Question 1

Can I sell to my customers in their own currency when my supplier charges me in a different one?

Accepted Answer

Yes, in most setups you can show prices and take payment in the currency your customer is used to, even when your supplier bills you in a different one. The system applies a conversion rate to the supplier fare and shows the customer a single amount in their own money, which they pay through your normal payment gateway. The part that needs care is the rate itself. Exchange rates move, and the rate you showed at the moment of booking is not always the rate your bank or your supplier settles at later. Most travel businesses handle this by building a margin into the rate they publish, so an ordinary daily movement does not eat into their profit. Whether that rate refreshes automatically or is one you set by hand depends on your plan and on the rate source connected to your account. Settlement is a separate matter from display. Your gateway pays out in the currency of your merchant account, and if that is not the currency the customer paid in, the gateway takes its own conversion and its own fee before the money reaches you. Your supplier still invoices you in their currency on their own cycle. Those two conversions are why the amount landing in your bank rarely matches the invoice exactly. Before you turn on a new selling currency, check with your payment provider which currencies your merchant account can actually settle in, and agree with your supplier which currency your invoices will arrive in, so your accounts team has something predictable to reconcile against.

Question 2

Can I charge a different markup to different customers for the same hotel or flight?

Accepted Answer

Yes, in most systems you can. Rather than one markup applied to everything, you keep a set of rules and the system decides which one applies at the moment the price is shown, based on who is looking at it. A walk in customer, a sub agent in your network and a corporate account can all see the same hotel at a different final price, without you touching the booking by hand. Markups are usually set as either a percentage or a flat amount, and you can normally narrow them down further, by supplier, by product type such as flights or hotels, by country or by the group the customer belongs to. The part that trips people up is what happens when a customer matches two rules at once, for example a corporate client who is also in a promotional group. Decide the order of priority when you set the rules up, because the system will follow whatever order it is given rather than what you meant. There are limits and they usually come from the supplier rather than from the software. Some fares and rates reach you as net rates, which you are free to mark up as you like. Others arrive as published or agreed prices where your contract does not allow you to change what the customer sees, and in those cases your earning is the commission rather than a markup you set. It is also worth deciding early whether your markup is refunded when a customer cancels, because that affects both your refund wording and what you eventually settle with the supplier. Before you go live, write down the customer groups you actually sell to, check your supplier agreements for which rates permit a markup, then run one test booking for each group all the way through to the invoice and a cancellation, so you can see the markup behaving the same way at every step.

Question 3

If a customer's card payment fails halfway through checkout, does their money get stuck somewhere?

Accepted Answer

No, in almost every case the money comes back to the customer on its own, but it can sit in limbo for a few days first and it helps to know why. When someone pays on your website, the bank first puts a hold on the amount rather than handing it straight over. If the payment then fails, or the page drops out before the booking is finished, that hold is never turned into a real charge. The customer often still sees the amount missing from their available balance, which is why they ring you in a panic, but their bank releases it by itself after a few working days. Nothing has reached you, so there is nothing for you to refund. On your side the booking is not confirmed and is kept as a failed or incomplete attempt rather than being thrown away. Your staff can see it, see the reason the payment provider gave, and either send the customer a fresh payment link or ask them to try again. That record matters, because it lets you tell a worried customer exactly what happened instead of guessing. The part that is out of everyone's hands is timing. How quickly the hold disappears depends on the customer's own bank, and no software can speed that up. It is also worth remembering that a failed payment does not hold the seat or the room, so the price may have moved by the time they try again. If a customer calls about this, check the payment status on the booking first, then ask them to look at their statement rather than their available balance.

Question 4

When a customer cancels a booking, how long does it take before the refund actually reaches their card?

Accepted Answer

It is rarely immediate, and the honest answer is that it usually takes a few weeks rather than a few days. A refund has to travel back along the same chain the money came down. The supplier or airline has to accept the cancellation and release the amount to you, your payment gateway then has to push the refund out, and the customer's own bank decides when it appears on their statement. Each of those steps has its own timetable and none of them is under your control. The part that catches most agencies out is the middle one. If you have already paid the supplier, you cannot refund the customer out of thin air without carrying the cost yourself until the supplier settles. Airline refunds in particular can sit for a long time, and some fares are not refundable at all, only changeable. Whether you refund the customer first and wait for the supplier, or wait and then pay, is a business decision about your own cash, and it is worth deciding it before it happens rather than during an argument. A booking system helps by making the position visible. It can hold the cancellation, the amount due back, any charge you are keeping, and the date the supplier confirmed, so anyone picking up the file can tell the customer where the money is instead of guessing. What it cannot do is make a bank move faster. Set a plain refund timeline in your terms and repeat it in the cancellation email, and check with your gateway how long its own refunds take to settle, because that is the number your customers will judge you on.

Question 5

If a customer goes to their bank and disputes a payment they made on my website, who ends up losing that money?

Accepted Answer

In most cases it is you, at least to begin with. When a cardholder raises a dispute, the bank pulls the money back out of your settlement first and asks questions afterwards. The supplier has already been paid for the flight or the hotel and will not hand that back just because your customer complained to their bank, so for a while you are out of pocket on both sides. Whether you get it back depends on the evidence you can produce and on the dispute rules of the card scheme, not on the booking system. What the software can do is make that evidence easy to find. Every booking keeps its own trail of who searched, what was quoted, what the customer agreed to, when the confirmation went out and what the supplier returned, and all of that can be pulled up against a single reference. Most disputes are won or lost on whether you can show the customer received the service and accepted the cancellation terms, so having the confirmation, the terms shown at checkout and the supplier reference in one place matters more than anything clever. It is also worth knowing that many disputes are not fraud at all. The customer simply does not recognise the name on their statement. If your bank descriptor shows a payment company rather than your trading name, people panic and call their bank. Getting that descriptor changed to something the customer will recognise quietly removes a good number of these before they start. Check what your business name looks like on a card statement, and ask your gateway how long you get to respond to a dispute, so you are not caught by a deadline you did not know about.

Question 6

Will my customer be able to see the markup I have added on top of the supplier price?

Accepted Answer

No, the customer sees one single price, not your cost and your markup sitting side by side. When a search comes back from the supplier, the system adds your markup quietly in the background and shows only the final selling price on the results page, the booking page and the voucher. Your margin stays inside your own admin panel, where you and the staff you allow can see the supplier cost, the markup applied and what is left for you. The one thing to watch is the paperwork that comes from the supplier rather than from you. A hotel voucher, an airline ticket or a confirmation email sent directly by the supplier may carry their own reference and sometimes their own rate, and that is outside your control. This is why most agencies use their own branded voucher and invoice from the portal and do not forward the raw supplier document to the traveller. How much you can hide also depends on the product. On a normal prepaid booking the customer only ever deals with your price. On a pay at hotel rate, the property collects the money itself, so the traveller will see the hotel's rate at the counter and your markup has to be handled as a separate service fee instead. Before you go live, do a test booking on each product you sell and read every document the traveller receives end to end, so you know exactly what price reaches them and from whom.

Question 7

Does the money from a booking on my website reach my bank account straight away?

Accepted Answer

No, the money does not land in your bank account the moment a traveller pays on your website. What happens at that moment is that your payment provider takes the money and holds it, then pays it out to you on a cycle they set when your account was opened. That cycle is usually a few working days, and it can be longer for a new account, for a large amount, or for a booking that looks unusual to their risk checks. The booking is confirmed straight away, but the cash follows behind it. This gap matters more in travel than in most other businesses, because you often have to pay the supplier before your own payout arrives. A hotel or airline may want the money on the day of booking while your provider is still holding it, so the working capital has to come from you in between. Agencies who sell high value trips usually keep a float in the account for exactly this reason. Your portal can show you what has been collected, what has been paid to suppliers and what is still outstanding, so the two sides can be matched. It cannot tell you the day your bank will credit a payout, because that timing sits entirely with the payment provider and the bank, not with the booking system. Before you start selling, ask your payment provider in writing what your settlement cycle is, whether they hold back a reserve, and what happens to that cycle in your first few months.

Question 8

One more question regarding South Korean Won support in Booking Engine

Accepted Answer

Adivaha's Booking Engine supports multiple currencies, including the South Korean Won (KRW). This means that travelers using your website can view prices, make bookings, and complete transactions in KRW, providing a seamless and convenient experience for your South Korean customers. By enabling support for KRW in your Booking Engine, you can cater to the specific needs of travelers from South Korea, making it easier for them to plan and book their trips directly on your website. This feature can help enhance user experience, increase conversions, and expand your customer base in the South Korean market. If you have any specific requirements or questions about integrating KRW support into your Booking Engine, feel free to reach out to our team through our contact page at https://www.adivaha.com/contact-us.html. We will be happy to assist you further and provide you with the necessary information to meet your business needs.

Question 9

Can I integrate third party payment gateway?

Accepted Answer

Yes, you can integrate third-party payment gateways with adivaha's travel technology solutions. This allows you to offer your customers a variety of payment options and flexibility in completing their transactions. Integrating a third-party payment gateway involves connecting your booking engine or portal with the payment gateway provider's system to securely process payments. By integrating third-party payment gateways, you can offer popular payment methods such as credit cards, debit cards, digital wallets, and other local payment options based on your target market. This enhances the user experience and can help increase conversions on your platform. If you have a specific payment gateway provider in mind that you would like to integrate with your adivaha solution, you can discuss this with the adivaha team during the setup process. They can provide guidance on the integration process and help you configure the payment gateway to work seamlessly with your travel platform. Integrating third-party payment gateways is a common practice in e-commerce and travel industry solutions, and adivaha supports this flexibility to meet the diverse needs of its clients and their customers.

Question 10

What can the custom checkout page do?

Accepted Answer

The custom checkout page offered by Adivaha allows travel agencies to tailor the booking process to their specific needs and branding. Here are some key features and benefits of the custom checkout page: 1. Branding: You can customize the checkout page to reflect your brand colors, logo, and messaging, providing a seamless experience for your customers. 2. User Experience: Tailoring the checkout process can enhance the user experience by making it more intuitive and user-friendly, potentially leading to higher conversion rates. 3. Upselling Opportunities: You can incorporate upselling opportunities within the checkout flow, such as offering travel insurance, car rentals, or other ancillary services. 4. Integration: The custom checkout page can be integrated with your existing systems and workflows, streamlining the booking process and reducing manual work. 5. Security: The checkout page is designed to be secure, ensuring that customer payment information is protected and transactions are processed safely. 6. Custom Fields: You can add custom fields to collect specific information from customers during the booking process, allowing you to gather relevant data for your business needs. 7. Flexibility: The custom checkout page offers flexibility in terms of design, functionality, and features, enabling you to create a unique booking experience tailored to your business requirements. By leveraging the custom checkout page, travel agencies can create a personalized and efficient booking process that aligns with their brand identity and enhances customer satisfaction. If you have any specific requirements or would like to explore the custom checkout page further, feel free to reach out to us via our contact page: Contact Us.