calendar limit

[Epicea_old]

I'm looking at using beds24 for the course I run using our accommodation as it's an easier way for clients to check availability. Basically it works just fine but there's some improvements that would make it better for me.

Limit the calendar, ie prevent the user scrolling forward beyond a certain date. All of my work is seasonal, I like to have my product page as summer, winter etc. For example, in my winter page if I could stop people scrolling beyond the end of April that would be handy.
..or..
Limit the rates displayed. Another solution would be to specify only "winter rate" is displayed for a given calendar. That's quite powerful as I could have different rates for each different course.

This is possible now of course, all I need to do is add more "rooms" or properties for each course type and it would work. But, I'd rather not for the obvious reason that each room costs extra per month! And, the room/property rules would all be the same so I'd need to maintain multiple versions which always leads to oversights.

Obviously, beds24 isn't a course booking system but it's quite close for my purposes

[markkinchin]

You might be able to do most of this using different offers for each room, you can define up to four, each with their own set of rates and descriptions.

The booking page displays all available offers by default but you can craft links to show it hiding specific offers using the "hideoffer" parameter to open the page.
i.e. you could create 4 different links to the booking page with each link showing the same room but with a different offer.

https://wiki.beds24.com/index.php?title=Room_Offers

https://wiki.beds24.com/index.php?title=Developers

[Epicea_old]

I had tried to use offers but they work in a way that I find hard to understand.

I had set a rate which applied to multiple rooms. I'm only able to vary the offer number on the room that owns that rate, for the other rooms it's always set to one.

You might be able to do most of this using different offers for each room, you can define up to four, each with their own set of rates and descriptions.

That does highlight what I don't understand. Whether rates are contained in offers or offers in rates isn't clear to me.

[markkinchin]

That does highlight what I don't understand. Whether rates are contained in offers or offers in rates isn't clear to me.

Rates are applied to the offer.
Each offer can have it's own rate.

[Epicea_old]

I don't understand that. The terms Rate and Offer appear interchangeable in common usage and on beds24.

For example on your wiki it says

An offer is the price combined with certain conditions.

Equally, that's just what a rate is. There's no clarity to this. Rates seem to be fundamental object on beds24, it's rates that are sent to booking channels for example and not offers.

Each offer can have it's own rate.

Really? Only if you're not using the word rate to refer to a beds24 rate. I think you mean

Each offer can have it's own prices.

And that's why I can't understand this, I can't grasp either the logic or the language.

[markkinchin]

At the most fundamental level the organisational hierarchy in Beds24 is as follows:

An Account can have multiple Properties.
Each Property can have multiple Rooms.
Each Room can have 4 Offers.
Each Offer can have multiple Rates.

In Beds24 a "Rate" is a price and rules like minimum stay, season etc.
In Beds24 an "Offer" is the combination of room that can be booked and the rates that define the booking price and rules.

The default is to use only one Offer per room and probably the majority do just this.

The most common uses of Offers is to have "refundable" and "non refundable" prices for a room or "including breakfast" and "room only" prices but Offers can be used for any package or conditions you want to offer the guest at higher or lower price.


An issue to consider concerning rates is that although each rate is defined for an offer, it can be linked to multiple offers or rooms so there can be a many to many relationship between rooms, offers and rates.

[Epicea_old]

However, I can see it doesn't work like that. For example, if I create a rate and apply it to multiple rooms then it's always set to offer one on the other rooms regardless of what the offer number on the "main" room is.

The booking page displays all available offers by default but you can craft links to show it hiding specific offers using the "hideoffer" parameter to open the page.

Given that rates would now not work on multiple rooms that would a nuisance to implement. But that's a moot point as hideoffer doesn't do that on my account. If I use hideoffer it does nothing at all. Whatever rates are valid for that date are displayed regardless.

[markkinchin]

However, I can see it doesn't work like that. For example, if I create a rate and apply it to multiple rooms then it's always set to offer one on the other rooms regardless of what the offer number on the "main" room is.

The offers are only shown if they are used. Unused offers are hidden to avoid over complicating the menus.
Go to menu Settings > Booking Page > Rooms > Offer 2 and show the second offer, it will then be available and assignable in the rates menu.

[Epicea_old]

I can only suggest you try that and see if it works as you expect and without "over complicating the menus*. It just doesn't for me. Having stop/start on the calendars would be handy but I appreciate I'm trying to do something the system wasn't really designed for which is understandable.