See your site the way a guest will

Before you share your link, it is worth walking your own site exactly the way a guest will. You catch the small things — a wrong fee, a blocked date, a confusing step — before a paying guest ever runs into them.

There are two ways to do this, and they answer different questions:

• Simulate a booking from your own account when you want to see the full flow — dates, pricing, checkout, and the guest guide — without paying anything or creating a real reservation.
• Run a real test booking with a discount code in an incognito window when you want to confirm the whole thing works end to end — a real charge, a real confirmation email, a real reservation on your calendar.

Most hosts start with the simulation, then do one real test booking once they are happy.

Option 1 — Simulate a booking (no charge, nothing created)

This is the fastest check and the one to start with. Haven gives property owners a built-in Simulate mode right on your own property page. It walks the exact guest flow but creates no reservation, no payment, and no calendar hold.

1. Open your own property page (visit your public site link while signed in to Haven).
2. Select a set of available dates and your guest count, just like a guest would.
3. Because you are signed in as the owner, the booking button reads Simulate booking (or Simulate request if your property is request-to-book) instead of "Book now". Click it.
4. Step through the simulated checkout. Confirm the full price breakdown, fees, and cancellation terms all display correctly.
5. At the end you land on the guest guide view, so you can see exactly what a guest sees after they book.

Nothing is charged, no confirmation email goes out, and no reservation appears on your calendar — simulating is exactly the point.

As you go, double-check each of these looks right:

• Dates and nights match what you selected.
• Nightly rate is what you intended.
• Fees show correctly, with no surprises.
• Total adds up.
• Cancellation terms are visible before the payment step.

If anything is off, open Edit Listing to fix it. Pricing and fees live in the Pricing and Fees sections; date issues live in Availability.

Option 2 — A real test booking with a discount code

When you want to prove the entire path works — a real reservation on your calendar and the guest confirmation email — book your own property as a real guest with a discount code.

Good to know: A 100% code makes the whole stay free — nights, fees, your service fee and percentage taxes (unless the code's Discounted charges leave some unticked, such as Nightly rate only, in which case those charges are still paid by card). Checkout then shows Confirm booking instead of a card form, and the booking is confirmed with nothing charged. Two things keep a card in play: a listing with a refundable security deposit still needs a card to hold it, and a priced add-on is still charged unless the code is set to Also discounts add-ons (a $0 complimentary add-on never is). Use 99% instead when you also want to see a live card payment go through.

Step 1 — Create a test discount code

1. Open the property in Edit Listing → Pricing, or open the property Calendar and find the Discount codes card.
2. Click Create discount code.
3. Set Discount % to 100 for a free booking, or 99 to test a real card payment.
4. Optionally give it a memorable custom code (for example, TESTONLY) and a label so you can tell it apart from real promotions.
5. Click Create.

Delete this code once you're done testing so a real guest can't use it.

Step 2 — Book from an incognito window

A discount code applies at checkout for any guest, so you don't strictly need to be logged out to use it — but booking from an incognito (private) window is the best way to see your site exactly as a stranger does, with no host login changing what's shown.

1. Open a new incognito (or private) browser window.
2. Paste in your public property link.
3. Select your dates and guest count.
4. Proceed to checkout and enter your discount code. Confirm the total drops as expected.
5. With a 100% code, click Confirm booking — nothing is charged. With 99%, complete the booking with a real card; you'll be charged the small remaining amount.

Step 3 — Confirm it all worked

After the booking completes, verify the full loop:

• A confirmation email arrives in your inbox.
• The reservation shows up on your Calendar and in your bookings.
• The numbers on the confirmation match what you saw at checkout.

When you're satisfied, cancel the test booking from the reservation (refunding yourself if you paid with a 99% code) and delete the test discount code.

Which one should I use?

• Just want to see the flow and check your pricing? → Simulate a booking (Option 1). It's instant and creates nothing.
• Want a real reservation and the real emails, without paying? → Real test booking with a 100% code (Option 2), then cancel it.
• Want to see a live card payment too? → The same with a 99% code, then refund yourself.

You're done when…

You have walked your own booking flow from dates to checkout, every number and date displays correctly, the cancellation terms appear before payment, and — if you ran a real test booking — you received the confirmation email and then refunded yourself and removed the test code.

Related articles

• Test a booking before you share it
• What happens when a guest books
• Managing bookings