Booking Follow-up
Recover unfinished booking enquiries.
Follows up eligible accommodation enquiries that stopped short of booking, using current availability and an answer to the question the guest left unresolved. It returns the guest to checkout at a freshly checked rate and stops as soon as they book, decline, opt out or reach the contact limit.
A real customer situation
A guest asked about the Sea View Queen for a weekend and whether there was parking, opened the booking page and left. By the time the owner notices, the quoted rate has changed and the room may have sold.
Where the owner wants to be
Unfinished enquiries get a timely, accurate follow-up that answers the guest’s question and offers only what is actually available. Guests who already booked or opted out hear nothing, and every enquiry ends as a booking or a closed record with a reason.
What it handles
- Checks permission and existing bookings before every follow-up
- Rechecks room and rate at every offer instead of reusing the original quote
- Answers the guest’s unresolved question from approved property facts
- Offers alternatives when the requested room has sold out
- Returns the guest to a checkout session and stops on booking, opt-out or the contact limit
What it deliberately does not do
- Never offers a sold-out room as available
- Never reuses a stale or expired rate
- Never contacts a guest who has already booked or opted out
Interactive demo
Try it with sample data
No sign-up needed. Pick a scenario, change the inputs, then play the customer and the owner. The right-hand panel only shows what the workflow actually recorded.
Uses a sample enquiry, booking list and room inventory. No messages are sent, no card details are collected and no real booking is made.
Choose a scenario
Two days after the enquiry. The room is free at a new rate; the guest wants to book once parking is confirmed.
Follow-up starts after 1 day; enquiries older than 14 days are closed.
Original quote was A$190/night.
Customer side · Email thread with the guest
Press “Run scenario” to start. Every message and record here comes from sample data.
Workflow and harness
How Booking Follow-up runs
Reference schematic for the proposed workflow. Blue steps do the work, purple paths handle exceptions and returns, and amber checks are the harness controls that a step cannot pass without.
Overview — business stages
Read the full flow as text
- Unfinished enquiry ages (business step)
Due after 24 hours; closed after 14 days. Output: Follow-up due. Leads to: Check permission and booking status. - Check permission and booking status (business step)
Permission on file; no existing booking; under contact limit. Output: Allowed / suppressed. Leads to: Refresh rooms and rates; Already booked. - Refresh rooms and rates (business step)
Live availability and rate every time; original quote never reused. Output: Current offer with version and expiry. Leads to: Address unresolved question; Original room sold out. - Address unresolved question (business step)
Answer from approved facts; unknown → owner. Output: Tailored follow-up in outbox. Leads to: Return guest to checkout; No reply; Opt out. - Return guest to checkout (business step)
Rate valid 24h; expired → refresh first. Output: Recovered checkout session. Leads to: Record booking or closed enquiry. - Record booking or closed enquiry (business step)
Booking stops the sequence; every close has a reason. Output: Booking or closed enquiry. - Already booked (exception or return path)
Suppress contact and close. Output: Closed enquiry. - Original room sold out (exception or return path)
Offer only rooms that are free now. Output: Alternative room or dates. Leads to: Refresh rooms and rates (offer alternatives). - No reply (exception or return path)
Retry up to 3 contacts, rechecking each time. Output: Next follow-up or closed enquiry. Leads to: Check permission and booking status (limited retry). - Opt out (exception or return path)
End the sequence immediately. Output: Opt-out record. - Contact and status checks (harness check)
Permission required; booked guests suppressed; max 3. Output: Pass / blocked. Leads to: Check permission and booking status (required check). - Live rate validity (harness check)
Rate read live at each offer; valid 24h. Output: Valid rate. Leads to: Refresh rooms and rates (required check). - Verified booking outcome (harness check)
Booking must exist in the engine before recovery is recorded. Output: Verified booking reference. Leads to: Record booking or closed enquiry (required check).
Harness controls
- Permission check before every follow-up
- Booking deduplication: an existing booking suppresses contact
- Current inventory and rates rechecked at every offer; expired rates refreshed
- Contact limit of 3 follow-ups
- Confirmed booking stops the sequence
Systems and data
Production uses the enquiry CRM, booking engine, property inventory and an eligible messaging channel, with enquiries and bookings linked by customer ID. The demo uses one sample enquiry, a sample booking list and a room inventory whose rate you can edit.
Demo boundary
External calls, customer messages, payments and business writes use synthetic fixtures and an on-screen outbox. The demo shows only verified demo state. Custom production connections are a paid implementation deliverable.
What gets delivered
The records your business receives
Recovered booking
Booking reference, stay, live rate at the accepted offer and payment reference.
Owner handoff
Questions the approved facts cannot answer, or replies that need a person, assigned to the owner with follow-up paused.
Enquiry record
Original enquiry, each follow-up against the limit, rate refreshes and the close reason: booked, declined, opted out, no reply or already booked.
Custom deployment
Configured for your business during a paid implementation. Integrations are confirmed during discovery, never assumed.
Your business rules
- When an enquiry counts as unfinished and when follow-up starts
- Contact limits, spacing and follow-up permission rules
- Rate validity and how alternatives are chosen
- Approved answers to common guest questions
Systems we connect
Measurement
We measure completed business against a baseline, not messages sent. No results are promised before discovery.
Business results
- Incremental recovered stays, separated from bookings that would have happened anyway
- Contribution from recovered stays
- Enquiries closed with a recorded reason
Operational reliability
- Follow-ups sent to guests who had already booked (target: zero)
- Offers made at a stale rate or for a sold-out room (target: zero)
- Messages sent after opt-out or above the contact limit (target: zero)
Want this following up your actual unfinished enquiries?
Book a call about Booking Follow-up. We start with discovery: your current process, volumes, systems and who handles exceptions. The proposal then defines the integrations, approvals and acceptance tests before anything goes live.