Hotel website: storefront with rooms and a booking button on your own site

A hotel in Cenaly already has a website — the location's storefront on its own subdomain. There guests see the rooms and book them themselves. If you have your own website (on WordPress, Tilda or any builder), you can add a "Book a room" button to it that leads to the same booking. In both cases the prices, free rooms and bookings are the same: from your rate plans and calendar.

Who: hotel owners and managers.

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.

Prepare room type content#

Everything a guest sees about a room — photos, area, beds, amenities and description — is filled in on the room type, once for both the storefront and the button on your own website.

1. Rooms → 🏷️ Room types → the Hotel settings window, Rooms & types tab.
2. In the room type row, select 📷 Add photos and description for guests.
3. Fill in Photos (up to 12, the first is the cover), Area, m², Beds, Amenities and Description for guests in each storefront language (up to 1000 characters).
4. Select Done, then Save in the room type list. Without the second step the changes are not published.

Details: Photos, description and amenities of a room type for the website.

If there is no description in the guest's language, the storefront shows the description in a related language, then in English.

Show rooms on the storefront home page#

1. Hotel settings → the Sales channels tab → the Rooms on the website block.
2. 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 appears on the storefront home page: cards with photos, area, beds, amenities and a from … / night price, with Details and Book buttons. If you turn it off, the storefront looks as before, and the Book a room window stays in the menu.

How the guest books from there — dates, rate plan, payment, several rooms — is in Direct booking on the website.

Style the storefront#

Colours, fonts, logo, cover and the design template of the storefront are changed in the Location Websites section of the admin — the same as for any business. See Venue Website Builder. For your own domain for the storefront, see Custom domain.

Add a booking button to your own website#

If the hotel's website is not built in Cenaly, add a booking button to it — with one line of code.

1. Hotel settings → the Sales channels tab → the Booking button for your own website block.
2. Choose the button colour, the label (default "Book a room") and the screen corner. The preview shows "This is how the button sits in the corner of your site".
3. Copy the code and paste it into your website — in WordPress, Tilda or another builder this is usually an "HTML" or "Code" block.
4. Select Try it on the storefront — the form the guest will reach opens.

What the guest sees on your website: a button in the corner. Pressing it, they choose check-in and check-out dates and the number of adults and children, and immediately see available room types with the price for the whole stay ("from" when there are several rate plans). They press "Book" — and the booking form of your storefront opens in a new tab with the dates, guests and room type already chosen: rate plans, consents, contacts and online payment, if enabled, are there. The booking appears on the calendar straight away.

If there are no room types, the button takes the guest straight to the booking form without prices — "No room types yet — the button will take guests straight to booking without prices.". If there is no code and you see "The code will appear once the location address is loaded.", wait for the location address to load.

How prices and free rooms are updated#

• Free rooms and prices for the storefront and the button come from the hotel's shared public summary. It is updated after every booking, check-in, check-out and cancellation, and when you save room types, rate plans, seasons, stay rules or "Rooms on the website". There is no separate "publish the site" step.
• The summary contains only free dates, room types, public rate plans and check-in and check-out times, 180 days ahead. It has no guest names or booking numbers. Closed rate plans with an access code are not included.
• The guest still gets a final check of the price and free room at the moment of booking.

A separate hotel website in the AI studio#

Cenaly is developing a builder for separate websites with an AI editor and a hotel template (room pages, a free-dates calendar, a link to the storefront booking). It is not open in the admin yet: if the Location Websites section has no AI Studio button, this builder is not available to you. Use the storefront and the booking button on your own website — they work with the same rooms and prices.

What is not there yet#

• A separate booking form on your own website — the button opens the storefront booking form in a new tab.
• The AI studio with a hotel template in the admin (see above).
• Sending room photos and descriptions to Booking.com, Airbnb and other platforms — they are shown only on the storefront and in the booking button.
• Your own items in the amenities list — only from the ready-made list.
• Prices and free dates beyond 180 days in the public summary.

Related articles#

• Direct booking on the website: one or several rooms
• Hotel: Rooms, PMS and Guest Service
• Hotel rates: seasons, rate plans, guests, restrictions and cancellation
• Venue Website Builder
• iCal and channels: availability, conflicts and limits

FAQ#

Do I need to publish anything after changing prices?#

No. Prices and free rooms update themselves after you save rate plans and after every booking. Photos and descriptions — after "Save" in the room type list.

Can I take bookings right on my WordPress website?#

Yes, with the booking button: the guest chooses dates and sees prices on your website, and completes the booking in the storefront form, which opens in a new tab.

Why is a room type not visible on the storefront?#

Check three things: the type is ticked in "Which room types to show", the type has at least one room on the floor plan, and you pressed "Save".

Will room photos appear on Booking.com?#

No. Photos and descriptions from Cenaly are not sent to platforms — upload them in the platform's extranet.

How will a guest see the room description in their language?#

Fill in "Description for guests" in the languages you need. If there is no description in the guest's language, the storefront shows it in a related language or in English.