✅ For travel companies
Highlight your expert local knowledge and provide clients with points of interest for their trip.
In this article:
Introduction to Points of Interest (POIs)
Adding a POI by co-ordinates or dropping a pin
Editing, de-activating or deleting a POI
Show or hide POIs for a specific trip
The List & viewing POIs on the app
Introduction to Points of Interest (POIs)
- Points of Interest (POIs) are a great way for you to recommend the best places for your clients to visit on their trip. Whether it’s the most delicious local restaurant, hidden treasures off the beaten track, the best Instagram spot or the nearest ATM, POIs will enhance your client’s trip and enable them to get the most out of each location
- POIs are your personalised recommendations, and you create these on a company level. These will then automatically appear for trips that fall within range. You can then further personalise which POIs you show for individual trips
Adding a POI
- To add a POI, go to SHARED in the top menu bar, and click on POI
- You will see a map (integrated with Google Maps) and a search box, just type the exact name of the POI you are looking for in the box and a suggested list will appear. Select the correct POI from the list
- The map will then centre on the POI so you can confirm its the correct one, you can then click Add POI
- Next a pop-up box will appear, and you can personalise your POIs. You can complete the following fields:
- Range (in km) - this is what triggers a POI to show up in a trip. The range is from the locations you set in the locations section within a trip, and if they are within range of this POI, it will show
- Icon - it's really important to choose an icon for your POI and there are many to choose from. Choosing an icon will allow your clients to view just POIs of a certain category, making it easier for them to find your excellent recommendations. If you can't find a relevant category, see below 'rename your POI categories'
- Label - you can amend the name of the POI here
- Description - here you can add a description and tell your clients why they should visit this POI, and why you are recommending it. Be specific, if it's a restaurant, is there a particular dish on the menu they should try?
- Image, PDF or URL - go the extra mile and add one of these to make your recommendations stand out. Just press the Attach/Link button to add your content. POIs with images look best, and why not add a link to a website so your customers can do some extra research before visiting
- Press Create and your POI has been created!
Adding a POI by co-ordinates or dropping a pin
- If you are adding a POI that is not on Google Maps, make sure you go to Shared and then POI and you can either:
- Drop a pin - just right-click on the map to drop a pin in the correct location and then follow the steps above to add your POI
- By co-ordinates - click the orange Create POI button in the top right-hand corner, then in the pop up box, you will need to paste in the exact coordinates of the POI
Rename your POI categories
- When creating your POIs, if you can't find an icon category to suit exactly what you are looking for, you can rename them - all the icon names are customisable
- To rename the icon categories, go to Shared and then POI and then click Manage Icons
- You will then see a list of all available icons, and you can customise the names of each icon to fit the exact type of POI you are sharing.
Editing, de-activating or deleting a POI
- If you need to delete, temporarily disable or make amendments to a POI you can do this in Shared and then POI
- Scroll down the page and below the map, you will see a list of your existing POIs
- You can Search POIs or Show POIs by country to help you find the one you are looking for
- Once you've found the POI you want to edit, scroll to the right-hand side of the screen and you will see 3 icons: a switch, a pencil icon and a bin
- To deactivate or hide a POI - click the switch to turn it off
- To edit a POI - press the pencil icon
- To delete a POI - press the bin icon
Show or hide POIs for a specific trip
- As you have seen, you can turn POIs on or off in the Shared section and these settings will affect all trips in your account. You can also turn on or off POIs on a trip by trip basis - maybe you only want to show certain POIs for certain bookings!
- To do this, go to Vamoos List, Vamoos Trips and open up a trip
- Go to Locations down the left-hand side and click on POI
- You will see there are 2 sections, Trip specific settings & Shared POI settings
- To make amendments to POIs shown for this trip only, find the POI in the Shared POI settings section, scroll to the right-hand side and toggle the switch on or off
- The POI will then move up into the top section to show this is a trip-specific setting and is different from your general POI settings
- It will also show as greyed out in the Shared settings section just to show you it has been moved up
The List & viewing POIs on the app
- Customers can view POIs in the app in 2 different places: the map & the list
- The map - this is the default place to see POIs, you can select different categories across the bottom and watch the POI icons appear on the map, click on the (i) icon to see full details. Click on the arrow to the left of the POI name to be taken to driving instructions in a 3rd party navigation app
- The list - this is an (optional) easier way to view POIs in a list format. It gives app users more freedom to sort POIs by distance to certain locations and is an easier way of sorting through a lot of POIs
- The list is optional, to turn on the list, go to the General section of a trip and turn the switch on next to 'enable the list'
- You can also set default account settings for this by going to Settings and turning on the switch next to show the POI list by default
TOP TIP: we'd recommend changing the default name of 'The List' to something more engaging like 'Explore' you can do this in the Menu & Labels section
FAQs
- Q: Why can't I see the list on the app?
A: The list needs to be turned on in the General Section, and you need at least 5 POIs for the list to show.
- Q: Do POIs work offline on the app?
A: Yes you can see POIs offline, provided you have opened and loaded up the maps whilst connected to the internet initially.
If you have any further questions or need help with this, you can contact us at support@vamoos.com.