Your booking engine lives on another website. Here’s how to see who books.

Most small properties send guests to a booking page run by their booking software. At Comal Inn, a guest taps Book Direct on comalinn.com and books on eviivo's page at via.eviivo.com. To a guest, it's one trip. To Google Analytics, it's two different websites.

That causes three problems:

• Bookings don’t show up, because the booking page isn’t sending anything to your Analytics.
• Your booking page shows up as one of your top referrers, since guests who come back from it look like new visits sent by it.
• You can’t tell which search, ad or AI tool led to a booking, because the trail ends at your Book Now button.

In the year before we fixed it, Google Analytics didn't record a single booking from our booking page. It did credit about 150 visits to via.eviivo.com as a referral. Those weren't new guests. They were our own guests coming back from the booking page.

We found it when we connected AI to our Google Analytics and asked where our bookings were coming from. This note is the full fix.

1. Put your Analytics ID on the booking page. In Google Analytics, find your Measurement ID under Admin, then Data streams. It starts with G-. Then paste it into your booking software. In eviivo it's a field called Google Analytics Measurement ID.

2. Tell Google Analytics both websites are yours. In Google Analytics, go to Admin, Data streams, pick your website, then Configure tag settings, then Configure your domains. Add your website and your booking page's domain. We added comalinn.com and via.eviivo.com.

That's it. No new code on our website. Google Analytics adds a short code to your Book Now links so the booking page knows it's the same visitor.

In the first three weeks after both settings were in, the booking page reported every step, from viewing rooms to paying. And the visits credited to our own booking page as a referral dropped to zero.

All three bookings started with a Google search, and all three amounts matched eviivo to the penny. We can also see who reached the booking page and from where:

• 86 people from Google search
• 63 who came straight to us, by typing our address or from a saved link
• 37 from AI tools like ChatGPT
• 12 from Google Hotel Ads, which Analytics labels as paid search

The drop between starting checkout and paying is where we'll look next. Fourteen people got that far, and three booked.

1. 01Tap your own Book Now button.Look at the booking page address. If you see _gl= in it, Google Analytics is passing the visitor along. If your Book Now button is built with code instead of a plain link, check this carefully, since that part may not make it through.
2. 02Watch Realtime.In Google Analytics, open Reports, then Realtime, and click through to your booking page. You should show up on both websites as one visitor.
3. 03Check your referrals.In a week or two, open your traffic report. Your booking page shouldn’t show up as a referral anymore.
4. 04Make a test booking.Book a cheap night, then cancel it. Check that the booking shows up in Analytics with the right source.

Google Analytics will always count less than your booking software. In those same three weeks, eviivo shows five bookings from our website. Analytics caught three of them. Some guests never show up in it:

• Guests with ad blockers or strict privacy settings, which can block Google Analytics altogether
• Guests who look on a phone and book later on a computer
• Bookings by phone or email
• Bookings on Booking.com, Expedia and other booking sites, which happen on their websites

Your booking software is the record of what booked. Google Analytics is for seeing where guests came from and where they stopped.

Ask whether your booking page accepts a Google Analytics Measurement ID or a Google Tag Manager code. Some document it. Staylist has a setting for a Google Tag Manager code and walks through cross-domain tracking, and RMS documents Google Tag Manager for its booking engine. Then list both domains in Google Analytics the same way.

If your booking engine runs right on your own pages, like some widgets do, you may not need any of this. Test it the same way to be sure.