Vacation package online booking: sold-out parts

A vacation package is a room, a transfer and sometimes a day trip, sold under one price. Each part keeps its own stock for every date. The package page may check only the package itself, so October shows as open even when the one double room is already held. The visitor picks two adults and a coast week, and nothing warns them. The check runs after they type each name, date of birth and email, and the summary then says the room is gone. The visitor reads that as the whole trip being sold out, and leaves.

• Does the package page check the room and the transfer for the exact dates and party size?
• Does the total on the package page match the summary for the same dates and party?
• Is a child's age asked before the names step, so the room type is known in advance?
• Do the name fields accept a hyphen and a middle name, as they appear on a passport?
• Does the checkout offer a deposit before full payment, and say when the balance is due?

List every part the package sells: the double room, the transfer seat and the guided day. Each may sit in a different system, or in a spreadsheet nobody updates. Open the package for October and check each part for the same dates and party size. If the room shows zero left and the transfer shows four seats, the package page is wrong to show the trip as open.

The report shows where the cause sits. A simulated visitor records the dates, the party size and the screen where the booking stopped. A failure on the package page means the page checked the wrong part or none. A failure on the names step or later means the check ran too late for the visitor to choose again. Compare the screenshot with your stock for the same date.

A package page may start at two adults with no children. Room type, rate and transfer seats depend on how many people travel and how old they are. A family of three with a child of nine may need a triple room, which a double booking does not show. The visitor adds the child on the traveler step, and the room type changes or an age field appears that was not on the first screen.

Run the same dates twice to tell this cause apart: first with two adults, then with two adults and one child whose age you enter. If the room type or total changes between the runs, the party is the cause. If the names step asks for a traveler the first screen did not count, the form and the package count the party differently. Check how your booking tool counts children.

Packages often ask each traveler for the name exactly as it appears on a passport, plus a date of birth. A hyphen, a middle name or an accent can fail a strict field, and the error may say invalid name without naming the field. If the field rejects a name that matches the passport exactly, the visitor has no way forward, so the booking stops there. The test uses a made up name with a hyphen and a middle name, which shows whether the field accepts names as typed.

The payment step is the last screen a test reaches. Some packages take a deposit now and the balance later, while some checkouts show only full payment and leave the deposit out of sight. A visitor who cannot find it may leave before paying. A simulated visitor stops at the payment step because it cannot pay with a real card. The report shows the last screen and the amount on it, but not whether the deposit works once money moves.

How a checkout flow test works

Hotel blocks, transfer seats and day trip slots change when you open a departure, release a block or move a date. Any one of those can close a part while the package page stays open. Send the same visitors through again after each stock change to see whether every part still shows open for the dates they pick. Then send more visitors for each traffic source, such as a search or a paid ad.