> ## Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.riservahq.com/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Make a test reservation, end to end

This is the last step of setup: book your own experience the way a guest
would, then follow that reservation through Shopify and Riserva until the
visit is over. Then you'll make a second one and cancel it to watch a refund
go back. It takes about fifteen minutes, and every step ends with something
you can see.

**Before you start**

* One experience is **Active** — see [Publish an experience](/getting-started/publish-an-experience).
* The booking widget is on its product page — see
  [Add the booking widget to your theme](/getting-started/add-the-booking-widget).
* Your Shopify payments are in **test mode**, so you can pay with a test card
  and no real money moves. Shopify's own help explains test mode for your
  payment provider.

***

## Step 1 — Book as a guest

1. Open your storefront in a browser. If your store is still
   password-protected, enter the storefront password first; the booking
   window works the same behind it.
2. Go to the experience's product page and press **Check availability**
   (or your own button label, if you changed it).
3. Choose the number of **Guests**, pick a shaded date in the calendar, pick a
   time, and press **Continue**.
4. On the details step, add an add-on if the experience has any, answer any
   questions, and type something in **Special requests** — "Test reservation" is
   fine.
5. Press **Reserve**. Riserva holds the time for you and takes you to the
   cart.
6. Check out with a test card. Use an email address you can read.

**What you'll see:** the cart shows the reservation as one line, with the
experience, location, date, time and party size under it, plus a line for
each add-on. After checkout you get Shopify's order confirmation, and — if
guest emails are switched on — Riserva's reservation confirmation with a
reservation code like **RES-7K4M**.

> **Good to know**
> Pick a date **more than 24 hours away** for the second reservation in Step
> 6\. With Riserva's default cancellation policy, that cancellation refunds in
> full.

***

## Step 2 — Find the order in Shopify

Open **Orders** in your Shopify admin and open the new order.

**What you'll see:**

* The reservation line carries **Experience**, **Location**, **Date**,
  **Time** and **Party size**.
* The order is tagged **riserva-booking** and with the reservation's code,
  such as **RES-7K4M**. You can type the code into the orders search to find
  it again.
* If you've added Riserva's **Riserva reservation** block to the order page,
  it shows the code (linking to the reservation in Riserva), its status, the
  experience, the date, time and party, the place, and the guest's name.

> **Good to know — how long it takes.** A reservation normally appears in
> Riserva within seconds of checkout. If the experience saves the card to
> charge later, allow about a minute: Shopify confirms that kind of order
> before it tells Riserva. The order itself appears in Shopify right away.

***

## Step 3 — See the reservation in Riserva

Open Riserva from your Shopify admin.

**Home.** The reservation is in **Next 10 upcoming reservations**, and
**Recent activity** has a line like "Reservation created for a party of 2".
If the visit is within the next seven days, the **This week** card counts it.

**Reservations.** The list opens on the **Upcoming** tab, and your reservation
is in it. Click it to open its page: the guest's name and email, the
experience, date, time and party, your special request, the add-ons, and the
**Payment card** with the Shopify order listed under it. The timeline at the
bottom records the reservation being created and the confirmation email.

**Host.** Host shows **one day at a time, and it always opens on today**. It
opens on the **List** view (beside **Timeline** and **Map**; each device
remembers the one you last used). If you booked for today, the reservation is
on the **Arriving** tab. If you
booked for another day, it won't be on today's list — move to that day with
the **Next day** arrow, or click the date button between the arrows and pick
the date. The reservation is there under **Arriving**. **Today** next to the
date brings you back.

**Reports.** Reports has two tabs. **Overview** looks backwards, so a
reservation for a future date isn't there yet — it says "No visits in this
range." Open the **Upcoming** tab: your reservation is counted in its figures,
on the by-day chart and in the day-by-day list.

***

## Step 4 — Check the party in

Stay on Host, on the reservation's date, in the **List** view on the
**Arriving** tab, and press **Check in** on your reservation's row. (For a party of two or
more, the arrow beside it holds **Partial check-in…**, for when only part of
the party has arrived.)

If you're not actually on the visit's date — say you booked for next
Saturday — Riserva notices the party has arrived early and asks first, in a
window titled "Early arrival — …". For this test, press **Check in without
moving**, so the reservation stays on its date.

**What you'll see:** the row leaves **Arriving** and appears on the **On
property** tab with a blue **Checked in** badge. If the guest's card was saved
to be charged before the visit or at check-in, checking in charges it on the
spot. An experience charged **At the visit** is the one exception: its card
waits until the visit is closed out, so the register can settle the fee first.

***

## Step 5 — Complete the visit

On the **On property** tab, the row's button is now **Seat** — the step in
between, for when a party sits down; it's optional. Click the row itself to
open the party's panel beside the list, and press **Complete** there (it sits
next to **Seat**). If you do press **Seat**, the row's button becomes
**Complete**.

**What you'll see:** the party leaves the Host list. On the reservation's
page the badge now reads **Completed**, and the timeline shows the check-in
and the completion with your name.

> **Good to know**
> In real service you don't have to press **Complete**. Once a visit has run
> past its end, Riserva completes it on its own after a short grace period
> (or at the end of the day, if you choose that under Settings → Reservations
> → Ending visits), and the timeline says it ended automatically.

***

## Step 6 — Make a second reservation and cancel it

1. Repeat Step 1 for a date more than 24 hours away.
2. When it appears in Riserva, open its page from **Reservations**.
3. Open **More actions** and choose **Cancel reservation**.
4. The dialog shows the refund your cancellation policy allows — for example
   "Refund per policy: 100% (\$85.00)". Press **Cancel reservation** to
   confirm. (**Keep reservation** closes the dialog without changing
   anything.)

**What you'll see:**

* In Riserva, the badge reads **Cancelled**. The Payment card shows a
  **Refunded** row with the amount, and a **Refunded** badge (or **Partially
  refunded**, if the policy kept some). The timeline records the refund, and
  **Staff notes** on the Reservation card record the policy applied — for
  example "Cancelled by staff — policy refund 100% (\$85.00)".
* In Shopify, the order shows the refund, back to the test card.
* If guest emails are on, the guest gets a cancellation email that states the
  refund.
* The time you cancelled is back on sale in the booking window.

***

## You're done

You've seen a reservation go from your storefront to Shopify, into Riserva,
through check-in and completion, and you've watched a cancellation refund
itself. That's the whole loop your guests and team will run every day.

When you're ready to take real reservations, switch your payments out of test
mode in Shopify.

***

## Related

* [Running service with the Host view](/daily-operations/host-view)
* [A reservation's page](/daily-operations/reservation-page)
* [Cancellations and refunds](/daily-operations/cancellations-and-refunds)
* [What guests see, end to end](/guest-experience/what-guests-see)
* [What each report answers](/reports/what-each-report-answers)


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