Bookings should generally be made by holiday-makers using the View Availability\Bookings functionality on a property listing. However, it is also feasible for owners to enter these via the add \ manage bookings facility from within their own account area. When a booking is made by the holiday-maker via the listing, they automatically receive an email that requests that they either confirm or cancel their booking. If they hit confirm, the confirmed flag on the booking is set. If the holiday-maker opts to cancel cancel, the booking is automatically removed. For bookings entered by owners, this flag should be set manually by the owner.
The availability and bookings functionality is accessed by logging on to your account.
Availability calendars and their associated bookings are organised by Units. A unit is either a self catering cottage or a room within a Guest House, BB or Hotel. Typically a self catering property will only need one unit, whereas a Guest House, BB or Hotel will have one unit for each room that can be booked.
Within the availability \ bookings tab, all available units are listed. You can also create new units from here.
By clicking on a unit name four tabs will be revealed - Unit Details, Calendar, Bookings and Email Client. The purpose of each of these is described below:
Create and Maintain Units
This area allows you to set up the basic parameters that drive the booking management system and creation of availability and pricing calendars for each unit.
When a unit is first created, you are also required to enter certain parameters that are used to generate the availability and pricing calendars that are deployed on the listing for a property. There are three parameters to set – the start date of the calendar, the duration that is to be shown and the start day (if bookings are made on a per week basis) or daily if bookings are accepted by the day.
Within this area you can also choose to accept online bookings or not, force holiday makers to register before making bookings or switch off the unit so that it is not displayed on your listing.
When an accommodation Unit is added for the first time, a Calendar is automatically set up for the Unit. This can then be maintained within the Calendar tab.
Calendar
The calendar function is used to maintain the availability and pricing calendar shown on the property listing. Periods are shown either weekly or daily according to what you have selected. After initial setup, the calendar shows the default price set up at the creation of the Unit. However, these prices can be changed to whatever is required and changes are saved by clicking the update button.
Note that if you agree a different price with a particular holiday-maker, for whatever reason, these can be over-ridden in the manage bookings area.
From within the Calendar, the following functions may be carried out:
- Block out – you can block out particular weeks eg if you are using the property \ unit for your own holiday. This switches the booking column to “blocked out” once you commit your changes using the update button at the bottom of the screen
- Add \ manage booking. This is used to add or manage a booking for a particular period and takes you to the Bookings functionality
- Add more availability – you can extend Calendars by 1 month, 6 months and 12 months up to a total duration of 18 months.
Bookings
Bookings that have been made against a particular unit for a property are organised in the bookings tab. There is a summary screen showing key aspects of each booking from where the user can either manage or delete the booking or email the holiday maker directly.
The details associated with a booking are accessed by selecting the manage option. From here it is possible to manage the various details associated with a booking. In particular:
- The booking status can be tracked by switching the Booking Status flag. Each time you switch the status of a booking eg to Deposit Received, an email can be automatically sent to the holiday-maker that informs them that the status has changed and also what the next event is (eg balance due and the balance due date). This is done by changing the booking status and clicking on the check box “send email to contact” and then clicking on Update. If you do not want to send an email, then simply leave the box un-checked.
- Sometimes, you may agree specific terms for a booking that are different to the default terms (for example if family or friends are booking your accommodation). The default pricing and deposit and balance due dates can all be over-ridden by filling out the details in the Price Over-rides area and clicking on Update
From the summary area, you can also email the holiday-maker from directly within lovetoescape.com. This opens up an email in the Email Client tab - simply type in your message and hit Send Email. A copy of this email will automatically be copied to your own email account.
