To avoid the possibility of losing sales, it’s important to set your minimum participant number in a way that allows for maximum flexibility: if you set a high minimum number of participants for the first booking, you would lose sales that could be generated from bookings for fewer participants.
For example, if you want to accept 4 people only for a first booking, and a lower number of participants for subsequent bookings, this actually means that you require a minimum of 4 participants to run your game/tour. Bookeo’s Accept/Deny feature lets you offer a game/tour that runs only if your preferred minimum number of participants is reached, while still maximizing sales to smaller groups.
In other words, using the Accept/Deny feature, you can set, for example, 1 as your minimum number of participants for your booking, even if you don’t want to run a particular game/tour unless it has 4 or more signups.
In this article
- How does Accept/Deny feature works?
- What to do if you do not reach the minimum number of participants
How does the Accept/Deny feature work?
The Accept/Deny feature automatically defers customer booking confirmations to smaller groups until your preferred minimum participant number is reached (whether in one single booking or across multiple bookings).
For example, if you want to accept bookings for a minimum of 4 people for your game/tour, and then accept bookings for any number of participants for subsequent bookings:
- In the People tab of your game/tour, set 1 (or a higher number) as the total minimum [1] number of participants per booking as shown here:
Please remember that the minimum number of participants per booking that you set in the People tab of your game/tour applies to any booking.
- In the Accept/Deny tab of your game/tour, in the Accept automatically [2] section, set that you want to accept all pending requests automatically if the total number of participants is equal to or greater than, for example, 4 as shown here:
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If the first customer to make a booking for a game/tour books selects 2 seats, they will follow the normal steps to make a booking and make a “booking request”. This will not be a confirmed booking and, if you have set payment terms for your game/tour, the customer will not yet be required to pay for the booking. The customer will receive an email stating that the booking request has been received but is not yet confirmed.
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If another customer later makes a booking for the same game/tour with 2 or more participants, that customer will be making a normal booking and, if you have set payment terms for your game/tour, will be required to pay at the time they make the booking. This booking will be confirmed just as if you were not using the Accept/Deny feature.
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The first booking will now also be automatically confirmed, the first customer will be notified by email that the booking is confirmed, and, if you have set payment terms for your game/tour, will be required to pay.
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You will now run your game/tour. If you have set reminders in Settings>Reminders, customers with confirmed bookings will receive a booking reminder.
What to do if you do not reach the minimum number of participants
If you do not reach the minimum number of participants, you should decline the booking requests you have received and perhaps suggest another time. The customer will not have paid so you will not need to process a refund. To deny the booking request:
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Click on the booking request
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Click on the Decline button
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A pop-up window will open. To send a message about the declined booking request to the customer, tick the “send email to customer” [3] checkbox, and type your message in the “Message to customer (optional)” [4] field.
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Click on the yes, decline [5] button
Please note that if you set minimum participants at 4 in People tab, you could lose sales from both groups of 2 listed above. The Accept/Deny feature maximizes sales and seat-filling potential. For more information about the Accept/Deny feature, please see this article.