Room Blocking Options Not Clear – Please Explain

[Cindy Haubl]

When blocking a room, there are three options, all three of which can be selected at the same time or in various combinations:

– Not check-in
– Not stay-in
– Not check-out

But it’s not clear in which cases to use these, or in which cases they should be used in various combinations.

EXAMPLE: Say I want to block a room from the normal check-in time of 3pm on August 1 until the normal check-out time of 11am on August 3; which options would I select to prevent others from double booking this room during the same period (such as July 31 to August 4)?

Would I select all 3 in such a case, or just Not check-in + Not check-out, or something else?

And in which situations would we use Not stay-in?

Having clear instructions in your documentation as well as some use case examples would be very helpful.

[Mary Evans]

Hello Cindy,

You may set up the needed restrictions in the Block accommodation rule (Not check-in / Not check-out / Not stay-in).
The “not stay-in” restriction blocks the whole cell. In this way, the whole day will be greyed in the back-end calendar (in Bookings > Calendar), however, on the front-end, you will be able to check-in/out this day (if the restrictions are configured correctly).

When you add a block accommodation rule with All Restrictictions, then all the dates will be unavailable for booking (screenshot http://prnt.sc/tt1ul8). However, (for ex.) if you add a block accommodation rule with the restriction “not check-out” for the last date (screenshot http://prnt.sc/tt1vd2), then the date will be available for check-in (screenshot http://prnt.sc/tt1vp3), but unavailable for check-out (screenshot http://prnt.sc/tt1w5a).

Best Regards,
M. Evans

[Cindy Haubl]

Hi Mary, thanks for explaining this more. But I’m still confused about the purpose of ‘No check-out’. Perhaps your recommendations for a couple of examples will help me…

Example 1: We have a contractor scheduled to do some room renovations at 6:00 AM on August 1 until 10:00 PM on August 3. Which restrictions would we use: No check-out + No stay-in + No check-in on August 1-3?

I presume in such a case that ‘Not check-out’ prevents from someone else from booking the room from say July 28 (3pm check-in) until August 1 (11am check-out); but they would still be able to book July 28 – 31. Am I correct?

Example 2: I have my family coming to stay in a room August 1-3 (2 nights) and they are not paying, so we would want to block this room from anyone else who might try to book it for August 1 (3pm check-in) until August 3 (11am check-out). In this case, would we use ‘Not stay-in’ for the dates August 1-3?

Your answers to the above examples will help me understand how these work much better. Thanks.

[Mary Evans]

Hello Cindy,

The “Not Check-out” restriction does not allow your guests to check-out during the specified date(s).

As for your example 1:
if you need all the 3 days (Aug 1-3) not to be available nor for check-in, nor check-out, all the restrictions should be added to the block accommodation rule (Not check-in / Not check-out / Not stay-in).
Other days will be available for booking (July 28 – 31)

Example 2:
Yes, you would also need to add all the restrictions in this case.
If you add only Not check-in & Not check-out restrictions, it will not be possible to book Aug 1-3 dates. However, it will be possible to book Jul 31 – Aug 4 dates.

Best Regards,
M. Evans

[Thomas Kolnowski]

This is very helpful to know. Out hotelier client has been confused by this as well. I think it would make more sense if the restrictions were shown in both the backend and frontend using “No” instead of “Not” – for example, “No check-in” instead of “Not check-in.”

My client uses this feature a lot.

Thanks!
Thomas Kolnowski
Digitized House Media, LLC
Austin, Texas USA

[Andre Flores]

Hello, Thomas!

Thanks for your suggestion, it is much appreciated. You may easily change the rules text using Loco Translate plugin, e.g. by changing “Not check-in” to “No check-in”.

Regards,
Andre

[Yordi Kathmann]

Thank you! This makes sense.
But one more question. When I sync to booking.com they use one day less.

So I have blocked 26-27 all. 28 I have only checkout. But on booking only 26 is blocked because they count TO instead of up to…

[Andre Flores]

Hello Yordi,

The accommodation blocks in this case are added like this in the .ics file:

DTSTART;VALUE=DATE:20210526
DTEND;VALUE=DATE:20210527

Therefore 27th is available at Booking.com. You will need to block 27th at Booking.com manually for now. We already have such a request to make sure the last date is also blocked in .ics file passed to our developers.
Once there is any update on this matter, I will immediately let you know.
Anyone else, who also faces the same issue, kindly let me know by commenting this topic.

Regards,
Andre

[Eugene White]

Hello guys.

We hope you’re doing well.

We are pleased to announce the release of version 5.2.1 of the Hotel Booking plugin. This update addresses the issue you reported regarding manual date blocks and synchronization via iCal. Feel free to update the plugin to the latest version and let us know how it goes.

Best regards,
Eugene

[Author]

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