Booking Form

[TOC]

Overview

The Booking Form is the front-end interface that customers use to submit a booking request for a room. It is presented after the customer searches for available rooms and selects one. The booking flow is the same in standalone mode and when OS Calendar is linked with OS Property.

Booking Flow

The booking process follows these steps:

  1. Search — On the Booking Search page, the customer enters check-in and check-out dates, the number of adults and children, and optionally a promo code.
  2. Choose a room — The results list the available room types with their photos, details and prices. The customer clicks Select next to the room they want. If nothing is available, the page suggests trying different dates.
  3. Fill in the booking form — The customer enters personal details and any extra field information.
  4. Confirm and pay — The customer reviews the booking summary and selects a payment method.
  5. Payment gateway — For online methods, the customer is redirected to the selected payment gateway (e.g. PayPal) to complete payment. With Offline / Pay Later, no online payment is taken at this step.
  6. Confirmation — After payment, the customer is redirected back to a confirmation page showing the order details and status.

Booking Form Fields

The standard booking form includes the following fields:

Field Description
Property Name Read-only display of the booked property.
Room Name Read-only display of the selected room type.
Check-in Date Read-only display of the selected check-in date.
Check-out Date Read-only display of the selected check-out date.
Number of Nights Automatically calculated from the date selection.
First Name Customer's first name (required).
Last Name Customer's last name (required).
Email Customer's email address (required). Used for order confirmation emails.
Phone Customer's phone number.
Address Customer's address.
Number of Adults Number of adult guests.
Number of Children Number of child guests.
Notes Free-text area for special requests or additional information.
CAPTCHA Optional CAPTCHA field (enabled via Configuration).
Extra Fields Any additional custom fields defined in the Extra Fields manager.

Booking Summary

Below the form, a Price Summary section shows:

Item Description
Subtotal Sum of the nightly prices for the stay
Discount Promotion applied with a promo code (if any)
Tax Calculated at the tax rate from Configuration
Total Grand total including tax

Payment Method Selection

Published payment plugins are displayed as selectable options (radio buttons or cards). The customer selects one payment method before submitting the form.

Order Confirmation Page

After successful submission and payment, the customer sees an order detail page showing:

  • Order ID and status badge
  • Property and room details
  • Check-in / check-out dates
  • Guest information
  • Price breakdown (subtotal, tax, total)
  • Payment method
  • Print button

Cancellation from the Front-end

If the Allow Cancel the Booking Request option is enabled in Configuration and the check-in date is still within the cancellation window, the customer will see a Cancel button on the order detail page. Clicking it will cancel the booking and trigger a cancellation notification email. The refund (if any) follows the Cancellation Policy of the booked rate plan.

Finding a Booking Later

Customers can view their bookings in My Bookings / My Orders (logged-in users) or with Booking Lookup using the booking code and email address (guests). See Menu Layouts.

Needs verification: Whether a deposit / balance payment is offered to customers. The online Pay Balance page currently shows a notice that gateway support for balance payments is coming soon.

Registered Users vs. Guests

  • If Only Registered Users Can Book is set to Yes in Configuration, only logged-in Joomla users can submit the booking form. Guests see a login prompt instead.
  • If set to No, any visitor can submit a booking form.

Tip: Pre-populate the first name, last name, and email fields for logged-in users by configuring the user profile mapping in OS Calendar. This reduces friction and improves the booking conversion rate.