What's new?

This release brings a refreshed look across the Booking Engine+ platform, alongside substantial accessibility improvements, a new voucher balance checker, two new payment gateways, stronger admin password security, and several quality-of-life upgrades to the booking flow.

1. A new look for Booking Engine+

The platform's admin side has a refreshed look and feel, now visually aligned with the wider Access Group portfolio. This includes a redesigned login screen, updated navigation, and refreshed UI styling across portal and vouchers.

📌Note: No action required. The new look is live for all properties automatically.

2. Accessibility enhancements

A substantial set of accessibility improvements have been delivered across Booking Engine+, spanning the booking engine, portal and vouchers. These changes strengthen alignment with WCAG 2.2 AA standards and support your property's commitment to inclusive digital experiences.

Booking engine updates include:

Keyboard navigation: Rate name headings now respond to keyboard focus, focus no longer resets when occupancy changes, and tooltips can be opened with keyboard and dismissed with the Escape key.
Screen reader experience: Strikethrough pricing is now distinguishable by assistive tech, the date picker announces month changes, occupancy warnings are announced, and the privacy policy checkbox label is now visible to assistive technologies.
Semantic structure: Page language attributes use valid BCP 47 format, visual headings use semantic elements, non-interactive containers no longer receive focus, and decorative images are excluded from the accessibility tree.
Clearer labelling: Repeated buttons on room and property cards now include contextual labels (for example, "Select Deluxe King" rather than just "Select") filter chip remove buttons are labelled with their action, and occupancy modal fields are grouped by room.

Equivalent improvements have also been made across portal and vouchers.

📌Note: No action required. These changes are live automatically. Accessibility is an ongoing commitment, each release brings further improvements as we work towards and beyond WCAG 2.2 AA across every surface guests and operators touch.

3. Closed user group sign-up, improved guest experience

When guests sign up for exclusive discount rates from the booking engine results page, they receive a 4-digit verification code by email. The code field now appears in a focused popup, drawing the guest's full attention to the next step. Previously the code field appeared inline beneath the sign-up area, where guests could scroll past it without realising.

📌Note: No action required. This applies automatically to every property using the exclusive discount rate sign-up feature.

4. Date restrictions for waitlist and partner selling

You can now exclude specific dates from waitlist and partner selling, useful for property closures, refurbishments, and private buy-outs. Excluded dates won't be available for guests to join the waitlist or be sold via partner channels.

Existing properties are unaffected until exclusion dates are added.

5. Browser back button, guest details restored

When a guest uses the browser back button during the booking flow, their selections and form data are now preserved rather than lost. This is a subtle but meaningful improvement to flow recovery, reducing drop-off during the most fragile part of the booking journey.

📌Note: No action required.

6. Stronger admin password security

Admin password management has been strengthened with:

Current password verification when changing your password
Live password strength feedback as you type
Updated rules to encourage longer, stronger passwords

These changes apply automatically across the portal.

7. Voucher balance checker

A new self-service feature lets voucher holders check their balance, transaction history, expiry, and status without needing to contact your team.

Customers enter the 12-character voucher reference code from their voucher receipt or confirmation email (hyphens are accepted automatically). The page is protected by reCAPTCHA.

📌Note: Why this matters? This reduces inbound support enquiries for "what's left on my voucher?" while giving your customers immediate self-service visibility.

8. Share URL button

Guests can now share a link to your booking engine pages using their device's native share sheet. On devices that don't support native sharing, the link is copied to the clipboard, and the button switches to a checkmark with a brief "copied" indicator so guests know the action succeeded.

The share URL button is built as a reusable component, which means it can be placed on any page of the booking engine. Shared links include only the relevant booking parameters (dates, party size, currency, promo codes) and never expose internal session data.

If a guest has declined analytics, no share-related events are sent to Google Analytics. Where consent is granted, each share is recorded as a share_button_clicked event.

9. New payment gateways

Two new payment gateway integrations expand the markets we can support directly.

REDUNIQ (Portugal)

Now integrated for online card payments across the booking engine and the voucher applications. REDUNIQ is a Portuguese payment acquirer and a trading brand of UNICRE, with over 50 years in the market and 150,000+ merchant acceptance points across Portugal. A REDUNIQ merchant account is required — see reduniq.pt.

Eway (Australia and New Zealand)

Now integrated for online card payments, supporting merchants in Australia and New Zealand. Eway is an Australian-founded online payment gateway, established in 1998 and now part of Global Payments Inc. An Eway merchant account is required — see eway.com.au.

To enable either gateway, contact Support.

10. Unified payment method display

Payment method icons are now displayed consistently across all payment gateways in the booking engine. Recognised scheme logos: Visa, Mastercard, Amex, Apple Pay, and others appear prominently during checkout, giving guests immediate confidence that their preferred payment method is accepted.

📌Note: Why this matters? By presenting these logos upfront, the booking engine answers the "will my card work?" question before the guest reaches the payment gateway, which we expect to reduce hesitation at the final step.

11. Mandatory text fields on upsell groups

The text area on an upsell group (configured via Settings on Extra) can now be set as required. When enabled, guests must complete the field before they can proceed past that step.

Some operators use the text area to capture operationally critical detail, for example, flight numbers and departure terminals for an airport transfer. Previously guests could skip these fields, leaving operations teams to chase missing information after the booking landed. With this change, you can ensure the detail you need is captured at the point of booking.

Where to configure?