How to set up the booking confirmation feature

Guests cannot change the party size, date or time of a booking themselves. The link in their confirmation email or SMS lets them view, cancel and message you, and confirm when asked to; to change the booking they message you or cancel and book again (details below). The Booking Confirmation feature, set up here, is a separate feature that is essential for restaurants looking to reduce no-shows by prompting guests to re-confirm their reservations as the booking date approaches. This ensures a more accurate and reliable booking schedule. 

You can configure the system to automatically change the status of bookings from “Accepted” to “Pending confirmation” with options for manual follow-up or automatic deletion of unconfirmed bookings within a specified timeframe.

Read more about the Booking confirmation feature here.

Enabling Booking Confirmation

To activate the Booking Confirmation feature and customize its settings, follow these steps:

Step 1: Activate Booking confirmation feature

• Open Resos and navigate to Settings.
• Find Communication → Confirmation.

Step 2: Configure its settings

• Click on the booking confirmation feature to access its settings.

• Specify when you want the notification for the confirmation to be sent. For example, you can set it to be sent 2 days before the booking time.

Tip: Adjust the timing based on your typical guest behavior and booking patterns.

Step 3: Define the confirmation deadline

• Under the confirmation section, set the time frame within which guests must confirm their bookings.

For instance, set the confirmation deadline to 5 hours before the booking time. This means guests must confirm their reservation at least 5 hours before their scheduled arrival.

Note: Setting a deadline too close to the booking time might not give you enough time to manage unconfirmed bookings effectively.

Step 4: Enable automatic deletion

To minimize disruptions caused by no-shows, you can turn on Delete unconfirmed bookings automatically, which is off by default. This setting will automatically free up the reservation slot if a guest does not confirm by the deadline.

How do I switch Booking Confirmation off?

Go to Menu → Settings & add-ons → Communication → Confirmation, click More to show the add-on’s details, and click Disable. A Disable feature window asks you to confirm: click Disable, or Cancel to keep the feature on. Guests then stop receiving the request to confirm, and unconfirmed bookings are no longer deleted automatically.

Bookings that are already Pending confirmation stay in that status until you change it yourself on the booking. To keep the feature but stop automatic deletion, turn off Delete unconfirmed bookings automatically on the same page and save.

Monitoring and adjusting the feature

Viewing pending confirmations

• Go to Menu → Bookings.
• Use filters or sorting options to view bookings marked as “Pending Confirmation”.

Managing automatically deleted bookings

• A booking that is not confirmed by the deadline is set to Deleted, not Cancelled. A note on the booking says it was deleted automatically because the guest did not confirm in time.
• The guest gets a message that the booking was deleted because it was not confirmed in time, inviting them to make a new booking.
• To see these bookings, open the list view under Menu → Bookings and set the status filter to Deleted.
• Optionally, contact these guests to offer re-booking opportunities.

What can a guest change on their own booking?

Guests can view, cancel and message, but they cannot change the party size, date, time or notes themselves. The link in the confirmation email or SMS opens the booking status page, which offers:

• View: the status, date, time, number of people and contact details, plus payment status where the booking has a payment.
• Cancel: the Cancel booking button asks the guest to confirm, then sets the booking to cancelled. Waitlist entries have their own cancel button.
• Confirm: when the booking is Pending confirmation, the guest sees Confirm booking next to Cancel booking. Confirming sets the booking to accepted.
• Message: a Messages box lets the guest write to the restaurant, for example to ask for a different time or add a request. Messages close one month after the booking date, or once the booking has 25 messages and system notes in total.

To change party size, date or time, the guest messages you or contacts you, and you edit the booking in Resos. Alternatively they cancel and make a new booking.

Limits on guest cancellation

• There is no cutoff that stops online cancellation a set time before arrival. The ordinary Cancel booking button stays on the status page until 3 hours after the booking time. A booking still in Pending confirmation shows its own Cancel booking button next to Confirm booking, and that one has no time limit while online cancellation is allowed. On a booking with a prepayment or no-show fee, the opening hour’s Cancellation policy decides whether a late cancellation is refunded or charged.
• To stop guests cancelling online, turn on Disable online cancellation under Menu → Settings & add-ons → Bookings → Managing bookings, in the Booking page & widget group. Guests then have to message or contact you.
• Disable guest messages in the same group hides the message box.
• If the booking has a prepayment, a guest who cancels with more notice than the one set in the opening hour’s Cancellation policy is refunded automatically, and a later cancellation is not refunded automatically. If the booking has a no-show fee, a late cancellation charges the fee. See refunds and payment problems on a booking for the exceptions.

What you see afterwards

The booking shows as cancelled, and the guest’s cancellation or message appears in the booking’s messages.

FAQs

Q: Does this feature have an extra cost?

A: If you enable SMS notifications, then the booking confirmation will be sent via SMS too (besides email). This means that you will pay a small fee for the SMS notification, which you can read more about here.

Q: What if a guest wants to confirm their booking after it has been deleted automatically?

A: The guest can no longer confirm it from their booking link. You can manually reinstate the booking if possible, or advise the guest to make a new reservation through the booking page/widget.

Q: How can I ensure that guests receive the confirmation request?

A: Verify that the contact details for each guest are up-to-date in the system. Additionally, consider sending reminders or reach out to them via the chat feature (on the right side of the booking form) for added visibility.

For more detailed assistance with configuring Booking Confirmation, or solutions to any issues, our support team is always available at hi@resos.com. They are ready to help you streamline your booking process and effectively reduce no-shows.