Hi everyone
Firstly I would like to thank everyone as without this forum I don't think I would have got this far. We purchased our property at the end of november with an annexe that would be our first holiday let. What a learning curve. Having renovated the property myself I thought the IT would be easy!! How wrong was I, just trying to work out rates was difficult even when looking at properties in the area.
Thank goodness for promote my place I have just gone live this evening. My question is does anyone use free to book as an online booking system linked to their website. I have registered and spent all afternoon trying to work out how to make it work for a self catering cottage with weekend, mid week and weekly rates and seasonal rates. Has anyone made it work for them?
Would love to hear from anyone who has used it.
www.kingshydecottage.co.uk
A newbie drowned in IT
Hello and welcome to the forum.
With FTB you must ensure that you have been set up correctly as a self catering property. They also cater for bnbs and hotels and the system works differently for them.
FTB works on a nightly rate for the tariff; you set this under Availability > Rates. The default minmum stay is setup under Availablity > Defaults. The different minimum stays for specific dates can be set up under Availability > Minimum Stays.
I offer flexible arrival and departure dates all year round except July & August when I insist on Saturday to Saturday. For the period when it's 7-nights I set the minimum stay for this period to 7-nights. I use Availability > Closeouts to close out the Sunday to Friday days as arrival and departure days; this ensures only Saturday to Saturday. I set the rates for this period to 1/7th of the weekly rate. That's the easy bit done.
For the rest of the year I set the nightly rate for the short-break rate and not the weekly rate. I then use the Specials > Special Offers to discount the nightly rates to match a weeks rate. For example, if the nightly rate is £100 that would make a weeks stay £700; however, the weekly rate is only £602 so I set a special for those dates with a discount of £14 per night. FTB works this out perfectly on-line. In the specials you can also set the arrival days too. This is useful if you want have Monday & Friday arrivals; this allows Fri/Fri weekly stays, Monday to Friday short break and Friday to Monday short break.
It is worth making sure that your weekly rates are integer divisible by 7 as this makes working out the specials and the nightly rates much easier. You do end up with weekly rates, such as £1176 and £938 but that doesn't seem to bother travellers.
It took me quite a while to figure out how to use FTB properly, once you get the hang of it, you can more or less set up most things.
With FTB you must ensure that you have been set up correctly as a self catering property. They also cater for bnbs and hotels and the system works differently for them.
FTB works on a nightly rate for the tariff; you set this under Availability > Rates. The default minmum stay is setup under Availablity > Defaults. The different minimum stays for specific dates can be set up under Availability > Minimum Stays.
I offer flexible arrival and departure dates all year round except July & August when I insist on Saturday to Saturday. For the period when it's 7-nights I set the minimum stay for this period to 7-nights. I use Availability > Closeouts to close out the Sunday to Friday days as arrival and departure days; this ensures only Saturday to Saturday. I set the rates for this period to 1/7th of the weekly rate. That's the easy bit done.
For the rest of the year I set the nightly rate for the short-break rate and not the weekly rate. I then use the Specials > Special Offers to discount the nightly rates to match a weeks rate. For example, if the nightly rate is £100 that would make a weeks stay £700; however, the weekly rate is only £602 so I set a special for those dates with a discount of £14 per night. FTB works this out perfectly on-line. In the specials you can also set the arrival days too. This is useful if you want have Monday & Friday arrivals; this allows Fri/Fri weekly stays, Monday to Friday short break and Friday to Monday short break.
It is worth making sure that your weekly rates are integer divisible by 7 as this makes working out the specials and the nightly rates much easier. You do end up with weekly rates, such as £1176 and £938 but that doesn't seem to bother travellers.
It took me quite a while to figure out how to use FTB properly, once you get the hang of it, you can more or less set up most things.
"Write something, even if it's just a suicide note"
"There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise"
"As for my amnesia, I've had it as long as I can remember"
Real name: Steve
Gender: Male
"There is no human problem which could not be solved if people would simply do as I advise"
"As for my amnesia, I've had it as long as I can remember"
Real name: Steve
Gender: Male
Hi
Thank you for that I spent my lovely sunny afternoon doing all of that. Do you find it works well? I think I lost confidence in it and that it would work like that. Mind you I think I'm being hopeful that I will get enquires. I now have to work out the widgets and get it on to my website. Perhaps I should now revert to wine
.
Thank you for that I spent my lovely sunny afternoon doing all of that. Do you find it works well? I think I lost confidence in it and that it would work like that. Mind you I think I'm being hopeful that I will get enquires. I now have to work out the widgets and get it on to my website. Perhaps I should now revert to wine
.
There's even a downloadable App to help you choose your wineNimbus wrote:.. Perhaps I should now revert to wine
** Richard
PIMS: Holiday Rental Management system
They say we learn from our mistakes. That makes me a genius !
PIMS: Holiday Rental Management system
They say we learn from our mistakes. That makes me a genius !
Hi, I too am trying to get my head round free to book. I think I have got it except for the child policies. I have ticked that I accept children of all ages but when I go into the 'Unit Types' tab it seems to treat all guests as adults, as I have said I don't have a different rate for children (the rate is for the whole apartment). This in confusing for guests as when booking it asks for the names of 4 'adults' while stating that children of all ages are welcome! Any help gratefully received!