Seeing Unconfirmed on a booking can make it look as if the guest forgot to confirm. They didn’t. Unconfirmed is simply one of your venue’s statuses: a label for your team. Here’s what a status does and doesn’t mean, and how to choose the status each new booking starts with.
What a status means
- It’s for your team only. Guests never see a booking’s status, whether on their emails, their texts or your booking page.
- Guests can’t change it. There’s no step where a guest confirms a booking, and NomNom never changes a status because of anything a guest does. Only your team, or the starting statuses below, set it.
- Every booking is a real booking, whatever its status. An Unconfirmed booking holds its table, counts in your covers and gets the same confirmation email and reminder texts as any other. See Booking confirmations and reminders.
- Only a few statuses do more. A status changes how a booking behaves only if it has Counts as a no-show, Counts as departed or Guests are at the table switched on. See Creating your own booking statuses.
Why so many bookings say Unconfirmed
Until recently, every booking your team took started on Unconfirmed unless you’d chosen a different starting status, and saving an online booking in NomNom Web could set it to Unconfirmed too. On those bookings it never said anything about the guest. Now, unless you choose otherwise, new bookings start with no status at all. Bookings that already say Unconfirmed keep it until someone changes it.
Choose the status new bookings start with
1. Open Reservation Statuses. In NomNom Web, open Settings from the account menu at the top right (or from the bottom of the left-hand bar) and choose Reservation Statuses.
2. Click the Default statuses tab.
3. Set Default booking status. This is the status every booking your team takes starts on, in NomNom Web or the phone app. On None (no status) they start blank. If you confirm bookings as you take them, pick Confirmed.
4. Set Default online booking status. This is for bookings guests make on your booking page, or with the Reserve button on Google. On None (no status) they arrive with no status, and show no status pill until someone gives them one.
5. Set Default walk-in status, if you like. Walk-ins are already in the room, so many venues pick Arrived. On None (use the new-booking default) they start the same as any other booking your team takes.
Each one saves as soon as you pick it. Only new bookings are affected, and staff can still change the status on any booking.
In NomNom Web: Settings → Reservation Statuses → Default statuses. In the phone app: Settings → Reservation Statuses → Default statuses.
Using Unconfirmed on purpose
Unconfirmed is handy if you ring guests to check they’re still coming: make it your Default booking status, then switch each booking to Confirmed after the call (see Marking guests as arrived, seated or left during service). If the word confuses your team, rename it to something plainer, such as To call, or delete it. Renaming or deleting a status doesn’t change the label on bookings that already have it.
Good to know
- Renamed one of your starting statuses? Pick it again on the Default statuses tab. Until you do, new bookings keep starting on the old name.
- Waiting for a card or deposit shows as its own marker, such as Awaiting card, never as a status.
- A booking with no status shows no status pill in the list. On the chart it’s drawn in a neutral grey.
- Only admins can change the starting statuses, as they live in Settings.