API vouchers are bookings sold through an online travel agency (OTA) and redeemed by the customer with the operator. This article explains how an API voucher arrives in Palisis, what changes when it is redeemed, and how each step appears in reports.
Before redemption: identify the voucher
When the booking arrives in Palisis, check the booking details for the following information:
-
Booking reference format:
TOURCMS|TourCMS account id|TourCMS booking id. -
Partner: the partner who sold the booking is shown with
[TourCMS], for example Expedia [TourCMS]. -
Ticket status:
BOOKED. -
Entry:
VOUCHER.
The booking details may show that the booking was paid with Credit card. This is for information only: the OTA processed and received the customer’s payment, not the operator. Consequently, the payment account is empty in the operator’s reports.
Important: The payment method shown in the booking details is not proof that the operator received the payment. Always use the operator’s report and payment account information when reconciling funds.
How to find unredeemed vouchers in the At a Glance report
Unredeemed vouchers are not included in the At a Glance report by default. To display them:
- Open the At a Glance report and select the gear icon.
- Open Included items and select Unredeemed vouchers. Click Close to finish.
After you add the item, the report includes the unredeemed voucher entries. This allows the operator to monitor vouchers that have been sold by the OTA but have not yet been used.
In our example, there is a single booking of 50€ via API:
Redeem the voucher
When the customer uses the voucher, redeem it in Palisis, typically with a Palisis device. For more information about this, please visit the support article How to redeem vouchers.
The original voucher changes to VOUCHER_REDEEMED. Its date remains the original sales date, so the original sale continues to be represented on that date.
Palisis also creates a new booking for the redemption. The new booking has:
- Sales date: the date on which the voucher was redeemed.
- Payment: Voucher.
This separates the OTA sale from the operator’s redemption activity: the original voucher records when the sale took place, while the new booking records when the customer used the voucher.
After the redemption, this is how it looks the original voucher and the new booking generated:
How these actions appear in At a Glance
Before redemption
Booking or voucher details:
- Ticket status
BOOKED - Entry
VOUCHER - Partner includes
[TourCMS] - Booking reference follows the
TOURCMS|account id|booking idformat.
At a glance report:
- Shown only if Unredeemed vouchers has been added through Gear icon > Included items. It is excluded by default. The payment account is empty.
After redemption
Booking or voucher details:
- The original voucher changes to
voucher_redeemedand keeps the original sales date. - A new booking is created with payment type Voucher.
At a glance report:
- The original sale remains associated with its original sales date, while the new booking is reflected on the redemption date.
FAQs
What happens if the OTA made a refund?
For the operator, the booking appears as an unredeemed voucher in Palisis. The operator should perform a refund using Credit card. The credit-card payment was processed on the OTA’s side, not through the operator’s merchant account, although it is reflected as Credit card in the Palisis booking. In the operator’s report, the payment account is empty because the operator has not received the money.