When enabled there is a choice of two methods Cab Grid can use to calculate return journey prices:
Enabling Return Journeys
To begin with, Return Journeys must be enabled. To do this, set the “Offer return journey option:” to “YES”
Once enabled, visitors will see the one-way/return icon in the price calculator box. If selected, Cab Grid will attempt to provide a price for a return journey.
How the ‘lookup price’ (for both legs) setting works
With this option selected the calculator will lookup both the outbound and return price for a journey and combine them to produce an overall return price. This allows for different prices for outbound and return legs to be combined.
For example, if town centre to suburb equates to $10.00 and suburb to town centre equates to $12.00, the return price would be calculated as $10.00 + $12.00 = $22.00.
Note: If one or other leg (outbound or return) has no price specified, the journey will revert to one-way only.
Also see: Auto-enter return journey prices in the pricing table….
How the ‘formula’ return journey setting works
This setting will provide a return journey price for any journey. Entering a price for each individual return leg is not required. A return price will be calculated even if the destination area is not enabled as an origin location.
To enable this option, select ‘Use formula to calculate return price‘ from the drop down next to the ‘YES’ return option. Then enter a formula in the subsequent text field.
When a visitor selects a return journey, the outbound price is looked up in the pricing table. The formula entered is then applied to calculate the return price.
For example, if the outbound price is $20.00 and the formula is entered as *2, the calculation will be 20 x 2 = $40.00.
For more info on entering formulae and syntax, please see Price Variations and Formulae.
Pre-sales question: Can I define a 10% discount on roundtrip? How?
Interesting question…
Round trips are calculated as the sum of outbound leg (A to B) price and return leg (B to A) price as defined in the Cab Grid price table.
Separately, discounts can be added via promo code, but these are not conditional.
So, there is no direct way (currently) to apply a discount only if a journey is a round trip.
However, since the price set for the opposite route can be different, this could give the impression of a discount:
A-B = $10
B-A = $8
Total = $18 (or 2x$10 = $20 – 10% = $18)
I have a question regarding the definition of “return journey”. Consider three scenarios: A) Taking a client from town centre to the airport to drop off a relative, then return with the client to the point of origin. No waiting time. B) Taking a client from Airport to Town Centre for a meeting, wait a couple of hours, and then return to Airport. C) Taking a client from Airport to Town Centre hotel. After a few days, same client, return trip, from hotel to Airport.
The “return journey” feature applies to what scenario? I am thinking it applies to A, because it’s the only one where it makes sense to apply a discount for the return trip that would otherwise be done empty. If it could be applied to scenario B, how do we factor in the waiting/stand by time? In scenario C, even if the price is the same for both legs, can we offer a discount as incentive for someone who books both transfers?
Thanks
Interesting thought @Ricardo … We anticipate most operators running only one of your scenarios at any time. For example, taxi companies offering airport transfers would always expect return journeys to take place on a different day. However, it is true that passengers could require differing return types.
Cab Grid offers only one return calculation per booking – either the return lookup or formula (detailed above). It is not capable of processing granular variables such as wait time or return date.
It is possible to conditionally show the return button on different instances of Cab Grid using CSS. So, you could have a dedicated instance of Cab Grid for airport transfers, for example, that offered return prices, and hide the return button on other instances.