Membership Passes

Xola’s Membership Passes give you a powerful way to drive customer loyalty and create exclusive experiences with flexible, customizable membership programs. With Membership Passes, you can let customers buy a membership directly online, unlocking perks like percentage or dollar-amount discounts, priority or members-only access to certain tours, and other unique benefits. Passes can be tailored to suit your exact needs—set up a single-use or reusable membership code, determine which tours or products it applies to, and control who can use it and when.

After purchase, each customer receives a dedicated membership code for simple redemption during future checkouts. You’re in control of every parameter: define seasonal or calendar-based availability, limit redemption to a fixed number of uses, or restrict access to specific products. Blackout dates and expiration controls ensure each pass works exactly as intended, whether you’re running a limited-time special or a year-round VIP club.

Membership Passes aren’t just about rewarding loyal guests—they’re a strategic tool for increasing repeat business, encouraging larger reservations, and giving you the flexibility to experiment with new membership models or exclusive offers. Ultimately, they help you cultivate a repeat audience, strengthen your brand, and add a new revenue stream—all managed effortlessly from your Xola dashboard.

 

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What's covered in this article:

• How to enable Membership Passes
• How to create a Membership Pass
• How to purchase a Membership Pass
• How to make a reservation with a Membership Pass
• Communications
• Membership Report

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How to enable Membership Passes

• Log into your Xola account.
• Go to App Store.
• Find Membership > Click Install.

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How to create a Membership Pass

Once enabled, head to Products > Memberships, then click the Create Membership button to get started.

Description

• Title: The name of the pass (displayed in checkout and emails).

• Description: What the pass offers.

• Price: Set the cost.

• Refund Policy: Let customers know your terms upfront. (optional) 

• Meeting Location: Let guests know where to show up. (optional) 

Benefits

• Discount: Toggle on to apply a dollar or percentage discount.

  • Choose per person or per reservation.

  • If per person: Select which demographics it applies to and how many guests it applies to (limited or unlimited).

• Additional Benefits: List perks like gift shop discounts or exclusive access.

Restrictions

• Control when and how the membership code can be used:

Purchase Window

• Limits the dates on which this code can be applied to a purchase. 

Example: You want the membership code to be redeemed only during November. Once November ends, you don't want customers to be able to use the code anymore. Here, you would set your start date to November 1 and your end date to November 30.

• Blackout dates: By adding a blackout date, you can specify the dates and times when the code cannot be redeemed.

Arrival Window

• Limits the start date and start time of the events to which this code can be applied.

Example: You want to incentivize customers to reserve trips that occur next summer, so you would set your start date to 1 June and your end date to 31 August. You can specify further by placing restrictions on which day of the week and time of day your code can apply to.

• Blackout dates: By adding a blackout date, you can specify event start dates and times when the code cannot be redeemed.
• Expiry: You are required to set an expiration for your membership pass. It can be 30 days or 365 days, whatever you choose. This pass will expire x days from the day the customer purchases it. 

Products

• Select if you would like this code to be applicable to all products, or select individual ones.
• Click the  icon to choose which products you want the membership code to apply to. 
• Event Type: Toggle which event types you would like the membership to apply to. 

Usage Limitation 

• Select if you would like to limit the number of reservations that can be made with the membership pass.
• Usage Limit Per Pass
  • By toggling on, you define the usage limit, which represents the maximum number of times each code in your membership pass can be utilized.
  • Toggling off allows for unlimited usage, permitting the code to be used repeatedly until it expires.
• Member Restriction
  • If this is toggled on, the organizer's ID must be validated at check-in ( if the experience supports the check-in concept). The Person checking in the guest will be prompted to check the ID. 

Photo

• As part of creating your membership pass, you will need to upload photos. The photo you choose as your Primary Photo will appear as the thumbnail image in the back office. During online checkout, this Primary Photo will be displayed on the checkout page and in your shopping cart images.
• Click the Upload Image button to add photos to your membership. Each membership can have a maximum of 10 .jpg and .png images, each with a maximum size of 5 MB.

Questionnaire

Questionnaires collect additional information from your customers after they complete checkout. What is included in the Questionnaire is completely customizable. A Xola user can skip a questionnaire in the back office (it can always be updated in the customer purchase), but customers must complete it if they purchase through your website checkout.

• Toggle on the Enable Traveler Questionnaire.

• Click on the +Add New Question button.

Predefined Questions 

• There are predefined questions you can choose from to build your questionnaire that cover a variety of general themes like Date of Birth, Medical Conditions, Addresses, Marketing Consent, etc. You can access these by clicking on +Add New Question. 
• When customizing the question, you can add additional content and a link, and you can even change the question response type (e.g., from short text to dropdown items).
• You can also make the field required.

Custom Questions

• There are custom questions you can create, such as:
  • Short text
  • Long Text
  • Checkbox
  • Dropdown
• When customizing the question, you can add additional content, a link, and even change the question response type (e.g., from short text to dropdown items).
• You can also make the field required. 

Question Type

• Text: The customer types in response.
• Dropdown: Create and edit your own dropdown menu for customers to choose from.

• Checkbox: Add a custom link and describe it, and Xola will hyperlink it to that website. Great for newsletter and update opt-ins as well as privacy policies or additional terms and conditions.

Adding Taxes & Fees

• Go to Settings > Taxes & Fees.
• Click +Add.
• Set the name, type (flat $ or %).

• Select Membership Pass by clicking on the icon next to the Memberships.

How to Manage Existing Memberships

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How to purchase a Membership Pass 

Back office

Click the green Purchase button from the Dashboard or Purchases tab and choose the membership pass under the Membership section. Once you select the Membership Pass the customer would like, this will take you to the Reservation page.

Membership Details

• Enter the number of Passes.
• Review the Membership Benefits. 

Organizer Details

• Customer Name
• Customer Email 
• Customer Phone

Member Info

The Member Info section will help your staff know who the membership is for. Here you can:

• Fill out the name of each Member Info.
• Fill out the questionnaire answers if you are using this feature. 
• If it is a per-pass questionnaire, you can click on the icon next to each guest and fill out the questionnaire for each attendee.
• If it is per purchase, you can click on the icon next to the first member and fill out the questionnaire.
• If you want to skip this, you can toggle on Ignore questionnaire validation errors for now. 

Payment Details

Next, choose your payment workflow:

• Now: Take immediate payment

Select the payment method: 

• Credit Card
• Cash
• Check: If your customer is paying by check, we recommend noting the check number in the comment section.
• Other: This can be any third-party payment method your business accepts, like PayPal, Bitcoin, or Venmo. You can set these under Settings > Payments.

Internal Notes

Optionally add a Tag or internal note for your staff.

• Tag: A tag is a word or phrase added to a purchase that can be used for searching and filtering in the Purchases tab. When you type the tag into the search bar, it will bring up all purchases that have been tagged as such.
• Purchase Note: This will appear on the event's roster in the Purchase Notes section.

Add Another Product 

You can select the Add Another Product button if you need to add another product to the same purchase. The customer will receive separate confirmation emails for each experience reserved. This ensures you can make changes to one purchase without affecting another.

To complete the purchase, click Pay. 

Checkout

After you create or edit an existing book now button on your site, your customers will be able to purchase a membership pass on your website. To learn more about how to create or edit a button, click here.

View membership details on the Purchases Tab

On the Purchases Tab, you can view the reservation details, modify the customer's information, resend the membership email, view questionnaire answers, and even view a payment summary of the membership. 

Modify Reservations

You will see the modification bar. Here, you can make the following modifications:

• Refund
• Print Receipt
• Resend Membership Email

Purchase Details 

Under the Modification Bar, you will see the membership details. Here you can view:

• Payment Summary: 
  • See how much the customer paid.
  • If there is a Balance Due or Refund Excess Payment, then you will see a button below on the payment summary to prompt the appropriate workflow for you to take. 
• Contact Information: 
  • The contact information of the main organizer of the purchase will be shown in this section. 
  • Message the organizer by hitting the icon  next to their information. 
  • Edit the contacts name, email or phone number by clicking the  icon next to the information. 
  • See the contacts profile by clicking the   icon next to the information.

Members Section

This section will be displayed for all memberships. If you have per-pass questionnaires enabled in Xola, the names of each member will appear here when they complete those items. If you do not utilize these features, only the organizer will be listed. 

In the Members Section, you can: 

• Questionnaire:
  • To see or edit questionnaire answers, click on the icon  with the colored dot next to it > Edit or add the information> click Save.
• See the Membership Code for each Member

Tag a Purchase 

• In this section, you can see, edit, delete, or add:
  • Purchase Notes
    • Purchase notes are for this particular purchase. These can be notes you need your staff to know about this purchase. 
  • Customer Notes
    • Customer Notes are for a particular customer. They will follow the customer for every reservation you make for them.
    • Customer notes can only be deleted in the Customer's Contact profile.
  • Click on the +Add note button to add a note.
  • Click on the pencil icon  to edit the note
  • Click on the trash can icon to delete the note. 
• You will see a note icon with the number of notes  next to each note when a note is present. Click on the arrow next to the type of note to expand the section to see the notes. 

Timeline

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How to make a reservation with a Membership Pass 

Once a Membership Pass is purchased, the customer will receive an email with the membership code. They can use this code to purchase other experiences you offer. 

Back Office

• Click the Purchase button, and select the experience the customer wants to purchase.
• Select the number of guests.
• Selects date/time (if applicable).
• Enter the Organizer details.

• Click on Add a code and enter the Membership code.

Checkout

• Open checkout for the Experience that they would like to reserve
• Enter Booking Details
  • Enter guest quantity
  • Select a date and time for each event
  • Enter the Add-on quantity for each event
• Fill out Contact Info
• Select Continue
• Enter Membership Code, in the 'Have a Code' section
• Enter Credit Card information (if needed)
• Agree to Terms and Conditions (If configured in your account)
• Fill out the Questionnaire (If configured in your account)

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Communications 

Email sent to you when Membership Pass is purchased

Email sent to your customer when they purchase a Membership Pass 

Receipt 

Code details

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Membership Report 

To view a report on Membership Passes sold, go to Reports > Custom Report > Membership. 

• What You’ll Learn: See how memberships are being used, including usage counts, limits, expiration dates, and which memberships are being purchased. 
• Date Filters:
  

  • Purchase Date: The date when the purchase was made.

• What you’ll see in the table: (* column can be filtered)

  • Reservation ID: A unique identifier for the purchase 

  • Purchase Date: The date when the membership was purchased. *

  • Code: The unique code tied to a member's active membership plan.

  • Product: The membership product that was purchased. *

  • Uses: The number of times the membership has been used for a reservation. 

  • Usage Limit: The maximum number of times the membership can be used.

  • Expiry: The date the membership is set to expire.

  • Member Name: The full name of the customer who holds the membership.

  • Member Email: The email address associated with the membership holder.

• When to Use This Report: Use this to track membership activity, monitor usage against limits, and follow up with members before expiration.