Offering a guest a credit towards a future stay can be setup in Lodgix by working through the following steps:
Issuing a Guest Credit - AT TIME OF CANCELLATION
Cancel the reservation
Record a guest credit = Yes or No
If Yes, enter the amount of the credit
Choose whether to notify the guest via email of the credit.
Issuing a Guest Credit - AFTER A CANCELLATION WAS PROCESSED.
This aspect of the guest credit system can be used on invoices that have been canceled, but are left with a refund owed status. For some this is the way a cancellation could tracked to then offer the credit towards a future stay. Not very efficient.
To issue a guest credit and zero out the invoice on canceled invoices with a refund owed status, simply use the "record refund" option and then choose "guest credit" as the payment method:
A guest credit code will be generated and the credit applied to the invoice to zero it out. There is then a option to email the guest credit code to the guest.
ASSUMPTIONS:
If guest credit refund is deleted from the canceled invoice, the associated guest credit will also be deleted
Lifewise if a guest credit was redeemed, a guest credit refund can't be deleted from a canceled invoice.
Only one guest credit will be allowed per reservation
If a subscriber edits the guest credi refund amount on the guest control panel, it will update guest credit code amount, as long as it has not yet been redeemed.
If a guest credit has already redeemed, it won't let a user update the guest credit refund amount.
The guest credit refund owed amount (if it exists) is shown as as a default value when Record Refund is clicked. There is a warning message "Note: Refund owed amount is indicative only. Please confirm the amount."
Editing the Guest Credit Notification Email
To edit the email template that is used to send the guest credit to the guest, please go to settings > templates > email and edit the Guest Credit Notification Email.
The default template looks like this:
Invoices and Guest Credits
The invoice has been canceled, a guest credit has been issued, a credit code generated, and the canceled invoice now reflects a zero balance.
Reporting on Guest Credits Issued, Outstanding and Redeemed
To view a list of Guest Credits Issued, please visit Guests > Guest Credits
Guest Credits will show all issued credits as well as the redemption date and the invoice the credit was redeemed on. To show only redeemed or only outstanding credits, use the filters:
To Do: Guest Credits Interface does not sum the Amount column. To obtain a value of issued, redeemed and outstanding credits will require exporting to excel and manually using the Sum function to get a total amount.
Redeemed Guest Credits will also be shown on the Guest Transactions Report when filtered by "credits":
Guest Credit Expiration
There is a setting within settings > important settings > bookings where the default guest credit expiration date can be set:
The expiration date of a guest credit can be changed manually by clicking on the expiration date within the Guest Credits Interface:
Guest Credit Redemption
Go to settings > payment gateway setup > accepted payment types
Enable "Guest Credit" and select "yes" if you wish to offer it as a payment option to guests for online bookings.
Redeeming a Guest Credit via an Online Booking
Guest will have an option to pay using their guest credit code.
The guest credit code does NOT apply a credit to the invoice and then allow the guest to pay the remaining balance with an alternative form of payment. Instead a message is displayed to the guest informing them that whether the balance is positive (more owed) or negative (refund owed), this issue will be addressed by the property manager after the booking is made.
Redeeming a Guest Credit Manually
Within the Guest Control Panel for an invoice, there is a new option within the Transactions tab for "Apply Guest Credit"
That will trigger a window to open:
within that window you can type the guest name and the code will appear for selection.
Once applied, the guest credit will show as a payment to the invoice and any additional payments of refunds owed as a result of the credit will still need to be taken care of prior to check-in to bring the invoice to a zero balance.
Notes:
If a guest credit is deleted from an invoice, the guest credit will be removed from the reservation and set back to a "not redeemed" status .
Only one guest credit can be applied per invoice. If a guest credit already exists on a reservation and another guest credit is used, the existing credit will be replaced and returned to a "not redeemed" status.
When a guest credit is applied to an invoice for payment, the credit amount can be changed by editing the guest credit payment within the Transactions tab of the guest control panel. This isn't recommended however as it will make it more difficult to trace a credit from it's issuance to redemption.
Coupon codes will work in conjunction with a guest credit.
If a guest credit is applied to an invoice and if that invoice then has a "refund due" status, a refund must be processed to get the invoice to a zero balance. It is not currently possible to issue another guest credit if the guest credit amount is > then the invoice total.
For online bookings and guest credit redemptions, remaining balance owed on the invoice (if any) does not take into consideration any security deposits that might be required.