Cancelling pre-bookings paid by gift certificate

When bookings paid with gift certificates are abandoned, it’s essential to understand how the system handles the payment and what actions Staff may need to take to cancel or void the booking and related gift certificate.

With this article learn:

• What is a pre-booking?
• Understanding pre-bookings and gift certificate payments
• Canceling pre-booking holds
• Voiding gift certificate purchases

New to Gift Certificates? Read the first article in this series for an introduction to the Gift Certificates feature.

Accessing the features mentioned in this article

Where can I find this feature using the top menu?

• Customers > Customer Booking Page or Booking Widget
   

What more do I need to use this feature?

• The Gift Certificates feature is activated within your account (Manage > Integrations).
• Gift Certificates sold or issued.
   

Which Checkfront version supports this feature - classic items, classic products, or both?

• This feature is available in both our classic items version, which uses classic items (Inventory > Items), and our classic products version, which uses classic products (Inventory > Products).  → Learn more about products

Learning more about pre-bookings Learn more about pre-booking via the following articles: How do I manage and report on abandoned or incomplete bookings (pre-bookings)?

Essential points for understanding pre-bookings and gift certificate payments:

• If the Customer has entered a gift certificate number as partial payment for the Pre-booking, the gift certificate, including any remaining balance, is held until the Customer completes the booking.
• If the Customer backs out of the booking, this hold remains on the gift certificate for 30 minutes. The Customer cannot use the card again until that time is up.
   

Staff members can pull up the gift certificate in the back end and manually remove the hold by following these steps.

1. Select Gift Certificates from the Inventory menu.
2. Find the gift certificate on hold in the Issued list.
3. Click on the record to view the Edit Gift Certificate page.
4. Click the Remove manually button to remove the hold! The system removes the hold immediately.

You can also access the gift certificate on hold via the Account Activity log (Reports > Account Activity) by clicking the associated Pre-Booking record and then the gift certificate number within the related Booking Invoice, as shown in the screenshot above.

Import points for understanding voided purchases and gift certificate payments:

• If Staff have set a booking with a gift certificate purchase to the Cancelled status or voided, the system also voids the purchased gift certificate.
• If a Staff member or a Customer attempts to redeem a voided gift certificate, it displays VOID across the preview window, and the system prevents them from doing so.
   

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