Direct booking on the website: one or several rooms

A guest can book a room on their own — on your hotel's Cenaly storefront, without a phone call and without a platform commission. They choose dates, guests, a room type and a rate plan, get a booking code, confirm their contact by link and, if the rate requires it, pay online. The booking appears on the calendar straight away. A family or a company can take up to five rooms in one order.

This article is for the hotel: what to set up, what the booking looks like for the guest and what the front desk sees.

Who: hotel owners and managers, front desk staff.

Before you start:

• the location's business type is "Hotel", rooms are placed on the floor plan, and room types have a price — see Hotel rates;
• room types have photos and a description — see Photos, description and amenities of a room type;
• if rate plans require prepayment or a card guarantee, a payment provider is connected — see Prepayment, guarantee and security hold.

Show rooms on the storefront#

A hotel always has the Book a room window — in the storefront menu. To show rooms right on the home page:

1. Open Rooms → 🏷️ Room types → the Hotel settings window → the Sales channels tab.
2. In the Rooms on the website block, turn on Show rooms on the home page.
3. In Which room types to show, tick the types. The order follows the room type list. A type with no rooms on the floor plan is not shown. The note "no photos — add them in “Photos and description”" tells you where photos are missing.
4. Select Save.

A Rooms section with cards appears on the home page: photo, area, beds, amenities and a from … / night price, with Details and Book buttons.

A link straight to the booking form. The form can be opened by a link with dates, guests and room type already chosen — this is how the booking button for your own website and the hotel website work. The form simply skips invalid values in the link and checks everything itself.

How a guest books: one room#

1. Dates and guests. The guest enters Check-in and Check-out, the number of adults and children. Each child's age (0 to 17) is required: "Select each child's age — the price depends on it.". If the hotel has set check-in and check-out times, the guest sees "Check-in from {time} · check-out until {time}". The button is Choose a room.

2. Room type. The guest sees room type cards: photos and description (if filled in), the price per night and Total for the stay: from …, the remaining count "N left" or "Sold out". If the hotel has no room types — a single option, "Any available room".

3. Rate plan. At Choose a rate, each plan shows its meals ("Breakfast included", "Half board", "Full board", "All inclusive") and cancellation terms: "Non-refundable", "Free cancellation until N day(s) before arrival" and what happens after that, "Cancellation fee: …". A plan that cannot be sold for these dates is shown with the reason:

A closed corporate rate plan is visible to the guest only after they enter its code in Have a corporate code? (the code is set in the plan — Access code).

4. Guest details. Your name, Phone, Email and Requests (optional). At least a phone or an email is required: "Leave a phone number or an email so the hotel can confirm your booking.". The Have a promo code? link is also here (see below). The button is Book now.

5. Done. The system checks the price and free rooms itself, holds a specific room of the chosen type and shows Booking confirmed with the Booking code, dates, room, rate plan and total. There is no need to wait for the front desk to approve a request manually.

Limits: a stay is 1 to 30 nights, check-in is not in the past and not more than 180 days ahead. If rooms of the chosen type are gone, the guest sees "No rooms of this type are available for the selected dates…". One phone or email can hold at most five active website bookings — after that, "You already have several active bookings — please contact the hotel directly.".

Promo code#

The Have a promo code? link at the guest details step opens the Promo code field and the Apply button. When the check succeeds, the guest sees "Promo code {code}", a Discount line and Total with the code with the old amount struck through. If the code does not fit, the form gives the reason — for example "The code does not apply to this room type." or "This code has already been used up.".

A promo code works only for a one-room booking: an order of several rooms has no such field. How to create a code and the full list of rejection reasons — Promo code for direct room bookings.

An order of several rooms#

A family or a company can book 2 to 5 rooms in one order — with one confirmation and, where possible, one payment. It is off by default.

Turn it on:

1. Hotel settings → the Sales channels tab → the Several rooms in one booking block.
2. Tick Allow booking several rooms at once.
3. In Rooms per booking, set the limit — 2 to 5 (default 5).
4. Select Save.

What the guest sees. After choosing the first room and rate plan, at the guest details step they select Add another room and choose the next type, rate plan and the guests of that room ("Guests in room 2"). At the bottom — Total for all rooms and the hint "Up to N rooms in one booking".

• Each room has its own type, rate plan, guests, price, deposit and cancellation terms.
• Shared by all rooms: dates, name and contact, requests and corporate code. If the guest changes the dates, the cart is cleared: "The dates changed — please choose the rooms again.".
• The order is written all or nothing: if any room was taken in the meantime, nothing is booked — "Room N of the booking is no longer available for these dates — nothing was booked.".
• A promo code does not apply to an order: while a code is applied, another room cannot be added.

Contact confirmation and payment#

Contact confirmation. After booking, the guest receives one email (or an SMS if there is no email) with a link. There they select Confirm booking, and the booking shows "Contact confirmed". On the booking screen the guest sees the deadline: "Confirm via the link in your email or SMS before this deadline to keep your booking: …". The default deadline is 24 hours. If the guest does not confirm in time, the booking is cancelled automatically. An order of several rooms is confirmed with one link.

Payment. If the rate plan requires payment, the guest sees "Prepayment required", "Full prepayment required" or "Card guarantee required" and a deadline "Pay by …". Payment is made via the link the system sent to their contact: the Pay {amount} or Save card as guarantee buttons, with consent to the payment and cancellation terms before paying. After paying — I have paid — refresh the status. If the payment deadline passes, the booking is released. When a rate plan requires payment, the booking is held by the payment deadline, not by contact confirmation.

What each provider can do:

No provider connected — a rate plan with required payment cannot be booked: "This rate requires online payment, which the hotel has not connected yet…". Plans without payment sell as usual.

Paying for an order of several rooms. With Stripe and YooKassa — one payment for all rooms. With Bank of Georgia and TBC, and also if the rooms have different currencies or payment types, — for each room separately: "This hotel takes payment for each room separately.", button Pay for this room.

Cancel one room of an order#

A guest can cancel one room rather than the whole order — using their link from the email or SMS.

1. The guest opens the order by the link.
2. Next to the room, they select Cancel this room and confirm: "Only this room will be cancelled; the others stay booked. Refund follows this room's rate terms.".
3. To cancel the whole order — Cancel the whole booking.

Conditions:

• a room can be cancelled until the arrival day; on the arrival day and later — only through the hotel;
• the "Cancel this room" button is shown while at least two active rooms remain in the order;
• the refund and penalty follow the rate plan of that room;
• without the link, cancellation is not possible: "To cancel, open the link from your booking email or SMS.";
• the guest cannot change the dates or guests of an order themselves — only through the hotel.

What the front desk sees#

• Website bookings are on the calendar immediately, already with a room; the source is Website. A notification appears: "New booking from the website: {name}, {dates}".
• The rooms of one order form a group with the order number: each booking has its own number like {code}-2…{code}-5. A group works like any other — rooming list, moving dates, cancellation, payer. See Several bookings in one group.
• A cancellation by the guest via the link is visible in the booking log.
• If the hotel later changes a booking (dates, price, room), these are ordinary booking actions — see Hotel booking actions.

What is not there yet#

• Different dates for rooms of one order — all rooms share the dates.
• More than 5 rooms in an order and a promo code on an order of several rooms.
• Changing the dates or guests of a several-room order by the guest.
• Stays longer than 30 nights and check-in more than 180 days ahead.
• A setting for the contact confirmation deadline in the admin — it is 24 hours.
• Card guarantee via Bank of Georgia and TBC; YooKassa — roubles only.
• A consent checkbox when submitting the booking — the guest consents to the terms at the payment step.

Related articles#

• Hotel rates: seasons, rate plans, guests, restrictions and cancellation
• Promo code for direct room bookings
• Prepayment, guarantee and security hold
• Hotel website
• Several bookings in one group
• iCal and channels: availability, conflicts and limits
• Hotel booking actions

FAQ#

Does the front desk need to confirm website bookings?#

No. The system checks the price and free rooms itself and holds a room at once. The guest only confirms their contact by link — otherwise the booking is cancelled after 24 hours.

The guest did not receive the email with the link. What should I do?#

Check the email or phone in the booking card: the confirmation link goes to the email, or by SMS if there is no email. If the address had a mistake, correct it in the card and select Resend confirmation — the guest receives the booking confirmation email. If the guest never confirmed their contact but the booking is needed, contact them and, if necessary, create the booking again from the front desk.

Can a guest book two rooms for different dates in one order?#

No, an order has shared dates. Make two separate bookings.

A guest with a promo code wants two rooms. What now?#

A promo code works only for a one-room booking. The guest can book the rooms as separate bookings and apply the code to one of them, or the front desk can sell the second room.

Why can the guest see a rate plan but not choose it?#

The reason is shown under the plan: minimum stay, stop sell, closed arrival or departure, booking window. These are plan restrictions — see Hotel rates.

What happens if a rate plan requires payment but no provider is connected?#

That plan cannot be booked — the guest sees a message about it. Connect a provider in Hotel settings → Payments & taxes, or make the plan without prepayment.