Customers Can't Complete Online Booking

Symptoms

Your customers report one or more of the following when trying to book through your Booking widget:

• The widget loads but shows no available sessions or products — customers see an empty calendar or a “no availability” message.
• The widget shows a blank white page or doesn’t load at all on your website.
• Customers can select a product and add it to the Shopping Cart, but the Checkout page returns an error or freezes when they try to pay.
• The payment step fails with a generic error message (e.g., “Payment could not be processed”) even though the customer’s card is valid.
• Customers complete the booking flow but never receive a Booking Confirmation Email, and no Booking appears in your Bookings List.

Most likely causes

1. No sessions available for the selected dates — Your products don’t have sessions scheduled in the date range your customers are looking at. No sessions = nothing to book.
2. Product not enabled for eCommerce — The product exists in Bloowatch but isn’t published to your online eCommerce channel. Customers can’t see or book products that aren’t enabled for online sales.
3. Payment gateway not configured or disconnected — Your Payment gateway (e.g., Stripe) isn’t set up, has expired credentials, or was accidentally disconnected. Without a working gateway, the checkout can’t process card payments.
4. Booking widget not embedded correctly — The widget iframe code on your website is outdated, malformed, or blocked by your site’s security settings.
5. Product availability dates expired — The Product availability window has passed. Even if sessions exist, the product won’t show online if the availability period doesn’t cover the dates customers are searching for.

Quick checks

Run through these before diving into the fixes below. Each one takes under a minute:

• Open your own website in an incognito/private browser window and try to complete a booking yourself. Note the exact point where it fails.
• In Bloowatch, go to Agenda and check whether sessions exist for the dates your customers are trying to book.
• Go to Products and open the product in question. Check whether eCommerce is enabled (look for the toggle or channel setting).
• Go to Settings > Payment Gateways and verify your Stripe (or other gateway) connection shows as active.
• Check your website’s browser console (F12 > Console tab) for JavaScript errors when the widget loads.

Fixes in order

Fix 1: Create sessions for the relevant dates

This is the most common reason customers see “no availability.” If there are no scheduled sessions, there’s nothing for them to book.

1. Go to the Agenda in Bloowatch.
2. Navigate to the dates your customers are trying to book.
3. If no sessions exist, create them. Click + New Session (or use recurring sessions if you need them for a range of dates).
4. Make sure the session has:
   • The correct Activity and product assigned.
   • An Instructor assigned (required for the session to be bookable).
   • Available capacity (Max Pax is not already reached).
5. Save the session and check the widget again — the product should now appear.

Watch out: Sessions need a few seconds to sync with the eCommerce widget. If you just created one, wait a moment and refresh your website.

Fix 2: Enable the product for eCommerce

A product that works perfectly for POS or manual bookings may not be visible online if it’s not enabled for eCommerce.

1. Go to Products in Bloowatch.
2. Open the product your customers are trying to book.
3. Look for the eCommerce section or channel settings.
4. Make sure the product is toggled on for online sales.
5. Verify the product has:
   • A price set (products with no price can’t be sold online).
   • A valid Product availability period that covers the dates in question.
   • At least one Activity Calendar linked so sessions appear.
6. Click Save.

What to check	Where to find it	What it should say
eCommerce enabled	Product > eCommerce toggle	On / Active
Price set	Product > Pricing	A valid price > 0
Availability period	Product > Availability	Covers the booking dates
Calendar linked	Product > Calendar	At least one calendar

Fix 3: Reconnect or configure your payment gateway

If customers can select products and reach the checkout but payment fails, the issue is almost certainly with your Payment gateway.

1. Go to Settings > Payment Gateways in Bloowatch.
2. Check whether Stripe (or your configured gateway) shows as connected and active.
3. If it shows as disconnected or missing:
   • Click Connect or Reconnect and follow the authorization flow.
   • Make sure you’re connecting the correct Stripe account (Live mode, not Test mode, for real bookings).
4. If it shows as connected but payments still fail:
   • Verify the Webhook Signing Secret matches what’s in your Stripe Dashboard (see related article KB-PAY-004).
   • Check Stripe’s own dashboard for declined payments or account restrictions.
5. After reconnecting, test a booking yourself to confirm payment goes through.

Watch out: If you recently switched from Test mode to Live mode in Stripe, you need to update the webhook signing secret in Bloowatch. The Test and Live mode secrets are different.

Fix 4: Fix the widget embed on your website

If the widget shows a blank page or doesn’t load at all, the problem is likely on your website side.

1. Check that the widget embed code on your website matches the code provided in Bloowatch under Settings > eCommerce > Widget.
2. Make sure the iframe src URL is correct and includes your organization identifier.
3. Common issues:
   • HTTPS mismatch — Your website must use HTTPS. An HTTP site trying to load an HTTPS widget will be blocked by the browser.
   • Content Security Policy (CSP) — If your website has strict CSP headers, you may need to whitelist *.bloowatch.com in your frame-src directive.
   • WordPress plugin conflicts — Some security or caching plugins block iframes. Try disabling them temporarily to test.
4. If you recently updated your website theme or CMS, re-copy the widget code from Bloowatch and paste it fresh.

Fix 5: Update the product availability period

If sessions exist and the product is enabled for eCommerce but customers still don’t see it online:

1. Go to Products and open the product.
2. Check the Product availability dates.
3. If the end date has passed, extend it to cover the current season.
4. If you use Seasonal Pricing, make sure the active pricing period also covers the dates in question — a product with no valid price for a given date won’t be bookable.
5. Save and test.

When it’s a bug — when to escalate

You’ve gone through all five fixes and customers still can’t book? Here’s how to decide if it’s time to contact support.

It’s probably a configuration issue if:

• Only one specific product fails — others work fine online.
• The problem started after you changed a setting, added a new product, or updated your website.
• It works in one browser but not another.

Contact Bloowatch Support when:

• All products fail at checkout, and your Payment gateway shows as connected with correct credentials.
• The widget loads correctly on your site but returns server errors (HTTP 500) during the booking flow.
• Bookings are created in Bloowatch but payments are not recorded, even though Stripe shows successful charges (this is a webhook issue — see KB-PAY-004).
• The widget has been working for weeks and suddenly stopped without any changes on your end.

Before you contact support, gather: your Bloowatch organization name, the product name(s) that fail, the exact error message or screenshot your customer sees, the browser and device your customer is using, and the approximate time the issue started.