Frequently Asked Questions

Getting started

Do I need WooCommerce? Yes — WooCommerce 9.0 or newer, installed and active. The plugin will not run without it.

Do I need a licence key? Yes. Without one the Booking Management System screen shows an authorisation error and nothing can be configured. Add the key under Webkul WC Addons → License.

Where is everything?Webkul WC Addons → Booking Management System, plus a small Bookable section on each product and a My Bookings page in your customers' accounts.

Does it work with HPOS and the block checkout? Yes. The plugin declares compatibility with High-Performance Order Storage and with the Cart and Checkout blocks. It is also WPML and multisite compatible.

Can I try it without publishing anything? Yes. Create the product from the Setup Wizard with Initial product status set to Draft, configure it, and publish when you are ready.

Products and booking types

Can I make an existing product bookable? Yes. Edit it, and on Product data → General tick Bookable Product and choose a Booking Type.

Can different products use different booking types? Yes — every product carries its own booking type and its own rules. A hotel room, a consultation and a van hire can all live in the same catalogue.

What is the difference between Appointment and Fixed Time Slots? Appointment runs on the same engine but starts with appointment-shaped defaults: 30-minute slots, a buffer between appointments, and a daily appointment cap.

Can I change a product's booking type after it has bookings? You can, but existing bookings keep the window they were made with, and some of the product's availability and pricing rules may stop making sense. Review them straight afterwards.

What happens to my old 3.x bookable products? They are converted the first time version 4.0.0 runs — the old booking type is mapped to the closest new one and the button label defaults to Book now. Check the mapping on each product.

Why does my product page say "Book now" instead of "Add to cart"? That is the point — bookable products use a booking label. Change the wording in the Booking Label field on the product.

Availability

How do I say I am closed on Sundays? Add an availability rule of type Only allow selected weekdays with 1,2,3,4,5,6. Weekdays run 0 Sunday to 6 Saturday.

How do I close for public holidays? Add Block specific dates (holidays) with a comma-separated list of YYYY-MM-DD dates, and give it a low priority number so it beats your general pattern.

How do I stop bookings being made at the last minute? Set Cutoff Before Start (hours) on the product, or Minimum Notice (hours) under Global Settings → Products → Global Availability.

How far ahead can customers book?Max Advance Booking (days) on the product, and Default Window (days) store-wide. Both default to 365.

Can I limit how many bookings I take a day? Yes — an availability rule of type Limit bookings per period, with the mode set to Per date, Per day, Per hour or Per slot.

Do cancelled bookings free up their slot? Yes. Pending, confirmed and processing bookings hold their slot; cancelled, expired, completed and refunded release it.

Pricing

Where does the base price come from? The product's ordinary WooCommerce Regular price, multiplied by the nights, days, hours or blocks booked.

Can I charge more in peak season? Yes — a Multiply the price adjustment with the peak months listed.

Can I take a deposit instead of the full amount? Yes — a Take a deposit percent or Take a fixed deposit adjustment. The customer pays the deposit at checkout and the balance is recorded against the booking.

Is the balance charged automatically? No. It is recorded, and can be chased with a Balance due reminder. Collect it the way you normally would.

Which rule wins when two apply? The one with the lower Priority number runs first. Default is 10.

Do coupons work on bookings? Yes, subject to three settings under Global Settings → Products → Global Pricing → Coupons: whether coupons apply, whether they stack, and the maximum percentage one may take off a booking line.

Why is my percentage discount doing nothing? Usually the product has no price. Percentages need something to work on.

Resources, guests and extras

What is a resource? The actual limited thing behind the booking — a room, a therapist, a van, a camera. Add one per distinguishable item so two bookings cannot land on the same one.

Do I have to use resources? No. If the product is the thing being booked — one meeting room, one boat — you do not need them.

How do I sell twenty seats on the same tour? Do not use resources. Set Booking capacity style to Shared capacity on the Persons tab and set Total capacity at the same time to 20.

Can Adults and Children be priced differently? Yes — create person types on the Persons tab, each with its own price, minimum and maximum.

What is the difference between a Service and an Extra? A Service is something the customer chooses to add. An Extra/Fee is something you charge, optionally with a condition, and can mark required so it cannot be declined.

Can a fee apply only in certain circumstances? Yes — extras support conditions: minimum amount, minimum persons, minimum nights, specific dates, specific months and specific weekdays.

Customers

Can customers cancel their own bookings? Only if you enable it. Turn on Allow Customer Cancellation under Global Settings → Bookings → Booking Status Management and set the notice you require.

Can customers reschedule? They can request it. Turn on Allow Customer Rescheduling, and approve or reject the requests from the Bookings tab — Action Queue → Reschedule Pending lists them.

Can customers add a booking to their own calendar? Yes — Google Calendar and Download ICS buttons appear on every booking in My account, with no setup needed.

Do guests get a My Bookings page? No. It is for logged-in customers. A guest's booking is tied to their order instead.

Why does the booking status differ from the order status? They are separate on purpose. An order can be paid while the booking is still awaiting your confirmation. Both are shown side by side in the admin and in My account.

Emails and reminders

Do customers get a booking confirmation email? They get the ordinary WooCommerce order email, which carries the booking dates, guests, resource, services and extras on the order line. Version 4.0.0 does not add a separate booking-confirmation template — edit your WooCommerce order emails if you want the wording to mention the reservation.

How do I send a reminder before a booking starts? Turn on Reminder Before Start under Global Settings → Notification and Alerts → Reminders and set the hours. You can also send one on demand from the booking list.

Why are automatic reminders not sending? They run on WordPress's hourly scheduler. If your host has disabled WP-Cron, or the site has very little traffic, they will not fire. Manual reminders always work.

Can I send SMS? Yes, through Twilio. Enable the hook and fill in all four Twilio fields under Notification and Alerts → Messaging. Without both, messages are skipped silently.

Managing bookings

Can I create a booking for a phone customer? Yes — Create Manual Booking on the Bookings tab. Note that start and end times are entered in UTC.

Can I change several bookings at once? Yes — tick the rows, choose a status under Bulk action, and click Apply.

Why was my status change refused? Statuses follow a fixed path. You cannot jump from pending straight to completed, and cancelled, refunded and expired are final.

Can I export my bookings? Yes — Export CSV downloads exactly the rows your filters are showing, with sixteen columns.

Can I import from the WooCommerce Bookings extension? Yes — Bookings → Logs and Tools → WooCommerce Bookings Migration. Back up first, run a Dry Run, read the report, then run it live once per batch.

Calendars and integrations

Can I sync with Airbnb or Booking.com? Yes — add a calendar connection with the matching iCal type and paste the feed URL from that service.

Can each room have its own calendar? Yes — set the Resource ID on the connection so it applies to one room rather than the whole product.

Which direction should I sync? Start with Import bookings from calendar on one product and watch the sync log. Import-only cannot create bad data on the other service.

Maintenance

Can I delete old bookings? Yes — the archive and purge tools in the Compatibility and Scale Audit card. Preview, dry-run, then purge. Only finished bookings are eligible, and the WooCommerce orders behind them are untouched.

Can I copy my configuration to another store? Yes — Export Settings produces a JSON file, and Settings Import (JSON) reads it back in.

How do I check the plugin is happy on my store? Run the Compatibility and Scale Audit under Global Settings → Products. It is read-only and reports on marketplace plugins, WooCommerce, extensions, multilingual tools and your booking volume.

Support

Where do I get help? Raise a ticket at webkul.com/ticket. Include your WordPress, WooCommerce, PHP and plugin versions, the exact message you see, the booking or order number, and a screenshot with your licence key and any credentials cropped out.