ApproveThis manages your BookSpot Integration approvals.

Why Approval Automation Matters for Booking-Driven Businesses

Let’s be honest: managing bookings sucks when you’re stuck chasing down approvals. Someone books a conference room for 200 people? You need the facilities team to confirm capacity. A client reserves your most expensive equipment? Finance needs to check their credit limit. And if you’re still handling this via email chains or Slack pings, you’re wasting time you could spend actually running your business.

That’s where ApproveThis and BookSpot come in. BookSpot handles the booking logistics. ApproveThis handles the human decisions required to make those bookings happen. Connect them through Zapier, and you’ve got a system where bookings trigger automatic approval requests – no manual follow-ups, no lost emails, no “I thought Jessica was handling that.”

What Happens When You Combine These Tools

Imagine this: A new booking comes into BookSpot. Before the confirmation email even hits the customer’s inbox, ApproveThis is already routing approval requests to the right people. The facilities manager gets a Slack message. The finance lead gets an email with a one-click approve button. The operations team sees real-time updates in their dashboard. Everyone knows exactly what needs their sign-off, and you avoid double-booking that $10k laser cutter because someone forgot to check with inventory.

This isn’t just about speed (though you’ll get that too). It’s about eliminating the chaos that comes with scaling. When you’re dealing with 50+ bookings a day across multiple locations or services, you need rules – not hope – to keep things moving.

The Nuts and Bolts of the Integration

Here’s how it works technically: Zapier acts as the messenger between BookSpot and ApproveThis. When BookSpot registers a new booking (like a corporate retreat booking your entire fleet of kayaks), Zapier tells ApproveThis to create an approval request. That request could go to your warehouse manager to confirm equipment availability, then to accounting to verify the client’s deposit status. Once everyone signs off, Zapier can send a final confirmation back to BookSpot – all without you lifting a finger.

Real-World Use Cases (No Fluff Edition)

1. Rental Companies: Stop Overpromising Inventory

Say you rent out construction equipment. A contractor books five excavators through BookSpot. Normally, your team would have to manually check if those machines are actually available and in working order. With ApproveThis:

• The booking automatically triggers an approval request to your maintenance lead
• They review service records directly in the approval portal
• If they reject it, BookSpot instantly gets notified to offer alternate dates

Why it matters: You avoid the “Sorry, we can’t fulfill your order” emails that kill customer trust.

2. Event Planners: Keep Vendors in Check

Your client books a wedding venue through BookSpot. But you still need approvals from the caterer (menu), AV team (power requirements), and the client’s budget tracker. Instead of playing telephone between 4 parties, ApproveThis:

• Routes the venue booking to all stakeholders simultaneously
• Uses calculated fields to flag if the catering estimate exceeds budget
• Auto-reassigns approvals if someone’s OOO (thanks to vacation delegation)

Why it matters: No more last-minute surprises because the florist didn’t realize the venue change.

3. Tour Operators: Dynamic Pricing Approvals

A group requests a 20% discount on a private tour booked through BookSpot. Your sales rep can’t approve that alone. With ApproveThis:

The discount request triggers a tiered approval: first the sales manager, then the finance director if it’s over $2k. Approvers get context like the client’s booking history and projected profit margins right in the approval interface. Once approved, BookSpot automatically updates the booking with the discounted rate.

Why it matters: You close deals faster without compromising margins.

Setting This Up Without Losing Your Mind

Here’s the good news: You don’t need an IT degree to connect these tools. If you can set up a Zoom call, you can handle this:

1. Create a Zapier account (they have a free tier)
2. Choose your BookSpot trigger: “New Booking” is the obvious pick
3. Connect to ApproveThis: Select “Create Approval Request” as the action
4. Map the data: Pull booking details into the approval request (customer name, dates, $$ amount)
5. Set approval rules: Define who needs to sign off based on booking type/amount

Pro tip: Use ApproveThis’ approval thresholds to auto-approve small bookings (like recurring clients under $500) and only escalate the big stuff.

Why Your Teams Will Actually Use This

Operations Teams: No More Spreadsheet Jockeys

Your ops people aren’t paid to babysit approval emails. With real-time tracking in ApproveThis, they can see at a glance which bookings are pending sign-off, which are stuck, and which are good to go. Plus, conditional logic means a high-priority client’s booking skips the queue and goes straight to the director.

Finance Teams: Budget Enforcement That Doesn’t Suck

Finance isn’t trying to be the bad guy – they just don’t want a $50k booking to go through without checking the client’s payment history. Approval thresholds in ApproveThis let them set rules like “Auto-approve if deposit ≥ 30%, else require CFO sign-off.” No more playing collections later.

Customer Service: Fewer “Where’s My Booking?” Calls

When approvals happen faster, confirmations go out faster. And since approvers can reject requests with comments (“We need a certificate of insurance”), your team can resolve issues before the customer even knows there’s a problem.

The Killer Feature Everyone Misses: External Approvals

Here’s where this combo really shines: You can involve people who don’t use BookSpot. Say a client’s procurement team needs to approve the booking terms. They don’t need a BookSpot license – just email access. ApproveThis sends them a secure link to review and approve directly, with all terms summarized. No guest logins, no confused external users.

Common Objections (And Why They’re Wrong)

“We don’t have enough approvals to automate.” Cool, then this will take you 20 minutes to set up and save you 5 hours a month. ROI math isn’t hard here.

“Our process is too complex.” ApproveThis handles multi-step approvals, conditional paths, and even calculations (like auto-approving if profit margin >20%). If your process is more complicated than that, you’ve got bigger issues.

“We’ll lose the human touch.” Actually, you’ll gain it. Instead of your team being approval nag-bots, they can focus on upselling clients or resolving actual issues.

Bottom Line: This Isn’t About Software

It’s about removing friction from your booking process. Every minute saved on approval chasing is a minute you can spend on things that actually grow your business – like improving your offerings or (gasp) taking a day off without your phone blowing up.

If you’re using BookSpot, you’re already ahead of the spreadsheet crowd. Adding ApproveThis through Zapier is the logical next step. It’s not flashy, but neither is doubling your booking capacity without hiring more coordinators.

Get Started

Ready to stop being the approval middleman? Sign up for ApproveThis – it’s free for 14 days, no credit card required. Or if you want to see how it works with your specific BookSpot setup, book a 10-minute demo. We’ll even help you build your first Zap.