Manual Confirmation for On Request Experiences

Manual Confirmation for On Request Experiences

Some experiences cannot be confirmed instantly. You may need to check availability with a third-party operator, verify a special operational detail, or confirm that every element of the experience can be delivered as requested.

Manual Confirmation supports these situations by placing the booking request into Pending Confirmation while your team reviews it.

When to use Manual Confirmation

Use Manual Confirmation when the fulfilment of the experience requires a clear operational check before the booking can be accepted, such as:
  1. Confirming availability with a third-party supplier or operator.
  2. Verifying a date, time, pickup, delivery, or other operational detail.
  3. Checking that all components of an experience can be fulfilled together.
  4. Reviewing a request against your internal availability or fulfilment rules.

What guests and your team can expect

  1. Confirmation method: The experience is set to Manual instead of Instantly confirmed.
  2. Initial booking status: New bookings appear in your dashboard as Pending Confirmation. (Except for Manual Confirmations, which are confirmed)
  3. Guest communication: The guest receives a booking request notification message, not a final confirmation. 
"We’ve received your booking request for the experience below. Please note: Your booking is currently awaiting approval by xxxxxxxxxxxxx. We will send a confirmation email once it is accepted. Your reservation is not confirmed until then."
  1. User action required: An Activate user must review the booking and either accept or reject it from the booking page.
    1. Acceptance result: The booking status updates to Confirmed, and the guest receives a confirmation email.
    2. Rejection result: The booking status updates to Rejected, refund logic is triggered fully regardless of the cancellation policy, and the guest receives a rejection email.

What Manual Confirmation is not

  1. Not a waiting list: Do not use it to collect interest when you do not expect to make a booking decision.
  2. Not a custom request workflow: It is not intended for designing a new itinerary, negotiating bespoke services, or gathering open-ended requirements.
  3. Not a way to delay action indefinitely: Pending requests need active monitoring and a timely decision.
  4. Not a replacement for accurate product setup: Use the product configuration, availability, pricing, and booking questions to support the standard booking flow.

Changing the Confirmation Method

  1. Go to Experiences in Activate.
  2. Search for and open the experience you want to edit.
  3. In the right sidebar, select Confirmation & Notification.
  4. Choose Manual Confirmation.
  5. Select Save.
  6. New bookings for the experience will then follow the manual confirmation workflow.

Managing Manual Confirmation Bookings

Find bookings that need review.
Go to the Booking Index in Activate and use the booking status filters to locate requests in Pending Confirmation.

Open the booking details page.
Select the booking to review the request details. The booking page should show that the request is still awaiting a decision and provide controls to accept or reject it.

Review the request before taking action.
Check the experience, date, delivery timing, guest details, and any operational details your team uses to decide whether the request can be fulfilled. The accept or reject decision is based on operational availability and internal business rules.

Accept the booking.
Choose the accept action from the booking page. Activate will display a warning message so you can confirm the action before continuing. After acceptance, the booking moves to a confirmed state and the guest receives a confirmation email. This action cannot be undone.

Reject the booking.
Choose the reject action from the booking page. Activate will display a warning message before the action is finalised. After rejection, the booking moves to a rejected state, refund handling is triggered, and the guest receives a rejection email. This action cannot be undone.

Review carefully before choosing an action. Accept and Reject trigger booking updates and guest-facing communication, and neither action can be undone.

Timing and auto-rejection rules

  1. Manual confirmation requests are not meant to remain pending indefinitely.
  2. The standard expiration window is 96 hours from booking.
  3. The request expires at the earlier of these two points: 96 hours after the booking or the delivery date and time, if the delivery occurs before the 96-hour window ends.
  4. If no one accepts the request within the allowed window, the booking will be automatically rejected.
  5. Auto-rejection is part of the intended workflow so guests are not left waiting past the valid fulfilment window.