A guest has paid, but the booking status has not changed to Confirmed. A booking created through the flexible booking journey confirms only when every checklist item is finished, so the cause is almost always a single item still showing Pending.
Before you begin
Access to Guest experience and Bookings.
The booking reference, shown as BKG followed by the number at the top of the booking.
Permission to change a checklist item status, if you intend to mark one Completed or Waived.
What you need to know
Why a paid booking stays Tentative
Payment is one item on the booking checklist, not the whole of it. The booking stays Tentative until every item is Completed or Waived. So a booking can be paid in full and still be held back by an unsigned contract, a missing guarantor, or a payment plan the guest never selected.
Find the item that is holding the booking back
Go to Guest experience, then Bookings.
Find the booking and open it.
Go to the Checklist tab.
Read the status against each item. Completed and Waived both count as finished. Pending does not.
Note every item still showing Pending. That is what remains before the booking can confirm.
Confirm the payment reached Lavanda
Go to the Financials tab of the booking.
Go to Receipts. Where the workspace is still on the classic view, these sit under Invoices & receipts.
Check that a receipt exists for the amount the guest says they paid.
Where no receipt exists, the payment did not reach Lavanda and the checklist is right to show the item as Pending. Ask the guest for their payment confirmation before changing anything.
Complete or waive the outstanding item
Go to the Checklist tab.
Select the item that is still Pending.
Choose Status: Completed where the step has genuinely been done outside the journey, or Status: Waived where the step does not apply to this guest.
Confirm at Confirm status change.
Not every item can be changed by hand. An item the system owns is not editable, and its status changes on its own once the underlying step completes.
Prompt the guest instead
Where the outstanding items belong to the guest, send a reminder rather than waiving them. Select Send booking checklist reminder to email the guest about any incomplete booking checklist items.
When would you use it
A guest has paid the reservation fee or the down payment and the booking still shows Tentative.
A booking looks complete but has not confirmed, and you need to know what is missing.
You need to decide whether to waive a step or chase the guest to complete it.
You are working through bookings before their expiry timers run out.
Things to note
Waiving an item marks it finished without the step being done. Use it only where the step genuinely does not apply to that guest.
A booking that is not confirmed before its booking expiry timer runs out becomes Expired, even where the guest has paid. Clear outstanding items promptly.
The checklist order is fixed. An item stays in its position whatever its status.
Checklist items appear only once a contract, recurring payment or direct debit mandate is added to the booking.
The items on a booking’s checklist come from the Booking checklist tab of its product group, grouped as Contract, Vetting, Finance and Other, plus any item derived from the instalment plan applied to the booking.
A checklist appears once a contract, a recurring payment or a direct debit mandate has been added to the booking.
Find out more
Article | What it covers |
The stages, the statuses and the expiry timer, in one place. | |
What to do when the guest cannot get back into the journey to finish it. | |
When a draft invoice is created, and how to open and export it. | |
Recording a payment the guest made outside the journey. |