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Add categorized hotel rooms and (optionally) enable bookings
In Palmeria, you’ll be working with the Lite version of the MotoPress Hotel Booking plugin (that means some Pro features are not available).
Check out the PRO vs Lite comparison table
The plugin fulfills several functions: with its help you will present all rental units like rooms or houses, services, details of each accommodation as well as turn on online reservation of the properties. With Palmeria theme you can rent out multiple rentals of different types as single items or a single condo / hotel bookable by a room.
Note! This is just a quick guide of how to create a list of units and enable automatic reservations. When you need a step-by-step guide, check out the detailed Hotel Booking plugin documentation.
Accommodation
When the MotoPress Hotel Booking Lite plugin is activated, two menus should appear: Accommodation and Bookings. You’ll need to add units available in your hotel via Accommodation → Accommodation types → Add New. By default, the property reservation option is enabled (navigate to Accommodation → Settings → Disable Booking to switch it off). If you imported demo data, you should see sample accommodation types which you can customize and as more ones as needed.
To make it even easier, you can firstly add the list of available categorized items (optional): Amenities, all Services available (paid or free, e.g. parking, luggage storage, bicycle rent), and Bed types (under Settings → Bed types). Once these are added, you can head over to adding/customizing accommodation types.
The difference between Accommodations and Accommodation Types is the following: accommodations are physical bookable units, while Accommodation Types are just the catchall term for the same accommodations. For example, you may have 3 physical bookable Accommodations under a “Double room” Accommodation Type. The number of real units is added from the same Accommodation Types screen.
If you rent out multiple vacation rentals items, add them all as different Accommodation Types (e.g. guesthouse, cabin, caravan).
If you rent out only one rental unit as a single item, add it as one Accommodation Type and set the “number of accommodations” to 1.
Seasons
Add Seasons – specific time periods that can come with different pricing (for example, Summer, 2019, April, 2020, weekends, etc.). These are your custom seasons and they can come with any name and any length.
Rates
Add Rates to present the same rentals units with different amenities or conditions (refundable / non-refundable; with or without breakfast). Your guests will be able to choose rates when booking a room.
Note: with the Pro plugin version you can make the pricing points dynamic based on the number of people and the length of stay (weekly, monthly, etc. rates), not just seasons.
System Pages
Create all needed system pages: Search Results, Search Availability, Complete Booking, Booking Confirmation, Booking Cancellation pages with appropriate shortcodes and messages. You should be offered to install these pages automatically.
Settings and Payment gateways
Navigate to configure general plugin Settings and Payment gateways. (the plugin supports multiple units reservation by one person so you have no limit in setting adults and children number for the search availability form). With the Hotel Booking Lite, you can use PayPal, Pay on Arrival or any gateway connected through the premium WooCommerce add-on.
Note: the Pro plugin version comes with extra default gateways: 2Checkout, Braintree, Stripe and Beanstream/Bambora.
Language settings
Configure Language settings. The plugin is translated into 14 languages. By default it’s set to the language selected in your WordPress global language settings (Settings → General → Site Language).
Booking Rules
Create your booking rules to manage all or individual accommodations: go to Bookings → Booking rules. These rules allow you to set minimum and maximum check-in and check-out dates, minimum and maximum stay-in days for all or individual accommodations/units. Also, using this menu you’ll be able to block the booking option for chosen accommodations at specific periods of time.
Taxes and Fees
Optionally apply taxes and fees under Bookings → Taxes & Fees.
Shortcodes
Go to Shortcodes to add the needed plugin generated content to pages and posts (optional – use if the pages with the appropriate shortcodes were not installed automatically).
Bookings
To view, add or delete your real booking requests, go to Bookings menu.
Note: the Pro plugin version allows to add reservations from the backend by admin (for booking made over the phone, for instance).
Remember, if you list your hotel on the external online travel agents (OTAs), you can sync bookings with external calendars via iCal (under Bookings → Sync calendars), but the Detailed guide.
This is just a quick guide. Most likely, you’ll need more details on how to work with the plugin, so please take a look at the Hotel Booking plugin documentation.