Online Bookings

[Ashton]

We are in the process of setting up a website for our rib trip business.

We would like to have a facility for potential customers to book trips online on our website but dont know if it is just adding cost to the project. Does anyone have any experience or views on this booking method?

Thanks!

[findeep]

It might be worth looking at www.freelancer.co.uk and getting people to quote for doing it, that way you'll get an idea of cost

Max

[Polwart]

Originally Posted by Ashton

We are in the process of setting up a website for our rib trip business.

We would like to have a facility for potential customers to book trips online on our website but dont know if it is just adding cost to the project. Does anyone have any experience or views on this booking method?

Thanks!

Ashton, In "normal life" I would expect this sort of feature, for a serious operation. However if a lot of your customers are on holiday then will they have web access? Also how weather dependant are you (if I book today 2 weeks in advance presumably you may need to refund me if the weather is crap? what if I book for tomorrow and you have a bad weather forecast or an engine problem will it be easy for you to update booking availability to show this).

In terms of costs there should be some fairly "off the shelf" components for you / your developer to use.

[Trailer Bloke]

Originally Posted by Ashton

We are in the process of setting up a website for our rib trip business.

We would like to have a facility for potential customers to book trips online on our website but dont know if it is just adding cost to the project. Does anyone have any experience or views on this booking method?

Thanks!

If its any help I am getting my developer to do this right now and he should have it to me hopefully within the next few weeks

If it works Ok as I am paying for it I could for a small concideration let you use it!

[Trailer Bloke]

Just for your information there are lots of Companies that will host on line booking the biggest being goliath http://www.goliathreservations.com

But they charge per booking taken with a minimum per month

I worked it out as very costly!

[redthunder]

I run a Company that provides on line booking systems for RYA training centres and other watersports centres called http://www.classcalendar.biz/index.html It is mainly for training centres but I use it to take boat bookings as well as it has times, dates and live availability as well as taking credit and debit cards. The cost is either £100 per month for unlimited use or 2% of all transactions though the system. It is web based so you can access it anywhere you have a web connection.

[tim griffin]

I have a online booking system that I set up with my web designer very easy to do and don't need to go to a hosting company and pay a monthly fee.
Ta Tim

[seafariskye]

Have been doing this for a number of years now, and although someone said it works out as costly - it works out better than no booking at all, on the scale of what you take in it is worth every penny, so ignore that.

Under the new credit card regulations that came in this year, i find it hard to believe that you can simply set it up - with your web designer, maybe last year, but not this one - you have to remem that with all the card fraud that is going on people are more wary, and not so keen to put their card details in - so a recognised setup is security for the customer, and makes it a better looking operation.
I am in the process of changing mine over to a better system, and should be sorted in the next week or so, also someone said that would people actually book online when they are already on holiday. answer is yes, without a doubt.

If you want the details of the 2 companies i use email me at skyeseafari@aol.com

Off the top of my head, i would say it works out about 3.5 % of the total price entered by the customer, you will have to have a visa/credit card machine and have 2 seperate merchant accounts.

Pete

[tim griffin]

Links in to Paypal so very easy to set up .
Other ones out there a world pay and nochecks.
A small percentage is charged for each transaction but no big deal and allows potential customers to book online and payonline all in one go.
Been doing it this way for about 5 years and not had any problems with it yet and is a secure system for customers peace of mind.
Ta
Tim

[SPR]

www.Eventbrite.com they process via Paypal or google checkout, you can either include the commission in ticket price or charge people for the cost of processing

I am using it more and more http://www.eesc.org.uk/content/

add it in your site via an Iframe or Wrapper in Joomla...

Regards

S.