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 sets that type of unit aside at the site while the customer checks out, so the last unit of a type can't be sold twice. It stays set aside until checkout finishes or the booking is abandoned: a booking left unfinished, with no payment under way, is cleared after 24 hours and the unit goes back on sale.
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 — the customer completes the licence agreement and pays. By card, the first payment is taken at checkout; by Direct Debit, nothing is taken at checkout and the first collection follows once the advance notice period is over. See Take card and Direct Debit payments online.
5. Confirmation — the customer sees their booking reference and is emailed a confirmation with a link to their booking in the customer portal — 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.
• Enquiries only — the customer leaves their details instead of booking, and is told you'll send their price within one working day (useful for your largest or highest-value units). Offices and workshops are always enquiries only.
• Hidden — not shown on the storefront at all.

When a site can take bookings

A site takes online bookings once its availability is live. Until then, StoreBay shows visitors a quote form instead of a booking form, because every unit would otherwise read as vacant. We switch a site on with you once your agreements are imported.

Reliability

Every hold, booking, and first payment is recorded as it happens. If a card payment fails partway through, the customer is told; the unit stays set aside for their booking until it is finished or abandoned.

Who to contact

If a customer reports something odd happened during checkout, contact support with the booking reference and the email address they booked with.