How to manage bookings from your site's admin panel

When Bookings is on, the admin panel of your published TeleportHQ site gets a BOOKINGS group. There you list the bookings by view (for example Arriving today or Waiting for your answer), accept, decline or cancel them, record whether the customer came, move a booking to other dates, and add a booking yourself for a phone or walk-in customer. The same group holds your bookable items, opening hours, closed dates and booking settings. Refunds aren't made here: you make them in the editor.

Before you start#

• The admin panel comes with Bookings. Switching Bookings on also switches on the admin panel and adds the BOOKINGS group, which shows only while Bookings is on. See What is the admin panel?.
• Publish your site and sign in as an admin. The admin panel is at your site's address followed by /admin/dashboard. See How to open the admin panel on your live site.

What the BOOKINGS group holds#

In the sidebar of your TeleportHQ admin panel, the BOOKINGS group has these pages:

• Bookings: every booking, with its actions (the page /admin/bookings).
• Calendar: everything booked by date, in Month, Week, Day or Timeline, the same calendar as in the editor's Growth → Bookings.
• Bookable items: your items, with how each one is doing.
• Opening hours: when items booked by time can be booked, including hours for one item only.
• Closed dates: days nothing can be booked, or one item can't.
• Booking settings: your booking rules, in the groups When customers can book, What customers can do and Emails.

Find and answer a booking#

1. In the admin panel's sidebar, under BOOKINGS, click Bookings.
2. In Show bookings (left of the search), pick a view. The list opens on All bookings:
   • Upcoming: bookings still to start that still stand.
   • Arriving today and Leaving today: who starts or ends today (check-ins and check-outs).
   • Happening now: who is there right now.
   • Waiting for your answer: requests, and bookings that need attention.
   • Waiting for payment: bookings whose online payment hasn't arrived.
   • Past, and Cancelled or declined (which also lists bookings not paid in time).
3. Click a booking to open its panel.
4. Click the action you need: Accept, Decline, Cancel, Mark attended or Mark no-show. Only the actions that fit the booking's status show.
5. Read the confirmation window, for example Cancel this booking? ("The booking is cancelled and its time is free again for other customers."), and confirm with its button (Accept, Decline, Cancel booking, Mark attended or Mark no-show).

The customer is emailed when you accept, decline or cancel; marking attendance emails nobody. Mark attended and Mark no-show work once the booking has started: earlier, the admin panel answers "This booking has not started yet. Mark attendance once its time has come."

Move a booking to other dates#

1. On the Bookings page, click Edit on the booking's row.
2. In the Dates card ("Move the booking to other dates, past ones too when you correct what happened. The customer is emailed new dates that are still to come."), change:
   • Start date: the check-in day of a stay, the first day of a rental or the day of an appointment.
   • End date (stays and rentals): the check-out day or the last day.
   • Start time (appointments), in 24-hour time, for example 09:00. The appointment keeps its length.
3. Click Save Changes.

Only a booking that is awaiting confirmation or confirmed can move. The new dates must be free and open: TeleportHQ refuses dates that are taken ("Those dates are fully booked. Pick other dates."), closed ("You are closed on some of those dates. Pick other dates, or remove the closed dates first.") or too short or long for the item. A booking paid online keeps its length: "This booking was paid online for its length. Move both dates by the same number of days, or cancel it and refund its order."

The same form has an Internal note card: your private note, the one shown as Your note in the editor.

Add a booking yourself (phone or walk-in)#

1. On the Bookings page, click + Add New.
2. The New booking page opens: "Book a customer in on the item's calendar. Only the times still free are offered, and the booking is confirmed at once." Under What is booked, pick the Item.
3. On the item's calendar, pick the date or dates, the time and the number of guests, as a customer would. Summary shows what is booked and what it costs.
4. Under Customer, pick their Customer account (optional: the booking then shows in the customer's own bookings), or type their Name, Email (optional for a walk-in or a phone booking) and Phone.
5. Optional: fill in Customer's requests and Internal note ("Only you and your team see it, never the customer.").
6. Keep Enable confirmation email ticked to email the customer a confirmation, when you gave an email.
7. Click Add booking.

A booking you add is confirmed at once, and nothing is paid online. In the editor's Growth → Bookings, set the Anyone filter to Added by you to find it. Your own customer rules don't bind you here (notice, how far ahead, guest bookings, phone number), but your opening hours, closed days, places, the item's length and its guests still do.

See what needs your attention#

The admin panel's header button What needs your attention opens the list Needs your attention, with a count for each queue. Two are about bookings:

• Bookings To Answer: "Accept or decline requests, and cancel bookings paid after their time was taken."
• Items To Prepare: "A booking ended: do what comes after it, then mark the item ready." It lists items with an After Each Booking job (for example cleaning) whose last booking has ended.

To clear an item: under BOOKINGS, click Bookable items, open the item, do the job, then click Mark ready next to After each booking:. See How to add a bookable item.

See how an item is doing#

On the admin panel's Bookable items page, click an item. Its panel shows Upcoming bookings, Revenue, last 30 days, Revenue, this year, Bookings, this year, Cancelled or declined, last 90 days, and a chart of Bookings per month, this year.

Check that it worked#

After an action, the booking's status changes in its panel and the list. The editor's Growth → Bookings shows the same change, and a booking you added appears there with Added by you.

Troubleshooting#

There's no BOOKINGS group in the admin panel Bookings is off, or the site wasn't published since you switched it on. Switch Bookings on, then publish again.

"This booking has changed since the page loaded, and this action no longer applies. Refresh the page." Someone changed the booking first: the customer, or you in the editor. Refresh the page.

"Only a requested or confirmed booking can be moved to other dates." Cancelled, declined, unpaid, completed and no-show bookings keep their dates.

"Its bookable item was deleted or is now booked another way, so this booking cannot be moved. Cancel it and book again." Cancel the booking, then add a new one with + Add New.

"The booking could not be moved: its new dates may have just been taken. Refresh the page and try again." Another booking took those dates a moment earlier. Refresh, then pick other dates.

Good to know#

• Bookings can't be deleted in the admin panel. Cancel them instead.
• One item's own hours. On Opening hours, a row with an Item applies to that item only. Rows without one apply to every item that has no hours of its own. See How to set opening hours, start times and closed days.
• The Calendar page on the canvas. While you edit the admin panel's Calendar page in the editor, a Month / Week / Day / Timeline switch on the canvas shows each view, so you can see and style it. On your live site, the page's own tabs switch the view.