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How to confirm a booking when admin deposit and service fees are 0

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The deposit admin fee is set in Theme Options > Add Listing Page & Payment Settings > Booking Payment Settings 

Key Payment Settings:

Deposit Fee:

  • Admin can set a global deposit value to confirm bookings.
  • The deposit can be a fixed amount or a percentage of the booking total.
  • If a deposit is set, the user must pay it before the booking is confirmed.
  • If the deposit is non-zero, it must cover any service and administrative fees.

Admin Service Fee:

  • Admin can set a service fee that is paid by the guest.
  • The service fee is deducted from the owner’s earnings, but paid by the guest as part of the deposit.
  • The service fee can also be set as a fixed amount or percentage.

Expenses:

  • Admin can decide whether to include city and cleaning fees in the deposit calculation.
  • If the deposit is set to 100%, including the city and cleaning fees is mandatory.

Possible Booking scenarios:

Manual Booking Approval: The owner must approve the booking request. More on the booking process

  • Guest sends a booking request.
  • The owner approves or rejects the request.
  • If the owner approves, they issue an invoice.
  • The renter must pay the deposit (if set by admin) to confirm the booking. The payment goes to the admin account.

Instant Booking: No owner approval is required. How to set up Instant Booking

  • Guest sends a booking request.
  • The renter must pay the deposit (if set by admin) to confirm the booking.
  • Payment goes to the admin account.

Managing Bookings with 0 Deposit Fee

  1. Go to Theme Options > Add Listing Page & Payment Settings > Booking Payment Settings 
  2. Set the Deposit Fee to 0. Do not leave this field blank.
  3. Service Fee should also be 0 since this fee is calculated and deducted from total invoice value.

Booking Scenario: Manual Booking Approval

User Sends Booking Request
After registration/login, the user submits a booking request for a property.

Owner Receives Booking Request Notification
The property owner receives an email notification about the new booking request. Learn more about email notifications.

Owner Actions:

  • The owner can approve the booking request if they do not have Instant Booking activated.
  • Upon receiving the booking request, the owner logs into their account and goes to MY BOOKINGS.
  • The owner finds the booking and clicks ISSUE INVOICE to proceed.
  • Optional Step – The owner can add manual extra expenses or manual discounts to the invoice if needed.

Confirm Booking:

The owner confirms the booking by clicking the Confirm Booking button with No Reservation Fee Required.

Booking Scenario: Instant Booking Enabled

Owner Checks “Allow instant booking? If checked, you will not have the option to reject a booking request.” to activate Instant Booking from My Listings -> Edit Listings -> Description

Placing a Booking (Renter)

A guest follows these steps to place a booking:

  1. Select Check-in and Check-out dates.
  2. Choose the Number of Guests.
  3. Login or Register
  4. Click Book Now.
  5. Click on Confirm Booking – No Deposit Needed in the Modal

Managing Confirmed Bookings (Owner)

  • The bookings will show Confirmed, Not Fully Paid in either booking scenario
  • From Dashboard – My Bookings, the owner can:
    • Cancel the booking
    • Send reminder emails for the full payment (automatic email is sent 3 days before the booking starts).

Completing the Full Payment (Guest)

This step is optional. The button to pay Full Payment always shows.

To fully pay for the booking:

  1. Log in as a Renter.
  2. Go to My Reservations.
  3. Click Pay Invoice in Full and see Balanced Owed
  4. Complete the payment to Site Admin via the merchants that are enabled.

When payment is paid via the site, the booking status updates to Confirmed and Paid.

Final Booking Status (Owner & Renter)

Guest Dashboard: The status updates to Confirmed and Paid. Renter can:

  • See Invoice Details
  • Check Trip Details
  • Add a review after the trip
  • Contact owner

Owner Dashboard: The same status appears, and the owner can:

  • View booking details.
  • Cancel the booking if necessary.
  • Contact the Renter

Handling Multiple Booking Requests for Same Date/Property

  • If two or more booking requests are sent for the same date/property, the system allows only the first payment to be processed, and only the first booking will be confirmed.
  • The rest of the payments (for additional bookings) can be handled outside of the system between users.

The rest of the payment can be handled outside of the theme, between the users. You will need to HIDE the option to pay Remaining Invoice with CSS if you do not wish users to try to pay the Remaining Balance to site admin.

How to Hide “Pay Invoice in Full” Button

If you wish to remove the “Pay Invoice in Full” button from the My Reservations page, use the following CSS:

.info-container_booking .proceed-payment_full {
display: none !important;
}

How to Apply:

  • Add this CSS code either to your child theme’s style.css file or in Theme Options > Design > Custom Colors > Custom CSS.