Booking Lifecycle

Every booking in BookingXi follows a defined lifecycle from creation to completion. The system tracks each booking's status and automatically transitions between states based on time, staff actions, and customer behavior.

Understanding the booking lifecycle helps you know what to expect at each stage and how to handle exceptions like cancellations and no-shows.

The typical booking lifecycle follows these steps:

Not every booking follows the happy path. Here are the alternative transitions:

• Confirmed → Cancelled: The customer or a staff member cancels the booking. The refund amount is determined by the refund tier settings (based on how far in advance the cancellation occurs). The slot capacity is released and a cancellation email is sent.
• Confirmed → No Show: If the timeslot ends and the booking was never checked in, the system automatically marks it as a No Show. No refund is issued.
• Checked In → No Show: This does not happen. Once a customer is checked in, the booking will transition to Completed after the timeslot ends.

Several lifecycle events happen automatically without staff intervention:

• No-show detection: A cron job runs after timeslots end and marks any Confirmed (not checked-in) bookings as No Show.
• Completion: Checked-in bookings are automatically moved to Completed after their scheduled end time.
• Booking reminders: Automated emails are sent 24 hours and 2 hours before the booking.
• Follow-up emails: A thank-you email is sent after the experience is completed.
• Review requests: A Google review link is emailed 48 hours after the experience.

If a customer starts the booking flow but does not complete checkout, the system tracks the incomplete session as an abandoned cart. Within 30 minutes, an automated recovery email is sent to the customer with a link to resume their booking.