Custom fields are perfect to gather important information from a customer before they checkout (such as hotel pick up point, height, allergies). This will save you time so you can focus on your activities instead.
We have four types of custom fields but we only need to think about two for now - Guests & Users.
Guest - A guest is a person partaking in an activity
User - A user is a person booking the activity
How to create/edit a custom field
Step 1: Open Custom Fields
On your admin dashboard, click the 'Design & Pages' drop-down menu on the top navigation bar and select Custom Fields.
Step 2: Select and create your custom field type
You will then open the Custom Fields menu and need to select which type of field you would like to edit. Below is an explanation of the difference between Guest and User Custom Fields.
Guest Custom Field
Guest Custom fields are questions asked to every individual guest attending the tour and are displayed after the number of guests has been selected. Note - If Variable Pricing or The Number of Seats an Order of this Category will Occupy is used in your tour schedule, then only one set of guest custom fields will be displayed.
By default, there are three pre-set Guest Custom Fields - First Name, Last Name, and Gender. Gender is used to determine a prefix Mr or Ms to names for your automated confirmation emails and tickets.
Guest Custom Fields can be limited to only be displayed on selected activities.
An example is shown below
In this example, you can see how the Gender Guest Field appears during the booking journey, and how to switch off the Guest Custom Field. One of our activities includes a tasty snack, so I am going to create a Guest Custom Field to ask about food allergies.
User Custom Field
User Custom Fields are only asked the person making the booking and are asked after the Guest Custom Fields and before the final Payment Page. A lot of tours don't require individual guest information, so User Custom Fields are the better option.
An example is shown below
In this example, you can see how to ask for the First Name, Last Name and Phone Number of the person making the booking. The First Name, Last Name, and Phone Number Fields are already pre-set and need to be activated. We will also change the label for Phone Number from Phone to Contact Phone Number.
The other two types of Custom Fields are Activity and Basket, These are rarely used compared to guest and user.
The Activity Field is linked to each activity and displayed on the website activity page. It can be used, for example, to classify the level of fitness needed to partake in a tour.
The Basket Field is linked to a basket and used internally for your own records and reporting.
Custom Field Jargon Explained:
| Field Name - Name of the custom field. |
|
Field Type - Select the type of custom field. Text A text box for your customer to write within (for example, flight Number) |
| Is required - Is this field mandatory for the customer/user to fill out? |
| Visibility - Is this field visible to your customers? |
| Label - The heading for the custom field (when visible to the customer). |
| Options - The possible choices for this custom field (this is only applicable for radio buttons, checkboxes, and drop-down lists). When adding more than one option, be sure to write one option on each line. |
| Limit to Activities - Select which tours you would like this field to apply to. |
| Field name: - The internal naming you'll set for your custom field. |