How online booking works for your customers

This article is for operators — it walks through what a customer sees when they book a unit on your storefront, so you know what to expect and what to check.

The booking flow

1. Browse and check availability — your customer sees live unit-type availability and pricing on your storefront (or an embedded widget on your own website). Prices shown are VAT-inclusive, with any mandatory fees included up front.
2. Pick a unit and move-in date — this places a short-lived hold on a specific unit, so two customers can't both complete checkout for the same one. If the hold expires before checkout finishes, the unit simply becomes available again — nothing is double-booked.
3. Checkout — the customer gives their details, chooses a waiver level if offered, and completes the required pre-contract information and cancellation-rights step (a legal requirement for consumer sales, handled automatically by checkout).
4. Pay and sign — first payment and the licence agreement are completed together; see Take card and Direct Debit payments online.
5. Confirmation — the customer gets a confirmation with their move-in date, and their access credential is prepared ahead of it — see What happens on move-in day.

Which units are bookable

Not every unit type has to be fully self-service. Per unit type, you control whether it's:

• Bookable — a customer can complete checkout online end-to-end.
• Leads only — pricing is withheld and the customer submits an enquiry instead (useful for your largest or highest-value units).
• Hidden — not shown on the storefront at all.

Reliability

Every hold, booking, and first payment is recorded durably as it happens — a dropped connection or a failed payment provider call never leaves you with a half-completed booking you can't see. If a payment fails partway through, the customer is told clearly and no unit is allocated until it succeeds.

Who to contact

If a customer reports something odd happened during checkout, contact support with the booking reference — it'll be visible in your back office regardless of how far the booking got.