Rental of Cottages

Hello,

Thanks for your message. We understand the situation, and “rooms” is the default label used by the plugin. You can easily override it to display either “Cottage” or simply “listing”.

Language overrides can be implemented through any WordPress language plugin, or if you don’t need a multi-language website, then you can just use a simple plugin that allows you to define Gettext override rules in case you would like to change some of the default wordings. An override for a Gettext language definition consists in providing an original translation string, like “Rooms” (it’s always case-sensitive), and the override translation string, like “Cottage” in your case.

Also, if your website will only advertise a single cottage, then you may want to publish contents (blocks/shortcodes) of type “Single Room Details” to avoid displaying a global search form that would be useful in case of multiple rooms/listings.

In any case, either for a single or multiple cottages, you can easily configure VikBooking to allow the booking process.

We hope this helps!

The VikWP Team

The web site sell rooms, in the mail house, and cottages in the grounds of the house (3 of them).

So we need both terms available. Also add on’s like dinner, breakfast are sold as extras…..

Also you must missunderstand something.

The rooms in the house can have 1,2 or 3 people and can/should be booked like this. E.G. 2 adults and one child perhaps.

However the cottages are not booked with people, the cottage is booked as an empty entity for several people to stay in.

Your template for “rooms” always shows a qty of people and there seems no option to book a cottage or house or barn just as it is.

Do you undersstand what I mean?

Regards

Steve B

Hello Steve,

We believe to have understood that you offer different booking options for your property. For example, just like how on Airbnb it is possible to book the “entire property” as well as some individual rooms, in VikBooking you can use the “Shared Calendars” feature in case you would like to configure a similar set of listings. This would be also compatible with our Channel Manager in case you will ever decide to API-connect some OTAs/channels like Booking.com or Airbnb.

Back to the main topic: it is technically impossible to use different terms per room-type, because the language definition is just one. The system uses “rooms” by default to allow the guests to choose to book multiple rooms for their stay. For this reason, if the default language definition “room” is not suited in your case, then you should either consider adopting an override for a more generic term like “listing”, or you should simply name your room-types accordingly, to let the guests understand whether it is a room, a house, or a cottage.

Moreover, every room-type configured in VikBooking requires the guests capacity to be specified. Just like how OTAs require the guests capacity for each listing/room-type, our plugin does too. This serves as a way to identify if a room-type can satisfy the requested guests party. For example, if some of your room types allow from 1 to 3 guests, by making a search for 4 adults, such room types would not be available for booking, and the system would either suggest to book multiple rooms or to book bigger room types.

We are not sure to have understood what you mean by saying that “the cottage is booked as an empty entity for several people to stay in”, but in any case, specifying the minimum and maximum guests capacity for this room-type is mandatory for the reasons explained above. The guests capacity is always composed of a minimum and maximum number of adults, children and total guests (adults + children). This is how you filter the booking requests and allow or disallow the reservation for a specific room-type.

Hi There

So currently the client is using a booking platform called Eviivo, they want to move to bookings on their own web site. Hence the interest in your product.

On their web site currently they have two buttons. One for room booking and one for cottage booking.

Here is the URL to the cottage bookings:

https://via.eviivo.com/RoundwoodCtg?currency=EUR&_ga=2.223267103.580692158.1573827059-2076823683.1570811234

If you go there, select some available date(s) and click on See Prices you will see that the cottages are listed without the need to enter qty of people. The show the user how many people the cottage can take. This is what we want to achieve.

The reason OTA’s, and some other platforms, have fields to enter qty of guests, is as you say to find properties that can take that qty of people in the property.

There is no need for this to happen on my clients site, hence just wanting to book a premises, without the need to enter qty of people, as we are not searching to find a property, the proeries are already there and defined.

When you say this: “or you should simply name your room-types accordingly, to let the guests understand whether it is a room, a house, or a cottage.” I presume you are saying put this in the “Room/Cottage” name so it indicates the type. If that is the case can the generic name be left empty so that it does not appear on the page?

Regarding this: “just like how on Airbnb it is possible to book the “entire property” as well as some individual rooms,”. Yes the client can rent out the entire property to, say, a wedding party, a conference etc. but also rent out just separate rooms in their main house as well. So as you say a shared calendar can accomodate this I will explore this feature more. Is it in the free/trial version?

The plan on the site would be to have one page for rooms/house rental and one page for cottage rentals. I presume this would work within the shortcode system?

Regards

Steve B

Hi Steve,

Thanks for sharing the information, but the link isn’t working. In any case, our Channel Manager service E4jConnect is a Preferred Software Partner of Airbnb just like the current/previous provider of your client.

However, with VikBooking you don’t need to publish a global search/booking form to let the guests start the booking process. You could, for example, publish a page/shortcode of type “Rooms List” or simply “Room Details” to let guests book directly the cottage or the individual rooms. These pages would allow the guests to book directly a specific room, and it’s something like you said your client had already on the external website. However, a booking form dedicated to that exact room-type would still be displayed, and it would require to enter the number of guests through apposite drop down menus built by reading the guests minimum and maximum capacity for this room-type.

For this reason, letting the guests book a room-type for events is not allowed, I’m sorry. The booking process will always require to know the guests party in order to allow and store a reservation record. If this room-type was only available to be rent out for events without needing to specify a particular number of guests, then you should either set a high capacity or not list it within VikBooking, because every reservation will have a check-in date as well as a check-out date to determine the length of stay (calculated in nights), hence the related cost. It would not be possible to book a room-type for just a few hours, and such reservations should be handled with a separate plugin. With VikBooking you can only manage regular nightly reservations for accommodations and listings of any type.

Regarding the room name or the default language definitions: every room-type defined in VikBooking requires to have a name. This could not be left empty. At that point, if you wish to change some of the default labels, you can choose to enter an override value, but this should not be left empty either, or you will be missing a translation.

Lastly, the shared calendars features are also available with the Free version of the plugin.

We invite you to get in touch with our team through our official website even if you don’t have any active purchases. The contact forms will still allow you to get in touch with us for any particular or technical questions.

Thank you,
The VikWP Team