Introduction to TablePath Payments
As distinct from Card Holds, TablePath can take payments at booking time if required. All payments are made using Stripe within the booking widgets or edit pages as applicable.
Types of Payment
There are three common scenarios that are catered for by TablePath:
- Deposits and prepayments
- Experiences (Events)
- Optional upsells
Deposits and Pre-payments
Consider the scenario where full prepayment is required in order to book for Afternoon Tea for example. The guest follows the standard Reservation Widget process. When selecting a time, the guest is notified of the payment requirement:
After confirming contact details, the guest must complete the payment using the (Stripe) payment form.
The cancellation policy which specifies the penalty fee and the notice period must be agreed to by the guest. The cancellation policy is also highlighted in the confirmation email for consistency.
Experiences
An experience is a special type of payment in the sense that it has a dedicated experience listing designed to promote special events or offerings (think celebrity chef evenings, wine tasting, etc.) The experiences can be one-off or repeating as required.
If the date / time is fixed, the booking process skips to the customer details page therefore simplifying the guest booking experience.
Discount codes may be configured and applied to all pre-payments including experiences as shown above.
Optional Upsells
The final type of payment enabled in TablePath is the Optional Upsell. This is useful to promote special offers or menu variations in return for a pre-payment commitment. For example, you may want to pre-sell a 'wine pairing' with a dinner booking or perhaps a 'pre-dinner cocktail' at a discounted price.
Here the guest has selected their preferred date and time and has entered their contact details. They are presented with the upsell options. If they don't select one, they can complete their reservation by clicking the 'Complete Your Booking' button.
If they select an option, the form dynamically expands to include the payment capture fields and displays the cancellation policy.
