Welcome to the official documentation for Plugixa Car Parking, a booking and
reservation plugin for car parks, garages, airport parking and park and ride.
Customers book through a step-by-step form that you place on any page with a
shortcode or a block. You manage locations, space types, prices, booking forms
and bookings from a single admin screen in WordPress.
The plugin ships in two editions:
- Free - the booking form, any number of locations with opening hours and
closures, space types with prices per minute, hour, day, week or month,
coupons, pay on arrival, a payments ledger, the bookings list and calendar,
the customer account page, the booking summary with a printable invoice, and
notification emails.
- Pro PRO - everything in Free, plus Stripe and PayPal payments,
deposits, extras, tax rates, pricing rules, customer groups, numbered spaces,
PDF invoices, customer rescheduling, text messages, Telegram notices,
reminders, a daily report and a map of your locations.
Nothing in the free edition is switched off or limited. See the complete
Free vs Pro comparison.
What makes it different
A few decisions shape how the plugin behaves. They are worth knowing before you
take your first booking.
| Decision |
What it means for you |
| The price is calculated on the server |
The price shown in the form and the price stored on the booking come from the same calculation, run on your server from the space type’s prices. A price sent by the browser is never used. |
| Availability is checked twice |
The stay is checked when the customer asks for availability and again, under a lock, when the booking is saved. Two customers cannot take the same last space. |
| A pending booking holds its space, for a while |
A new booking is Pending and keeps its space for 30 minutes by default. If nobody confirms or pays it, it expires and the space is free again. |
| Deleting moves to the trash |
Every list has a trash to restore from. Deleting the plugin itself keeps your data unless you ask otherwise. |
| One admin screen |
The WordPress menu has one item, Car Parking. Every screen is inside it, with its own sidebar and search. |
| No outside service in the free edition |
The free plugin loads nothing from a CDN and contacts no outside service during normal operation. |
Key concepts
| Term |
What it is |
| Location |
A car park, with an address, opening hours, closures and its own billing unit. |
| Space type |
A kind of space you sell, such as Standard, Covered or Electric, with its prices. |
| Spaces |
How many spaces of each type a location has. Availability is counted against these. |
| Billing unit |
What a location charges by: minute, hour, day, week or month. |
| Booking form |
A set of choices (steps, extra fields, colour, locations) that produces one form. Each has its own shortcode. |
| Booking status |
Where the booking stands: Pending, Confirmed, Paid, Completed, Cancelled, Refunded, No-show or Expired. |
| Payment status |
Worked out from the payments recorded: Unpaid, Part paid or Paid. |
| Hold |
The time a pending booking keeps its space before it expires. |
| Reference |
The booking number given to the customer, such as PKG-3F9A1C. The prefix is a setting. |
Getting started
| Section |
Description |
| Getting started |
Install, see what activation creates, and take a first test booking |
| Free vs Pro |
What each edition contains |
| Section |
Description |
| Booking wizard |
What the customer sees, step by step, with the payment return and the booking summary |
| Shortcodes |
The three shortcodes and their attributes |
| Blocks |
Using the form in the block editor |
| Customer account |
Where customers find and cancel their bookings |
| Booking forms |
Create forms, order their steps and add your own fields |
| Reschedule PRO |
Customers move a booking to other dates themselves |
| Map PRO |
Your locations on a Google map |
Bookings
| Section |
Description |
| Dashboard |
The figures on the first screen, and the app’s sidebar and search |
| Bookings |
The list, taking a booking in the admin, statuses, export and trash |
| Calendar |
Bookings by month, week or day, with occupancy |
| Availability |
How the plugin decides whether a stay can be booked |
Car parks
| Section |
Description |
| Locations |
Opening hours, closures and the spaces of each car park |
| Space types |
The kinds of space you sell and their prices |
| Assigned spaces PRO |
Counting spaces one by one, so a customer can pick one |
Pricing
| Section |
Description |
| Pricing |
How a price is worked out, with a worked example |
| Coupons |
Discount codes and their limits |
| Extras PRO |
Add-ons sold with a booking |
| Tax rates PRO |
Percentage and fixed taxes |
| Pricing rules PRO |
Raise or lower a price when a booking matches conditions |
| Customer groups PRO |
Groups of accounts a pricing rule can target |
| Deposits PRO |
A percentage paid online, the rest on arrival |
Payments
| Section |
Description |
| Payments |
Pay on arrival, recording payments and refunds, the ledger |
| Stripe PRO |
Card payments through Stripe Checkout |
| PayPal PRO |
Payments through PayPal |
| Invoices PRO |
The invoice on the summary page, and the PDF Pro adds |
Messages
| Section |
Description |
| Emails |
The three emails, when each is sent and its placeholders |
| Message log |
Every message sent about a booking |
| SMS and Telegram PRO |
Text messages to customers and notices to a Telegram chat |
| Reminders and reports PRO |
A reminder before arrival and a daily report |
Configuration
| Section |
Description |
| Settings |
Every option, section by section, with its default |
| Multilingual |
Translations, WPML and right-to-left languages |
| Privacy and uninstall |
What is stored, what is sent, and what uninstalling removes |
For developers
| Section |
Description |
| Hooks reference |
Actions and filters |
| REST API |
The plugin’s REST routes, capabilities and rate limits |
Support
System requirements
- WordPress: 6.5 or higher
- PHP: 8.2 or higher
- Browsers: a current version of Chrome, Firefox, Safari or Edge. The admin
screen, the booking form and the account page need JavaScript switched on.
- REST API: the booking form talks to your site through the WordPress REST
API, so it must be reachable by visitors who are not signed in.
- WP-Cron: pending bookings are expired by an hourly scheduled job.
Bookings, locations, space types, forms, coupons and payments are stored in the
plugin’s own database tables. They stay in place when the plugin is deactivated,
and by default when it is deleted. See
Privacy and uninstall.
Getting help
- Check Troubleshooting first.
- Read the page for the screen you are using.
- Contact support through your Plugixa account.
License
Plugixa Car Parking is licensed under the GPL v2 or later. Pro features are part
of the Pro build of the plugin, distributed through Freemius.
