Activities, Events & Resources
GemaPark can manage the sale of activities, events and other limited extras either as part of an accommodation booking or on their own.
Limited availability extras:
These are like normal extra that are sold by the day, week, month or year and can be given a daily limit. If your requirement is simple and you don’t need to sell multiple timeslots in a day or share a resource between multiple extras you can just set up a limited availability extra and set the daily availability. Common examples are Cots and Highchairs.
Events/Activities
For more complex extras where there are timeslots and/or limited resources Event extras should be used.
The data model for selling such extras is as follows:
Resources: These are items that have limited availability and are required to deliver the extra. E.g. a bike, a leader, a building. Resources can be allocated to multiple extras each specifying how many of the resources they need. The resources can then be limited so that bookings across all the extras cannot exceed the resources available.
Events: Events are essentially a group of times slots which are linked to extras to sell. They define the dates and times of the timeslots available for the extra. The timeslots can also have a limited number of spaces which will work in conjunction with the resources limits when working out the availability of the extra.
Event Extras: These are the ‘tickets’. They are linked to an ‘Event’ for the time slots and can be linked to resources if required. Each ticket specifies how many space are needed and what resources are required per ticket.
Resource Extras: This is a special extra for back office use only that can be used to book out a resource for a variable time period.
Extra Groups: Extra can be grouped for easy when selling. The extras sales pages in the guest area and for standalone sales can be limited to a single group or event. Extras are also ordered by group and can be ordered within groups bringing control over the order of extras to all the online booking screens.
Some common examples:
Archery
Event/s
Archery – timeslots Sat 1pm – 2:30pm, 3pm – 4:30pm, Mon-Fri 4pm – 5:30 pm
Extras
Archery – Links to Event: Archery
This is simple example no resource are required
Bike Hire
Resources:
5 Adults bikes
3 Junior bikes
Event/s
Daily bike hire – timeslots Mon-Sat 9am – 5pm
Half day bike hire – timeslots Mon-Sat 9am – 12 noon, 1pm – 5pm
Extras
Adult bike day hire – Links to Event: Daily bike hire, Resources: 1 Adult bike
Adult Bike half day hire – Links to Event: Half day bike hire, Resources: 1 Adult bike
Junior Bike day hire – Links to Event: Daily bike hire, Resources: 1 Junior bike
Junior Bike half day hire – Links to Event: Half day bike hire, Resources: 1 Junior bike
Couple Offer Bike day hire – Links to Event: Daily bike hire, Resources: 2 Adult bikes
Extra Group
Bike Hire – Assigned extras all the above.
Note: in this example we have two events. This is because each extra is linked to a single event and offers all the timeslots for that event. We want to price day hire and half day hire at different rates so we need to set up two events. We have then created a Bike Hire Group so we can have a bike hire page in the guest area even though it covers multiple events.
2 day Festival
We will want to sell day tickets and weekend tickets but want to ensure there are never more than 250 people on the site.
Resources:
250 festival spaces
Event/s
Festival weekend tickets – Standalone event Friday 9pm – Sun 8pm
Festival day tickets – timeslots Fri-Sat 9am – 11pm
Extras
Weekend Adult – Links to Event: Festival weekend tickets, Resources: 1 festival space
Weekend Child – Links to Event: Festival weekend tickets, Resources: 1 festival space
Weekend Family – Links to Event: Festival weekend ticket, Resources: 4 festival spaces
Daily Adult – Links to Event: Festival day tickets, Resources: 1 festival space
Daily Child – Links to Event: Festival day tickets, Resources: 1 festival space
Extra Group
Festival – Assigned extras all the above.
Note: in this example the resource is not a real thing but just a way to limit the numbers across the different overlapping timeslots.
Pool bookings
Tis example illustrates pool bookings and uses a resource extra to book the whole pool out when there is a class happening in the pool
Resources:
50 pool spaces
Event/s
Pool – timeslots everyday 7:00-9:00, 9:00 – 11:00, 11:00 -13:00, 13:00 – 15:00, 15:00 – 17:00, 17:00 – 19:00
Extras
Adult – Links to Event: Festival weekend tickets, Resources: 1 festival space
Child – Links to Event: Festival weekend tickets, Resources: 1 festival space
Pool Booking, Resources 50 spaces (required whole pool)
The Pool Booking Extra is set as a resource extra so it can been added to a booking for a custom time period via the back office. It will warn that it is not available if the pool has other bookings overlapping it, and once booked it will prevent any other pool bookings online and will warn about lack of availability if they are added offline.
Setting up Resources
Resources are defined at company level and can be shared across parks. They can be accessed from the admin dropdown in the top menu bar, Admin > Resources.
To add a new resource click the green ‘+new’ button
The new resource screen will create the resource definition and the initial number of physical resources. So below will create a resource of Adult Bike with 5 bikes called AB1 to AB5. The start and end date are optional and can specify the date these resources will come into or go out of existence.
To edit a resource select the pencil icon, this will allow you to edit the name and description.
The list icon will show you a list of the physical resources:
From here you can edit the individual resources, e.g. set the start or end dates if they are coming into or going out of commission. Note you don’t need to set the start date if the resource is already active.
You can also add more physical resources by clicking the ‘+new’ or remove resources using the x icon. Note: If a resource has been in use but is now at end of life it’s better to set the end date than delete the resource.
The system will not let you delete the resource if it is required to meet future booking commitments.
Setting up the Events
Resources are defined at park level. They can be accessed from the admin dropdown in the top menu bar, Admin > ‘Park Name’, then click events from the right-hand menu.
To add a new event click the green ‘+new’ button
On the new event screen you can set up the event details with a description that shows on the website and a picture if you would like one.
The type can be recurring (allowing multiple timeslots for the event) or stand-alone (a one-off single event).
Offer on first day of stay should be set if you are happy for customers to book a timeslot on the arrival day of their holiday.
Show on web dictates whether the event tickets are available online on any of the online booking screens. This setting overrules the individual ticket extras and is a good way to keep a whole event offline until you are happy it is all set up correctly.
If the event is stand-alone you will be asked on this page to set the dates and capacity.
If the event is recurring, once you have saved the event, select availability from the side menu to set up the capacity and ‘Time slots‘ from the side menu to set up the time slots.
Event Availability
Availability can be set for different date ranges and applies to all timeslots falling on those dates.
Note: If you have different availability for different timeslots on the same day set up an event for each set of availability data. You can use resources to limit availability across the two events.
Event Time Slots
Timeslots can be set for different date ranges.
For each date range you set a slot up giving it a day of the week, start time and end time. The slots will repeat for each day and time in the given date range.
Time should be given in 24h clock.
Note: No two slots can start on the same day and time within the given date range. If you have a 9:00 – 10:00 and a 9:00 – 11:00 set up different events for the 1 hour and 2 hour slots. You can manage availability across them using resources and you probably want to charge differently for them anyway.
Set up the Extra
Once you have set the event up you need to set the extra up. Go to Admin > ‘Park Name’, then click extras from the right-hand menu and the green ‘+New’ button to add an extra.
When setting the extras for events up there are a couple of differences to setting up normal extras.
Under availability, set the Availability to ‘Event’ then select the event this extra is selling.
Set spaces sold to the number of spaces on the event this tick will take up.
If you want to collect participant info tick the box, and set the type for each occupant on the ticket.
For example, Adult Yoga would require an adult occupant and children’s painting would require a child occupant. If set, when booking online, the customer be asked to select which occupant on the booking will be taking part in the event.
If the extra requires the use of resources
The rest of the extra set up is as per the normal set up however you want to make sure the options to book this online are correct:
You should set this to sell with online booking if you want the customer to book this when they are initially booking their holiday on your website.
You should set this to sell in members area if you want the customer to book this after they have completed their holiday booking within the guest area.
You should set this to sell without accommodation if the event can be booked without a corresponding holiday e.g. you may sell day tickets to a festival without camping.
Once the extra has been set up you will then price the extra in the normal way with the price being per spot on the event.
Booking Activities in GemaPark
Once the events and extras have been set up you can then book these on a booking under the extra’s options within GemaPark.
You can select the start date if the event runs over multiple sessions throughout the booking and you can book as many people as you like on the event. It will then price the event in the same way as a normal extra with the green refresh and this will then book the spots onto the event.
Booking Activities Online
The customer can also book these online and this will show both in the guest area and online booking in the same way.
The events will show at the bottom of the list and the customer can select to book as many sessions as they like.
After adding the event to the booking, they can proceed in the normal checkout process with the event being payable as per the normal booking rules. Or you can request for the event to be paid upfront on booking if you only collect a deposit at booking.
If you don’t want the customer to book events when they are booking their holiday you can switch off the online booking element and just have it as part of the guest area.
When the customer navigates through the guest area, they will be able to click the button to add extras to their booking.
This then takes them to a checkout process that only shows the available events they can book.
After adding the events to the basket, the simple checkout is then followed after clicking continue which just asks for the card payment details.
After checking out the customer will get a booking updated email with confirmation of the events now included and the booking updated task will raise for you in GemaPark.
Reporting
There is an extras numbers report available within GemaPark. You can select to run this for a specific event over a specific date to see what your capacity is.
The default report template will look something like this and can be personalised to suit your requirements.
