Booking Setup

[TOC]

Overview

This section explains everything you need to do to enable the booking feature on your OS Property front-end site. After completing these steps, visitors will be able to select dates, fill in a booking form, and pay for their reservation.

Step 1 — Enable Booking in Configuration

  1. Go to Components → OS Calendar → Configuration → Application tab.
  2. Set Enable Reservation to Yes.
  3. (Optional) Set Enable Room to Yes if your properties have multiple bookable rooms.
  4. Click Save.

Step 2 — Decide Whether to Use Rooms

OS Calendar supports two booking modes controlled by Enable Room in Configuration → Application tab:

Option A — Book directly against the property (Enable Room = No)
Customers book the property as a whole. OS Calendar automatically creates one internal representative room per property to store pricing and availability data. You only need to set the price and manage the availability calendar — no room management is needed.

Option B — Book per room (Enable Room = Yes)
Each property can have multiple rooms. After enabling this option, go to Components → OS Calendar → Manage Rooms (accessible from any booking order related to the property) to add one or more rooms, then set a price and availability calendar for each room.

Step 3 — Set a Price for the Property / Room

  1. Navigate to the room from a booking order, or open the property's room list from the OS Calendar back-end.
  2. Click Set up Price next to the room (or the single representative room if rooms are disabled).
  3. Add at least one price season or a flat nightly rate.
  4. Click Save.

Step 4 — Set Up the Availability Calendar

Mark any already-booked or blocked-off dates as Unavailable in the Manage Availability Calendar view so that customers cannot select those dates. Repeat for each room if rooms are enabled.

Step 5 — Publish at Least One Payment Plugin

  1. Go to Components → OS Calendar → Manage Payment Plugins.
  2. Publish the payment plugin(s) you want to accept (e.g. PayPal, Offline).
  3. Configure each plugin with your account credentials.

Step 6 — Create a Property Detail Menu Item

OS Calendar's availability calendar appears on the OS Property property detail page. Make sure you have a Joomla menu item pointing to the OS Property property detail layout.

  1. Go to Menus → [Your Menu] → Add New Menu Item.
  2. Select Menu Item Type → OS Property → Property Detail.
  3. Configure the menu item and save.

When a visitor opens a property's detail page, the availability calendar will appear automatically below (or alongside) the property information.

Step 7 — (Optional) Add the Availability Search Module

The OS Property Availability Search module (mod_ospropertyavailabilitysearch) lets visitors search properties by check-in / check-out date range from anywhere on the site.

  1. Go to Extensions → Modules.
  2. Find OS Property Availability Search and click to edit it.
  3. Assign it to a module position on your template.
  4. Publish it.

Step 8 — (Optional) Create Menu Items for Order Management

Create Joomla menu items for the OS Calendar front-end views:

View Use
My Orders Allows logged-in customers to view their own booking history.
Manage Orders Allows logged-in agents / property managers to view and manage all orders.

See the Menu Layouts section for configuration details.

Testing the Booking Flow

  1. Open a property detail page on the front-end.
  2. Select check-in and check-out dates on the calendar.
  3. Click Book Now (or the equivalent button on your theme).
  4. Fill in the booking form and submit.
  5. Complete a test payment (use PayPal sandbox or Offline mode).
  6. Verify the order appears in Manage Booking Requests with the correct status.
  7. Verify the confirmation email is received.