Console looks at every booking made on your shop, and every payment made through a payment link, a few minutes after it is placed, and tells you in plain words when one needs a second look. For example, a two-night pay-at-property stay at Hotel Sunrise booked from a server network, a minute after the guest opened the hotel's page, shows Risk: high on its booking screen with the reasons, and Console asks the guest by email to confirm that they made it.
Nothing is blocked or cancelled for you. The guest books as before and sees no extra step. A risky booking stays confirmed until your team decides what to do with it.
Which bookings are looked at
| Looked at | Not looked at |
|---|---|
| Bookings on your web shop and in your iOS and Android apps, paid online or at the property | Bookings your team makes in Console |
| Payments through a payment link you sent | Bookings that arrive from partners and channels |
| Checkouts that never became a booking, for example several refused cards |
Before the guest pays, your shop tells them that their connection and device details, such as their IP address and network, are kept to protect the booking from fraud, for no longer than 180 days after the stay.
The risk line on a booking
A booking that needs a second look shows a risk line under its title. A booking with nothing to look at shows none.
| Label | What it means |
|---|---|
| Risk: high | Several signs point to a booking the guest may not keep, such as a stolen card or a booking made only to cancel later. |
| Risk: needs a check | Some signs are unusual, but not enough to call the booking high risk. |
| Guest confirmed | The guest confirmed the stay from the email. Nothing waits. |
| Checked | Someone in your team marked the booking checked. The line shows who, when and what they wrote. |
| Fraud | Someone in your team marked the booking as fraud. The line shows who, when and what happened. |
Up to three reasons are listed in plain sentences, for example Came from a server network; most of its traffic is automated or Many bookings were tried from the same address or device in the last 24 hours. The guest never sees a risk label or a reason.
The guest confirms the stay
For a high-risk booking, Console emails the guest in the booking's language and asks them to confirm that they made it, with one button. The guest has 48 hours, and at the latest until the day before check-in. The risk line shows the deadline while it waits.
A guest who does not answer keeps the booking. When the deadline passes, the line says the guest did not confirm, and the booking stays as it is. Call the guest, suspend or cancel the booking, or mark it checked.
A booking made less than a day before check-in is not sent the email. Its line says why and waits for your team.
Mark a booking as checked
After your team has looked into a booking, choose Mark as checked on its risk line and write what you did, for example Called the guest, identity confirmed. The note is required and can be up to 500 characters. The booking leaves the At risk list, its line keeps your note, and the booking's operation history records it.
You can mark a booking checked whether or not the guest was asked. A guest who has already confirmed cannot be marked again. Organization administrators can mark bookings checked or as fraud; everyone who can see bookings can see the risk line.
Mark a booking as fraud
When a booking turns out to be fraud, choose Mark as fraud on its risk line and choose what happened:
| Choice | Example |
|---|---|
| The card was used without its holder's permission. | The cardholder's bank calls to say the card was stolen. |
| Someone was trying out cards. | Five cards were refused in a row before one went through. |
| A booking with no intent to stay. | A booking made for a visa application and cancelled a week later. |
| The guest's details were made up or someone else's. | The guest's name and phone number belong to someone who never booked. |
| Another kind of fraud. | Anything else your team judged to be fraud. |
The booking leaves the At risk list, its line shows the mark, and the booking's operation history records it. Mark as fraud stays on a booking that has ended, so you can mark a stay that turned out to be fraud later. If you marked a booking by mistake, choose Remove the fraud label.
Marking a booking as fraud does not cancel or suspend it. Suspend or cancel the booking as you do today.
When you suspend a shop booking, the suspend window also asks Is it fraud? with the same choices. Choose one to mark the booking in the same step, or leave No, or not known to only suspend it.
A cardholder disputing a payment is not marked as fraud for you: a dispute over the service is not fraud. The month's measure counts disputed payments separately.
The At risk list
Open Bookings and choose the At risk tab. Its count shows how many bookings wait for someone. The list shows each booking once, newest first, with its risk, the guest's confirmation, the guest, the product, the dates, the amount and when it was made. Select a row to open the booking.
A booking leaves the list when the guest confirms, when your team marks it checked, or when it is cancelled or ends. Turn on Checkouts that did not become a booking to see attempts that stopped before a booking, such as repeated refused cards; they have no booking to open. To mark one of them as fraud, for example a run of refused cards, choose Mark as fraud on its row; it then leaves the list. When nothing waits, the list says that no booking needs a second look.
How the risk check did
Below the list, How the risk check did shows this month and last month. For each way bookings ended (marked as fraud, cancelled, did not show up, payment disputed, stayed), it shows how many there were and how many of them the risk check had flagged before. For stays, it shows how many were called high risk, which tells you how often the check raised a false alarm. For example, Cancelled: 9, 3 flagged before and Stayed: 41, 1 called high risk.
The more bookings your team marks as fraud, the better this measure reflects what really happened.
Ask the AI Operator
The AI Operator reads the same risk line. Ask, for example, Is booking 4821930576 risky, and why? and it answers with the risk, the reasons and whether the guest confirmed. It does not mark bookings checked for you. When you ask it to suspend a booking as fraud, for example Suspend booking 4821930576, the card was stolen, it shows the reason in the preview and marks the booking only after you confirm.
Where to next
- Online shop bookings: what guests see and do on your shop
- Card payments and payment links: the links guests pay on your shop
- Refunds and chargebacks: when a cardholder disputes a payment