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The ability to display custom fields directly on the main booking form for staff, and optionally on the online booking form for customers, would greatly improve both usability and flexibility.
Currently, all custom fields are automatically placed in the Details tab. This means staff have to open another tab to complete information that may be required, which isn't intuitive and slows down the booking process.
For example, if an "Allergen and Dietary Requirements" custom field is created, it is hidden within the Details tab. Even when marked as required and highlighted, staff still have to navigate away from the main booking form to complete it. If they don't, the booking cannot be completed, but the system doesn't explain why. The Complete button is simply greyed out, with no indication that a required field is missing in another tab. This can easily confuse staff, particularly new users.
This functionality already exists within the tablet app, where custom fields are displayed on the main booking form. Bringing the website in line with the +app would provide a more consistent experience across devices and make training much easier.
It would also be useful to control where each custom field is displayed. For example:
An "Allergen" field could be visible to both staff and customers.
A "Staff Initials" field could be visible only to staff taking bookings in person or over the phone.
This would allow businesses to collect relevant information from customers while also recording internal information without requiring staff to go to the main website to check the booking history to see who created a booking.
It would also be beneficial if custom fields remained visible on the main Booked form after a booking has been created. At the moment, even though the tablet app displays them during booking creation, they are hidden in the Details tab when viewing an existing booking. Displaying them alongside information such as the customer's name or mobile number would make reviewing bookings much quicker and more efficient.
Finally, allowing selected custom fields to appear on the online booking form would let customers complete them naturally during the booking process, just like entering their name or phone number.
Overall, this would significantly improve usability for staff while giving businesses much greater flexibility over how booking information is collected and displayed. It would also create a more consistent experience between the website and tablet app, making the system easier and more efficient to use.
| Your organisations name | Rivendale Lodge Retreat |
| Customer Priority | 3 - Medium - Valuable within 12 months |
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Customer Challenge
Users are required to fill important information during the booking process, such as allergen or dietary requirements, but custom fields are currently hidden within the Details tab rather than being visible alongside the main booking information. This makes it easy for users to overlook required fields, particularly when taking bookings quickly or when they are unfamiliar with the system. If a required custom field is missed, the booking cannot be completed, but the system provides little feedback as to why. The Complete button simply stays unavailable, without clearly indicating that information is missing in another tab. This can cause confusion, slow down the booking process, and lead to unnecessary frustration for staff. Reviewing existing bookings is also inefficient because custom field information is hidden away, requiring staff to open additional tabs for every booking instead of seeing key information immediately. This is particularly noticeable when checking important details such as allergen information before a customer's arrival. Businesses also have different information requirements depending on whether a booking is being made by a customer online or by a member of staff. Some information should be collected from customers, while other information is only relevant for internal use. The current approach makes it difficult to tailor the booking process to suit these different workflows, reducing flexibility and making the system less efficient for both staff and customers. |
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Business Case
This improvement would benefit every business that uses custom fields within the booking process by making information easier to collect, easier to review, and less likely to be missed. Many businesses rely on custom fields to capture essential information, such as allergen requirements, accessibility needs, or internal operational details. Improving how these fields are displayed would reduce booking errors, improve efficiency for staff, and help ensure important information is consistently captured. From a development perspective, this appears to build upon functionality that already exists within the tablet application, where custom fields are displayed on the main booking form. Extending similar functionality to the website would create a more consistent experience across platforms rather than introducing an entirely new feature. Allowing businesses to control where custom fields are displayed (staff only, customer only, or both) would also make the system considerably more flexible without requiring additional custom development for individual use cases. Businesses across hospitality and other sectors could adapt the booking process to suit their own operational requirements while maintaining a simple and intuitive user experience. Overall, this proposal would improve efficiency, reduce training and user confusion, increase data accuracy, and provide greater flexibility for all businesses using the booking system, making it a high-impact enhancement with broad applicability. |
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| Tags | Desktop, Internal, Mobile |
I definitely agree - specifically in terms of receiving dietaries/allergies from guests which is incredibly important for our team. We currently have this set as a required field for guests to complete when making their bookings online, however it does get hidden away in the details tab rather than clearly showing anywhere else on the booking.
The other issue with using the details tab for this is that the information stays with that particular guests profile, meaning there is a chance of the dietaries being wrong on their next visit if they happen to come with different people or if their circumstances have changed and it is not updated accordingly.
A better way for guests to easily communicate their dietaries that is attached to the specific booking rather than the guests profile would be hugely useful and hopefully make tracking these far more user friendly for both guests & staff.