Bookings

Every booking is for one departure and has a reference, such as NO-7KQ2MX, which travellers see in their emails. Everyone in your team can see bookings. Editors and Admins can work on them.

Find a booking

Bookings lists every booking, newest first, with the lead traveller, the trip, how many people, what is paid, the balance and the status. A booking with an overdue or failed payment says so under the balance.

• Tabs: All, Confirmed, Balance due, Requests, Paying now and Cancelled, each with a count. Balance due shows confirmed bookings with a payment still to come.
• Search: by reference, name, email or trip.
• Filters: a trip, a departure month, or Assigned to me.

The list shows the newest 300. Search or filter to find older bookings.

Statuses

Places are held while the traveller pays

When a traveller books a trip set to Book straight away, Travel Orbit holds their places and their discount code while they pay. The booking is confirmed as soon as the first payment goes through, or as soon as their card is saved when nothing is due yet. The traveller then gets a confirmation email with a link to the traveller portal.

The hold lasts 15 minutes. An Admin can change it to anything from 5 to 120 minutes under Hold places for in Booking settings. If the traveller doesn't pay in time, the booking becomes Not finished and the places go back on sale.

If a payment still arrives after the hold ended, the booking is confirmed anyway. Its history says Booking confirmed after the hold ran out, and if the departure filled up in the meantime, it asks you to check the places.

Requests

A booking arrives as a request when the trip is set to Ask to book, or when online payment isn't available because Stripe isn't connected or the key stopped working. Nothing is charged and no places are held. The traveller gets an email saying you will get back to them. Your Admins and Editors get a notification, and the contact email from your booking settings gets an email with a link to the request. Requests in the sidebar shows how many are waiting.

Requests lists them oldest first, and a Board view shows them by stage. On each request:

• Reply opens the booking's conversation, so you can ask a question first.
• Confirm takes the places and makes the payment schedule from today. Add a note for your team if you like, then select Confirm and email. The traveller gets the confirmation and pays from the traveller portal, or you record a bank transfer. Automatic payments are off for confirmed requests, because no card was saved yet.
• Decline cancels the request. Give a reason for your records, and optionally a message of your own, then select Decline and email. Nothing was paid, so there is nothing to refund. The request stays under Bookings as cancelled.

If the departure doesn't have enough places left, the request says so and Confirm is off. Add places to the departure, or decline. On the booking itself, the same actions are Confirm request and Decline request.

See Notifications and teamwork for conversations, templates, assignments and the request board.

Book for someone

Select New booking to book on a traveller's behalf, for example after a phone call. See Book for a traveller.

Payments made outside Stripe

When a traveller pays by bank transfer, cash or cheque, open the booking and select Record a payment. Choose Bank transfer, Cash, Cheque or Other, enter the amount in the booking's currency and, if it wasn't today, the date under Received on. A Note, such as the bank reference, is for your team.

The payment counts towards the schedule from the first unpaid payment, shows on Payments and in reports, and the traveller gets a receipt by email. Recording a payment on a request confirms it, even if the departure has filled up.

Editors and Admins can record payments. To give money back, see Refunds and cancellations.

Money on bookings

Bookings, requests and each booking's page show amounts in the currency you chose under Show money in in Booking settings. Amounts in another currency are converted with the European Central Bank's daily rates and marked with ≈, with the booking's own amount under them or when you point at them. The booking itself is charged and refunded in its own currency.

On the booking page

Each booking shows its travellers, price, answers to your questions, payment plan, payments and refunds, and contact details. From there you can:

• change a traveller's details, such as a passport number: select the pencil next to their name, then Save details. The change shows on the traveller list straight away, and the price stays the same.
• select Send confirmation again in the More actions menu to email the confirmation to the lead traveller once more.
• select Check with Stripe under Payments and refunds when a card payment shows as paid in Stripe but not here. See Connect your Stripe account.
• write in Notes for your team. Travellers never see them.

History

Each booking keeps a history of what happened and who did it: the start of checkout or the request, the hold ending, confirmation, payments received or recorded, failed automatic payments, disputes, refunds, cancellation, changes to traveller details, automatic payments being turned on or off, messages, assignments and follow-ups.