A Few Upgrades in Gift Certificates

It is now easier than ever to sell gift certificates on your website. Thanks to requests from a few users, we have added a couple of features - ability to collect credit card information instead of using an online payment method, and ability to set the amounts that are displayed, and a new field for buyer phone number.

Setting Custom Amounts

To set which amounts your customers can purchase gift certificates in, just add an amount string in the settings section for your certificates. Such as "100#200#300".




Collecting Credit Card Numbers

Previously an integrated payment method was required (such as PayPal or Authorize.net) for processing the gift certificate purchases. We did this in order to completely automate the process of selling certificates. However, some users have been reluctant to set up PayPal or one of the other integrations just for gift certificate purchases. For those users, it is now possible to use "Offline Payment Method" which works the exact same way as it does with the reservation pages. The buyer enters their credit card details on the gift certificate purchase page and the seller (you) get an email with the first 12 digits of the credit card number. The last four digits are saved with the gift certificate information. The gift certificate is not valid for use until you have charged the buyer's credit card and marked the gift certificate as valid. This way, in case there is a problem with the buyer's credit card the buyer can be contacted to fix this, prior to the gift certificate being usable. We have also added a field for buyer's phone number on the gift certificate page, to hopefully make it easier to contact the buyer, if necessary.

Here's how to set this up:

1. Set the Payment Method to Offline Credit Card
- if you don't already have such a method in your account, go to Payment Methods and add one first


2. Buyer Makes Purchase
- you will receive an email notification containing the first 12 digits of the credit card number
- the email also has a link for retrieving the last four digits


3. Activate the Certificate
- charge the buyer's credit card by matching the card numbers up (from the email and from the retrieval page)
- click the Activate button to activate the gift certificate


It is also possible to retrieve the card digits and activate from within ReservationKey, in the Gift Certificates page.

Click View Certificates Sold:


And click "Mark As Paid"


From this screen, you can also retrieve the last four digits of the card number. Once marked as paid, the Payment Information section will contain the date that you made the change.