Booking Setup

[TOC]

Overview

This section explains everything you need to do to enable online booking on your website. After completing these steps, visitors will be able to search for available rooms, fill in a booking form, and pay for their reservation.

OS Calendar can be used on its own (standalone) or together with OS Property. Most steps are identical. Steps that differ are marked clearly.

Standalone With OS Property
Visitors start from A Booking Search menu item A Booking Search menu item, or the OS Property availability search module
Property information comes from Properties → Manage Properties in OS Calendar OS Property (imported / linked in OS Calendar)
OS Property needed No Yes

Step 1 — Choose the Operation Mode and Enable Booking

  1. Go to Components → OS Calendar → Configuration → Application tab.
  2. Set Operation Mode to Standalone (default) or Linked (OS Property).
  3. Set Enable Reservation to Yes.
  4. Click Save.

Step 2 — Set Up Your Property

  • Standalone: open Properties → Manage Properties, edit the default property and enter your business information (name, contact, address, currency, timezone, check-in / check-out times).
  • With OS Property: open Properties → Manage Properties and import or link the OS Property properties you want to sell. See Operating Modes.

Step 3 — Create Room Types

Go to Properties → Manage Room Types and add your room types with quantity, capacity, photos and amenities. See Manage Room Types.

Step 4 — Create Rate Plans and Set Prices

  1. Go to Pricing → Rate Plans and create at least one rate plan per room type (for example Room Only).
  2. Go to Pricing → Price Rules and create at least a Base price rule for each rate plan. Add season, weekend or holiday rules if needed.
  3. Click Regenerate Prices after changing rules.

Step 5 — Check Availability (Inventory)

Go to Pricing → Inventory, generate inventory for the dates you want to sell, and block or stop-sell any dates that must not be booked. See Availability & Inventory.

Step 6 — Publish at Least One Payment Plugin

  1. Go to Settings → Payment Plugins.
  2. Publish the payment plugin(s) you want to accept (for example PayPal, Stripe or Offline).
  3. Configure each plugin with your account credentials.

Step 7 — (Recommended) Set a Cancellation Policy and Email Templates

Define how refunds work in Cancellation Policies and review the Email Templates that customers and administrators receive.

Step 8 — Create the Booking Search Menu Item

The Booking Search page is where visitors choose dates and guests and see available rooms.

  1. Go to Menus → [Your Menu] → Add New Menu Item.
  2. Select Menu Item Type → OS Calendar → OS Calendar: Booking Search.
  3. Save the menu item.

See Menu Layouts for details.

Step 9 — (Optional) Create Menu Items for Customers and Managers

View Use
My Bookings / My Orders Allows logged-in customers to view their own booking history.
Booking Lookup Allows guests who are not logged in to find a booking with their booking code and email.
Manage Orders Allows logged-in agents / property managers to view and manage all orders.

See the Menu Layouts section for configuration details.

Step 10 — (OS Property Only) Add the Availability Search Module

If you use OS Property, you can also add the OS Property Availability Search module (mod_ospropertyavailabilitysearch) so that visitors can search OS Property listings by check-in / check-out dates 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 and publish it.

Note: This module requires OS Property. It is not used in standalone mode.

Needs verification: Whether the availability calendar is still displayed automatically on the OS Property property detail page in the latest version, or whether bookings now start only from the Booking Search page.

Testing the Booking Flow

  1. Open the Booking Search page on the front-end.
  2. Select check-in and check-out dates, the number of adults and children, and (optionally) a promo code. Click Search.
  3. Review the available room types and click Select next to the room you want.
  4. Fill in the booking form and continue to checkout.
  5. Choose a payment method and complete a test payment (use PayPal sandbox, or the Offline / Pay Later option).
  6. Verify the booking appears in Manage Booking Requests with the correct status.
  7. Verify the confirmation email is received.
  8. Check that the availability for those dates has been reduced in Inventory.