3. ACCOMMODATIONS



What's the difference between Accommodation Types and Accommodations?

This is a common question, "Accommodation Types vs Accommodations?"

Answer: Think of 'accommodation types' as your TYPES or KINDS of rooms.

Example: you may have a hostel with a mix of room types: two 8-bunk dorms, 6 private rooms, some with ensuite, some without; and 2 studios. So, your main TYPES would be:

  • DORM
  • PRIVATE ROOM
  • PRIVATE ROOM WITH ENSUITE*
  • STUDIO.

*Notice that the 'private room with ensuite' will have a different rate or pricing to the other private rooms that don't have an ensuite, so we've made it an Accommodation Type of its own.


Your accommodation types can be anything from dorms to villa rooms to tents or even campsites. You'll add how many rooms or ACCOMMODATIONS that belong to each Accommodation Type, later.


Your particular setup may have accommodation types with particular features that have no extra charge, that you would like to point out to potential guests - e.g. one may be more sunny than the others of that type, for instance. We’ll show you how to point out those extra features later. If a feature DOES involve an extra cost, then you'll need to make it a separate accommodation type. Simply put, all rooms of a specific accommodation TYPE have the same base cost with no option to change it.

Note: you can add additional options for services with an added fee, such as breakfast delivered to the room, or a bottle of wine waiting in the room etc, later. Right now, let's focus on setting up your accommodation types.

Let's get started!

CONTENTS

  1. Accommodation Types
  2. Add the details
  3. Capacity
  4. Seasons
  5. Add rates
  6. The Calendar
  7. Calendar dates not available – days crossed out?

1.ACCOMMODATION TYPES


  1. In the left column of your admin. ==> ADD ACCOMMODATION TYPE

Type in the name of the accommodation type (e.g. DORM) and add the description in the field below, and a short description (an excerpt).


  1. Under GENERATE ACCOMMODATIONS, the number of accommodations refers to the number you have of this type. So if you have 6 identical private rooms for instance, add '6'.

Remember to SAVE!


  1. Tick "ALLOW COMMENTS" if you want to enable comments on your accommodation types. This is important if you are using the Reviews Addon.

  1. Add Amenities (what you offer for free -e.g breakfast; coffee and tea; a pool table; swimming pool...). You can add them from this page, or else -->Accommodation -->AMENITIES.

2.ADD THE DETAILS

  1. SCROLL DOWN to fill in the next sections: they are pretty self-explanatory, but we've filled some in for you just as examples:


  1. At this point you can also make some attributes that you can easily add to any accommodation using checkboxes. Attributes are like keywords; they are used for the SEARCH feature to help guests find what they want. In some demos you can also opt for displaying attributes as extra details in your property description.

  1. In the column on the right, you can make and add specific accommodation categories that you will then be able to tick to add to any room type (such as dorm, shared facilities etc). Anything that you want to show on some or all accommodations.

  1. Adding tags is where you add words that will help when people search on Google for a specific feature.

  1. Add Amenities (extras that you offer for free -e.g breakfast; coffee and tea; a pool table; swimming pool...). You can add them from this page, or else --> Accommodation --> AMENITIES. (To offer guests options to choose something with an added cost, that comes under the SERVICES section in your left admin sidebar. )

3.CAPACITY

  1. Scroll down further to see the last section on this admin page, the CAPACITY section.

CAPACITY is the total number of people altogether per accommodation TYPE (whether a mix of adults and children). So as an example, if you have 6 identical rooms under the Accommodation Type "Double room with ensuite", each with a maximum of 2 people per room, the capacity would be 12.

If you're generating single beds or bunks in a dorm-type situation, then the same rule applies; so for an accommodation type such as FEMALES' DORM, where you have 2 identical dorms generated, and each dorm has a capacity of 8, then you'd type in 16.

  1. Enter your CAPACITY.

Add the maximum number of adults & children. If you have generated (for example) 6 of this accommodation type which EACH can hold 2, then. you would add the total of 12.


  1. Enter the actual total accommodation capacity of people (whether a mix of adults and children); again, as in the example above, add the total number available for that whole accommodation type .

  1. Add bed types- you'll be redirected to the Settings menu where you can state your bed types (queen, single etc); click add bed type. Remember to SAVE!

  1. Tick "ALLOW COMMENTS" if you want to enable comments on your accommodation types.

  1. Under AVAILABLE SERVICES: this is where you add extra features or services that you offer, which have a cost. To add your own, just click ADD NEW SERVICE – it's a straight-forward process. When you see them as options at this point, put check-marks in the appropriate boxes for this accommodation type.

  1. In the right column, add your main image for the Accommodation type, which will appear in the grid on your Accommodation Types page; you can also add a selection of images for the gallery if you wish (these will appear on the individual room pages).

Example:

  1. Hit PUBLISH.

Example of live view of Accommodation Types widget, when you have not yet entered RATES for accommodations:

  1. Calendar not showing when trying to book?

Notice the button saying "LEARN MORE" in the image above. Clicking through to that room will not show the calendar, instead it will simply show the details and a contact form. But when you've added your rates, then it will show "CHECK AVAILABILITY" instead, and when clicked, the individual room page then displays the details along with with the booking calendar.


4.SEASONS

Note: you must have seasons set in order for rates details etc to show.

Seasons are simply date ranges, used for adjusting your rates. You can have one 'season' that runs all year through; or you can add different seasons such as High Season and Low Season, or even more, by adjusting the dates. It's really simple – here's how:


  1. In the left-hand admin column --> ACCOMMODATIONS --> Seasons and click on it

  1. In the new window, hover your mouse over the word "Season" and the word EDIT will appear under it; click on EDIT to start editing the season.

  1. You'll now see your first season: rename it to whatever you need, and change the dates to suit. Remember to click UPDATE. If you need to add more seasons, just click on ADD NEW at the top and repeat the process. Here's an example:


5.ADD RATES

Go to ACCOMMODATIONS —> RATES, and click on ADD NEW. (You'll see some already there from the DEMO; you can open them and explore, or simply delete them).


The 3 steps for rates are:

  • add a rate
  • choose an accommodation type from the dropdown to associate with the rate
  • add a price. (Note: if you don't add a price, the calendar days will all appear with a strike-through or crossed out.)

Here's an example of a live single room listing (the version that potential guests will see) with all of these fields now filled out:


6.THE CALENDAR

To make the calendar clickable so that guests can actually click on arrival and departure dates on the accommodation page, go to Accommodations ==> SETTINGS, and check the box that says 'skip search results page and enable direct booking from accommodation pages.' This will then display a clickable calendar on all accommodation type pages added via Accommodation types.


WANT MORE CONTROL OF THE CALENDAR?

For real granular control, in any open page in Elementor, click on the little Site Settings icon at the top left (the 3 little cable-like lines). In the page that opens, down at the bottom left you'll see the green boxes where you can customise most Bellevue settings. For the calendar, got to the BOOKINGS tab and make your detailed selections for available or not-available dates, etc.


7.Calendar dates not available - days crossed out?

If you see the that the dates are all crossed out as unavailable, you have one more step to do - one that you may have inadvertently missed. Go to the accommodation(s) in question, choose EDIT (which appears when you hover over the room title; not the Elementor tab but the little EDIT button that appears – the edit button opens the classic settings rather than the Elementor settings.)

Once in EDIT, scroll down until you reach the 'generate accommodations' section and generate the number of accommodations of that type that you have. So for example, if you have an Accommodation Type of Double Room, and you have 6 identical Double Rooms, then generate 6 of them. Note that you have to generate at least one: so if you only have one, then you still have to generate an accommodation for it.

You can double-check which ones have an active calendar by looking at the Accommodations Type page, and look at the very last column which shows which ones are active or inactive.

Next: Booking

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