CoverCount can track the public link or campaign that created a reservation. Use this guide when you want to know whether bookings are coming from your website, Google Business Profile, Instagram, email campaigns, QR codes, ads, or another placement.
For most public links, use standard UTM parameters. They work in analytics tools and CoverCount can also use them for reservation-source reporting.
The Short Version
Use links like this:
https://explore.covercount.io/oak-and-vine/reserve?utm_source=venue-website&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=reservations
For one experience:
https://explore.covercount.io/oak-and-vine/reserve?experience=wine-tasting&utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=summer-tastings
CoverCount reads these UTM values when the guest creates a reservation.
What CoverCount Stores
CoverCount stores two attribution fields on reservations:
| Field | What it means |
|---|---|
BookingSource |
The grouped source used for source reporting, such as venue-website, google-business-profile, instagram, email, or qr-code. |
BookingSourceDetail |
The more detailed attribution string, usually the UTM tuple that was present on the booking link. |
If a booking link has utm_source, CoverCount uses that value as BookingSource.
If utm_source is missing, CoverCount falls back to utm_medium, then utm_campaign.
The full UTM tuple is stored in BookingSourceDetail, for example:
utm_source=google-business-profile;utm_medium=local-listing;utm_campaign=reservations
Use UTM Parameters For Public Links
Use these standard parameters:
| Parameter | Use it for |
|---|---|
utm_source |
The channel or placement group, such as venue-website, google-business-profile, instagram, email, or qr-code. |
utm_medium |
The type of traffic, such as referral, social, email, offline, paid-social, or cpc. |
utm_campaign |
The campaign or purpose, such as reservations, summer-tastings, wine-dinner, or holiday-party. |
utm_content |
Optional detail for variants, such as header-button, footer-button, bio-link, or story-link. |
utm_term |
Optional search keyword detail, usually for paid search. |
Keep values lowercase, use hyphens instead of spaces, and reuse the same names consistently.
Recommended Source Names
Start with a small source list.
| Placement | Suggested source |
|---|---|
| Main website button | venue-website |
| Website mobile menu | venue-website |
| Google Business Profile | google-business-profile |
| Instagram profile | instagram |
| Facebook page | facebook |
| Email newsletter | email |
| Table tent QR code | qr-code |
| Printed postcard | print |
| Paid Google ad | google |
| Paid Meta ad | meta |
Do not create a new source for every button or every campaign. Put that detail in utm_campaign or
utm_content instead.
Example Links By Placement
Website reserve button:
https://explore.covercount.io/oak-and-vine/reserve?utm_source=venue-website&utm_medium=referral&utm_campaign=reservations&utm_content=header-button
Google Business Profile:
https://explore.covercount.io/oak-and-vine/reserve?utm_source=google-business-profile&utm_medium=local-listing&utm_campaign=reservations
Instagram profile:
https://explore.covercount.io/oak-and-vine/reserve?utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=reservations&utm_content=bio-link
Email campaign for one experience:
https://explore.covercount.io/oak-and-vine/reserve?experience=wine-tasting&utm_source=email&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=summer-tastings
QR code on a table tent:
https://explore.covercount.io/oak-and-vine/reserve?utm_source=qr-code&utm_medium=offline&utm_campaign=table-tent
Widget Tracking
If your website uses the CoverCount booking widget, keep this line in the install snippet:
utm: window.location.search
That forwards UTM values from the website page URL into the CoverCount booking flow.
The widget also reads UTM parameters from the page where it is embedded. If no UTM values are available,
the widget falls back to source=widget and stores the embedding page host as BookingSourceDetail.
Example:
BookingSource: widget
BookingSourceDetail: www.oakandvine.com
For ordinary website traffic, tagged direct links or tagged website page URLs are easier to read in
reports than generic widget traffic.
When To Use source
CoverCount also supports source and sourceDetail query parameters.
Use them only when you need a CoverCount-specific override or a backward-compatible internal bucket. For public marketing links, prefer standard UTM parameters.
If a link includes both source and UTM parameters, source wins for CoverCount's grouped
BookingSource report. Analytics tools can still read the UTM parameters from the URL.
Example override:
https://explore.covercount.io/oak-and-vine/reserve?source=partner-referral&sourceDetail=hotel-concierge
Test A Tracking Link
Before publishing a campaign link broadly:
- Open the link in a private or incognito browser window.
- Confirm the correct venue appears.
- Confirm the correct experience appears, if the link has an
experiencevalue. - Create a test reservation.
- Open the staff app.
- Review Reports > Reservations by source after the reservation is created.
- Download a reservation export if you need to inspect the exact
BookingSourceDetailvalue.
Use a clearly named test campaign, such as:
utm_source=test&utm_medium=qa&utm_campaign=source-check
Cancel the test reservation afterward if it should not remain on the book.
Read The Source Report
Admins with Advanced Reporting can open Reports > Reservations by source.
The report groups reservations by BookingSource and shows:
- Total bookings
- Total covers
- Booked, confirmed, checked-in, completed, cancelled, and no-show counts
- Completed covers
- The source share within the selected window
The report can be filtered by date window and experience. Source names are grouped case-insensitively,
so Website, WEBSITE, and website are treated as one source.
The source report is a grouped summary. It does not show every campaign parameter for every reservation.
Use Reservation Export For Details
Use Reports > Reservations export when you need row-level details.
The CSV export includes both:
BookingSourceBookingSourceDetail
Use BookingSource to group reservations by channel. Use BookingSourceDetail to inspect the exact UTM
tuple for a reservation, such as campaign, content, or term.
Avoid Common Naming Problems
Avoid source names that are too specific:
utm_source=instagram-june-wine-tasting-bio-link
Better:
utm_source=instagram&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=june-wine-tasting&utm_content=bio-link
Avoid mixing names for the same channel:
utm_source=google
utm_source=gbp
utm_source=google-business
Better:
utm_source=google-business-profile
More Help
For examples of where to place tracked links, see Use direct booking links for CoverCount reservations.
For embedded website setup, see Install the CoverCount booking widget.
For the correct venue slug, experience slug, or campaign naming pattern, contact support@covercount.io.