Returning from the reservation/check availability page

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Arks

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I know JB is taking some much-needed days off, but I know she'd have an opinion here..
I'm using ReservationKey to handle online reservations. There are two ways to handle it when someone clicks a Make Reservation/Check Availability button on my website:
  • I can open the secure reservation screen in a new window.

    or
  • I can open it in the same window where they just clicked the button.
I'm wondering which way is better.
The first method has the advantage of them being able to go back and check something on the website while still having the reservation window open, saving what ever info they're already entered there. But it has the drawback that some people don't realize they have two windows open, so they can't find the main website from the reservation screen, their Back button doesn't work, and they start closing stuff out of frustration.
The second method has the advantage that their Back button will take them back to where they came from, and I can put in links on the reservation page to let them go to one or two selected pages on the website. But they lose the ability to work back and forth easily between the reservation page and the rest of my website.
Thoughts?
 
I know my page opens in the same window, which was what the rez service folks suggested. You could make sure it opens in a separate window instead of a new tab, which is what I think confuses people. They don't realize a new tab has opened. If it opens in a new page on top of the old window, that helps.
I like the idea of a separate window for the reasons you mention, the guest can look back to check something without losing their place.
 
We have ours open in a new tab, for the reasons you gave. Personally I like the new tab rather than new window.
 
I use Reservation Key and have it open to a new window. That way it gives them two options: go back via different window, or click on the link at the bottom of the reservation page to the homepage.
 
I have links pointing back to my website in the header of my ReservationKey page. Simply use the "target=_blank" attribute in the link code and it will open up a new window or tab depending on which browser is being used.
See mine HERE.
 
I have links pointing back to my website in the header of my ReservationKey page. Simply use the "target=_blank" attribute in the link code and it will open up a new window or tab depending on which browser is being used.
See mine HERE..
Proud Texan wrote:
I have links pointing back to my website in the header of my ReservationKey page. Simply use the "target=_blank" attribute in the link code and it will open up a new window or tab depending on which browser is being used.
Yes, that's how I had it set up, with links in the header, then got to worrying about people not knowing they were in a different tab. I may just flip a coin on this one!
 
I have links pointing back to my website in the header of my ReservationKey page. Simply use the "target=_blank" attribute in the link code and it will open up a new window or tab depending on which browser is being used.
See mine HERE..
PT, when I go to your reservations page, click Reserve for one of the cottages, then scroll down to the extreme lower right and click the Rental Agreement link, it pops up a windows that says...forever, apparently... "Saving - Please Wait". It never displays the rental agreement.
When I click the Cancelation Policy link in the lower right, that displays fine. But something may be broken on the Rental Agreement link. Perhaps because you don't have any text entered in the rental agreement website message?
 
We are a windows generation, for how many decades now? "Populate a new window" is the way to go for anything and everything, very few would use back buttons...and in fact it frustrates people. No one I guarantee you will be confused if a new window populates. They expect that. You don't need to warn people (I have seen that on old websites) Now having said "that" we are now in the mobile phone age, so perhaps some feedback from those who gear websites toward mobile users is in order? The stats are showing more and more are booking via handheld devices vs pc's.
PS Have links back to the website on your reservation page, for sure. :)
I work on a gvmt state website and every time someone uses the "REPLACE CURRENT PAGE" in a link I about go batty! RAWRRRRRRRR I say to my screen. Where the heck was I! What was I doing!
 
I have links pointing back to my website in the header of my ReservationKey page. Simply use the "target=_blank" attribute in the link code and it will open up a new window or tab depending on which browser is being used.
See mine HERE..
PT, when I go to your reservations page, click Reserve for one of the cottages, then scroll down to the extreme lower right and click the Rental Agreement link, it pops up a windows that says...forever, apparently... "Saving - Please Wait". It never displays the rental agreement.
When I click the Cancelation Policy link in the lower right, that displays fine. But something may be broken on the Rental Agreement link. Perhaps because you don't have any text entered in the rental agreement website message?
.
Arkansawyer said:
PT, when I go to your reservations page, click Reserve for one of the cottages, then scroll down to the extreme lower right and click the Rental Agreement link, it pops up a windows that says...forever, apparently... "Saving - Please Wait". It never displays the rental agreement.
When I click the Cancelation Policy link in the lower right, that displays fine. But something may be broken on the Rental Agreement link. Perhaps because you don't have any text entered in the rental agreement website message?
Thanks for pointing that out. Fixed it.
 
I'm leaning toward having everything stay in the one window the website's already using. The rest of the website uses the one window, and you go to a different page by using the menu or the back button (my back button is on the side of my mouse...use it all the time). By keeping the reservation page in the same window, it's just like the rest of the website: menu or Back to to to other pages, same background color as the rest of the site, etc.
Other than the address bar changing to "https://v2.reservationkey..." most people will never even notice they've left the main website.
 
We are a windows generation, for how many decades now? "Populate a new window" is the way to go for anything and everything, very few would use back buttons...and in fact it frustrates people. No one I guarantee you will be confused if a new window populates. They expect that. You don't need to warn people (I have seen that on old websites) Now having said "that" we are now in the mobile phone age, so perhaps some feedback from those who gear websites toward mobile users is in order? The stats are showing more and more are booking via handheld devices vs pc's.
PS Have links back to the website on your reservation page, for sure. :)
I work on a gvmt state website and every time someone uses the "REPLACE CURRENT PAGE" in a link I about go batty! RAWRRRRRRRR I say to my screen. Where the heck was I! What was I doing!.
Joey Bloggs said:
...very few would use back buttons...and in fact it frustrates people
I'm curious. On this board, how do most people return to the main forum page after reading posts? Click TOP on the last post they read, then click HOME? Scroll or Ctrl+Home to the top then click HOME? Or click the Back button (on the screen or on the mouse)?
 
We are a windows generation, for how many decades now? "Populate a new window" is the way to go for anything and everything, very few would use back buttons...and in fact it frustrates people. No one I guarantee you will be confused if a new window populates. They expect that. You don't need to warn people (I have seen that on old websites) Now having said "that" we are now in the mobile phone age, so perhaps some feedback from those who gear websites toward mobile users is in order? The stats are showing more and more are booking via handheld devices vs pc's.
PS Have links back to the website on your reservation page, for sure. :)
I work on a gvmt state website and every time someone uses the "REPLACE CURRENT PAGE" in a link I about go batty! RAWRRRRRRRR I say to my screen. Where the heck was I! What was I doing!.
Joey Bloggs said:
...very few would use back buttons...and in fact it frustrates people
I'm curious. On this board, how do most people return to the main forum page after reading posts? Click TOP on the last post they read, then click HOME? Scroll or Ctrl+Home to the top then click HOME? Or click the Back button (on the screen or on the mouse)?
.
Arkansawyer said:
Joey Bloggs said:
...very few would use back buttons...and in fact it frustrates people
I'm curious. On this board, how do most people return to the main forum page after reading posts? Click TOP on the last post they read, then click HOME? Scroll or Ctrl+Home to the top then click HOME? Or click the Back button (on the screen or on the mouse)?
Never. I alway just go to the "unread topics" list in the upper part of the page I'm on.
 
We are a windows generation, for how many decades now? "Populate a new window" is the way to go for anything and everything, very few would use back buttons...and in fact it frustrates people. No one I guarantee you will be confused if a new window populates. They expect that. You don't need to warn people (I have seen that on old websites) Now having said "that" we are now in the mobile phone age, so perhaps some feedback from those who gear websites toward mobile users is in order? The stats are showing more and more are booking via handheld devices vs pc's.
PS Have links back to the website on your reservation page, for sure. :)
I work on a gvmt state website and every time someone uses the "REPLACE CURRENT PAGE" in a link I about go batty! RAWRRRRRRRR I say to my screen. Where the heck was I! What was I doing!.
Joey Bloggs said:
...very few would use back buttons...and in fact it frustrates people
I'm curious. On this board, how do most people return to the main forum page after reading posts? Click TOP on the last post they read, then click HOME? Scroll or Ctrl+Home to the top then click HOME? Or click the Back button (on the screen or on the mouse)?
.
I 'roll' to the top and use the 'Unread' box. I'll hit 'Home' if I've finished up reading everything, just to get me out of a thread and back to the start.
 
We are a windows generation, for how many decades now? "Populate a new window" is the way to go for anything and everything, very few would use back buttons...and in fact it frustrates people. No one I guarantee you will be confused if a new window populates. They expect that. You don't need to warn people (I have seen that on old websites) Now having said "that" we are now in the mobile phone age, so perhaps some feedback from those who gear websites toward mobile users is in order? The stats are showing more and more are booking via handheld devices vs pc's.
PS Have links back to the website on your reservation page, for sure. :)
I work on a gvmt state website and every time someone uses the "REPLACE CURRENT PAGE" in a link I about go batty! RAWRRRRRRRR I say to my screen. Where the heck was I! What was I doing!.
Joey Bloggs said:
...very few would use back buttons...and in fact it frustrates people
I'm curious. On this board, how do most people return to the main forum page after reading posts? Click TOP on the last post they read, then click HOME? Scroll or Ctrl+Home to the top then click HOME? Or click the Back button (on the screen or on the mouse)?
.
I hit the unread topics box. I'll also click on Home sometimes.
 
I have links pointing back to my website in the header of my ReservationKey page. Simply use the "target=_blank" attribute in the link code and it will open up a new window or tab depending on which browser is being used.
See mine HERE..
PT, when I go to your reservations page, click Reserve for one of the cottages, then scroll down to the extreme lower right and click the Rental Agreement link, it pops up a windows that says...forever, apparently... "Saving - Please Wait". It never displays the rental agreement.
When I click the Cancelation Policy link in the lower right, that displays fine. But something may be broken on the Rental Agreement link. Perhaps because you don't have any text entered in the rental agreement website message?
.
Arkansawyer said:
PT, when I go to your reservations page, click Reserve for one of the cottages, then scroll down to the extreme lower right and click the Rental Agreement link, it pops up a windows that says...forever, apparently... "Saving - Please Wait". It never displays the rental agreement.
When I click the Cancelation Policy link in the lower right, that displays fine. But something may be broken on the Rental Agreement link. Perhaps because you don't have any text entered in the rental agreement website message?
Thanks for pointing that out. Fixed it.
.
Proud Texan wrote:
Thanks for pointing that out. Fixed it.
Found another one. On your reservations page you use a reference to your logo gif file on your own website. This wasn't a problem with my home computer for some reason, but I'm on a different computer today and when I brought up your reservations page I got this message before it showed your page...
Do you want to view only the webpage content that was delivered securely?
This webpage contains content that was not delivered using a secure HTTPS connection, which could compromise the security of the entire webpage.
It seems that referring to an image hosted on an insecure site makes the message appear in some browsers. To fix it you just need to upload your image to the secure server at ReservationKey and refer to that version rather than the version on your own website.
Here's how:
  1. On the ReservationKey Website tab, click Themes, then click to edit your page's theme.
  2. In the theme editor, under Images/Files click Add then browse on your computer to the image you want to upload to their secure server, and upload it.
  3. Now highlight and copy the address of the file you uploaded, in the theme editor Images/Files section. Copy starting with /userfiles and ending with the whole file name of the image.
  4. Now go to any place in your reservation page's HTML that refers to that image on your own website and replace that address with the secure server address you copied in step 3 above. Then save, of course.
You can apparently unload multiple image files and use them this way.
 
We are a windows generation, for how many decades now? "Populate a new window" is the way to go for anything and everything, very few would use back buttons...and in fact it frustrates people. No one I guarantee you will be confused if a new window populates. They expect that. You don't need to warn people (I have seen that on old websites) Now having said "that" we are now in the mobile phone age, so perhaps some feedback from those who gear websites toward mobile users is in order? The stats are showing more and more are booking via handheld devices vs pc's.
PS Have links back to the website on your reservation page, for sure. :)
I work on a gvmt state website and every time someone uses the "REPLACE CURRENT PAGE" in a link I about go batty! RAWRRRRRRRR I say to my screen. Where the heck was I! What was I doing!.
Joey Bloggs said:
...very few would use back buttons...and in fact it frustrates people
I'm curious. On this board, how do most people return to the main forum page after reading posts? Click TOP on the last post they read, then click HOME? Scroll or Ctrl+Home to the top then click HOME? Or click the Back button (on the screen or on the mouse)?
.
Arkansawyer said:
Joey Bloggs said:
...very few would use back buttons...and in fact it frustrates people
I'm curious. On this board, how do most people return to the main forum page after reading posts? Click TOP on the last post they read, then click HOME? Scroll or Ctrl+Home to the top then click HOME? Or click the Back button (on the screen or on the mouse)?
Never. I alway just go to the "unread topics" list in the upper part of the page I'm on.
.
Proud Texan said:
Never. I alway just go to the "unread topics" list in the upper part of the page I'm on.
Me too. I only use REFRESH if I have exhausted the unread topics.
 
I have links pointing back to my website in the header of my ReservationKey page. Simply use the "target=_blank" attribute in the link code and it will open up a new window or tab depending on which browser is being used.
See mine HERE..
PT, when I go to your reservations page, click Reserve for one of the cottages, then scroll down to the extreme lower right and click the Rental Agreement link, it pops up a windows that says...forever, apparently... "Saving - Please Wait". It never displays the rental agreement.
When I click the Cancelation Policy link in the lower right, that displays fine. But something may be broken on the Rental Agreement link. Perhaps because you don't have any text entered in the rental agreement website message?
.
Arkansawyer said:
PT, when I go to your reservations page, click Reserve for one of the cottages, then scroll down to the extreme lower right and click the Rental Agreement link, it pops up a windows that says...forever, apparently... "Saving - Please Wait". It never displays the rental agreement.
When I click the Cancelation Policy link in the lower right, that displays fine. But something may be broken on the Rental Agreement link. Perhaps because you don't have any text entered in the rental agreement website message?
Thanks for pointing that out. Fixed it.
.
Proud Texan wrote:
Thanks for pointing that out. Fixed it.
Found another one. On your reservations page you use a reference to your logo gif file on your own website. This wasn't a problem with my home computer for some reason, but I'm on a different computer today and when I brought up your reservations page I got this message before it showed your page...
Do you want to view only the webpage content that was delivered securely?
This webpage contains content that was not delivered using a secure HTTPS connection, which could compromise the security of the entire webpage.
It seems that referring to an image hosted on an insecure site makes the message appear in some browsers. To fix it you just need to upload your image to the secure server at ReservationKey and refer to that version rather than the version on your own website.
Here's how:
  1. On the ReservationKey Website tab, click Themes, then click to edit your page's theme.
  2. In the theme editor, under Images/Files click Add then browse on your computer to the image you want to upload to their secure server, and upload it.
  3. Now highlight and copy the address of the file you uploaded, in the theme editor Images/Files section. Copy starting with /userfiles and ending with the whole file name of the image.
  4. Now go to any place in your reservation page's HTML that refers to that image on your own website and replace that address with the secure server address you copied in step 3 above. Then save, of course.
You can apparently unload multiple image files and use them this way.
.
Arkansawyer said:
Proud Texan wrote:
Thanks for pointing that out. Fixed it.
Found another one. On your reservations page you use a reference to your logo gif file on your own website. This wasn't a problem with my home computer for some reason, but I'm on a different computer today and when I brought up your reservations page I got this message before it showed your page...
Do you want to view only the webpage content that was delivered securely?
This webpage contains content that was not delivered using a secure HTTPS connection, which could compromise the security of the entire webpage.
It seems that referring to an image hosted on an insecure site makes the message appear in some browsers. To fix it you just need to upload your image to the secure server at ReservationKey and refer to that version rather than the version on your own website.
Here's how:
  1. On the ReservationKey Website tab, click Themes, then click to edit your page's theme.
  2. In the theme editor, under Images/Files click Add then browse on your computer to the image you want to upload to their secure server, and upload it.
  3. Now highlight and copy the address of the file you uploaded, in the theme editor Images/Files section. Copy starting with /userfiles and ending with the whole file name of the image.
  4. Now go to any place in your reservation page's HTML that refers to that image on your own website and replace that address with the secure server address you copied in step 3 above. Then save, of course.
You can apparently unload multiple image files and use them this way.
Wow. Thanks. I didn't even see that option for uploading images.
 
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