Search Calendar

Hi,

We understand what you’re saying, but the “global” search forms do not disable the fully booked dates because for saving server resources, the system does not load the future availability to know exactly what dates are fully booked. A property with several room types and many bookings would require a heavy database control in order to disable the fully booked dates, meaning those dates where all room units are fully booked.

This operation is performed in the “Room Details” page, where the same datepicker calendars do consider the fully booked dates for that specific room only.

The global search form you have published on your website will only disable certain dates if these are set as “closing dates” from the Configuration page, or if some booking Restrictions disable the arrival on a specific week day in a precise month/period, or if a minimum/maximum number of nights of stay is defined.

Moreover, in case some dates with no availability (fully booked) are selected from your global search form, the system will display the so called “search suggestions”, by indicating the closest dates to the ones selected with some rooms available. This is to always ensure guests can place a booking.

We hope this helps!

The VikWP Team

I’ve spoken to the client and they still want the calendar to show booked dates as disabled. They only have 3 venues and you book the entire venue, not specific rooms.

I use your shortcodes on each venue to limit the search per venue/room already.

Is there some way to implement this for them?

Hello,

The 3 venues of your client could be set up as one room-type with 3 units available, or as 3 separate room-types with one unit each. Depending on the characteristics and pricing of the venues, you may opt for a solution or the other.

The point is that global search forms always ignore the availability of the room-types, no matter if you have just one room-type with more units, or multiple room-types. Only the global closing dates defined in the Configuration page would disable certain dates in the global search forms, like the widget “Search Form”. Of course, also the global restrictions applied to all rooms would still be able to disable some dates from such global search forms, but the availability is always ignored.

If your client would like the datepicker to reflect the availability of the venue, by disabling the fully booked dates, then the only solution available is to not use a global search form, but rather the Shortcode of type “Room Details”, which will definitely disable the fully booked dates of that room-type.

Global search forms are meant to ensure the booking process will be completed by the customers. In fact, if some unavailable dates are selected, the system will display the so called “Search Suggestions” as explained before, where the closest available dates will be displayed.

Our suggestion is to use a Shortcode of type “Rooms List” or some of type “Room Details” (one for each room-type). The front-end details page of each room/venue will always display the booking form at the bottom of the page, where the fully booked dates are disabled. This is the only solution available.

The VikWP Team