Checkout options
You can configure your checkout to allow guests to either place "Provisional Bookings" or "Bookings" via your calendar.
A Provisional Booking is a partially complete Booking that is still awaiting payment and not yet confirmed. It turns from provisional to a confirmed Booking once the Deposit has been made.
- To only show the Confirm Booking button at the checkout, make sure your Booking Expiration in hours is set to 1
- To also allow guests to Make Provisional Bookings, then set your Booking Expiration in hours to a value of 2 or greater
You can set the Booking Expiration which dictates how long a guest has to pay before their booking expires by navigating to:
Site Settings > Bookings > Expire Unconfirmed Bookings After
Make Provisional Booking
If you are flexible with when a guest can pay, then enabling Make Provisional Booking can help to secure the Lead Bookers details early on, whilst reserving the dates on your calendar, and allowing them to pay the Deposit a little later.
This is particularly useful for larger bookings with lots of guests and affords the Lead Booker time to communicate and collect money from the booking party.
Simply enter a Booking Expiration that is longer than 2 hours and the "Make Provisional Booking" button will appear at the final stage of the checkout. You'll notice that it clearly states how long the dates are secured for and that the provisional booking will expire if no payment is received after this time frame.
Once the form has been completed a "Thanks for your booking" banner appears at the top of the screen with a reminder of the date and time the deposit payment is required by. Similarly, the Lead booker will receive an email carrying the same information as well as a summary of their booking.
Top Tip - prevent unnecessary refunds (and card processing fees!) by encouraging Provisional Bookings. Working this way gives you time to speak to your guests before the booking is confirmed and gives you more control over who is booking your Properties.
Confirm Booking
The Confirm Booking option will always be displayed at the checkout and allows a guest to finish the booking process. Once clicked, the "Confirm Booking" button takes the Lead Booker to a payment screen with your Offline Payment Instructions and Online Payment Form (if set up).
A banner at the top of the page will clearly state how long the booking is being held for and that it will expire if payment is not received by a certain date and time.
If you want to encourage guests to book and pay as quickly as possible, then set your Booking Expiration to 1 hour, which gives them plenty of time to finish the checkout process.
Enabling both the Make Provisional Booking and Confirm Booking options will give you and your guests greater flexibility, as guests who want to pay there and then can, whilst not pressuring those who may need to check with the rest of their booking party before paying the deposit.