Introduction

Operator users can now issue refunds for any bookings where payment was processed via the RTBS payment gateway, directly through their Central Reservation System. This functionality allows users to apply partial or full refunds directly back onto the client’s credit card for any of the following types of bookings:

• Website bookings received through an RTBS booking page (OBL or Mobile OBL).

• Website bookings received through a booking page that uses the RTBS API.

• Bookings entered into the CRS where payment has been taken using the ‘Credit Card Online’ facility.

To activate direct refund capability for your company, please contact us on help@whytewaters.com.

There are two ways in which refunds can be issued through the CRS, as follows:

• Refunding individual bookings

• Bulk Refunds

Refunding Individual Bookings

Go to Bookings → Locate a Booking and find the relevant booking.

From the list of actions in the second column, select View:

Note: The ‘View’ option will only be visible once refund functionality has been activated, and is only available to Administrator-level operator users.

The View screen displays key information about the booking along with a list of any emails that have been sent relating to it, and a log of any edits made.

The ‘Transactions’ table lists all transactions processed or recorded against the booking. If a transaction is refundable, [refund] will show in the Actions field that corresponds to it. A transaction will be refundable if:

• It is a PURCHASE transaction

• Payment Method is either WEBSITE, MOBILE, API, CREDIT CARD ONLINE or PAYLINK

• It has not already been refunded.

To process a refund, click [refund].

Enter the Amount to Refund, and select ‘Yes, refund money back to customer’s credit card’.

The Cancel Booking box will always be checked as the majority of refunds are processed because a booking has been cancelled.

If you are processing a Partial Refund  and do not want to cancel the booking uncheck the box - see the diagram 

It is good practice to also enter a note in relation to the refund.

Click ‘Refund’ to confirm.

Bulk Refunds

The above process covers how to issue a refund for an individual booking, but if a whole trip, or multiple trips are cancelled, an operator may want to cancel and refund many bookings at once. Our ‘Bulk Refund’ functionality was developed to facilitate that.

Bulk refunds are actioned through Manage Bookings (Bookings → Manage Bookings).

To issue refunds for one trip, click on the menu button for that departure, and select ‘Cancel / Refund’.

Note: 'Cancel/refund' will only be visible if Bulk Refund functionality has been activated for your company. If you would like this option, please email help@whytewaters.com.

The page that opens will list all refundable bookings for that trip:

Select the bookings you would like to refund, adjust the Refund amount as required, and click ‘Cancel & Refund Bookings’ to confirm.

Any text added in the ‘Reason for cancelling’ field will be stored in the Notes field for each booking.

To issue refunds across multiple trips for the same day, click on the menu button for that date, and select ‘Cancel / Refund Day’.

This will bring up a list of all refundable bookings for the whole day, grouped by Activity and sorted by Departure Time. 

Select all bookings you want to refund, adjust the Refund amount as required, and click ‘Cancel & Refund’ to confirm.

Any text added in the ‘Reason for cancelling’ field will be stored in the Notes field for each booking.

Notes

• Once a refund has been prompted through RTBS, it will be sent immediately to DPS for processing. Depending on the card used (and where it is from), the refund may go through almost immediately, but it can take up to 5 working days to show in the client’s account.

• Once a refund has been issued in RTBS, it cannot be stopped or reversed. Be careful!

• Multiple partial refunds can be processed against a booking, but can only refund up to a maximum of the initial Purchase transaction (see image to the right). Please note, the refund charge will apply to each transaction.

• Once the maximum refund has been issued, the [refund] link will still show, but it will no longer be active.

• Only Administrator-level users can issue refunds.

• Refund transactions are recorded in the ‘View’ screen of the booking.

• If the credit card used in the initial transaction has since expired, RTBS will not allow the refund transaction to be processed. In this instance, an error message will appear, and you will need to contact us on help@whytewaters.com to process the refund. Please contact the customer first to request the new expiry date 

• The refund may be rejected if the card has been cancelled, or if multiple unsuccessful payment attempts preceded the successful payment transaction when the booking was made. If any rejection or error message appears, the operator will need to contact us on the above email. If a request has been made for the refund to be made to a different credit card than was used to make the original booking, this is no longer possible for security reasons. Operators need to return funds to the customer directly. This could be by a bank transfer.