t's easy to customize your checkout flow, whether you book rentals or activities. Custom Fields are a simple, yet powerful way to capture additional customer information and to see add-ons.
What is a Custom Field?
Custom Fields are additional field that you can add to your booking flow. You can use custom fields for getting additional information about your customers, such as date of birth, life jacket sizes or delivery address. Custom fields can also be used for add-ons. Typical examples of add-ons are tubes, generators, photo packages, t-shirts, lunch or beverage selections, pet fees or delivery fees.
Here are a few of the most common uses of custom fields.
Customer Information
Delivery Address, Life Jacket Sizes Date of Birth are examples of custom field that gather additional information about the customer.
When you use a custom field for information, you can choose to make it a Text or a Select field. With a text field, the customer can enter any information. This may sometimes lead to answers that are funny, but not particularly useful for you.
If you want to make the customer choose between a list of options, use a Select type. That way your customer will be able to select one of the options that you have specified, giving you the information that you need to prepare for the booking.
Add-ons
Add-ons are similar to select fields in that you offer the customer a list of choices. However the difference is that the system automatically adds the price for each item.
Here are a few examples of common add-ons for a camper or RV rental business: s'mores kit, grill, generator. The customer can select what options they want. If they do not choose an option, there is no charge.
For each add-on, you can decide how to charge, either per booking, per hour, per day, or per person. You can also add tax to an add-on if applicable.
And here's how it will show in the price breakdown during checkout.
The amount charged at the time of booking is dependent on the deposit rule you set for the rental or activity. We outlined details in another article that it is sometimes better to charge a deposit at the time of booking and then charge the full amount at check-in or arrival.
One Final Tip!
It's easy to add custom fields to your booking checkout flow, but don't go overboard. Customers do not like checkout forms that have too many fields, so only add what is necessary.
If you need more information about setting up custom fields, you can find more detailed examples here.
Want to know more about what BookingCentral offers? Reach out to our team of experts. We offer a great booking platform for rental and activity operators that is loaded with features you need to successfully run your business.
