System Updates

Minor updates and code changes occur every day. Only significant or noteworthy updates are shown here. Updates shown with a gold background are (or were at the time) only available to Advanced HOPS members.

You are NOT currently subscribed to HOPS compliance system updates. More info

You are NOT currently subscribed to HOPS retail system updates. More info

Recent HOPS Updates Recent Retail System Updates Search Results

Time Date	System Updates
Update 1474 4 June 2026	Gift Aid \| FAQs \| Displaying Ticket Availability GIFT AID We have completed our pilot work on Gift Aid tools for Ticket Sales in HOPS. This enables customers to select a 'donation fare' instead of the normal fare, and then the option of whether to Gift Aid the donation. In addition, functionality has been provided to facilitate a 'donor benefit' for visitors selecting the donor fare, eg for use in the cafe. Although simple on the surface, this has been a VERY complicated system to create and HMRC instructions to navigate. Details of the Gift Aid functionality can be found here: https://www.hops.org.uk/help/gift-aid Or please contact steve.morris@hops.org.uk if you would like further information / demo. -- TICKET PROTECTION A reminder that a ticket protection integration is available via Secure My Booking. This is an easy way for railways to generate free money both by the commission on the protection sales, and on not needing to give refunds to customers in circumstances where you currently might. I recommend that anyone not currently using this has a good look and at least makes a conscious decision not to use it if that's the case - otherwise you're leaving money on the table... Details: https://www.hops.org.uk/help/secure-my-booking Or please contact steve.morris@hops.org.uk if you would like further information / demo. -- FAQs FAQs are now shown on retail systems website, and on the Raildays app and website. A link to these is given in the top right corner of the ticket website. FAQs can be edited in HOPS in Booking Office > Commercial FAQs. -- SHOWING TICKET AVAILABILITY TO CUSTOMERS Previously this was only available for events with 'unlimited' capacity. This has now been replaced with a 'Show availability when below X' option. Reamining availability will now only be shown to customers when the remaining availability is below the number given. If it is above that, no clues will be shown. For events with unlimited availability, no availability clues will be shown. This has come about following feedback from railways wishing to hide (from customers and competitors) how well an event is selling, however, please note that while it is beneficial to hide when an event is not selling well, it is not appropriate to hide this number completely. Please DON'T set this to a very low number to try to avoid displaying it at all, as it will frustrate customers if they try to add sessions to their basket and are then told that aren't enough tickets available. Eg a customer selects a session on 1 December and then finds there aren't enough tickets left for their family of 5. So they try 2 December instead, and find that's only has 1 left. So they try 3 December and find that only has 2 left, so they give up and go to Alton Towers instead. Whereas if availability clues had been provided they would have been able to immediately see that there were 5 or more spaces left on ten other days in December which they could have booked. For events with large capacity, eg 1000, a sensible number might be 30. For events with small capacity, eg 6 on a brake van ride, a sensible number might be 3 or 2. 10% of the total capacity is a good number, which satisfies the requirement of not revealing when a session isn't selling well, but means that sessions with enough seats available for the customer are clearly shown to ensure they don't abandon trying to find a session they can fit on. The setting can be found in Event Settings. It applies to all sessions on the event. -- SUCCESSION PLANNING Details of meetings for this have been circulated to interested parties. It's not too late to be involved. -- Thank you Danny Scroggins

Time Date

System Updates

Update 1474
4 June 2026

Gift Aid | FAQs | Displaying Ticket Availability

GIFT AID

We have completed our pilot work on Gift Aid tools for Ticket Sales in HOPS.

This enables customers to select a 'donation fare' instead of the normal fare, and then the option of whether to Gift Aid the donation.

In addition, functionality has been provided to facilitate a 'donor benefit' for visitors selecting the donor fare, eg for use in the cafe.

Although simple on the surface, this has been a VERY complicated system to create and HMRC instructions to navigate.

Details of the Gift Aid functionality can be found here:

https://www.hops.org.uk/help/gift-aid

Or please contact steve.morris@hops.org.uk if you would like further information / demo.

--

TICKET PROTECTION

A reminder that a ticket protection integration is available via Secure My Booking.

This is an easy way for railways to generate free money both by the commission on the protection sales, and on not needing to give refunds to customers in circumstances where you currently might.

I recommend that anyone not currently using this has a good look and at least makes a conscious decision not to use it if that's the case - otherwise you're leaving money on the table...

Details: https://www.hops.org.uk/help/secure-my-booking

Or please contact steve.morris@hops.org.uk if you would like further information / demo.

--

FAQs

FAQs are now shown on retail systems website, and on the Raildays app and website. A link to these is given in the top right corner of the ticket website.

FAQs can be edited in HOPS in Booking Office > Commercial FAQs.

--

SHOWING TICKET AVAILABILITY TO CUSTOMERS

Previously this was only available for events with 'unlimited' capacity.

This has now been replaced with a 'Show availability when below X' option. Reamining availability will now only be shown to customers when the remaining availability is below the number given. If it is above that, no clues will be shown.

For events with unlimited availability, no availability clues will be shown.

This has come about following feedback from railways wishing to hide (from customers and competitors) how well an event is selling, however, please note that while it is beneficial to hide when an event is not selling well, it is not appropriate to hide this number completely.

Please DON'T set this to a very low number to try to avoid displaying it at all, as it will frustrate customers if they try to add sessions to their basket and are then told that aren't enough tickets available.

Eg a customer selects a session on 1 December and then finds there aren't enough tickets left for their family of 5. So they try 2 December instead, and find that's only has 1 left. So they try 3 December and find that only has 2 left, so they give up and go to Alton Towers instead. Whereas if availability clues had been provided they would have been able to immediately see that there were 5 or more spaces left on ten other days in December which they could have booked.

For events with large capacity, eg 1000, a sensible number might be 30.

For events with small capacity, eg 6 on a brake van ride, a sensible number might be 3 or 2.

10% of the total capacity is a good number, which satisfies the requirement of not revealing when a session isn't selling well, but means that sessions with enough seats available for the customer are clearly shown to ensure they don't abandon trying to find a session they can fit on.

The setting can be found in Event Settings. It applies to all sessions on the event.

--

SUCCESSION PLANNING

Details of meetings for this have been circulated to interested parties. It's not too late to be involved.

--

Thank you

Danny Scroggins

Generated at 09:59:53 17/06/2026