This post is part of a series, adapted from emails sent to owners of outdoor centres across the UK who kindly provided advice and input as Swellbase was developed.
Massive progress on Swellbase has been made in the last couple of weeks - I'm full time on Swellbase now going forwards and really excited for the first busy season. Here's what's been done recently:
π³ Payments live - this is the big one!
We're now fully integrated with Stripe (added to our integration list with Tripadvisor / Google). Apple Pay / Google Pay / and Klarna are all set up and supported. This makes it easy for customers to book however they want.
You can set up booking fees however you like - absorb them, pass them to your customers, or split them, and you can also override settings per activity (i.e maybe you always pass booking fees on to customers for public bookings but absorb them for higher-ticket items like courses / multi-day so you can price it in to those but the customer doesn't see a fee)
π Gift vouchers - built for how outdoor centres actually sell
I'm particularly stoked with this. Hands down the best implementation of gift vouchers for outdoor centre use that I've seen.
The customer can choose between a monetary value or a specific activity for the voucher as well as any upsell / private options you have set up. The flow is super intuitive and the recipient can still use any voucher they receive for any activity they want, even if the purchaser selected a specific activity.
π Internal calendar - the most important internal function
We have multiple views, intuitive filters, and all the regular jobs you need to do a click away. Works for smaller operations and very busy centres.
Easily create new timeslots and allocate staff etc without having to navigate complex menus. You can also add notes directly to the calendar for the staff that day to see, or to record tentative bookings that haven't been confirmed yet.
π Ecologi integration - giving back
Our Ecologi integration sets aside a portion of all Swellbase's booking fee revenue and auto-allocates it to verified reforestation projects via Ecologi.
I've set up individual company impact pages like this one:Β https://swellbase.io/impact/bluecoastΒ These are totally optional, but will display a running count of the trees and specific projects funded by your bookings if that's something you'd like to track or share with your customers.
π¨βπ» Support lines set up
Easily reachable support is critical when you're in the midst of the busy season. You can contact me any time via email, WhatsApp, or just give me a ring. I'll be happy to help with any problems you have.
β‘οΈ What's next
On the home stretch now for the core features. I have lots of plans for improvements on the roadmap, but focusing on staff management and waivers now before onboarding the first companies.