What do the booking statuses mean?
Every booking in TeleportHQ has one status: Awaiting payment, Awaiting confirmation, Confirmed, Cancelled, Declined, Not paid in time, Completed, No-show or Needs attention. A booking that is awaiting payment, awaiting confirmation or confirmed holds its time, so nobody else can book it. Cancelling, declining or a payment that never arrives gives the time back. Needs attention means the customer paid after their time was given to someone else, and you have to sort it out.
Where you see the statuses
In the TeleportHQ editor, open Growth → Bookings. Each booking's row shows its status as a coloured label, and so does the top of its details when you click it. The Any status filter picks bookings by status, and the Calendar colours each booking by its status. See How to find and manage bookings in Growth.
The same statuses show in your live site's admin panel, in booking reports and exports, and to your customers.
The nine statuses
| Status | What it means | How a booking gets it | Its time |
|---|---|---|---|
| Awaiting payment | The customer chose to pay online and hasn't paid yet. | Booked with online payment. It waits while the customer pays, for as long as Hold While Paying allows (30 minutes by default). | Held |
| Awaiting confirmation | A request waiting for your answer. | Approve Each Booking is on in Booking Settings. A request paid online gets this status once the payment arrives. | Held |
| Confirmed | The booking stands. | Booked while Approve Each Booking is off (after the online payment, when there is one), accepted by you, or added by you in the admin panel. | Held |
| Cancelled | The booking was called off. | You clicked Cancel (or Cancel Booking for an unpaid one), the customer cancelled online, you refunded it in full, or its order was cancelled. | Given back |
| Declined | You turned the request down. | You clicked Decline on a request. | Given back |
| Not paid in time | The customer didn't pay before the hold ran out. | Automatic, when Hold While Paying runs out with no payment. | Given back |
| Completed | The customer came. | You clicked Mark attended, after the booking started. | Kept |
| No-show | The customer didn't come. | You clicked Mark no-show, after the booking started. | Kept |
| Needs attention | The customer paid after their hold ran out, and someone else had booked the time meanwhile. | Automatic, when a late payment can't get its time back. | Not held |
- In TeleportHQ, declining or cancelling a booking that was paid online doesn't refund it. Refund it from the booking's Payment section. See How to find and manage bookings in Growth.
- A late payment for a Not paid in time booking whose time is still free brings the booking back: it becomes Confirmed again (or Awaiting confirmation while Approve Each Booking is on).
- Mark attended and Mark no-show can be swapped later. Neither one gives the time back.
- Completed, Cancelled, Declined and Not paid in time bookings can't be accepted or cancelled any more.
What to do with a booking that needs attention
A TeleportHQ booking turns Needs attention when its customer paid online after the hold ran out, and the time was booked by somebody else in between. It holds no time, and it waits under Requests in Growth → Bookings. While Booking Alerts is on, you also get an email about it: "Paid after its dates were taken — contact the customer or refund the order".
- Contact the customer, for example to offer another date.
- In Growth → Bookings, open the booking from the Requests tab.
- Under Payment, click Refund and refund the full amount. A full refund also cancels the booking. (Or click Cancel under Actions first, then refund.)
The customer's booking page says "Your payment arrived after your booking was released. The business will contact you."
Which tab lists each status
| Growth → Bookings tab | Statuses it lists |
|---|---|
| Upcoming | Confirmed, Awaiting confirmation, Awaiting payment and Needs attention, until the booking ends |
| Requests | Awaiting confirmation and Needs attention |
| Past | Confirmed, Completed and No-show, once the booking has ended |
| Cancelled | Cancelled, Declined and Not paid in time |
| All | Every status |
A booking still Awaiting payment after its end time shows only under All.
What your customers see
Customers see the same status labels on their booking page and in My bookings, in their own language, with a line that explains it:
- Awaiting confirmation: "We have your request. The business will confirm it by email."
- Awaiting payment: "Your booking is waiting for its payment.", with a Pay now button.
- Not paid in time: "This booking was released because its payment did not arrive in time."
- Declined: "The business could not accept this booking."
- Cancelled: "This booking was cancelled."
The emails customers get when a status changes are listed in Which emails does Bookings send, and how do I set them up?.
Good to know
- Colours. In the editor, green labels (Confirmed, Completed) are on track, amber (Awaiting payment) and blue (Awaiting confirmation) wait for something, grey labels are over, and red ones (No-show, Needs attention) need a look.
- Orders have their own statuses. A booking paid online is also an order with an order status and a payment status. See What do the order, payment and shipping statuses mean?.
- The admin panel groups bookings by these statuses in its Show bookings views, such as Waiting for your answer and Waiting for payment. See How to manage bookings from your site's admin panel.