What we hear when we sit down with operators
The biggest chaos does not start with online sales. Those are usually automated. The black hole is vouchers issued by hand, for partners, for marketing or sold outside the website.
If every department has its own list, the hotel may know how many vouchers it sold, but it cannot reliably say how many are still waiting to be redeemed, what balance they have and which document the redemption belongs to.
How Ellipse solves it
This is not one extra feature. What matters is that the steps follow one another and the same piece of data does not have to be entered again in every department.
One register for online and internal vouchers
Ellipse can keep web-sold vouchers and internally created vouchers in one register. Each one has an identifier, validity, a type, a value or a service, and a redemption history.
An online purchase can automatically create a graphic voucher with a dedication and a verification code. An internal voucher does not have to live outside the system only because it was not created in the e-shop.
A value voucher and a voucher for a service are not the same product
The property can work with a voucher for a specific service, a value credit or a package of several services. The difference has to be clear to the guest, the staff and finance.
The tax and accounting setup of vouchers should be confirmed with an accountant under the current law and the specific type of voucher. The system should then support that agreed rule consistently.
Redemption has to be something the person standing in front of the guest can do
A waiter, a barista or a receptionist enters or scans the code and the system shows what can be redeemed. If the guest spends more than the voucher covers, the balance is settled on the same bill.
In practice that matters more than a complicated back office. The guest does not want to wait while someone finds a manager to check a paper list.
Expiry is not a reason for year-end chaos
In the register you can filter vouchers by validity and prepare a batch process according to the property's internal and accounting rules.
The history matters. A voucher should not simply disappear after expiry. Finance needs to know what happened to it and why.
What changes in day-to-day operations
- Online, front-desk and partner vouchers sit in one register.
- Staff can redeem them without calling a manager.
- The balance is settled on one bill.
- Finance has a report of sales, redemptions and open vouchers.
- Expired vouchers are processed in a controlled way that can be traced.
CONNECTED ELLIPSE MODULES
This solution depends on several parts of the platform working together
Hotel PMS
Web Booking
Ellipse POS
Timed bookingsCOMMON QUESTIONS
What operators ask us
Can Ellipse generate a PDF gift voucher?
Yes. In a supported online process a voucher can be created after purchase, with its own design, a dedication and an identification code.
Can a voucher be redeemed in the restaurant and on a stay?
Depending on the type of voucher and the property setup, it can be redeemed through the POS, the hotel folio or another supported sales process.
What if the guest spends more than the voucher is worth?
They can pay the difference in the usual way, without splitting the whole process into two unrelated registers.
How should VAT be set on vouchers?
It depends on the nature of the voucher and the current law. We recommend confirming the setup with an accountant. Ellipse then sets the register and the documents according to the agreed process.
HOW WOULD THIS WORK FOR YOU?
If you cannot pull a list of every unredeemed voucher today, let us start there
In the walkthrough we follow one voucher from purchase, through the PDF, to redemption at the desk or the till, and then the report for finance.
