What Are Collections?
Collections allow you to display information to guests in a carousel or list format. Depending on the collection type, guests can purchase items from the collection or be directed to an external website to learn more.
Menu Collection Type
Allow guests to add items to their cart and create an order for your team to manage. If you’re managing payments in Akia, guests will be prompted to provide their credit card information during the checkout flow.
Common use cases for the Menu collection type are in-room dining/room service, upsell items like pet fees or an additional bed, and souvenirs.
Gallery Collection Type
Guests can view relevant information and optionally be redirected to an external website. Common use cases are showing off local activities or events, another way for guests to navigate to different pages in the Mini App, and an easy way to upload information to the Mini App via a CSV file.
How Can I Create a Collection?
On the Mini Apps page, you can create a new Collection. Think of these as a combination of our old menu and upsell features that can be displayed in your Mini Apps.
- Click + New Collection to create a collection manually and add items as needed. If you already have a list of items you want to include, you can select Upload CSV.
- We only need 5 columns for the CSV upload:
- Name: the name of the item the guest will see
- Description: the description of the item
- Image: image link for the item (needs to be an image link, not an image uploaded into the CSV)
- On Tap URL: the link the guest is redirected to if they click on the item in the Mini App
- Not required if the collection has Create Order selected
- Price: the price of the item
- Selecting Create Order will allow guests to purchase Collection items
- Once the collection has been created, you can add the Collection component to your Mini App (if you check marked Create Order, it would be the Menu component, otherwise it would be the Gallery component) and select which Collection you want to be shown.
- There are different types of Tap Behavior depending on what you’re looking for
- Load Detail Page (default): tapping the item will take the guest to another screen where the description is fully shown. If you also have Create Order
- Navigate to URL: the guest is automatically routed to the specified URL
- Add To Cart: tapping the item adds it to the cart, but it will not direct the guest to another screen like the Load Detail Page
- Optionally change the layout to Carousel if you want the guest to scroll through the different options
- Make the Collection required if the current page is intended for ordering that item (e.g. your early check-in screen should have the early check-in Collection required so the guest can make the request)
- Make sure you enable payments in Payment Configuration if you’re allowing guests to purchase items
- Save Changes and Publish to make the changes viewable to guests!
Use Cases
- 🐶 Dog Fee: Allow guests to bring their furry friends to your property and pay a nightly fee for their extra guest.
- Create a new menu collection with an item “Dog Fee.” Specify the price, optionally include an image, and
- 🛶 Show Activity Options: Display different activities guests can do while staying at your property.
- Create a new gallery collection and optionally upload a CSV file with the titles, images, description and website redirect link so guests can learn more.