Package Bookings

Xola's Package feature allow you to bundle multiple Xola listings together into one single product offering. They’re a great way to group and showcase more than one experience offering while driving incremental revenue by encouraging larger bookings.  

• Packages are a combination of two or more Xola Listings.
• Listings in the same Package must share at least one common Global Demographic.
• Package bookings are handled as one single booking action & transaction for customers. For you, Package bookings will behave in a very similar manner to normal bookings.

What's covered in this article:

How to Create a Package 

How to Make a Package Booking

How to Modify Package Bookings

How to Create a Package   

Since packages are a combination of multiple Listings into one product offering, this means that some parts of Packaged bookings are derived from the "base Listing", and some are overridden at the package level. 

When you create a new package, you'll enter new information for the parts of the Package that need to be combined when presenting your multiple Listings to customers as one Packaged offering. 

To create a new package, follow these steps:

1. Navigate to Products > Packages.
2. Select the green Create a Package button.
3. Enter a Title for your package.
4. Select which Listings you want to make up the package offering.
   • In order to be offered as a package, selected listings must share at least one common global demographic
   • Note: Only listings that are priced “per person” can be included in a package.
5. Enter an Excerpt: This is the text that will appear to your customers when they are checking out online.
6. Enter a Description: This text is used when participating in Xola's optional distribution channels, meaning it will not be displayed to your customers when making a normal booking through a Xola checkout window.
7. Set your recommended Duration between events.
   • This value will be factored in when a customer goes to book a package from your website. For example, if you enter in 30 minutes as your Duration between Events, start times for events within a package booking made via checkout will be required to have at least 30 minutes buffering them. 
8. Add in any desired Blackout Schedules. If you choose to create and save a blackout schedule, packages bookings will not be available for that date range. The individual listings that make up a package will not be affected. 
9. Set your Start Time Restriction. This setting will limit what times customers booking the package via checkout can select. There are two options available when configuring this:
   • Start times for events in package bookings must be on the same day. 
   • Start times for events in package bookings must be within...: If this option is chosen, you'll need to input a value that effectively creates a window of time within which start times for a package booking must fall. For example, if you enter in 4 hours, a customer could have one start time for Listing A at 12:00 PM and another for Listing B at 4:00 PM, but could not book Listing B at 5:00 PM. 
10. Describe your Cancellation Policy for this package’s bookings. This field is displayed in confirmation and reminder emails.
11. Describe any Other Considerations that you want your customers to be made aware of once they book this package. This field is displayed in confirmation and reminder emails.
12. Select Save

Package Pricing

Now it’s time to set a price for your Package. You can configure a custom price for your package’s Demographics and Add-ons.

Demographic Pricing: Package prices are set at the Demographic level. The Base Price that you see in this section is the sum of the demographic price for each individual listing that makes up the package. An easy way to describe this would be that the Base price represents what a customer would pay if they were to book each listing independently.

You have the option to set a demographic’s price by specifying a discrete dollar amount to be discounted, a percentage discount, or by simply choosing a final price. You can also add/remove a shared global demographic to/from the package offering.

Add-On Pricing: If any of the listings that make up the package have Add-ons configured, they will appear on this page.

Similar to demographics, You have the option to set an Add-on’s price by specifying a discrete dollar amount to be discounted, a percentage discount, or by simply choosing a final price. You can also add/remove an Add-on to/from the package offering.

Payment Method: In this section, specify whether you would like to require payment from customers booking via checkout, or not.

Deposits: If you’d like to allow customers to place a down deposit when booking this package via checkout, follow these steps:

• Check the box, Enable deposit payments.
• Specify how far in advance the event's start time must be in order to allow a deposit.
• Enter in the required deposit amount. You have the option to collect:
• A dollar amount per person
• A dollar amount per checkout
• A percentage of the checkout price

Note: Customers who book online will always have the option to pay their checkout amount in full, as opposed to just the deposit amount. 

Package Photos

Each package that you make will need to have a photo uploaded. This photo will be displayed to customers in checkout when they are making a package booking. The primary photo for each individual listing is also displayed to customers, however individual listing photos are displayed a bit less prominently than your package’s primary photo (see packages checkout).

Package photos are configured the same way that Listing photos are - check out this article for instructions on how to upload and manage photos.

Package Questionnaire

When a package booking is made, only one instance of your questionnaire will be prompted post-checkout.

Questionnaires for packages are configured in the exact same way that Listing questionnaires are - check out this article for instructions on how to create and manage questionnaires.

Package Terms and Conditions

Terms and Conditions for packages are configured in the exact same way that Listing Terms and Conditions are - check out this article for instructions on how to create and manage Terms and Conditions.

Taxes and Fees for Packages

Currently, taxes and fees for Package bookings are assessed individually per Event, according to that event's Listing configuration. So, the total Taxes and Fees charged for Package bookings will add up to the same amount that you'd see if both events were booked separately from one another (after any applicable discounts). 

How to Make a Package Booking

In the Back Office

1. From the Dashboard or Purchases tab, click the green Book button and choose an experience to book.
2. Select the Package the customer would like to book.
3. Enter Booking Details.
   • Quantity of guests
   • Date & Time of each event in the Package
     • Note:You can book events that overlap in duration in the back office if you would like (after receiving a pop-up warning asking if you’re sure). When booking a package online, overlapping events are not allowed to be booked.
     • Don’t see the time that you need? Select add a new timeslot to create a new one! (note: if your inventory is not available, you won’t be able to create a new timeslot)
4. Select Add-On Quantity
5. Enter payment details.
6. Apply Gift or Affiliate
   •  Currently, discount coupon codes & Vouchers cannot be used for Package bookings.
7. Select payment method: (CC, Cash, Check, Other, Pay Later).
   • If your customer is paying by check, we recommend noting the check number in the comment section.
   • Pay Later: This allows the customer to reserve their spot without collecting any payment. You can later go into the customer purchase to collect on the balance.
   • Do not charge card now: This will store your customer's card information but will not yet charge the customer. You can later go into the customer purchase to collect on the balance.
8. Add a Booking Note (optional) - This will appear on the resulting booking page and on the event's roster in the Booking Notes section.
9. Click Pay.
   • Note: Package bookings are handled as one single transaction for customers
10. After accepting payment, you will be prompted to complete the Package’s questionnaire (if applicable). This step can be bypassed by clicking "Skip", but must be completed if the booking is made online.
11. After completing the questionnaire (or processing payment if the listing booked does not have a questionnaire), you will be taken into the Package’s purchase record in the Purchases tab.

Checkout

Packages can be added to your website via checkout buttons / combined in Multi-item checkout just like normal listings. See this article for more information on how to configure checkout buttons.

Once you’ve added a Package to a checkout button, follow these steps to make a Package booking via checkout:

1. Open checkout for the Package that you’d like to book
2. Enter Booking Details
   • Enter guest quantity
   • Select date and time for each event
   • Note: when a customer makes a Package booking via checkout, you will be prevented from choosing events that overlap with one another in duration.
   • Enter Add-on quantity for each event
3. Fill out Contact Info
4. Select Continue
5. Enter Gift, Affiliate, or voucher Code
   • Note: Currently, discount coupon codes cannot be used for Package bookings.
6. Enter Credit card details
   • Note: Package bookings are handled as one single transaction for customers
7. Agree to Terms and Conditions (If configured in your account)
8. Fill out Questionnaire (If configured in your account)
9. Sign electronic Waiver (If configured in your account) 

Note: If you are using Custom Conversion Tracking, only the first transaction in a completed checkout using Packages will be accounted for. Click here to learn more about Custom Conversion Tracking.

Emails

When a Package booking is made, customers will receive one Booking Confirmation Email that contains:

• Itemized payment summary
• Time, date, checklist and meeting location for each individual event booked
• Package Other Considerations
• Package Cancellation Policy
• package Terms and Conditions
• Your company's contact info

How to Modify Package Bookings