booking-engine
Hostaway vs OwnerRez: which one can hold your dates while the guest pays
OwnerRez can hold a guest's dates on your calendar while the card clears and Hostaway documents no way to do it, which decides the choice for any small hotel, inn or serviced-apartment group planning to take bookings on its own website.
Little Hotelier vs Lodgify: which one fits your small hotel, inn or serviced apartments
Lodgify if your first problem is having no booking page of your own, Little Hotelier if your first problem is keeping the platforms in step. Prices, the pooled inventory question, and a verdict by property size.
Direct booking website examples: the five things every one of them has to do
A direct booking website has to take the dates, price the stay honestly, hold the unit, take the money and confirm it in writing. Most of the sites in the example galleries stop after the second step, and this is the test that shows you where yours stops.
Can you build a direct booking site on Lodgify? What its API lets you do
Lodgify's API creates a real booking from your own site and signs every webhook with a secret unique to that endpoint. It will not hold the unit while the guest pays, and Lodgify does not say in readable text which plan includes API access.
Direct booking website cost: what small operators pay
Between zero and about $3,500 a year in software, plus 2.9% and 30 cents a payment. The published builder prices, what a build really costs in developer weeks, and how much business has to move direct before any of it pays for itself.
Is a direct booking website worth it for a small hotel?
For most properties at 8 to 25 rooms a direct booking website is worth it, and for four specific kinds of property it is not. Here is how to tell which one you are, the arithmetic that decides it with two worked examples, what the US and Canadian parity rules do to your discount, and the free work worth doing while you wait.
Cabin booking software: thirteen systems, their published prices, and which suits a cabin
Thirteen systems a cabin or lodge owner would really run, each with the price its own page publishes and who it suits. Then the seven things cabins need that a hotel system never thinks about: seasonal minimum stays, deposit and balance schedules, off season closing, check-in with no signal, cleaning routes, damage deposits and whole property bookings.
Mews API: how to build a direct booking page
The developer's read on the Mews API, and the owner's. Two references at docs.mews.com, a public demo environment to build against, certification before a production key, an access token per building, and a reservation state that holds the room while the guest pays.
Cloudbeds API: how to build a direct booking checkout
Cloudbeds will write a real booking into the property system from your own page, and it will not take a cent of the money. There is no hold on the room either, so a refused card leaves a booking your own code has to cancel. What that build involves, and what the platform costs.
Guesty vs Hostaway: which is better for a small lodging business
Guesty publishes a starting price and Hostaway quotes every account, so an 8 to 25 unit property cannot compare them without two sales calls. Here is what each one costs, what its support covers, what happens when a guest's card fails, and which sort of property should buy which.
Guesty API documentation, and what a direct booking page costs to build
Guesty has two APIs, and the narrow one is built for a direct booking site: your checkout requests a reservation quote, Guesty guarantees that price for 24 hours, and the quote becomes a booking. Nothing it publishes says the dates are held while the guest pays.
Bed and breakfast direct booking: how a small B&B gets more of them
Direct bookings at a bed and breakfast come from people who already have your name. What it takes to catch them: a booking page that holds the date and takes a card, a clear read of what your Booking.com contract lets you charge, a deposit guests will finish, and somebody asking at checkout.