Seasons

Your seasons are the periods in which your units are available to book for a given set of prices. Seasons can sit on top of one another, so that you can define one low season say and have multiple bank holiday seasons sitting on top. Seasons define only the dates, and are then associated with rates and units in order to set your pricing.

Adding Seasons

To create your seasons, start with the longest period for which your site is open for the year, and define this as your low season (usually with the cheapest rates). Then add periods like high season sitting on top of that longer season. Then finally add any very short seasons like bank holidays or special weekends when you have different rates. Every season you add should have unique dates.

If your rates vary throughout the year, you can create as many seasons (e.g. high season, low season, bank holiday) as you want to assign to your fluctuating seasonal rates. Alternatively, if your rates do not change throughout the whole year, you may only require one season for the entire year which spans your earliest opening date and your final closing date.

Overlapping Seasons

Overlapping seasons sit on top of one another, with one set of dates being longer than the other, and the shortest season is used (the 'top' season). This is the simplest way to set up your seasons and is preferable to adjoining seasons. So start with longer periods and then add shorter seasons on top.  If several seasons overlap, the rates from the shortest season will always be used, so if for example you have a Bank holiday ending on Monday on top of a mid-season rate on top of a low-season rate, the bank holiday rates will be used over that weekend, then on Monday night the mid-season rate will be used again.

Adjoining Seasons

You should prefer creating overlapping seasons to creating lots of seasons which run in adjoining dates which run up to one another (overlapping is one long and one short on top, adjoining is one which starts on the same day as the other ends). Typically an overlapping setup will be simpler to understand and involve fewer seasons, so we recommend you try that first.

Setting Pricing

Once you have created your seasons, you will be prompted to assign your Rates and Units to them. These dictate which units are available for that time period, and the rates charged. You may want to create just one rate for all bank holidays, or for all high season periods, and share that rate between lots of bank holiday seasons, conversely, you may want to share one season between many different rates if you charge different prices for different units for example.

Read more about Creating Rates here and Adding Units.

Testing Seasons

Finally, when you feel your setup is ready, it's important to test your dates and rates to check that the experience for your guests is as you expect, and the right prices are being charged for the right period. This is where having the simplest possible rate setup reaps dividends, as it makes it far simpler for you and your guests to work out what price will be charged for a given period.

Bedful is a self-managed booking system meaning partners are responsible for all aspects of their booking system, including seasons and rates. Any bookings made must be honoured at the rates created by the partner.

To test your rates for guests, use book.bedful.com and check that the pricing for some common periods is as you expect.

Season FAQ

How should I name seasons?

Season names are private and not shown to customers, so we recommend prefixing with the year, and then using a clear identifier like 2024 - Summer which refers to the time of year. Do not use season names to refer to rates or use complex identifiers you might forget later.

Can I leave a gap between seasons?

Which rates will be used?

For overlapping seasons, the shorter season rates will be used, up to but not including the last day of the season. For adjoining seasons, the first season rates will be used upto and including the last day of the season.

Can one season have many rates?

Yes. One season can have any combination of rates and units. For example your summer season might have all the cabins and all the pitches.

Do I need different seasons to have different pricing for a period?

No. You can just associate one rate with the season and some of your units, and another rate with the same season and some other units. Seasons only store dates.

On the last day, which rate is used?

When seasons overlap or adjoin each other, different rules are used for the last day of the season. This is so that seasons like bank holiday seasons behave correctly as you might expect.

• Overlapping seasons - on the last day of the top season the underlying season rates will be used
• Adjoining seasons - on the last day of the first season the first season rates will be used