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!

Activate External Bookings under Calendar » External Bookings. Every aspect of this product will be yours to explore during your 30-day free trial, including accepting bookings from visitors.

After your trial is over, you will have all the powerful External Bookings feature for just 15€/$19 USD per month (plus a processing fee on any revenue generated through the feature). To read more on pricing, click here.

Once you activate External Bookings, you can do the following:

1. Create new Resources:

Populate a new Resource directly from your new External Bookings Dashboard by clicking on 'Publish Resources.'

Or, head over to Products » Resources and add them there. Check out this guide for more details on Resources.

Resources are always listed alphabetically.

2. Edit existing Resources:

If you already have Resources populated, you can now edit them to include rates and information different from what your members see.

Head over to Products » Resources » edit your existing Resource. There is now a toggle at the top. Turn this on to publicize the Resource by publishing it on your Homepage.

You will see a Public Link on the Resource card when the Resource is public. Clicking on it will direct you to how it looks on your Homepage when visitors make a booking.

Here are the fields you can edit:

You can activate additional visitor settings at the bottom of your Resource card, Approval Required for Visitors and Allow Visitors to Pay Later.

When 'Approval required for visitors' is activated, visitors will see the following page when they complete a booking request. They will also receive an email once their booking is confirmed.

Visitors will not be charged for a booking via automated payment methods until the booking is confirmed.

When 'Allow visitors to pay later' is activated, visitors will still be prompted to enter a payment method but it will not be charged until you manually process payment against their invoice. This can be prior to their arrival, or after their booking takes place. The choice is yours!

*see below for more on emails.

To remove a Resource from being publicly listed, go to Products » Resource » Edit and Toggle the switch at the top of the page. Easy!

Now that your Resources are set up, how can people book them? They can book via your Homepage.

Once you publicly list a Resource, a unique URL is generated. Embed these individual URLs, or your entire Homepage, directly on your website. Your Homepage is also where visitors can find your Memberships and Passes.

To embed the unique URL of the individual Resource, go to Products » Resources » Edit Resource, and copy and paste the URL at the top of the page into your website.

To embed your entire Homepage, go to Calendar » External Bookings » Homepage and copy and paste the main URL into your website.

To remove a resource from your Homepage, toggle the switch to make it private again.

Once visitors discover your booking page, they can easily make a booking

via the multi-screen checkout.

Here is the booking flow your visitors can expect:

Screen 1: An Overview page lists the resource details, capacity and availability. Here, they select the date and time they want to book. The calendar will only show them the availability you have set for this resource.

Screen 2: Visitors & Extras page where they can indicate how many guests they will bring with them and any additional products they wish to add to their booking.

To set up products or services, go to Products » Products & Services.

Screen 3: A Contact form where they enter their name, email address, and billing address, and are required to accept your space Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy (if populated).

Screen 4: A payment form where they can choose from the payment methods you set up and made visible to visitors under Setup » Payment Methods. Only after clicking on 'Book and Pay Now' will the booking be completed.

Screen 5: A Confirmation page showing an overview of their booking and instructions to check their email.

External bookings work seamlessly with your member booking calendar. They are listed on your External Booking dashboard and in your Booking Calendar. They are easily differentiated from your member bookings.

What happens if something comes up at the last minute and the visitor needs to cancel their booking?

Visitors can cancel their bookings securely via the link in their email confirmation as long as the cancellation period has not expired. You can cancel a booking anytime from the External Booking dashboard or the calendar.

Visitors are not able to edit their bookings. They will need to cancel them and rebook. As an admin, you can edit them via the External Booking dashboard.

Making a good impression every step of the way with custom emails. Find all External Booking templates under Customize » Emails.

Your templates include:

New External Booking:

Sent to visitors when a new booking is made. It includes their invoice, a link to cancel their booking, and a link they can share with anyone joining them on the day of the reservation.

New Pending External Booking:

Sent when a new booking still needs approval. Visitors will receive an additional email once you decline or approve the booking.

Cancelled External Booking Confirmation:

Sent when the visitor or someone they shared their booking link with tries to cancel their booking.

External Booking Canceled by Admin:

Sent after you or any other admin cancels the booking.

External Booking Canceled by Visitor:

Sent after the visitor cancels their own external booking.

Booking Reminder:

Sent 24 hours before a booking takes place.

Each email has styled summaries of their booking and personal details, so high-level information always remains obvious.

Once your bookings come rolling in, you will see all the details on your External Booking Dashboard under Calendar » External Bookings, where you can:

Approve or decline bookings:

This is only relevant if you activate 'Approval required for visitors' within the Resource. Once an action is taken, an email will be sent to the visitor.

Edit bookings:

When you edit a booking, an email will be sent to the visitor, letting them know what changes have been made.

Cancel bookings:

Cancel a booking at any time by clicking on 'cancel.' The visitor will receive a cancellation email. You will see additional notes on whether or not a refund needs to be issued.

Convert visitors to members:

The convert button allows you to move visitors to members. 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.

Use automatic or manual payment methods to sell time in your resources to visitors/guests.

Manage your invoices through the External Booking Dashboard under External Bookings or the primary invoice section under Manage » Invoices.

There are currently two gateways you can connect to Cobot to collect automated payments; STRIPE or PayPal.

First, set up a merchant account with one (or both!) and then connect it to Cobot under Setup » Payment Methods » Add Payment Method.

After connecting your account, enable it for external bookings in the payment method settings, and you're all set!

Click here to read more on how automated payments work and how they integrate with the rest of Cobot.

Manual payment methods allow guests to reserve book a resource without paying immediately. Tickets reserved when a manual payment method is chosen will need to be reconciled manually by a member of your team.

You can add as many manual payment methods as you want, like cash or bank transfer, under Setup » Payment Methods » Add Payment Method » Add Manual Payment Method.

In the Instructions box, include details for your visitors to follow, such as how to pay once they arrive in your space.

Click here to read more on manual payment methods and how to set them up.

Your guest can now choose any visible automated and manual payment methods during their check-out process. Here is an example of how this will look when you have multiple manual and automated payment methods activated:

If the payment is successful, they will see a success message and receive an email with the event details. You can edit the email template under customize » emails.

Refunding directly from Cobot is not currently possible; you must do this from your STRIPE or PayPal dashboards.

After issuing your refund, create a free-form invoice in Cobot with the negative amount to offset the original invoice. This way, your analytics will be correct.

Your Analytics will reflect all income generated by External Booking sales. You’ll gain advanced access to key metrics and payment data within your Analytics dashboard.

Check these out under Analyze » Revenue and Analyze » Bookings.