Configuring the Voucher Engine

By the end of this training article, you will be able to

• Create/change engine default colours
• Load new gift vouchers
• Create denominations
• Set defaults 
• Create delivery options
• Set up voucher templates
• Create upsells
• Promotions & hidden links
• List of url parameters

Creating the Default Engine

Log into Cloud Reservations and navigate to Vouchers > Configuration > Colours. This is where you will set your brand colours for all areas of the engine. 

• Main: The main header and background colours.
• Voucher Card: The voucher cards both as they appear on the first page, and when you select a specific voucher.
• Accordion: Used both in the T&C/delivery sections on the selected voucher page and the accordion on the personalisation page.
• Buttons: Used for all button call to action on the engine.
• Cart: Used for the pop-out cart.
• Checkout Breadcrumb: which appears on the personalisation page.

Simply click in each cell and add the hex code or select from the colour wheel. 

This engine uses the main hotel logo.

Loading Vouchers

Vouchers should first be created in HART. If you are unsure how to do this, please see our related guide here.

Please note, that options are created in HART and will then automatically display on the engine. For example, you create a voucher called Afternoon Tea, with an option for 2,3 or 4 pax in HART.

Once your vouchers are created in HART, ensure that the publish button is ticked and then Navigate to Vouchers > Categories and press the Refresh button. This will pull the categories and vouchers through to cloud reservations. 

Vouchers are configured in two sections on cloud reservations. The Categories page and the Vouchers page.

We have created a quick toggle at the top of each of these pages to switch between the two.

• Categories: Where you set pricing, expiry date overrides, activate vouchers and set lead times.
• Vouchers:  Where you configure imagery, marketing copy, custom T&C and link upgrade, upload imagery and choose voucher templates.

Start on the Voucher page.

The Top section works as follows.

• PMS Code: Pulled automatically across. Links to HART.
• Order: If you wish vouchers to show in a particular order, set it here.
• Name: Pulled through from HART, but you are able to amend it here if you wish.
• Conf: Select from the drop-down list which voucher template you would like to link to the voucher (covered further down).
• Show Value: Tick if you would like the value of a voucher printed on it. Used primarily for monetary vouchers.
• Hidden: Tick if being used as part of a hidden promotion (covered further down).
• Service Charge: If your property has a standard service charge on services, you are able to activate the option for the voucher purchaser to add this to the voucher. Tick to activate.
• Charge %: If not set in the default configurations, or if the % differs on a particular voucher, then you can put the % in here.

Next, select the voucher you would like to edit and work through the tabs on the bottom. 

• Description: Enter the marketing text you would like to appear on the selected voucher page
• Summary: The text or bullet points you would like to appear on the main voucher homepage ( this feature can be turned off if you would rather not have text show)
• Terms Text: If this voucher has specific terms and conditions which are different to your default, put there here. If they are the same as the default then leave it blank.
• Delivery Text: If this voucher has specific delivery terms which are different to your default, put there here. If they are the same as the default then leave it blank.
• Question Text: If you would like to add a specific question CTA for this voucher, then add it here. Leave it blank to use the default.
• Smart Text: You can set a description which will pull through onto the actual voucher here.
• Imagery: Upload a picture for the voucher here. Be careful to keep voucher images small files to avoid slowing the loading time of the engine.
• Upgrade: This is where you can link vouchers together to trigger an upgrade message.(details further down)

Once you have filled in the relevant information for each voucher and saved it, click the toggle to go back to the Categories page.

Top Screen.

• PMS ID: Pulled automatically across. Links to HART.
• Order: If you wish the categories to show in the specific order in the drop-down filter.
• Voucher Category: Pulled through from HART. You are able to edit the name here if you wish.
• Expiry: Pulls through the expiry from HART, but you are able to override it on the engine.
• Start Lead Days: If you will allow the guest to change the start date of the voucher, you can put the maximum days here.
• Active From/To: Used if you wish a category to have an active period. For example, if you are running seasonal vouchers.
• Active: Tick to toggle the category live or not.
• Hidden: Allows you to hide an entire category. It will not show in the drop-down on the voucher engine but can be reached if the user has a direct link.

Bottom Screen.

• PMS ID/Code: Pulled automatically across. Links to HART.
• Name: Pulled through from HART. You are able to edit the name here if you wish.
• Price: Set the price of the voucher.
• Expiry:  Allows you to set a physical voucher expiry by date, rather than the number of days.
• Active From/To: Ability to set an active period for a specific voucher.
• Active: Tick to toggle the voucher live or not.
• Archive: Used if you don't wish the voucher to be seen on the vouchers config page. Help to make that screen more user-friendly.

Create Denominations

Denominations are used primarily for your monetary vouchers. Navigate to Vouchers > Configuration > Denominations

Add a new record at the top, and in the Amount field, put the numerical amount. In the Description field, you put the name.

If you wish to allow a free-type amount, create one with the amount as 0 and the description as Other.

Once you have created your denominations, you need to link them to the vouchers you would like them used on. 

Press the Link Vouchers button at the top of the screen. A wizard will pop up which allows you to link each denomination to the vouchers they should apply to. Select the vouchers, then press Add. Do this for each denomination.

Set Defaults

There are a number of default configurations which are used for the engine. These can be found in Vouchers > Configuration > Settings

Top Options.

• Accordion Titles: These are used on the selected voucher page and can all be renamed to be repurposed. 
  • T&C Title
  • Delivery Title
  • Questions Title
• Upgrade Delay: How long a delay you would like in seconds before the upgrade pops out.
• Upgrade Close Text:  What the text is that allows a user to dismiss the upgrade pop up.
• Item Text: By default, the terminology 'voucher' will be used around the site. If you wish this to be something else - gift, item, hamper for example - then you can change it here.
• Show Category: On the main page you can have the option to show or hide the category name from the voucher tiles.
• Show Summary: On the main page, you can have the option to show or hide the summary text.
• Service Charge/%: Here you can set the default service charge option for the engine.
• Age Check: If you are selling hampers online which contain alcohol, you are required by law to have an age verification barrier. Tick this box to activate the barrier.

Bottom Tabs.

• Terms Text: Set your default T&Cs. These will be used unless you have entered custom ones directly on a voucher.
• Delivery Text: Set your default delivery message. These will be used unless you have entered custom ones directly on a voucher.
• Question Text: Set your default Question text. These will be used unless you have entered custom ones directly on a voucher.
• Service Charge Text: If you are using the service charge option, you can put in some custom text to explain this to the guest.
• Hero Image: If you wish to use a hero image on your engine, upload it here.
• PDF Settings: Vouchers are sent as a pdf attachment to an email. Here you can set the dimensions of that PDF depending on the size of your voucher. There are a number of default sizes, as well as the option to set custom dimensions.
• Age Verification: If you are activating the age verification then this is where you configure the text. There are 3 fields which need filling in.
  • Title
  • Text
  • Declined redirect URL

Delivery Options

Navigate to Voucher > Configuration > Delivery. 

Here you are able to set up the different methods of delivery. Click to add a new record for each delivery method.

• Type: Choose if this is a postal or email voucher type.
• Delivery: The internal name for the delivery type.
• Details: What the guest will see when they are choosing postage on the checkout page.
• Cost: The price of this method.
• Active: toggle if this is an active postage type or not.

Setting Up Voucher Templates

There are Three email templates which you can set up in addition to the voucher templates themselves. 

Navigate to Configuration > Templates. You are looking for the Voucher templates and the Voucher Billing. 

• Voucher Email: Sent to the recipient of a voucher, informing them they have received a gift voucher. The actual voucher will be attached. 
• Voucher Billing: Sent to the purchaser the vouchers, with a record of what they have purchased and paid for.
• Voucher Dispatch: You only need to set this one up if you are using postal vouchers as an option. It will send a confirmation of dispatch to the purchaser once you have processed the voucher.

In Vouchers > Configuration > Templates, you will find the physical voucher templates which can be sent as PDFs. 

These work as do all other vouchers in cloud reservations. 

Below are the smart tags which work on these templates.

Once you have set up and named your e-Vouchers, you link them to the voucher type in the Vouchers screen.

This allows you to customize the style of the voucher to reflect what the gift is.

Creating Upsells

You are able to use small marketing messages in order to encourage people to upgrade their vouchers. For example, if you they are looking at the Afternoon Tea option,  you can configure a message suggesting they look at the Champagne Afternoon Tea. 

Navigate to Vouchers > Vouchers and select the voucher you wish the upgrade to show on. Next, select the Upgrade tab and add a new record.

• Voucher: select from the drop-down list which voucher you are upselling
• Header: The headline for the marketing message
• Text: The body of the marketing message
• Pop-out Delay: how many seconds after the guest has landed on the page they will get the upsell message.

Save your changes, and the upsell will be active.

Creating Promotions & Hidden Links

This engine has a number of functions which can support you with any promotional activity you may wish to run with gift vouchers. 

Promotions can be set up to help facilitate discounts of specific vouchers for events such as Black Friday. The voucher engine does not have a promo code field, but instead, smart links are created in the url using the link ?

Navigate to Vouchers > Promotions and click Add new record at the top of the screen.

• Code: the code you will use in the smart link.
• Name: the name of the sale. This will show on the voucher engine as a banner across the voucher.
• Start Date: the date and time the code will become active.
• End Date: the date and time the code will become inactive.
• Expiration: Fill this in if you wish to override the default expiry on the voucher for this promotion.
• Active: The master on/off switch for the promotion

Once you have completed and saved this, you can add new records on the bottom screen to attach each voucher to this promotion. You will have the option to choose the discount amount per voucher, and whether that is a percentage or fixed amount.  

Your promotion is now complete and ready to send out. 

The other option for marketing promotions on this engine is hidden vouchers and categories. This allows you to create specific vouchers which can only be reached by direct link.

On both the Voucher screen and Categories screen you will remember there was a field called Hidden. You tick this if you wish to hide that voucher or category. It is the PMS ID for each which is used as the modifier in each smart URL. 

Please note, you cannot combine hidden vouchers an categories. You are either linking to an individual voucher or to a category and cannot join both on the url.

URL Parameters

Remember, you would put a ? after base URL followed by the first parameter, and then a & followed by the second parameter. & is used to link multiple ones together.