Bookings

If your business takes bookings (hotel, hostel, lodging), Bookings is where you set up your rooms and manage every stay.

Set up your rooms

First load your room types (for example “Double”, “Suite”), then the individual rooms under each type. Each type carries its own rate.

How a customer books over WhatsApp

When someone messages you asking about availability, the bot:

1. Checks real availability for the requested dates.
2. If the customer decides to book, it creates a temporary booking (hold) on an available room — the price is locked in at that moment and won’t change later even if you raise rates.
3. If the customer has a promo code, it applies it (or explains why it doesn’t apply).
4. You get an email as soon as the hold is created, so you can reach out and confirm with the guest.

What if nobody confirms?

A hold nobody confirms releases itself after 15 minutes — the room becomes available again automatically, it doesn’t stay blocked forever.

What you see in the panel

• Calendar: a timeline with your rooms and active bookings, day by day.
• Booking list: with filters, to add a manual booking (for example if someone called by phone), confirm a hold, or cancel it.
• Check-in/check-out: you can log the actual arrival and departure time — it’s informational, it doesn’t change how nights are charged.
• Payments: you log each payment you receive by hand (cash, transfer, card) against a confirmed booking. Cercanto doesn’t charge on your behalf — there’s no payment gateway connected yet.