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How to Use Questions

Questions allow you to create customisable queries for customers to answer before completing a booking.

Questions can be either open-ended, close-ended or opt-in, ensuring essential information is gathered efficiently.

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Visibility settings enable questions to be displayed by whitelisting or blacklisting destinations, resellers or products, or restricted to specific sources, such as Web Checkout or Backoffice. You can also apply badges to questions, providing instant visibility of customer responses within the order details.

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Create Question

  1. In the Ventrata dashboard, go to the Products > Questions .​
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    Products - Questions

    Questions
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  2. Press the + New Question button in the action bar.
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    + New Question

    New Question
    ​    ​​

  3. Enter a name for the question.
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    Internal Name
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  4. Add new or existing tags. Tags are internal references and can be used to mark also bookings, items, extras, products, etc.

  5. Check the 'Match Tags' box to display the question only on bookings that include items, extras or products with the same tag.
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    Tags​
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    ❗️ IMPORTANT

    If the 'Match Tags' checkbox is not enabled for an order-level question, the question will appear on every order—including gift card purchases.

    📒 NOTE
    ​    Although destinations and checkouts also support tags, it is currently not possible to show questions based on these parameters.


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  6. Upload a cover image for the question, which will be displayed on the web checkout.
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    Cover

    📒 NOTE
    ​    We recommend using high-quality images sized 500 x 300 px. ​​

  7. Enter the question itself in the 'Label' field. This is the formulation the customer will answer.
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    Label
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    📗 TIP
    ​    If you operate in multiple languages, enter the translation for each language variation.

  8. Provide a hint for the customer explaining why their answer to the question is needed.
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    Hint

    Hint
    ​    ​​

  9. In the 'Options' field,
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    • for a close-ended question, provide the answers the customer will see in separate rows under the 'ANSWER LABEL' column. Options can include simple YES/NO answers, longer responses or a list of choices for the customer to select from.
      In the 'ANSWER VALUE' column, enter the value displayed in the Backoffice. These values should

      • ensure consistency across multiple languages

      • improve reporting readability

      Options - Close-Ended Questions
      ​      ​

      📒 NOTE
      ​      Customers can choose only one answer.

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    • for an opt-in question, provide only one answer

    • for an open-ended question, leave the 'Options' field empty to allow the customer to provide their answer in their own words
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      Options: Open-Ended Question

      Options - Open-Ended Questions
      ​      ​​

  10. Check the 'Badge' box to assign a badge to the booking, when the question is answered.

  11. For opt-in questions (a single answer is provided and the customer may or may not check the box), enter a 'Badge Tag' - a recognisable text when the badge is applied.

    📒 NOTE

    For close-ended questions (where customers choose one option from multiple choices) and open-ended questions (where customers provide a free-form answer), the badge is populated with the given answer.

  12. Select the colour of the badge.
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    Badge

    Badge
    ​    ​

  13. You can make the question required and the customer cannot complete the booking without first answering the question.
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    Required

    Required

    ❗️ IMPORTANT

    DO NOT USE required questions with Direct API. Most OTAs do not accept questions and bookings with required questions will likely fail, resulting in lost bookings. Instead, collect mandatory information such as ID numbers or dietary restrictions by contacting customers post-booking.

    ​​

  14. If the question is open-ended and no options are provided, you can limit the customer's answer to a certain number of characters in the 'Max Length' field.

  15. Select the level at which the question applies:
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    • Order - the question applies to the entire order, not individual bookings

    • Booking - the question applies to a selected tour

    • Ticket - the answer to this question must be provided for each ticket in the selected tiers
      ​

    Max Length & Question Appears On
    ​

  16. If you chose 'Ticket' above, select the ticket tiers (right column) where the question will be displayed.

  17. Select which sources (left column) will display the question.
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    Question Settings

    Sources & Ticket Tiers​
    ​

  18. Validate customer answers in one of two ways:

    • Pattern - enter a regular expression (regex) to require an answer in a specific format. The input will be validated against this pattern.

    Pattern

    📗 TIP

    Use the 'Pattern' field for validating information such as:

    • passports or IDs

    • email addresses - ^[\w.-]+@[\w.-]+\.\w+$

    • phone numbers (country specific) - for example, the pattern ^\d{3}-\d{3}-\d{4}$ enforces the format 111-222-3333

    To construct a pattern, you can use this quick reference guide or an AI assistant.

    • Validation - enter a custom JavaScript expressions to validate the answer server-side. The expression must return true or false; it it returns false, or it it errors, the answer is rejected. Supports regex, dates, arithmetic, checksums, ranges and custom business logic in a single rule.

      Validation

    📗 TIP

    Use the 'Validation' field for logic that 'Pattern' can't express, such as:

    • numeric ranges (for example, age limits) - Number(value) >= 18 && Number(value) <= 120

    • date logic (for example, future dates only) - new Date(value) > new Date ()\

    • allowlists (for example, specific ZIP/postcodes) - /^\d{5}$/.test(value) && ["10001", "10002", "10003", "11201", "11368"].includes(value)

    • complex algorithms (for example, an ID check combining date of birth, age and a Luhn checksum)

    📗 TIP

    Use 'Pattern' for simple format validation, and 'Validation' for customer- or region-specific validation that would otherwise require a platform change.

    📒 NOTE

    For both types of validation, make sure to include the desired format in the question label as appropriate to reduce friction and prevent abandoned bookings.

  19. Press the ADD DEPENDENT ANSWER button to create a chain of conditional questions.

    Add Dependent Answer

    📒 NOTE

    Keep the following in mind when configuring dependent answers:

    • do not set a dependent answer on the first question in the chain

    • set a dependent answer on each subsequent question in the chain

    • subsequent questions are displayed based on the answer configured in the dependent answer

    • the order of questions in the Backoffice determines the order in which they appear to the customer

    • every question in the chain must use the same 'Allow/Disallow' settings

    • all conditional questions can be marked as 'Required'

    📒 NOTE

    Dependent answers are currently supported only in the Backoffice. Support for Checkout and Terminal channels is planned for a future release.

  20. Control when a question is shown by allowing or disallowing:

    • destinations,

    • products,

    • reseller bands,

    • or resellers.

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    Disallow & Allow

    📗 TIP

    Learn How to Use the Allow / Disallow Settings.

  21. Press the Create Question button.
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    Create Question

    Create Question
    ​

Questions in the Booking Flow

Questions are integrated into the standard checkout flow, appearing just before the final Checkout page and payment step. The examples below illustrate:

  1. Questions Flow - standard usage across all three levels:

    • Ticket

    • Booking

    • Order

  2. Request Wheelchair Access - a specific use case using questions

Questions Flow

Web Checkout

The customer begins by selects a product. On the Tickets page, they choose the tiers and number of tickets they wish to purchase.

The setup may include a per-ticket extra ('Cancelation fee') and a per-booking extra ('Add a donation to my purchase').

Next, the customer selects their preferred date and tour time before pressing the Continue button.

Tickets Page

Depending on the product configuration, additional pages for pickups or upsell options may be displayed. These are followed by the Questions page.

On the Questions page:

  1. The customer is first shown the per-booking question.

  2. This is followed by a question for each individual ticket.

  3. Finally, the order-level question is displayed. If the customer adds another booking to the same order, this question is already pre-filled with the answer from the previous booking.

🎞️ Watch the entire flow

Questions - Multibooking

Questions Page - Per-Booking & Per-Ticket

Questions Page - Per-Order

The customer presses the Continue button to complete their order.

Terminal

After the seller selects a product, date and tour time, they press the Checkout button on the Shopping Cart page.

Shopping Cart

The Shopping Cart is followed by the Customer Info page, where questions associated with the order are displayed.

  1. The order-level question appears first. If multiple bookings are added to the same order, this question is only shown once.

  2. Below that, the per-booking questions are displayed. If multiple bookings are added to the same order, this question is shown for each booking.

  3. Finally, a separate page for each individual ticket is shown, presenting the per-ticket questions.

🎞️ Watch the entire flow

Questions

Customer Info Page - Per-Order & Per-Booking

Questions Page - Per-Ticket

The seller presses the Continue button to complete the order.

In the Backoffice, you can add columns for order- and booking-level question.

Bookings Table

Backoffice - Bookings

Answers are displayed using the 'ANSWER VALUE' entered during question creation, see step 9. of the Create Question section.

Questions Columns - Order Q (left) & Booking Q (right)

The booking detail shows booking-level questions in the Questions and Answers section,

Booking-Level Question

while ticket-level questions are displayed next to each ticket.

Ticket-Level Question

Use Case: Request Wheelchair Access

This example illustrates how the Questions functionality replaces the 'Wheelchair Access Available' option on the Product detail page.

Example setup:

Setting

Option

Label

Do you require wheelchair access?

Options

Answer Label

Yes, I do.

Answer Value

Yes

Badge

✅

Badge Tag

Wheelchair Access

Required

🔲

Question On

Booking

Channel

Web Checkout

The customer selects a product. Then they select the number of units, date and tour time of the attraction if available. Then they press the Continue button where a page with all the questions associated with the booking appear. Once they answered the question, they continue to the Checkout and Payment pages to complete the booking.

Questions Page

On the Bookings page of the Ventrata dashboard, you can add the question column to display the customer's answer,

Bookings Table

Backoffice - Bookings

while the detail of the specific booking contains both the badge, which is immediately visible in the order details, and the question and the answer.

Booking Detail

Booking Detail

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