EXTENDED-PROPERTY-MANAGEMENT > GROUP-BOOKINGS

Bookings for large groups Plus

Bedful Plus and Pro users can take advantage of an easy way to manage larger group bookings or 'event'-type bookings such as weddings.

This feature allows you to:

Make a provisional group booking to reserve certain units, or all units, for an event eg 'Dave & Amy's wedding'
Share 'Dave & Amy's' page and accommodation with their invited guests only
Allow the guests to select, book and pay for their own accommodation individually
Check progress of individual confirmed bookings within a group.

Using Group Bookings

Firstly, you will need to activate the group bookings feature for your site. Go to Setup>Site>Limits and select 'Allow Provisional Booking' from the dropdown menu, then hit SAVE CHANGES.

Making a Provisional Booking

This will block out availability to all but invited guests.

1) Confirm the units are available for the required dates with a quick visual check on the Availability grid (DASHBOARD > AVAILABILITY).

2) Scroll down to hit the 'add custom booking' button
3) Select dates, then for Campsite Reference use the public booking name eg 'Dave and Amy's wedding party'. Then enter the details of the group leader and save.
4) SAVE booking
5) Tick the units to reserve for this booking (tick all that you want blocked, although they may not all be ultimately confirmed/paid for).
6) SAVE booking
7) On the next page, leave all the unit prices as £0. (Prices will be set later, when guests book their accommodation). Select 'No Payment'.

8) On the next page, scroll down and hit 'SAVE AS PROVISIONAL' You have created a provisional group booking!

This is called a 'Parent' booking and has provisional status. As guests select and book accommodation within the group, these are called 'Child' bookings and will have confirmed status.

Setting an expiry date

You can set an expiry date on provisional bookings which will disallow bookings on/after a given date under booking edit details. This lets you set aside availability and then either extend it or free it up again if the user has not booked by this date. If the expiry date is reached you will receive a warning letting you know. This can be applied to parent bookings or just normal bookings.

Allow invited guests to book

From the booking summary screen of a provisional Parent booking, hit the 'Share Secret Availability' button. You will then see the page that an invited guest will see. Copy and paste the URL - and send that as a link to the group lead, or to the guests. Only guests with access to that secret link can book the accommodation reserved in that Parent booking.

Guests with that link can then browse the available units on that page, select the ones they want to book and pay for those in the normal way. They will be charged the prevailing rate according to the number of adults and children they select for each individual booking.

Discounts

If you would like to add a hidden discount code to apply to the group/wedding party, just create a discount code for the dates/units in the normal way (Setup>Discounts>Add Discount). Don't forget to send the discount codes to the wedding party to use! Do not use a discount without a discount code for secret availability, as that may be picked up and promoted elsewhere.

Returning to the booking

To return to the Parent booking again, eg to generate the secret code or check progress of confirmed Child bookings, find the booking in the normal way from the Bookings list by searching on the lead name. You can also use 'Refine Search' on the Bookings list, then select 'Parent Booking' from the Groups filter. Child bookings can also be found quickly from the Groups filter.

Once you have clicked on the Parent booking to view the details, you will see a grey 'Children' tab, where you will find all the confirmed bookings that have been made from the secret availability link.