You can sell gift cards, also called gift vouchers, on your booking page. Guests choose an amount, pay online, and send the card by email to someone else or keep it themselves. The card then pays for any of your activities. What a booking doesn't use stays on the card. You can also issue a card yourself when you sell one in person or give one away. Gift cards are on Standard and Pro.

Steps to start selling gift cards

  1. Go to Gift cards in the sidebar and select Settings.
  2. Under Selling on your booking page, tick Sell gift cards on your booking page.
  3. Under Amounts, enter the amounts guests choose from, like 25, 50 and 100. Select Add an amount for another one, up to 6.
  4. To let guests type their own amount, tick Let guests type an amount and enter the lowest and highest amount.
  5. Under How long cards last, choose how long New cards last. See How long cards last.
  6. Select Save settings.

Your booking page then gets a "Give a gift card" box under your activities, with a Buy a gift card button, and a "Gift cards" link at the bottom. The settings show the page's address under "Guests buy them here:", and Share shows it too. See Share your booking page.

Guests pay for gift cards online, so connect Stripe first. Until you do, the settings say so, with Go to Payments. See Connect Stripe to take online payments.

Guests can buy gift cards when all of these are true:

  • Sell gift cards on your booking page is ticked.
  • Your plan is Standard or Pro.
  • You have at least one amount, or guests can type an amount.
  • Stripe is connected and taking payments.

At the top of Gift cards, a notice says whether guests can buy cards on your booking page now.

How guests buy a gift card

  1. On your booking page, they select Buy a gift card, or "Gift cards" at the bottom of the page.
  2. They choose an amount, or select Other amount and type one between your lowest and highest.
  3. Under Who is it for?, they choose Someone else or Me.
  4. For someone else, they enter Their name and Their email and pick a day under When should it arrive?, from today up to a year ahead. They can add A message on the card.
  5. They enter their own details under Your name and Email.
  6. They select Continue to payment and pay in Stripe's payment form on the page.

The card is made once Stripe confirms the payment. If the guest doesn't finish paying, no card is made. Bank transfers and other payment methods that take days to arrive aren't offered for gift cards.

What the guest gets

  • The card's page: the card in your accent colour, what is left of its amount, who it is for and who it is from, the message, the code, its last day and a QR code. From there, guests can book with you or select Print the gift card. Links to card pages are private, so search engines don't show them.
  • The card by email: the person it is for gets it at once, or from 08:00 on the day the buyer chose, in your business's time zone.
  • A receipt by email: the buyer gets one that says the card was sent, or when it will be. A buyer who chose Me gets the card itself in that email.

The emails come in your business's name, in the language the buyer used on your booking page, with the card's QR code attached. The Owner and Managers who get booking emails also get a "Gift card sold" email for each card sold online. To write to the buyer, reply to it. See Notifications for your team.

Money and fees

  • The money for a card goes to your Stripe account.
  • TicketPa takes its fee when the card sells. It is the same percentage as on your online booking payments.
  • You always pay this fee, even when you pass the booking fee on to guests. A 50 card costs the buyer 50.
  • When a card pays for a booking later, TicketPa takes no fee.
  • Stripe's own fee applies to the sale, as on any online payment.
  • Cards you issue yourself have no TicketPa fee.

See Online payment fees explained.

Issue a gift card yourself

Issue a card when a guest pays for it in cash, by card on site or by bank transfer, or when you give one away.

  1. On Gift cards, select Issue a gift card.
  2. Enter the Amount.
  3. Under How it was paid for, choose Cash, Card on site, Bank transfer or Given for free.
  4. Under Who it is for, add a Name and Email if you like. If you add an email address, they get the card by email at once.
  5. Under Who it is from, add the buyer's Name and Email if you like. If you add an email address, the buyer gets a receipt.
  6. Add a Message if you like. It shows on the card.
  7. Select Issue gift card.

Find a gift card

Gift cards lists every card, newest first, 25 to a page, with its Code, For, From, Amount, Left, Last day and Status.

  • Search by the code, with or without dashes, or by the name or email of the buyer or the person it is for.
  • Use Any status to see only cards that are Active, Used up, Past its end date or Ended.
  • Still on gift cards shows what is still on the cards that can pay. It is what you still owe guests in activities.

A gift card's page

Select a card to open it. It shows what the card is Worth, what is Left, who it is For and who it is From. It also shows whether it was bought online or issued by your team, how it was paid for, when it was emailed or when it goes out, its language and its message.

History lists what happened to the card, newest first: issued, used on a booking, given back from a booking, refunded or ended, each with the booking and who did it.

The buttons on a card:

  • Open the card: opens the card's page as the guest sees it.
  • Email the card: sends it again to the person it is for, or to a new address. Whoever you send it to becomes the person it is for.
  • Change the end date: pick a new Last day from today on, or choose No end date. It can't be shorter than the law allows, counted from the day the card was bought or issued.
  • Refund to the buyer: for a card bought online that nobody has used yet. The buyer gets all their money back through Stripe, TicketPa gives back its fee, and the card ends.
  • End the card: stops the card. What was left on it can't be used any more, and bookings it already paid for stay paid. This can't be undone.

How long cards last

You choose how long your gift cards last. You are responsible for following the rules where your business is.

  • Under New cards last, choose 1, 2, 3 or 5 years, or No end date. It starts at 1 year, or at the law's minimum where there is one.
  • The time counts from the day a card is bought or issued. A card works until the end of its last day, in your business's time zone.
  • A change applies to new cards only. Cards already sold keep their last day. To change it on one card, use Change the end date.
  • TicketPa blocks shorter choices only where it knows a law sets a minimum: 5 years in the United States and Ireland, 3 years in Australia and New Zealand, and 2 years in the Netherlands. There, the settings say how many years the law asks for, and a card's end date can't be moved below it.

A short end date can also be a problem in these places:

Where What to know
Germany Courts have found a 1-year end date in a business's terms unfair. 3 years or more is the safer choice.
Austria Courts found 2 years too short for a card a guest paid for. 5 years or no end date is the safer choice.
Switzerland It isn't clear whether a short end date would hold up. 5 years or no end date is the safer choice.
Spain Consumer offices say gift cards shouldn't expire. No end date is the safer choice.
Canada In most provinces, gift cards for an amount of money can't have an end date. Choose no end date.
United States Some states, like California, don't allow end dates on gift cards, and Massachusetts asks for 7 years. Check your state's rules or choose no end date.
Elsewhere In many countries, the money on a card past its end date can still be owed to the guest for some years.

Note: This isn't legal advice. The rules change from place to place, so check them where your business is, or ask a lawyer or your local consumer office.

Plans

Gift cards are on Standard and Pro. On Basic, Gift cards in the sidebar shows a lock. You can still open the screen, its settings and each card, and a note says what changes:

  • Guests can't buy new cards, and your team can't issue cards or save the settings.
  • The cards already sold still pay for bookings.
  • You can still email them, change their end date, refund them to the buyer and end them.

See Your plan and what it includes.

Good to know

  • Gift cards is for the Owner and Managers. Hosts don't see it, but they can take a gift card as payment at check-in. See Use a gift card to pay for a booking.
  • If you refund a card's sale in your Stripe dashboard, that amount comes off the card, and a full refund ends it. If the buyer disputes the payment with their bank, the card ends.