In Xola, a refund means decreasing the total purchase value and returning full or partial payment to the customer. You also have the option to Return Payment Only meaning returning money to a customer in order to collect that money in another form of payment or from another customer. This does not decrease the total purchase value. Lastly, Xola offers you the option to Change Guest Quantity on a reservation, which reduces or increases guest count and gives sellers the option to refund the full or partial price of the ticket or collect the balance. Whatever reason you have for refunding or returning payment, Xola can handle these requests.
What's covered in this article:
Reduce booking value and return payment
Refund to multiple methods of payment
Reduce purchase value and return the payment
What this does: Reduces the customer's total purchase value and sends full or partial payment back to the customer.
When to use: When you need to offer a customer a discount or full refund on their balance or payment. This might be due to something like bad weather conditions or placating an unhappy customer.
Example: Miguel charges two tickets for $205.20 to his credit card for the LAUGAVEGUR CLASSIC Trek - 3 Days for the Climb.
At the very last minute the guide calls in sick, and Miguel and his friend are already on-site ready for their tour. For this terrible inconvenience, the Climb wants to issue Miguel a full refund. In this case, The Climb needs to send $205.20 back to Miguel's credit card.
The Climb would the the following actions:
- Navigate to Miguel's purchase and click the Refund button.
- Select Reduce booking value and return payment.
- Ensure $205.20 is populated in the Amount field. If this is a partial refund, type in the amount to be refunded into the box.
- Select Miguel's credit card as the Method.
- Add a reason for the refund in the Comment field.
- Click Save Changes.
Please note that when issuing credit card refunds, you may not refund a customer more than the amount originally charged to their credit card.
Return payment only
What this does: Returns payment to one customer in order to collect that money either in a new form of payment or from another paying customer. Using the Return Payment feature will always open a balance on the purchase for the amount returned.
When to use: To split payment when one customer has paid for several guests, and those guests would like to pay their share. To allow a customer to switch from cash payment to put the balance on a credit card.
Example: Eddie charges two tickets for $205.20 to his credit card for the LAUGAVEGUR CLASSIC Trek - 3 Days with The Climb. When he and his friend, Bob, arrive for the tour, Bob explains that he would like to put the charge for his ticket on his card instead. In this case, The Climb needs to send $102.60 back to Eddie in order to then collect the $102.60 from Bob instead.
Since Eddie originally paid for both tickets, The Climb would click Return Payment and type in $102.60 (the price of Bob's individual ticket). This will send $102.60 back to Eddie's card and open up a $102.60 balance on the purchase.
The Climb would then do the following:
- Navigate to Eddie's purchase and click the Refund button.
- Select Return payment only.
- Type 102.60 into the Amount field.
- Select Eddie's credit card as the Method.
- Add a reason for the return of payment in the Comment field.
- Click Return Payment.
- In the Purchase, click Collect Balance.
- In the popup window, select Add a new card and enter Bob's credit card details. The Climb could also accept any other form of payment.
- Click Collect.
Please note that when returning payment to a credit card, you may not return a customer more than the amount originally charged on their credit card.
Change guest quantity
What this does: Reduces or increases guest count and gives sellers the option to refund the full or partial price of the ticket or collect the balance.
When to use: It's important to reduce the guest quantity when a guest cancels or does not show up as part of a group. This will maintain your proper guest records and allow you the option of refunding in full, in partial, or not at all.
Example: Eddie buys 2 tickets for a trip with the Climb. A few days before Eddie's friend realizes he won't be able to make it - With The Climb's cancellation policy Eddie is eligible for a 50% partial refund (including taxes and fees). As such, The Climb needs to reduce the guest count to 1 and refund Eddie partially.
The Climb would do the following:
- Navigate to Eddie's purchase and click the Refund button.
- Select Reduce guest count.
- Use the trash can icon to bring remove 1 adult ticket from the purchase.
- Click the Refund menu, select Partial, and enter in $51.30 as the amount to be refunded.
- Click Modify.
- Select Eddie's credit card as the Method.
- Check that Reduce Guest Quantity appears in the Comment field.
- Click Save Changes.
Refund to multiple methods of payment
You may process multiple customers' credit cards or payment methods on one purchase. As such, you may need to issue a refund to multiple methods of payment.
- Navigate into the Purchases tab and click on a purchase for which two or more customers have paid.
- From the Modifications Banner, click Refund.
- In the popup window, enter the exact amount into the Amount field that you want to refund to the customer.
- Select the Method of payment with which you would like to refund the customer.
- To refund an individual customer directly, choose an individual customer's card in the drop-down menu. To split the refunded amount across all paying parties on this purchase, keep Automatic Split Refund selected. Please note that this only applies to credit card refunds.
- Click the Save Changes button.
- To issue a refund to another customer on this purchase, repeat steps 1 - 6.
Refund excess payment
Several modifications, such as adjusting guest count, changing arrival, or switching experiences can decrease the balance on a purchase. The steps below detail details how to refund excess payment on a purchase.
- As soon as excess payment is detected, a green Refund Excess Payment button will appear in the customer purchase.
- Click Refund Excess Payment.
- In the window that opens, the Amount field will default to the full amount of the balance. If you're collecting the full balance, simply choose the method of payment and click Save Changes. If you only want to collect a partial amount, type in the amount, choose the payment method and then click Save Changes.
- You’ll immediately see the balance adjust in the purchase to reflect full or partial settling.
Note: If you wish to add funds to your account to issue refunds please see article here.