPoint system.
If you sell Gift Cards yourself where your guests can consume them for Accommodation purposes, this feature allows you to keep track of Gift Cards on the GuestPoint system and help you account for them better.
Please note this is a simple Gift Card Management system. It does not give you a platform to sell your Gift Cards, it simply is a follow-up addition to tracking and using the Gift Cards guests purchase from you (whether online externally or in person).
Unfortunately this feature does not currently work with our new GuestPoint Booking Engine (it does still work for our old Version 1 and Version 2 booking engines). It also does not work with our GuestPoint POS.
Gift Card Set Up
If you are using our GuestPoint Premium/Enterprise PMS Licence, you will see the "Gift Cards" section when you navigate to Management > Setup Tab > Transaction Accounts > Scroll down to "Gift Cards" section
To enable Gift Cards on your system, slide the slider dot to the right (indicated by green colour) to enable it.
Enter a name for the Gift Card Deposit Account. This account represents your current balance of Gift Card "deposits" i.e. guests who have paid for a gift card. It is a Credit-type balance.
Calling it "Gift Card" is sufficient.
Input how long your Gift Cards are valid for (in days), and select a Revenue Account for "Gift Card Expired Charge".
This expired gift card account represents the revenue you would earn from a Gift Card expiring.
As Gift Cards are typically Non-Refundable, the payment they provided for the Gift Card becomes your revenue once it expires.
If you don't have an Expired Gift Card transaction account on your system yet, go to Revenue Accounts just above and create a new revenue account called "Expired Gift Cards".
Proceed to Save Changes. Log out and back in of GuestPoint and navigate back to this section to select your new Gift Card Expiry revenue account from the dropdown selection.
Once done with initial Gift Card settings, proceed to Save Changes.
The "Gift card can be used online" checkbox is only relevant for our old GuestPoint Booking Engine (WebPoint) Version 1 and 2. Unfortunately the Gift Card feature does not currently link to our new GuestPoint Booking Engine.
Our new Booking Engine is identified by the GuestPoint Booking Engine website URL domain ending in the bookus.direct domain)
Gift Card Management
Your Gift Cards can be found & managed by navigating to Accounts on the main GuestPoint menu.
From here, look towards bottom-right hand corner and you will see a Gift Card section just underneath the Non-Residential Accounts Summary.
Click into the blue "Gift Card" link to bring up the main Gift Card section where you can add Gift Cards and search for them.
(Note this name may be different for you, it depends on what name you assigned the Gift Card Deposit Account during set-up.)
You can also add a new Gift Card from here by clicking the blue "+" button.
You may also Print a Summary of your current valid Gift Cards on the system by clicking into the "Print" icon.
When you click into the blue "Gift Card" link (this name is based on what name you assign to the Gift Card Deposit Account), you will see below management options.
TIP: You can click on "Filter" to easily search for closed accounts, open accounts or those
with a credit balance, as well as creation and expiration date ranges.
Select your filters and then click "Apply Filters".
How to Add a Gift Card
When you click the "New Gift Card" button, you will see below Gift Card screen with a few mandatory fields indicated by a red asterisk sign.
Mandatory & Recommended Fields
Below are the mandatory fields and recommended fields to fill out.
Gift Card Number - The first field is the Gift Card Code that you manually create yourself or generate automatically with the "Auto Generate" button.
You would provide this to your guests to allow them to redeem this Gift Card in the future.
Expiry Date - The system will automatically assign an Expiry Date based on the Gift Card Default Validity Period you have inputted during set-up.
Else, manually select an appropriate Expiry Date.
Online PIN - Automatically generated by us and only relevant for our old GuestPoint Booking Engine (WebPoint) Versions 1 and 2. A guest would input their online PIN on these old booking engines to redeem the Gift Card towards their bookings.
Guest Details/Company Name - A Guest Last Name or Company Name is required to proceed. If you have the gift card's intended recipient details, you can record them here.
Else, we recommend you temporarily input the details of the guest that purchased the Gift Card.
Create a new guest/company profile or search for their existing profile and select them from the "Suggestions" list.
Note - Input any useful internal notes in this section. We recommend inputting who purchased it and who the intended recipient is or vice versa in this section.
This is an internal reference Note section that doesn't show externally for the guest.
Adding the Gift Card Payment
Once done inputting mandatory & recommended fields, proceed to the "Make Payment" button on the bottom-left hand corner of screen to record the payment you collected from your guest for this gift card.
Input the payment type & amount & match the Print Date to the date you processed this payment and "Save Payment".
Saving the New Gift Card - Emailing & Printing the Card
When you are done with inputting your guest details and have made the payment for the Gift Card, ensure you click the blue "Add Gift Card" button of the New Gift Card screen to save your Gift Card.
Proceed to find your newly added Gift Card and click into it. On the Top-right corner is an "Email" and a "Print" option.
The Print Preview would look like below accordingly:
You will notice there is a footer section where you can customize a default Gift Card footer message. You can change this in Management > Setup Tab > Property > Property Header & Footer Tab > Gift Card Section as shown below.
Consuming or Redeeming a Gift Card
Gift Cards can redeemed on a booking's Room Account during the "Make Payment" stage.
When Making Payment, select from the "Payment Type" dropdown selection and select Gift Card as the payment type.
From here, a new small "Search" button will appear where you can search for the Gift Card via their Gift Card Code or any guest details that match that Gift Card.
Click into the "Search" button.
Search for the Gift Card through any method and click "Select" button on the Gift Card
After selecting the Gift Card, you will see the Credit Balance of that Gift Card and its Expiry Date.
Input the amount you wish to use from this Gift Card in the "Amount" box.
You can partially consume a Gift Card if you wish, else you can consume it fully up to the full Credit Balance amount.
Proceed to "Save Payment" once done.
Expired Gift Cards
A common mistake with the Gift Card feature is not actually expiring the Gift Card on the GuestPoint system when they are due for expiry.
You can see a list of Gift Cards that are due to expire by navigating to Management > Daily Tasks Tab > Gift Card (The name may be slightly different for you)
This helps you keep track of any gift cards that are: due to expire soon OR their expiry date has past and you have yet to actually "Expire" the gift card.
Expiring the Gift Card is required for you to properly account for the revenue you earn from the Gift Card.
Inside the Gift Card expiry list, you can open into a Gift Card where the Expiry Date has passed. Proceed to the "More" button on the bottom of the Gift Card Account and you will see the "Expire Account" button. Click this and the revenue will be added and recorded against your selected Gift Card Expiry Account. Proceed to "Save".
This gift card will no longer appear on the list of Gift Cards due to expire or past expiry date and you have added the revenue from this Gift Card to your GuestPoint system.
This revenue will be added to your next Roll Over.