Minimum rental duration per season (day rental)
Example: a holiday home is rented out only per week in high season (1 July to 31 August), from Saturday to Saturday. Outside high season the customer may rent per night, from 1 night.
You do not need a separate «minimum rental duration» setting for this. You handle it with the periods you include in the price schema for each season.
How it works
In day mode, i-Reserve determines which length of stay is possible by chaining periods. A period only counts on a date when the schema group that the calendar links to that date has a price row for that period. If the period Night is not in the high season schema group, it is not possible to book per night in high season.
This is checked again for every step of the stay, on the date that step starts. A stay that fits no combination of periods is rejected with the message A period does not exist.
What does the customer see?
- Saturday 11 July to Saturday 18 July (7 nights): possible, this is exactly one week.
- Saturday 11 July to Saturday 25 July (14 nights): possible, these are two consecutive weeks.
- Monday 13 July to Friday 17 July (4 nights): not possible, in high season only a week starting on Saturday is available.
- Thursday 8 October to Sunday 11 October (3 nights): possible, outside high season nights are combined.
Step 1 — Periods
Go to Views → Object - Extra and create two periods in the Period detail block (unit Days):
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Week — Period-Timespan | 8 (= 7 nights, Saturday to Saturday) |
| Week — Period starts on | Saturday |
| Night — Period-Timespan | 2 (= 1 night) |
| Night — Period starts on | empty (any day) |
In day mode the timespan counts in days, including the arrival and departure day: 2 days is 1 night. When periods are combined, the changeover day counts only once. Two times Night is therefore 3 days (2 nights) and two times Week is 15 days (14 nights).
Step 2 — Product settings
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Combine periods | Yes (otherwise the customer can only book exactly one period) |
| Calculate per time unit | No |
Step 3 — Price schema
Create two schema groups. The difference between the seasons is which periods get a price row:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| Schema group High | only price row(s) for the period Week |
| Schema group Low | price row(s) for the period Night (and optionally Week too, for example for a weekly rate) |
Step 4 — Calendar
Go to Views → Calendar and link the date ranges to the schema groups:
| Setting | Value |
|---|---|
| 01-07 to 31-08 | Schema group High |
| other dates | Schema group Low |
Note
- Transition between seasons. A stay is built step by step. If it starts in low season, it can continue per night up to the season boundary. From there only a full week starting on Saturday can be added. So let high season start and end on the changeover day (Saturday), otherwise there will be days that fit no combination.
- Calculate per time unit. When this setting is on, periods are not checked and this approach does not work.
- At least a week, then per night? That is not possible with periods alone. As soon as the period Night is in the high season schema, the customer can also book a single night there.
- Exception by the administrator. An administrator with the right action_booking_override_periods can still record a deviating period in the admin panel.
