FAQ & Troubleshooting

The questions we actually get, grouped by topic. Every answer links to the page with the full story.

Getting set up

The booking form shows "temporarily unavailable"

Your license is disconnected or expired. Visitors see only that friendly notice — never plugin internals — while administrators see a "check license" panel in its place. Open Ride Booking → License and reconnect. See License.

How do I put the booking form on a page?

Drop [orb_booking_form] into any page, post, or block — omit the id to use your first active form, or add id="2" to embed a specific one. All shortcodes are listed with copy buttons under Ride Booking → Shortcodes. See Shortcodes.

Can I run different forms on different pages?

Yes — that's the point of Booking Forms. Each form has its own services, vehicles, fields, and look; embed each with its id. A wedding-limo landing page and your airport-transfer page can sell completely different things.

Booking form & maps

Address autocomplete (or the map) doesn't work

Almost always the Google Maps API key. Under Settings → Maps, the key needs Places, Maps JavaScript, and Directions enabled and billing active on the Google project — Google silently returns nothing without billing. If the key has website restrictions, they must allow your domain. See Settings → Maps.

Can I stop people booking pickups outside my area?

Yes — draw service areas (circles on the map) under Settings → Maps. Addresses outside every circle are rejected on the form with a clear message. See Settings → Maps.

The route or distance looks wrong

Distances come from Google's Directions route (real roads), not straight-line distance, so they can differ from what you'd eyeball. If the route itself is odd, check the pickup/drop-off pins — autocomplete occasionally resolves an ambiguous address to the wrong city; more specific input fixes it.

Pricing

How is the price calculated?

Per vehicle: each vehicle carries its own pricing type (distance or hourly), rates, and minimum fares, plus per-service overrides. On top come extras (child seats, stops), airport fees, surcharges, tax, and any discounts. See Vehicles and Pricing.

Can the customer tamper with the price in the browser?

No. The form only previews the price — the server recalculates everything at booking time from your settings. A modified page can't change what gets charged.

Why did the coupon not apply?

Four possibilities, each with its own message: the code is inactive, expired (or not started yet), fully redeemed (hit its max uses), or the fare is under its minimum order. Check the code's status pill on Coupons — it computes these live.

Do corporate discounts and coupons stack?

They're added together, then capped at the trip's base + stops amount — the discount can zero the fare portion but never go negative, and tax is charged on the discounted amount. See Corporate Accounts.

Payments

Which payment methods are supported?

Stripe, Square, and Authorize.Net for cards, plus Pay to Driver (cash/in-person). Enable and configure each under Settings → Payment; you choose per form which ones customers see. See Settings → Payment.

The customer paid, but the booking still shows unpaid

That's the payment webhook not reaching your site. Each gateway section in Settings shows the webhook URL to register in the gateway dashboard (and the signing secret to paste back). Until the webhook works, payment confirmations can't flow back automatically. See Settings → Payment.

How do refunds work?

Issue the refund in your gateway's dashboard (Stripe/Square/Authorize.Net), then update the booking's payment status and Void or adjust the invoice in the plugin so your records match. See Invoices.

Emails & SMS

Emails aren't arriving

Open Ride Booking → Email Log first — it records every send, and failed rows show the actual SMTP error. If sends succeed but land in spam, set up SPF/DKIM for your sending domain and use a real mailbox via Settings → Email/SMTP rather than the default PHP mail. See Email Log.

Can I change the email wording, logo, or colors?

Every email is editable under Email Templates — subject and HTML body with merge variables like {{customer_name}} and {{booking_number}}, plus a shared branded header/footer (logo, contact block) configured once. Restore Default undoes any template edit.

Can I turn one email off without touching the rest?

Yes — every template has its own on/off toggle on the Email Templates list. Off means that event simply doesn't send.

SMS isn't sending

Check the Twilio credentials and the From number under Settings → SMS, then use Send Test SMS on that screen (save first — the test uses stored credentials). Trial Twilio accounts can only text verified numbers. See Settings → SMS.

Customers & the portal

A customer can't sign in

Two usual causes: the account is deactivated (check the status on their profile — inactive customers can't log in), or they lost the password — tick Send welcome email on their profile's edit dialog to re-send the set-password link.

Where do customers see their bookings and invoices?

The portal at /portal — trips with live status, invoices with PDF download, quotes, and profile settings. One URL serves customers, drivers, and corporate agents; it detects the role at sign-in. See Portals.

Drivers & dispatch

A driver can't see their trips

The booking must be assigned to that driver and in Driver Assigned (or later) status. The driver signs in at /portal with the account created from their driver profile — if they never got the login email, re-send it from the profile's edit dialog.

A driver isn't showing on Track Drivers

They must be signed into the driver portal on a device with GPS. Location sharing is mandatory while signed in (a blocking overlay enforces it), so "signed in but invisible" usually means the browser denied location permission or the phone's GPS is off. See Track Drivers.

How do I pay my drivers?

Ride Booking → Settlement reconciles each driver's period: cash fares they kept vs the wages you owe on online-paid trips, minus commission, rent, tolls, and advances — producing one net number with a printable run sheet. See Settlement.

Data, license & updates

I'm moving to a new domain / rebuilding the site

Disconnect the license from the old site (its License page, or the customer portal) and connect the new one. Your data lives in your WordPress database, so a normal site migration carries everything — bookings, forms, customers, settings. See License.

My license expired — is my data safe?

Yes, always. A lapsed license locks the admin screens and hides the public booking form, but never deletes anything. Reconnect and everything is exactly as you left it. A 3-day grace window also covers brief license-server outages. See License.

My booking forms disappeared

They can't stay gone: forms are continuously snapshotted, and if the forms table is ever found empty the plugin restores them automatically. If you're reading this mid-panic: deactivate and reactivate the plugin, then check Booking Forms.

If I delete a customer / coupon / invoice, does history break?

No — deletes are deliberately conservative. Deleting a customer keeps their bookings (they lose the link), a coupon keeps every already-applied discount, an invoice doesn't touch its booking, a driver keeps the WordPress user, and a corporate keeps its member accounts.

Still stuck?

Open a ticket from the customer portal — include your license key, WordPress URL, and what you expected vs what happened. A screenshot and the relevant Email Log row speed things up a lot.