Gift vouchers

A gift voucher is a prepaid code with a value. Whoever holds the code can spend it on a booking at your venue, or you can redeem it in person at the door. It is valid for 180 days from the day it is created. You can manage vouchers on the Marketing page, sell them from your own website with the API, and have your own server told about every change with webhooks.

How a voucher works#

• Value and balance. A voucher has a face value and a balance that goes down as it is spent. It can be spent in several bookings. A €60 voucher used on a €45 booking has €15 left. Used on a €90 booking, it pays €60 and the player owes €30.
• Whole venue or one room. A voucher is good for any room at your venue, or only the room you choose.
• Code. It looks like GIFT-7K3M-Q9XD-2VBN. It is generated for you and is hard to guess.
• Expiry. 180 days. The voucher's details on the dashboard show the date it is Valid until and the days left. A refund of a cancelled booking restores money to the voucher but does not extend its expiry.
• Service fee. Selling a voucher has no service fee. When a booking is later paid with a voucher, the normal service fee is still charged on top, because a voucher never reduces it.

Create a voucher on the dashboard#

Use this when you sell a voucher yourself, for example at the front desk, and have taken the money yourself. Only an owner or an admin can open the Marketing page and create vouchers.

1. Open Marketing

   Go to Dashboard→Business→Marketing. The voucher form is on the right, under New gift voucher.

   

   

2. Choose where it applies and the amount

   Applies to is Whole venue or one room. Amount (€) is the value of the voucher, from €5 upwards.

3. Create voucher

   Choose Create voucher. The voucher is active immediately and its code is shown in the list. Give the code to your customer.

Vouchers you create this way do not go through Stripe: no payment is collected by MyEscapeRoom, and the buyer is not emailed automatically. Pass on the code yourself.

Sell vouchers online#

Your own website can sell vouchers through the embed API, with an API key from Dashboard→Setup→API. This is for developers; see Embed booking widget and the API reference. How it works for you:

• The buyer pays online, through MyEscapeRoom and Stripe. The voucher is Awaiting payment until the payment succeeds, then it becomes active.
• You receive the full amount, less Stripe's card processing fee. It is transferred to your Stripe account. There is no service fee and no commission on a sale. Your venue needs a connected Stripe account; see Connect Stripe & get paid.
• The amount is chosen by your site, from €1 to €1,000 per voucher.
• If your site gives the buyer's email, the buyer is emailed the voucher: its code, value, the room it is good for, the date it is valid until and a button to book with it. Your site can switch this off with notifyBuyer: false if it sends its own email.
• If you take the money yourself and only want a voucher recorded, the call can say collectPayment: false. The voucher is then active at once and Stripe is not involved. This needs a key with May manage vouchers (see below).

A sale still Awaiting payment can be stopped with Cancel sale on its detail card. If the buyer has already paid, the cancel is refused ("The buyer has already paid") and the voucher becomes active.

The permission: May manage vouchers#

Selling vouchers online with payment needs nothing special. Three things are sensitive because they reveal or create codes without a payment behind them. A key can only do them when its May manage vouchers switch is on:

• listing your vouchers and their codes;
• creating a voucher without taking payment;
• cancelling a voucher you sold yourself.

You set it when you create a key, or later with the switch in the key list, under Dashboard→Setup→API. Anyone who can manage API keys (owners and admins) can change it. Only turn it on for a key that lives on your own server: a key in a web page can be used by anyone who views it. Without the switch, such a call is refused with API_KEY_NOT_PERMITTED. See API keys.

The buyer's name and email are personal data too. A key sees them in voucher answers only with May manage vouchers or May read guest details; for any other key they are null.

Invoices for voucher sales#

At a Belgian venue, the buyer of a voucher can ask for an invoice. Only the sales that MyEscapeRoom charged are invoiced this way.

• The invoice is issued in your venue's name, with your invoicing profile, for the voucher's amount. There is no service fee invoice for a sale, because a sale has no fee.
• The buyer asks when the voucher is sold, or later, until the 15th of the month after the payment. Your website sends their details to the API.
• If your invoicing profile is incomplete, or your rooms are taxed at different rates and the voucher is for any room, you are emailed to invoice the sale yourself.
• A voucher you created yourself, or recorded without payment, is never invoiced by MyEscapeRoom. You invoice it yourself.
• Sales invoices show on Dashboard→Business→Invoices and in the monthly export for your accountant.

See Invoicing & VAT profile.

Spend a voucher on a booking#

On the payment step of the booking form the player fills in Gift voucher (optional) with the code. Your booking widget or site can send the code as voucherCode. The price summary shows a Gift voucher line.

• The voucher pays what is left of the room price after any discount. It never covers the service fee.
• The money is taken from the voucher when the booking is made, before it is paid. If the player abandons checkout or the hold expires, the money goes back on the voucher.
• If the voucher covers the whole room, no payment for the room is needed. Only the service fee is paid online.
• If a booking that used a voucher is cancelled, the money goes back on the voucher. If the voucher has expired meanwhile, the money is restored but the expiry is not extended, and the player is told to contact you.

The code is refused when:

• it is unknown, expired, still awaiting payment, cancelled, or limited to another room ("That voucher code is not valid for this room.");
• its balance is empty ("That voucher has no balance left.").

Redeem a voucher in person#

When a guest brings a code to the door, redeem the amount on the voucher's detail card. Owners and admins do this on the Marketing page; hosts do not have that page, so a host asks an owner or admin to redeem it.

1. Select the voucher

   On Dashboard→Business→Marketing choose the voucher in the Gift vouchers list. Check its Remaining balance and that it is Unused and not expired.

2. Enter the amount and redeem

   Type the amount in Redeem in person (€) (it starts at the full remaining balance) and choose Redeem.

   

   

If you redeem more than the voucher has left, or it has expired, you see "That's more than the voucher has left, or it's expired." The History lists every draw: online bookings (with their reference) and in-person redemptions (with who did it). Made a mistake? Undo reverses an in-person redemption.

Voucher statuses#

Cancel or delete a voucher#

• Delete voucher removes a voucher you created yourself, after a confirmation. A voucher sold online is never deleted, because it is the record of a payment.
• A voucher a buyer has paid for online cannot be cancelled or refunded from the dashboard or the API.
• A voucher sold without online payment can be cancelled through the API (with the May manage vouchers permission) only while its whole balance is left.

Webhooks#

Your own system can be told when a voucher is sold, spent, given back or cancelled. See Webhooks.

Who can do what#

Related#

• Discounts
• Webhooks
• Embed booking widget
• Invoicing & VAT profile