External Bookings is a comprehensive tool to help optimize your space’s capacity by allowing non-members (visitors) to book your resources on public pages. Earn additional revenue with what you already have to offer on a pricing plan that suits you.
This guide will cover:
External Bookings Dashboard
Activate External Bookings under Bookings » External Bookings. Click on 'Start Free Trial Now'. Every aspect of this product will be yours to explore during your 30-day free trial, including accepting bookings from visitors.
You can view and manage your visitor bookings from the External Bookings dashboard under Bookings » External Bookings. You will see all visitors’ personal information and booking details in one spot. To read more on how visitors interact with External Bookings, scroll down to 'Public Visitor Portal.'
Editing, Canceling & Approving Bookings
Once your bookings come rolling in, you can do the following from the External Bookings Dashboard:
Approve or decline bookings
Set up your resources so that External Bookings are requested by visitors and require admin approval before they are confirmed. By default, this setting is off. Learn how to activate it under 'Populating Resources' below.
Edit bookings
When you edit a booking, an email will be sent to the visitor, letting them know what changes have been made. Email templates can be found under Customize » Emails.
Cancel bookings
Cancel a booking at any time by clicking on 'cancel.' The visitor will receive an automated cancellation email. You will see additional notes on whether or not a refund needs to be issued. Email templates can be found under Customize » Emails.
Convert visitors to members
The convert button allows you to move visitors to members. Click on this button to see a complete list of your available plans. Once you assign them to a plan, their details will be pre-populated in their new Member Profile. Check out how to connect your new member here.
Populating Resources
After activating External Bookings, the next step is to populate your existing resources with your visitor's booking restrictions. You can do this under 'Resources' or by clicking on 'Manage Resources' in your External Bookings Dashboard, redirecting you to your 'Resources' page.
Each of your resources will now show a 'List publicly' button.
Click 'List publicly' on all resources you want to show on your Public Visitor Portal and then 'Edit' to customize. The 'Customize for Public Resource' drop-down identifies all fields that can be edited to show different information.
You can customize the following fields:
⚠️ Important Note: Any fields not populated will show the original data by default
Description
Tax Rate
Accounting Code
Availability: min. & max. booking durations, available booking times
Pricing
Fixed Rates, Discounts, and Price Caps (if you do not see these fields, please contact Support to activate)
Cancellation Period
Booking Extras: allow your visitors to add more services to their bookings. These can be set up under Setup » Products & Services. To read more on how to set these up, click here.
Booking Extras are currently only available for visitors. Members will NOT see these options on their booking forms in their member portal.
Approval required for visitors (off by default)
When this setting is activated, visitors will see the following page when they complete a booking request:
The visitor will receive an email stating their booking is awaiting approval. The visitor will receive an additional email letting them know the outcome as soon as you approve or decline the booking. To customize these emails, go to Customize » Emails.
When a visitor booking request is made, admins receive an email notification letting them know action is required. Admins also receive a dashboard activity with a button to Approve/reject the booking.
Visitors will not be charged for a booking via automated payment methods until the booking is confirmed.
Once you have edited all applicable fields, scroll to the bottom of the page and click on 'Update Resource.'
Removing Resources From Being Publicly Listed
To remove a Resource from being listed on your Public Visitor Portal, click on 'Edit' on the Resource. Toggle the switch at the top of the page, and your Resource will be removed. Easy!
Public Visitor Portal
Once you activate/publicly list a Resource, a unique URL is generated. You can embed the individual resource's URL or the URL of your entire Public Visitor Portal directly on your website. This will give visitors an overview of all bookable resources.
To embed the unique URL of the individual Resource, do so by either:
Clicking on the 'Public Portal Page' button on the Resource dashboard. Copy the URL in the search bar and embed it on your website.
Or click on 'Edit,' copy the URL at the top of the page and embed it on your website.
2. To embed your entire Public Visitor Portal page so all publicly listed resources are visible, go to Bookings » External Bookings » Public Visitor Portal and copy and paste the URL into your website.
To remove a resource from your Public Visitor Portal, toggle the switch to make it private again. The resource will still be visible to your members.
On the right-hand side of both individual booking pages and your Public Resource Portal page, visitors can see a hamburger menu. Here visitors will discover a link to your memberships & plans, Google map listing, social media links, and anything else you have populated under Setup » Basic » Profile.
Bookings, Payments & Invoicing
The new visitor interface is a multi-screen checkout, in which visitors can address one goal at a time. The workflow for them is easy:
Visitors are greeted by a resource’s description, capacity, opening times, and the cancellation period.
Visitors can see discounts and adjust their selection to make the most of them.
Once the booking steps have been completed, visitors reach a review page to confirm their reservation. Only after they click on 'Pay' will the booking be completed.
Visitors receive a confirmation email with a link to their invoice. They will also receive a link to their booking. They can share this link with anyone who’ll be joining them on the day of the reservation.
What happens if something comes up at the last minute and the visitor needs to cancel their booking?
As long as the cancellation period has not yet expired, visitors can cancel their own bookings securely, without needing to directly contact an admin at your space.
Payment Methods
Visitors can pay via manual or automated payment methods.
Automated Payment Methods
Currently, the only automated payment option is Stripe. Once set up under Setup » Automated Payments, it will appear by default to your visitors booking via the Public Visitor Portal.
To remove this as a payment method, go to Setup » Automated Payments » Edit Stripe » Uncheck 'Enable for external Bookings.'
If you have the 'Approve/Reject' toggle active on a resource, visitors will not be charged for a booking via automated payment methods until the booking is confirmed.
Manual Payment Methods
You can also add manual payment methods, such as 'Cash' under Setup » Automated Payments » Add Manual Payment Methods » Check the box 'Enable for External Bookings'.
If you have the 'Approve/Reject' toggle active on a resource, visitors will not be charged for a booking via automated payment methods until the booking is confirmed.
Invoicing
You will be able to see a clear overview of all bookings, charges, and corresponding processing fee payouts to Cobot on your External Bookings Dashboard.
The corresponding invoices for the charges on your dashboard are visible with the rest of your invoices under Manage » Invoices and the numbers income reflected in your Analytics.
Refunding Visitors
It is not currently possible to refund directly from Cobot; you will need to do this directly from Stripe. Check out how to do this here.
After doing this, create a free-form invoice with the negative amount to offset the original invoice and email it to your visitor. This way, your analytics will be correct.
How External Bookings Appear on Your Member Booking Calendar
External bookings work seamlessly with your member booking calendar. You can see them listed on your External Booking dashboard and on your Booking Calendar. You can easily differentiate them from your member bookings with the 'External Booking' description and person icon:
Email Notifications
Making a good impression at every step of the way is essential. That’s why all emails that go to your visitors about their booking are fully customizable.
To edit your templates, go to Customize » Emails. They include:
New External Booking
This email is sent to a visitor when they make an external booking.
New pending external booking
This email is sent when a new external booking is made that still needs to be approved.
Canceled External Booking Confirmation
This email is sent to the visitor when they or someone they shared their booking link with tries to cancel their booking.
External Booking Canceled by Admin
This email is sent after an admins cancels an external booking.
External Booking Canceled by Visitor
This email is sent after the visitor cancels their own external booking.
Booking Reminder
This email is sent 24 hours before a booking takes place.
Pro tip: Use dynamic elements to address your visitor's needs, like completing a booking when paying via invoice or confirming the success of their card transaction. Pass on info they may need at the front desk on arrival, share detailed parking instructions, and whatever else will help them get to you without friction. These templates are your opportunity to take the guesswork out of the next steps.
Each email also has built-in, styled summaries of their booking and personal details, so high-level information always remains scannable.
Analytics
Once you activate External Bookings, you’ll gain advanced access to key metrics and payment data.
To see how your External Bookings are adding up, go to Analyze » Revenue and what they mean for your resources under Analyze » Bookings.
Pricing & Upgrading
Each External Bookings plan comes with a subscription and processing fee component. Once your free trial is over, you'll automatically roll over to a paid account and be billed with your Cobot Subscription fees. The processing fee will immediately be active on all new bookings that roll in.
GROW: Pay a fixed monthly fee of €15/$19 (USD) per month, plus a 12% processing fee on the value of your External Bookings. This plan is ideal when starting to build a strategy to promote your resources and get a feel for demand.
ACCELERATE: Once your monthly recurring External Bookings revenue exceeds €667, it's more economical to switch to the Accelerate plan. The fixed monthly subscription is €59/$59 (USD) and there is a 6% processing fee charge on bookings.
SCALE: By the time your monthly External Bookings revenue averages €1750 or more, and hosting visitors is an established element of your operations, it’s time to move to the Scale Pricing Plan and pay a monthly subscription of €129/$129 (USD), plus 2% processing fee on visitor bookings.
Summary:
When your monthly recurring external booking revenue exceeds €667, ACCELERATE is most economical plan for you.
When your monthly recurring external booking revenue exceeds €1750,
SCALE is most economical plan for you.
Upgrading
Upgrading to the next plan is easy. Go to Setup » Subscription » Change Subscription and change your External Booking plan to the level you want using the drop-down menu. Click Update Subscription Now at the bottom of the page to apply the changes.
The change will occur immediately, but you will not be charged the new processing fee rate until your next Cobot subscription renewal date. Giving you a grace period of more bookings at a lower processing fee.
Removing External Bookings From Your Billing
If you decide that External Booking is not suitable for you, no problem. You can remove it at any time.
Go to Setup » Subscription » Change Subscription » Uncheck 'External Bookings Portal' » Update Subscription Now.
**If you are on a TRIAL account, you will see a call to action to "Choose your Cobot Subscription" after clicking on 'Change Subscription.' No need to choose a plan yet if you are not ready. Click 'Continue,' and you will see the option to remove this Extra.
Once you upgrade your subscription, External Bookings will be removed immediately, and charges will be removed from your subscription.
IMPORTANT NOTES
You will not be able to remove this Extra if there are active bookings. Please cancel them and then you will be able to remove External Bookings.
All populated data on your resources will be removed, and the external booking links will be disabled. So be sure to remove them from external sources, such as your website.
Processing Fee Payouts to Cobot
The processing fee payout to Cobot is charged along with your subscription fees and is only calculated on bookings that have taken place. We will never process processing fee on bookings that have been booked for a future date.
You can see a breakdown of all processing fee payouts under Setup » Cobot Invoices » Processing Fees.
⚙️
Want to make the most of what’s under the hood?
Discover and optimize Cobot with expert setup help.