Real questions that come up during and after setup — most of them look like something’s broken, but usually aren’t.
My funnel/Explore report shows no data right after I finished setup. Is it broken?
Probably not. Realtime (Reports → Realtime) updates within minutes and is the right place to confirm your tag is working — visit your own site and check that it shows “1 active user.” Explore and funnel reports run on a slower, separate pipeline and can take anywhere from about an hour up to 24–48 hours to catch up. If Realtime shows activity but your funnel doesn’t yet, you’re not broken — you’re just early.
I have two properties with the same name — which one is real?
This happens more often than you’d expect: two different Google Analytics accounts can each contain a property with an identical name (e.g., two properties both called after your business). They are completely separate — different data, different Measurement IDs, no connection to each other.
To find the one that’s actually receiving your data: go to Admin → Data Streams for each candidate property and check the status line. The real one says “Receiving traffic in past 48 hours”; an unused one says “No data received.” You can also compare the Measurement ID shown there against the one saved in bookingkit’s tracking configuration — if they don’t match, you’re looking at the wrong property.
My website seems to be sending data through two tracking methods at once
This is the most common real-world tracking bug: a site running both a direct G- tag (Easy path) and a GTM- container (Advanced analytics) at the same time — usually because a plugin, theme, or an earlier setup attempt added one path, and a later setup added the other without removing the first.
To check: view your site’s page source and look for how many gtag/js or gtm.js script tags are loading, and which IDs they reference. If you find more than one tracking path installed, remove all but one — pick either the Easy path or the Advanced (GTM) path, never both. In bookingkit’s tracking configuration, only one checkbox should ever be ticked: “I am using Google Analytics” or the Google Tag Manager option, not both.
I changed my Measurement ID in bookingkit admin, but the site doesn’t seem to reflect it
A few common causes, in order of likelihood: - The change didn’t actually save — go back and confirm the field shows the new ID after a page refresh. - The ID went into the wrong field (for example, a GTM container field instead of the direct Measurement ID field). - A separate plugin or theme setting (e.g., a “Google tag” or “Site Kit” style integration) is managing its own tag independently of bookingkit’s setting, and needs to be updated or removed there too. - Site or browser caching — try a hard refresh, or check in a private/incognito window.
What’s the difference between “Google tag” (GT-) and a Tag Manager container (GTM-)?
They’re easy to confuse because both can appear in your site’s tracking setup. A Google tag (GT- prefix) is a shared loader script that can send data to one or more linked GA4 properties without needing a separate script tag for each one — so you might not see your G- Measurement ID anywhere in your page’s source even though it’s actively receiving data through the GT- loader. A Tag Manager container (GTM- prefix) is a separate system entirely — a dashboard for managing multiple tracking tools. See the Glossary of terms for the full breakdown.
My purchase numbers look lower than they should be — is checkout happening on a different website address?
Most vendors can skip this one. If your booking widget is embedded directly on your site — opening in a panel or modal without ever leaving your page — your checkout stays on your own domain the entire time, and none of this applies to you. This only matters if customers get handed off to a separate bookingkit web address during checkout (a direct-link or hosted checkout, not the embedded widget).
30-second check: click through a real booking on your website, all the way to checkout, and look at your browser’s address bar. Still shows your own website the whole way through? You’re done. Changed to something like eu5.bookingkit.de? Keep reading.
Why this happens: Google Analytics assumes your whole visitor journey happens on one web address. If checkout hands off to a bookingkit address, Analytics sees two separate visits instead of one — like a customer walking into your shop, then Google thinking they left, and a different customer walking into a different shop to pay. This is the most common reason purchase numbers look lower than they should.
There’s a second, related issue worth knowing about: your widget’s tracking script also acts as a “listener” that passes booking events along to Google Analytics. If a customer books through a direct link instead of your embedded widget (e.g. a bare web.admin.bookingkit.com/... address), that listener isn’t there — the purchase still happens, but nothing is around to report it. This is a separate problem from the cross-domain one above, and the fix below doesn’t cover it. The only real fix is making sure bookings run through the embedded widget on your site, not a direct link.
A quick note on Express Checkout: if you’ve noticed some customers skip straight to payment (via Google Pay, Apple Pay, or PayPal) instead of going through every checkout step, that’s bookingkit’s Express Checkout — a shortcut for the customer, not a different tracking path. It doesn’t affect anything here one way or the other.
Fix it in 2 steps:
In Google Analytics, click the gear icon (Admin) → Data Streams → your website’s stream → under Google tag, click Configure tag settings → Configure your domains → Add condition → type in the bookingkit address you saw above (e.g.
eu5.bookingkit.de) → Save. Set up GA4 through Google Tag Manager instead? Same screen — open your Google tag in GTM → View settings.Test it: open your website in a private/incognito window, click through to the bookingkit checkout page again, and check the address bar. If it worked, you’ll see
_gl=added to the end of the address — that’s Analytics quietly passing along “this is the same visitor” information.
A few things that trip people up: - Type the exact bookingkit address you saw — not a guess like “bookingkit.de” on its own. - Always test in a fresh private/incognito window — a tab that’s already visited the site can hide the problem. - No _gl= after saving? Double-check you edited the right data stream — vendors with more than one property sometimes edit the wrong one.
Still stuck?
→ Redo a step: Easy path or Google Tag Manager
→ Full list of events bookingkit tracks (technical reference)