The Participant fields are a key feature in ensuring accurate and efficient data collection during the booking process - both online and through the back office. These fields allow for clear identification and association of individuals (participants or co-travelers) taking part in an experience.
To maximize their functionality, it is important to understand how Guest validation interacts with the booking process and how participant information is collected and managed.
1. Passing Guest validation
Validating or identifying the customer is essential for using the participant fields effectively in both online and back-office bookings. This process requires either an active PMS integration, the Itineraries feature or the BOOK FOR GUEST feature.
For the first two features (PMS integration and Itineraries), the customer or back-office user must successfully pass the Guest validation step before proceeding with the booking. This ensures that the system can correctly associate participants/co-travelers with a specific customer profile.
Booking process for online bookings (via the widget)
Guest Validation (Online)
For bookings made online by the customer via the widget, Guest validation is required for participant fields to function in the most effective way.
Completing the participant field(s) during checkout:
Step 1: Select whether the customer making the booking is also participating in the experience.
If "Yes"- The customer is marked as Participant #1 and their information is automatically filled in.
If "No" - The customer is not participating (e.g., a parent booking for their child), and the Participant fields must be manually filled out for each participant.
Example: A parent booking an activity for two children. In this case, the parent is not participating, so the participant fields would need to be completed with the children's information.
Step 2: Select the participant(s) from the dropdown menu.
If previously saved participant information exists and is listed in the dropdown, once the participant is selected, it will auto-populate the fields.
If no information exists, the fields remain blank and must be manually filled in.
If the participant is not listed in the dropdown, a new participant can be created by entering their details directly.
Booking process for Back-office bookings
Guest Validation (Back-office)
When booking through the back office, the process of identifying the customer is equally important. Guest validation ensures that participant information is properly linked to the customer.
Completing the participant field(s) during checkout:
The process mirrors the online booking flow:
Participant fields are completed in the same way after Guest validation.
Pre-existing participant data will populate automatically, or new participants can be created if needed.
2. Skipping Guest validation
If Guest Validation is skipped - either by the customer selecting "Proceed as Visitor" online or the back-office user choosing to skip this step - the participant(s) will still be linked to the booking even though the customer has not been identified.
However, since the customer is not identified, the system will not update any existing participant profiles linked to them and will instead create duplicate participant entries.
In this scenario:
The Participant fields will still be displayed during the booking process.
Any data entered will not be linked to existing participant profile(s).
The system will create new participant records instead of updating existing ones.
This can lead to:
Duplicate participant entries
Less efficient data tracking
Participant fields in the online booking process (widget):
Participant fields in the back-office booking process:
Click on the following article to find out more about the Participant fields.