Collect guest info with allocation and check-in

Intro to allocation and check-in

When your customers make a booking, they must provide their name and email by default. To capture additional information, you can use the allocation and check-in features:

• Allocation captures information at checkout when your customer makes their booking. 
• Check-in captures information after the customer has made their booking directly on the booking confirmation screen or via an email notification. Customers can change their own check-in details through their account unless you lock edits.
• With both allocation and check-in, if the customer made a booking for multiple guests, they can choose to invite guests to access the booking and enter their own information

We recommend using the allocation feature only if the information you are collecting is critical to the customer booking or your operations. This will help reduce any friction at checkout and increase conversion. You can always retrieve more information from customers using the check-in feature later.

Allocation and check-in details are set per variant and extra.

Managing customer questions

Both allocation and check-in pulls form fields from customer questions. Easol comes with default questions, including Name, Email, Date of birth, Mobile phone and more. In addition to default questions, you can also add your own custom customer questions. 

How to add a customer question

1. Go to Content Library > Customer questions.
2. Click New question.
3. Input the Question — this is the form field that’ll be visible to customers.
4. Optionally, add a Reference label for internal purposes.
5. Next, choose a Select question type: open text, multiple choice single-select, date, date and time, checkbox.
6. Optionally, toggle Make this question required to complete. Customers won’t be able to proceed without answering.
7. Optionally, toggle Lead booker to complete only. When active, the question will only need to be completed once by the lead booker.
8. Add hint text to provide some guidance or useful links for the customer on how to answer the questions.
9. Click Save.

The customer question is now ready to be activated for allocation or check-in. 

How to edit a customer question

After saving a customer question, you can edit the question, reference label and hint text. If you’d like to change the question type, it’s recommended to create a new question.

To edit a customer question:

1. Go to Content Library > Customer questions.
2. Click the three-dot icon next to the question you’d like to update and select Edit.
3. Make your edits.
4. Click Save to publish changes.

How to collect guest info at checkout with allocation

1. Select an experience or accommodation and go to the Variants or Extras tab. 
2. Click on a variant/extra and toggle the option for Allocation. 
3. Next, select the fields that customers must fill out at the checkout page. If the field you’d like to select is not available, select Create question.
4. Repeat for other variants/extras.
5. Hit Save to publish changes.

How to collect guest info after checkout with check-in

1. Select an experience or accommodation and go to the Variants or Extras tab. 
2. Click on a variant/extra and toggle the option for Check-in.
3. Next, choose the deadline for when customers will be requested to provide the check-in information (e.g. immediately after booking, 1 week before start of trip, 2 weeks before start of trip).
   • Note: If "immediately after booking" is selected, a link to check-in will be included in the booking confirmation email. No other follow-up emails will be sent to the customer for check-in. For more information, check out customer communications.
4. Optionally, check the Lock information after check in tickbox. This will prevent customers from changing details after saving and they'll be asked to contact your support email address and check the terms and conditions for any further amendments. If left unchecked, customers will be able to edit their guest info as many as times as needed up until the deadline. For more details, check out our article on editing guest information.
   • Note: Locking information only affects details that customers have already saved. They will still be able to log in and enter their details for any new fields that you add (e.g. "Flight Arrival Times") even if check in is locked. 
5. Next, select the fields that customers must fill out. If the field you’d like to select is not available, select Create question.
6. Repeat for other variants/extras.
7. Hit Save to publish changes.

Note: Unless check-in is configured to be completed immediately after booking, customers will be notified 2 weeks, 1 week and on the date of the check-in deadline set to provide the necessary guest information.