Gift Vouchers for Leisure Venues and Experiences

Why sell a printed voucher when your booking system can email one?

Because a card is something to hand over. A printed voucher can be wrapped, posted or put in a birthday card, and someone buying one at your desk doesn’t need to give an email address.

In the second half of 2025, physical gift cards made up 46% of the value of gift card sales reported by members of the Gift Card & Voucher Association (GCVA), and their sales were 21% higher than a year before.

• A present to give. The GCVA’s State of the Nation 2025 report says personalised messages or themed packaging can answer people’s emotional objections to gift cards.
• Sales at the desk. Visitors can buy one on the way out, with nothing to email.
• Posted orders. DigiTickets lets buyers choose email, post or collection in person, and ROLLER’s checkout has a posted card option.

Our guide to digital and plastic gift cards compares the two.

Should we sell experience vouchers or money vouchers?

Both work, and many businesses sell the two side by side. An experience voucher names an activity for a number of people. A money voucher carries an amount to spend on anything you sell.

Several booking systems offer both. When we read their pages in November 2026, DigiTickets described experience and stored-balance vouchers, Bookeo described vouchers for one named service and money vouchers for any service, and Veezi said its vouchers could hold tickets or a money value.

Don’t want a design for every experience? Staff can write the experience or amount on a write-on panel when the card is sold. Or, if your booking system holds what each code buys, one design can serve every experience and value, because the card only carries the code. Our printing guide sets out the four ways to set gift cards up.

Whether VAT is due when you sell a voucher or when it’s spent depends on what it can be spent on: see our gift card VAT and expiry rules.

How do we describe an experience so the voucher stays true?

Name the activity and how many people it’s for, and leave off anything that changes: the price, a particular room, film or session, staff names and the year. A voucher that names something you’ve since dropped is a promise you can’t keep.

Print the experience or the amount, never both: a printed price is out of date the day your prices change. Extras that might change, such as shoe hire or a drink, are better described on your website, where you can update them. Running a golf club? Our page on plastic cards for golf clubs covers pro shop gift cards too.

How does a printed voucher work when customers book online?

Each card carries a code your booking system knows, and the person who receives it types the code in when they book. ROLLER, for example, accepts cards from any supplier if each has a unique code and a scannable barcode, and customers enter the card number at checkout online. DigiTickets and Bookeo also take voucher codes when customers book, but their pages don’t say whether codes on another supplier’s cards work, so ask.

If the code is all anyone needs to book, keep it secret until the card is used: print it under a scratch-off panel, with a serial number on show so staff can tell which card is which without spoiling the panel.

1. How to book, in a line or two, with your web address.
2. The scratch-off panel hides the booking code. A typical panel is 8mm x 75mm, stops at least 4mm from the edge, and can’t be printed on.
3. The serial number, on show, for your records.
4. The rules that matter most: group size, ages and peak days. See terms to print.
5. A write-on panel for the valid-until date, filled in when the card is sold. It sits on a white area, because a write-on panel on a coloured background picks up the colour.

Where the codes come from depends on your system. Some create them: Resova, for example, creates a unique code for each gift voucher. Others can use numbers made elsewhere: Veezi can import any gift card data set, and a ROLLER venue can change a card’s number in ROLLER to match the unique number printed on it. Either way, send the codes in an Excel or CSV file, one row per card. They’re printed as they are in your file, and we can’t check them against your booking system, so check the file before you send it. Our guide to gift card codes in Excel or CSV shows the layout.

As we read ROLLER’s help pages, it works the third way: staff scan or type the card number at the till, and customers enter the same number at checkout online. Veezi’s emailed gift cards work the second way, with a PIN for online booking and a barcode for the till. Our guide to numbered gift cards covers serial numbers, PINs and codes.

Will our booking system accept printed gift cards?

Some say plainly that they do, and others don’t say, so ask yours before you order. This is what five systems’ own pages say. We read them in November 2026, and features change, so confirm with your provider.

Whichever system you use, ask:

• Can it take cards from another supplier, with codes it creates or imports?
• Can it export its codes to a spreadsheet, or import a list of yours?
• Is the code typed in, scanned, or both, and is there a separate PIN?
• Which barcode does it scan: a QR code, Code 128 or Code 39?
• How do staff issue a card when it’s sold, so the system knows it’s been paid for?

We can’t test codes on your booking system, because every system and scanner is different. To check the barcode’s type, size and print on your own scanner before the full run, add a postal proof to your order: we post you a few identical real cards. It’s optional, for full colour cards only, £65 +vat, and takes around 5 working days. Our guide to gift cards with barcodes covers barcode types and sizes.

What terms should a leisure gift voucher carry?

The rules a booking depends on: booking ahead, the group size, any age or height limit, what happens in bad weather, days it can’t be used, and a valid-until date. Keep two or three lines on the card and the rest in the wallet and on your website, in the same words everywhere.

Show limits such as peak days, ages and heights before people buy, not only on the card. The Competition and Markets Authority’s guide to writing a fair contract says a term that could significantly affect the customer must be made prominent, and important information shared early. If you cancel, it says a term is unlikely to be fair if it lets you keep prepayments when the contract doesn’t go ahead or the customer has received no benefit, and more likely to be fair if you refund the prepayments of a customer who isn’t at fault. So if you cancel a session for bad weather, offer another date or a refund, and say so in your terms.

If your vouchers expire, the date must be clear and the terms fair. Buyers notice: in the GCVA’s State of the Nation 2025 report, expiry dates were the most common reason UK consumers gave for not buying gift cards (28%). Writing the date in when the card is sold means the period runs from the day of sale. Our gift card expiry rules explain more, and our gift card terms and conditions template has fuller wording to copy. This is general information, not legal advice.

Can we sell vouchers to companies and groups, and for birthdays and Christmas?

Yes. Birthdays and Christmas are the most common reasons people give gift cards: in the GCVA’s State of the Nation 2025 report, 66% of UK gift card buyers had bought one for a birthday in the past 12 months, and 45% for Christmas.

• Birthdays, all year. A party can be a voucher too: name the package and the number of guests, such as “A bowling party for up to 10 children”.
• Christmas. In their report on the second half of 2023, the GCVA and KPMG said sales of physical gift cards always rise around Christmas, because they’re convenient and suit giving as a gift. Order in good time: cards take 7 working days from proof approval and payment. Ask us for this year’s last order dates at sales@cpcards.co.uk.
• Groups. Put the group size in the experience, such as “Escape room for up to 6 players”, so everyone knows what the voucher covers.
• Companies. A business may buy vouchers in bulk for staff or clients, sometimes with its own logo on the card. That’s a separate design, and our minimum is 25 cards per design.

Employers may ask about tax: a staff gift costing £50 or less including VAT can be tax-free under HMRC’s trivial benefits rules. This is general information, not tax advice: their accountant can say whether the rules apply.

Our guide to Christmas gift cards for your business covers the season, and our advice on selling gift cards to local companies covers staff gifts and the tax conditions.

How should we present an experience voucher?

In a landscape wallet, with the experience described inside. The card sits in die cut slits on one side, and the other side has room for what the voucher is for, how to book, the rules that matter and a handwritten message.

1. The experience, in the same words as the card.
2. How to book, with your web address.
3. The rules that matter: booking ahead, ages and peak days.
4. To and From, for a handwritten message.
5. The card, held at two corners in die cut slits.
6. The crease. Folded, the wallet is 75 x 105mm and fits a standard envelope.

Our landscape wallets are printed in full colour on both sides of 350gsm silk board, so you get four printed faces where a flat carrier has two: room for terms, an expiry date, booking instructions and a handwritten message. They start at £89.00 +vat for 25. They come separate from the cards, are quoted and produced with them, and our design service can set up the card and wallet together.

A wallet printed with one experience suits only that experience. If you sell several, print a wallet for each, or leave a line inside for staff to write the experience in. Our guide on how to design a gift card carrier covers the layout.

Selling vouchers from a stand by the desk instead? A euro slot carrier hangs on a retail hook.

What should a leisure venue order, and what does it cost?

Most small businesses start with 100 to 250 gift cards, and our minimum is 25 cards per design. For a venue that takes bookings online, a typical order is:

• Full colour cards, one design per experience or amount.
• A booking code on each card from your system’s file, under a scratch-off panel if it’s only typed in online (a code staff also scan goes in the barcode instead), with a serial number on show.
• A barcode or QR code if staff scan cards at the desk.
• A write-on panel for the valid-until date.
• Landscape wallets to match.

Codes, serial numbers, barcodes, write-on panels and scratch-off panels are priced on your quote, and so is a different QR code on each card. Scratch-off panels aren’t available on EcoTough or Plastic-Free Board cards.

The cards are 86 x 54mm and 760 microns thick, printed in full colour on both sides, then bonded between clear PVC sheets and cut, so the print can’t scratch or wear off. Every order gets a free email proof, so you can check the layout and wording before anything is printed. The colours on the proof are a guide only, because every screen shows colour differently. If a colour has to be right, add a postal proof.

Production takes 7 working days from proof approval and payment. Express takes 3 to 4 working days: ask us for cost and availability. Delivery is free within Great Britain, and our delivery prices list the charges for Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and the Channel Islands. No artwork? Our in-house design service is £29 +vat, with no limit on reasonable amends.

How much do they cost?

Gift cards start at £75.00 +vat for 25, and the price per card falls as the quantity goes up, because much of the work in an order is the same whatever the quantity.

Prices are for one design from your print-ready artwork, and include delivery within Great Britain. They exclude VAT and extras such as codes, numbering and scratch-off panels, which are priced on your quote.

For a quote, email sales@cpcards.co.uk or use our gift card quote form. We often reply within minutes, 9am to 5pm, Monday to Friday. Tell us what each card buys, which booking system you use, how many cards you need, and whether you’d like wallets.