In this edition of our newsletter, we're letting you know about our Christmas Support Hours, and recent and upcoming product releases, including Direct Debit, new calendar widget, and self-service customer amendments.
Everyone here at Bookteq would like to wish all of our clients and their families a lovely Christmas and New Year. Thank you for your support in 2024 and we look forward to what 2025 brings.
Recent Releases
Reporting on Additional Questions
You can now download the answers to any additional questions you have asked during the booking process, whether it is for a booking or as part of our sessions feature.
Accessing these answers can be done through downloading a report from the Bookings tab from the left hand navigation bar for bookings, or from the participant list for any sessions you are running. More information can be found in our support article here.
Date filter feature on dashboard
On your dashboard, you can now analyse your bookings data across a data range.
In the top right hand corner of your screen, you can filter by a date range which will automatically update the trend graphs on the screen.
Performance upgrade
Overnight on the Wednesday 11th December, we performed some scheduled performance upgrades to the system. This upgrade significantly reduces latency (the delay or lag between an action being taken and the corresponding response from the software), ensuring faster response times and a smoother user experience. By optimising data handling, we’ve also improved the system’s capacity to manage high volumes of bookings more efficiently.
Upcoming product releases
BACS Direct Debit
Adding BACS Direct debit, a Stripe solution that will bring online direct debit capability to Bookteq, as part of our online booking process is on many of our clients' wish lists and we are looking forward to offering greater variety to our payment options.
This release should have a big impact on customers that do not have access to a credit or debit card or wish to pay via bank transfer and will allow them to set up payment plans or make one off transactions. It should also reduce the manual reconciliation admin that you might do between your accounting software/bank and Bookteq for bank transfer payments.
New calendar widget
Over the first few weeks in 2025, we will be releasing our new and improved calendar widget to all of our clients and partners. We are looking forward to providing this to you knowing the improvements we have made to the booking experience. Some of the changes you can expect are:
- View availability across a longer time period (weekly view)
- Cancel weeks they don't require in a multi-booking request
- Choose from a variety of booking durations
- Clearer discounted prices at checkout
You can read more about our new calendar here.
Amendments
Continuing our move towards Bookteq becoming a fully self-service solution for you and your customers, our new amendments feature will allow your customers to make changes to their bookings from their customer portal account.
Instead of having to move a booking for your hirers, they will be able to perform the action themselves, including automatically handling any additional payment or refund if the new slot's price is different. There are various rules in place that depend on the time before the booking and whether it has already been paid or not; we will release an article on the use cases of the new amendments feature in our support hub when the feature is released.
🎄Christmas Support Hours🎄
We’ll be online through the Christmas period should you need our help; on some days we may be operating with reduced capacity to allow for the team to enjoy time with their families, and so please do bear with us if you experience a slower response time than usual.
- Monday 23rd & Tuesday 24th December: 09:00 - 18:00
- Wednesday 25th & Thursday 26th December:Closed 🚫
- Friday 27th December: 09:00 - 18:00
- Monday 30th & Tuesday 31st December: 09:00 - 18:00
- Wednesday 1st January: Closed 🚫
- Thursday 2nd & Friday 3rd: Normal operating hours resume; 09:00 - 18:00
Playfinder | Bookteq CEO at Active London
On 19 November, our CEO Charlie Merrett-Clarke spoke at the Emirates Stadium as part of an industry-leading panel for Active London, hosted by London Sport.
The discussions included speakers from health, sport, and community sectors coming together to tackle the big questions around physical activity, health equity, and inclusivity. The agenda was packed full of keynotes, thought-provoking panels, and hands-on workshops, driving action to inspire a healthier, more active London. 🌍✨
Charlie said “It was a pleasure to speak at Active London, with thanks to Jolyon Whaymand, Multi-Sport Facilities Manager at London Sport. The topic of 'Using digital solutions to activate London’s spaces for all age groups and abilities' is clearly a tough nut to crack. Hopefully hearing how we’ve reduced a North London secondary school’s manual bookings admin by 38% while Playfinder generated 20% of their bookings in the first 6 months inspired how we can better support the activating of school spaces in the capital digitally."