Lagoon uses a handful of words in a particular way. Here is what each one means. If you have read something on Lagoon that is not explained here, tell us and we will add it.
Kinds of place
Property type — what a place actually is: a hotel, a guesthouse, a self-catering studio, an apartment, a bungalow, a villa or a lodge. You can filter by it in search, so you are not wading through hotels when you want a villa.
Entire place — the whole property is yours for the dates you book: nobody else is staying there. Villas, bungalows and most self-catering places work this way, and you can filter for it. The alternative is booking a single room in a property where other guests have their own.
Star rating — an official hotel classification, so only hotels have one. A guesthouse or villa without stars is not a lesser place; it is a different kind of place. The star filter hides itself when there are no hotels in your results, rather than offering you a filter that would empty the page.
Amenities — what you can actually use at a property, and what the filters in search are built from. Properties tick these themselves and each list is tailored to the kind of place it is, so a villa is asked about a private pool and a kitchen while a hotel is asked about room service and a concierge. Nothing is ticked for them by default — an empty list means the owner has not claimed anything, not that we forgot to ask.
Booking and staying
Booking — a reservation of a room or an experience on a set of dates. A booking exists as soon as you send it, even if the property has not accepted it yet — see request to book.
Instant confirmation — a booking that is confirmed the moment you make it. Nobody has to approve it, and you will see "Instant confirmation" on the listing.
Request to book — some properties like to approve bookings themselves. When you send a request, the room is held for you while the property decides. They have 24 hours to answer — or until 18:00 on the day of check-in, if that comes sooner. Miss that and the hold lapses on its own, leaving you free to book elsewhere; nothing is charged either way.
Night — the nights you sleep there, not the days you touch. Arriving on the 1st and leaving on the 4th is three nights.
Check-in and check-out — the day you arrive and the day you leave. Both are dates, not times; the property sets its own arrival and departure hours.
No-show — the booking was still on, but the guest never arrived.
Cancellation policy — the terms that decide what happens if a booking is called off, and what the property may charge you if you cancel late. Each property sets its own, and you are shown it before you book. A booking keeps the policy it was made under, even if the property changes its terms later — the promise you agreed to is the one that holds.
Experience — something to do rather than somewhere to sleep: a tour, a class, an activity. Experiences run as sessions, each on a particular date with a limited number of places.
What a booking's status means
| Status | What it means |
|---|---|
| Pending request | Sent to the property, not yet answered. Your dates are held while you wait. |
| Confirmed | The booking is on. |
| Declined | The property turned the request down. |
| Expired | The property did not answer within 24 hours and the hold lapsed. |
| Cancelled | A confirmed booking was called off. |
| No-show | The booking was still on, but nobody arrived. |
| Completed | The stay has happened and the check-out date has passed. |
Money
Total — the full amount for the booking, and the figure the property will ask you for.
Subtotal — the accommodation or ticket price on its own, before anything is added on top.
Pay at property — Lagoon does not take your money. You pay the property directly, on their terms. So a booking on Lagoon reserves your stay; it does not charge your card.
Paid at the property — anything you pay on arrival on top of the nightly rate, shown on the listing before you book. The two common ones are a cleaning fee, charged once for the stay rather than per night, and a security deposit, which is held against damage and comes back to you afterwards. Neither is added to the price you see in search, because neither is money Lagoon collects — you pay both directly to the property. If a listing shows nothing here, the property has not declared any.
The currency you see — prices are held in the currency the property sells in. If you are viewing in a different currency, Lagoon shows an approximate conversion marked with "≈", and the exact price in the property's own currency alongside it. Only that exact figure is binding.
Reviews
Verified stay — the review was left by someone with a real booking behind it. Reviews without one are checked by a person before they appear.
Guest score — the average of a property's published review scores, out of 5, with the number of reviews beside it. It is an all-time average, so it moves slowly, and search results are ordered on more than the score alone.
Reply — a property can answer a review publicly, once, underneath it.
Your account
Trips — your bookings, past and upcoming, under your account.
Property partner — the business that owns and runs the place you are booking. You book through Lagoon, but you stay with them, and they are the ones who accept your booking and take your payment.
Still stuck on a word?
Use the contact form and a person will read it. We would rather rewrite a confusing page than have you guess.
Run a property on Lagoon? Your own glossary is in your partner dashboard, under Glossary.