This can happen when option “Auto delete incomplete bookings” is activated in your admin configuration tab. This option will force the system to remove all incomplete bookings after specified time (hours). To check if this option is activated please navigate to Admin -> Booking -> Auto delete incomplete bookings.
This is how the system process the bookings.
- Customer creates new booking and choose to pay using one of activated payment methods e.g. PayPal.
- Next, the booking is saved in to the database with the status “Incomplete”.
- The system redirect customer to payment page.
- Now the customer has following options, pay, cancel or leave the page without completing the payment at all.
- If payment provider receives the funds, then it will try to notify the booking system about it.
During this process the system will change status of the booking to PENDING and transaction to PAID.
Both parties will also receive transaction email from payment provider. - If everything went OK, then the system will send booking confirmation email to customer and admin.
The problem might be that there was some temporary issue during connection with your server (e.g. server was down) and payment response that come from payment provider was unsuccessful.
In this case the system doesn’t know if the payment has been received or not and it cannot update the booking and transaction status. The system treats this booking as incomplete and automatically deletes it also no booking email is sent to customer or admin.
Solution
- We suggest to increase “Auto delete incomplete bookings” to 72h
- Run a speed test for your hosting, if is not then hosting upgrade is advice
If this happens again you can always find that booking in incomplete bookings tab and change the status manually.
To view all incomplete bookings go to Admin -> Bookings, use filter and choose Incomplete status and press search button.
If you are able to receive payment, booking status gets updated and emails are sent then it means that everything works correctly. If this is not the case please make sure you have correctly configured payment methods, please see this tutorial for more info.
Didn’t help? Contact Support.