Click Product > Add New
Give your product a name and add a description in the same way that you would for a normal WooCommerce product. In the Product Data section, choose Booking for the product type. You’ll see some new options appear.
Use the following options to configure your booking:
- Booking unit
The booking unit is the basic duration unit that your booking is measured in. Choose from either day, night, or week. - Max bookings per unit (quantity)
This is the number of times this product can be booked out per booking unit (day, night, week). So if you are renting out a single room, this should be set to 1. If you are renting out 10 bikes, this should be set to 10 - Booking start day
If you wish, you can specify a day of the week that each booking must start on. This works well if you are renting a property that always has the same check-in / check-out days. - Minimum and maximum booking lengths
You can define minimum and maximum durations for bookings. These are measured in the same unit as the main booking unit so if you’ve chosen days, then you will be defining minimum and maximum booking lengths in days too. - Postpone start
You can use this setting to specify the number of days between now and when the booking can start. So if you want two days’ notice before a booking can start, enter 2 here - Buffer period
You can enter a value here to add an optional buffer period between bookings. Buffer periods are always measured in days. - Standard cost
In the standard cost field, enter the default cost per booking unit. If your standard cost is $50 per night, ensure you have chosen ‘night’ as your booking unit and enter 50 in this field. If your standard cost is $275 per week, ensure you choose ‘week’ as the booking unit and enter 275 here. - Last bookable date
You can set a date here as the last date that you are taking bookings. If you only want to take bookings up to the end of the year, use the calendar in this field to select the date. You can change it at a future date if you’re ready to take bookings beyond this date. - Non Standard Costs
Click the ‘Add Date Range’ to set a new date range where you might be charging more or less than the standard cost. You can add as many date ranges as you like. If any dates overlap in date ranges then ranges that are higher in this list will take priority over ones lower down. You can drag and drop ranges if you wish.
Non standard date ranges are designed to allow you flexibility in pricing. Maybe you want to charge more over holiday periods; or you want to charge less during quiet times.
You can also make some dates unavailable in the calendar. Perhaps you have a villa that you want to use yourself for a couple of weeks. Just add a new date range and enter 0 as the cost to block it out in the calendar and prevent it being booked.
When you’ve set up your product, click Publish and it’s live.
How to set up a weekly booking
In this scenario, we’ll set up a weekly booking that runs from a set day (in this instance, Thursday). There’s a one day buffer period which means that the booking will end on a Wednesday.
Choose Thursday in the ‘Bookings start’ field. Obviously, if you want your booking to start on a different day, choose that.
If you want to ensure that the booking finishes on a Wednesday, enter 1 as the buffer period. If you’re happy for one booking to finish on the same day that the next one starts, you can leave the Buffer period field empty.
That’s it. Enter your costs and other parameters as you wish. When the user goes to book, they’ll only be able to choose your selected start day for the check-in, and the designated end day for the check-out.
How to make dates unavailable
Maybe there are some dates that you don’t want to make your property or facility available. You can block out dates where bookings can’t be made by adding non standard date ranges with a cost of 0. This will prevent these dates from being selected as a start or end date. Please note that you will need to book out time either side of the blocked dates if your booking duration is longer than one unit.
To make some dates unavailable, use the ‘Custom Pricing’ section. Click on ‘Add Date Range’ to create a new row, then add the first and last dates that you want your property to be unavailable. Enter cost as 0.
How to allow bookings on the weekend only
You can make your property available for weekend rental only by setting the start date and the maximum booking length.
For example, if you would like bookings to start on a Friday and end on a Sunday:
- Set the ‘Booking unit’ to night
- Set the ‘Bookings start’ field to ‘Friday’
- Set the ‘Max booking length’ to 2
Users will only be able to start their booking on Friday and will have to end it by Sunday. If you would like to ensure that they can’t book a single night, then set the ‘Min booking length’ to 2 as well.
How to set discounts for longer bookings
If you like, you can apply discounts for longer bookings. Just click on the ‘Discounts’ tab.
There are three settings:
- Discount rate: set the value of the discount as a percentage. For example, enter 10 in this field to apply a 10% discount
- After: define when the discount should apply. So, for example, enter 2 in this field for the discount to start when the booking length is 2 units or more (units are days, nights, or weeks)
- Apply From: choose between ‘All’ and ‘Partial’. If you select ‘All’, then the discount will apply to the whole booking; if you select ‘Partial’, the discount will only apply to the discounted period (not to the entire booking)