Avoid orphan nights by displaying and automatically adjusting minimum stays
closed
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Richard Harrison
It would really help avoid orphan nights if the minimum stay for each night was displayed on the calendar.
I recently hit 100% occupancy in a month by varying minimum stays: a tool to help manage it would be a killer app.
I have a minimum stay of 2-3 days typically. Then when I have a 4-5 gap between bookings I put in a rule no the second empty day which prevents it being booked.
Note - this scenario is not included in the separate thread on minimum stay automation.
For the viewing of minimum stays this could be numbers on the calendar or colours etc.
Thanks,
Rich
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Vu Huynh
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closed
Dislaying min nights for each night is available from the updated dashboard https://www.usewheelhouse.com/pro/v2/calendar.
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LISA MCILWAIN
Yes! I just got a reservation that orphaned one of our most expensive nights of the season (and we don't do one-night stays). I would love the ability to prevent the creation of gaps less than our minimum stay.
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Thomas Jones
There are several strategies that could be implemented to manage and minimize orphan days.
(1) increase the price on the mid-gap days to encourage booking the outer days first. For example, you have Tue-Wed-Thu open with bookings on either side. If the price for Wed is higher, it would encourage someone looking for 1 night to book Tue or Thu instead, still leaving a 2 night stay possible with the remaining days.
(2) require a minimum stay of 2 or more days when booking mid-gap orphans. For example, the Tue-Wed-Thu gap could have a 2 night minimum when booking Wed.
In (1) and (2) you're trying to avoid someone booking just Wed and leaving 2 single day orphans.
(3) provide deeper discounts on the orphan days no matter how far out they are on your calendar, similar to how you would discount short term bookings. You could have separate discount rates for 1-, 2-, 3-, 4- day orphan blocks to help book those blocks of time as soon as possible.
All of these methods should be controlled by "strategies" that the user can adjust.
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Wes Townsend
Thomas Jones: These are beautiful suggestions Thomas!! I hope Wheelhouse is listening :)
Manolo Diaz-Marta
Hi Richard, can you explain the rule you have on when you have 4-5 day gaps? Im interested