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Short stays with a rate calendar and booking-site calendars

Sell beds by the night next to your monthly residents. Price rules set each night's rate by season, weekday, occupancy, length of stay and how early it is booked. Calendar links keep your beds in step with booking sites.

PLANSScale only

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Why it matters

A PG or co-living property with beds empty between monthly residents can let them by the night. But then the same bed is sold on a booking site and again at the desk. SmartMy Stay keeps nightly guests and monthly residents on the same bed map. Price rules set each night's rate by season, weekday, occupancy and how early it is booked, within your lowest and highest rate. Calendar links close your sold nights on the booking sites and hold a bed here when a site sells one.

The problem it solves

Beds stand empty between monthly residents while interns and travellers look for a few nights.
One flat nightly price leaves money on the table on a festival weekend and turns guests away on a quiet Tuesday.
A bed sold on a booking site is sold again at the desk, and someone arrives to no bed.
Nobody can say what the booking sites cost you in commission.

How it works

On the property's Short Stays tab, tick Dynamic Pricing for Short Stays and choose Short Stays As, the resident category of short stays.
Make a rent plan with the period Daily for each room type. Its amount is the base rate of a night.
Add price rules: a season, days of the week, a special day, or occupancy above or below a level. Or a length of stay, last minute or early bird. Each raises or lowers the rate by a percentage or a fixed amount.
Set a lowest and highest rate per night for each room type. Stay > Billing > Rate Calendar shows the rate of every night with the rules behind it.
When a short stay is booked, each night gets its rate, fixed on that day. Later rule changes do not touch it, and the stay's invoices bill those nights.
For each booking site, add a channel under Stay > Properties > Channels. Give the site your calendar link, and paste the site's calendar link back.
Nights sold on the site hold a bed here within half an hour. When the guest's details are known, the desk enters them with Channel Booking, with the price sold for and the commission.

Everything it does

Price rules

When: Season / date range, Days of the week, Special day / event, Occupancy, Length of stay, Last minute, Early bird
For one room type or every room type of the hostel
Change By: a percentage of the daily rate or a fixed amount per night; above zero raises, below zero lowers
Occupancy: of the room type or the whole hostel, above or below a percentage, counted for each night
Length of stay: from 2 nights; Nights or More is 7 to start with
Last minute: booked within Days Ahead (3 to start with); Early bird: booked more than Days Ahead before
Priority and Adds to Other Rules: rules that add up all apply; of those that do not, only the first by priority
Of several length, last-minute, early-bird or occupancy rules, only the closest one counts
Lowest and Highest Rate per Night per room type; no mix of rules goes past them

Nights and billing

Only stays on a Daily rent plan in a hostel with dynamic pricing are priced by the night
Monthly residents are never repriced
Each night's rate is kept on the stay's Nights tab with the daily rate, the rules applied and the day it was priced
Extending a stay prices only the new nights, as booked that day
Availability shows what the short stay costs before you book
Rate Calendar: 90 days from a date to start with (up to 366), per room type: daily rate, rate, rules applied, occupancy and free beds

Booking-site calendars

One channel per booking site and room type: Booking.com, Hostelworld, Airbnb, Agoda, a channel manager or other, with the commission
Calendar to Give to the Channel: an .ics link closing every night on which no bed of the room type is free. It runs 365 days ahead, with bed counts if you want
Calendar of the Channel: read every 30 minutes, or with Read the Calendar Now; one bed held per booking
A booking whose dates change is held again; one that leaves the site's calendar is released
A calendar that cannot be read releases nothing, and the channel shows Calendar Not Read
A booking with no free bed is listed, and the hostel manager gets a to-do
New Address makes a new calendar link; the old one stops working

Bookings from a channel

A held bed has no guest, is never charged and sends no messages
Stay > Front Desk > Channel Booking: the channel, the bed held, booking number, arrival, departure, a returning guest or a new one
Shows Our Price Now next to Sold For, the commission and Paid to the Channel
Stays filters Channel Bookings, Channel Holds and Without Channel Holds
Stay > Reporting > Rooms and Residents > Channels: nights, revenue, commission and after commission per channel and Direct, by month

Online short stays

On the public page, with online booking on, room types booked by the night show tonight's rate
Visitors pick arrival and departure, see each night's rate and pay all the nights at booking
Longest Online Short Stay (nights): 30 to start with

Who uses it

Owner / AdministratorTurns on dynamic pricing, sets the daily rent plans, price rules, floors and ceilings, and the channels.

Hostel ManagerReads the rate calendar and the channel report, and handles bookings with no free bed.

Front Desk / AccountsBooks short stays, and enters channel guests with Channel Booking.

Where you use it

Web: the hostel's Short Stays and Floor and Ceiling tabs; Stay > Billing > Price Rules, Floor and Ceiling Prices, Rate Calendar
Web: in SmartMy Stay the app menu is named Stay and Hostels is named Properties; forms, fields and messages still say Hostel
Web: Stay > Properties > Channels, Stay > Front Desk > Channel Booking, Stay > Reporting > Rooms and Residents > Channels
Booking sites: through their calendar import and export (.ics)
Not a channel-manager connection: no live link with a booking site's system; guests' names and prices come in through Channel Booking

What you control

Settings

Dynamic Pricing for Short Stays: off per hostel
Short Stays As: empty, which uses Short Stay / Guest
Price rule: percentage change, priority 10, adds to other rules, to start with
Days Ahead in the Calendar: 365; Bed Counts in the Calendar: on
Calendar of the Channel read: every 30 minutes
Longest Online Short Stay (nights): 30

Notifications

Short-stay guests get the same messages as other residents: Hostel Booking Confirmed, Hostel Check-in, Hostel Check-out, Hostel Invoice
Beds held for a channel booking send nothing
A channel booking with no free bed: a to-do for the hostel manager

Questions

Will my monthly residents' rent change with the rules?

No. Only stays on a Daily rent plan are priced by the night. Monthly residents keep their rent plan.

If I change a rule, do booked guests pay the new rate?

No. Each night's rate is fixed on the day it was booked. The rule change applies to nights booked after it.

Is this a connection to the booking sites?

It works through the calendar links every major booking site offers. Your free nights close there, and their bookings hold beds here. Guest names and prices are entered by the desk with Channel Booking. A live connection to a site's own system is not built.

What if a booking site sells a bed we no longer have?

The booking is listed on the channel as having no free bed, and the hostel manager gets a to-do to sort it out. Calendars are read every 30 minutes, so the gap is small but not zero.

Can travellers book short stays on our own page?

Yes, in Scale, with online booking on. They choose arrival and departure, see each night's rate and pay all the nights at booking.

Related features

BILLINGRent plans by property, room type and categorySet the rent of a bed once per property, room type and kind of resident, for any period from a day to a year. Bill it in advance or in arrears, prorated by the day. Each new stay picks the plan that fits, and a manager can give one resident a discount.PUBLIC PAGE AND ONLINE BOOKINGOnline bed booking with paymentVisitors of your property's public page press Book now, choose a move-in date and get a bed at once. The deposit and booking fee are invoiced on the spot and paid online; a booking not paid within your hold hours is released.PUBLIC PAGE AND ONLINE BOOKINGA public page for each hostelEach property you choose gets a public web page with its photo, amenities, room types, rent from, the beds free today and an enquiry form. Enquiries from the page land in your desk's list with the source Website.STAYSBed booking without double bookingSearch the free beds for any dates, room type and gender, and book one in a few clicks. The system refuses a second booking of the same bed for the same days and names who holds it.HOSTELS, ROOMS, BEDSBed map with the status of every bedSee every bed room by room, coloured by its status: vacant, reserved, occupied, on notice or blocked. Each bed shows who is in it, from when it is free and every stay it has had.REPORTSOccupancy, move-out and vacancy reportsFive reports show where your beds stand and where they are going. They are occupancy now, occupancy night by night and residents with their length of stay. Then move-outs by month with the reasons, and the beds that will come free. The Enquiry Funnel shows where new residents come from and where you lose them.

See it with your own beds and rent plan.

Tell us how many beds and properties you run. We will show you a booking, a month of rent and a move-out, set up the way your PG works.

Talk to us Compare plans