Holiday Rental Availability Calendar Display stack/script?

[TemplateRepo]

I’m presently putting together a property rental site and looking for a simple solution to display available dates.

I just want a calendar view, ideally two months at a time, with days that are booked showing red, days that are available showing green. Nothing else.

I’ve seen a few scripts out there, but they all over-complicate things, as in also handle booking etc.

Even just a way to cleanly display something like a Google calendar would work, then I could (I think) just add booked days as all-day events called “Booked”.

Anyone any ideas/solutions?

I do have Kalendar, but despite it appearing to no longer work, it doesn’t really do what I need anyway.

The site I’m building has a booking enquiry form which uses a UIkit3 form and @Ricardo Datepciker stack, so maybe there is a way to add something to it, to disable specific date ranges?

EDIT: @dave @mitchellm You guys any idea if there is a way to have a date range selector with Machforms? I’ve looked, and can’t see anything obvious. But you never know!

[Nostrildomus]

I would love this template:)

[mitchellm]

I don’t think MachForms offers exactly what you want. See attached image for date options. I suppose you could add 2 dates: one as begin, one as end of possible dates. Have cold right now so brain not working above 50%. :) Here’s a screenshot:

[TemplateRepo]

I’m working on Machforms and it does have a nice way to disable dates, but not a date range selector.

But… I could set it up so the user first selects the number of nights, then the start date. It would work, but it’s not very user friendly.

[dave]

I agree with both of you in regards to Machforms…I don’t think it will work for you. I do have it set up for one client who uses it in conjunction with Google calendars and PayPal- they collect money while reserving a neighborhood pool. But, even there, it’s possible to double-book.

I installed this one into a motorcycle repair shop two years ago. It’s on their site year 'round, but they really only use it once a year, in conjunction with a big sale they have the month leading up to Bike Week each March. It was super easy to install, and I modified the fields so they could sell oil changes, etc. I think it will do what you need it to do, without any customization. Time Slots Booking Calendar | PHPJabbers

EDIT: it’s probably too much for what you need…I’m not sure if you can turn the booking end of it off. But, if you can, it would be great. Maybe shoot the developer an email? They were pretty responsive when I reached out to them about 2 ½ years ago. North Georgia Motorcycle | Appointments

[TemplateRepo]

Thanks Dave, it was me who put you onto that script, with the hacks to work for the repair shop too! :-)

I’m sorted now though.

PHPJabbers did have a script, Property Rental Booking Calendar, but it did too much; it handled availability, data collection, booking and payment, the lot. But it wasn’t until i dug deeper that I discovered you can turn everything off and just use it as a simple availability calendar. That way, if we decide to add booking funcitionality to the site later on, we don’t ned to change the script, just enable features.

[TemplateRepo]

When you say you’d love the template, do you mean the template to run a booking calendar, or the entire site template?

If you want to see it, this is it: https://www.torroxholidayrental.com/ still a work in progress right now, more data to be added along with the proper pics etc. plus availbility calendar.

It’s built in Uikit3, with a lot of Limelight for the clever display bits. @Jannis Gallery 3 does the gallery stuff.

Sadly, in it’s present form it won’t be released as a template as it contains quite a lot of beta/development stacks that as yet are not available, and maybe never will be. Sorry. If that changes, I’ll be happy to fire it onto the Template Repo site and make it available.

[dave]

Hey Steve- waaaay off topic here…but, surely the rates you have posted aren’t remotely close to what they’ll be when she starts accepting bookings, are they? If they are, I might be first in line for a vacation in Spain.

[TemplateRepo]

It’s actualy my place, or will in a few weeks when we exchange contracts. “She” is my wife, Elaine, who’ll be managing bookings.

Torrox is well off the usual Costa Del Sol tourist tracks, as such it doesn’t demand the same rentals as say Marbella, which is the west side of Malaga, where all the big resorts are. Torrox is east, in the Axarquia region. Beautiful, but much cheaper than places on the west.

I haven’t decided on the final rates, they’ll be a bit more, but not much. Maybe ranging 40-50 euros. The nice thing about this part of Spain is that there is a rental market all year round, as lots of older travelers from Germany, Sweden etc. go there in the winter months.

At the end of the day though, a night in a rental property is a finite commodity. Once the date has passed, you’ll never be able to sell it. So sooner be busy and a bit cheaper than more expensive and quieter. It’s all a learning curve for me and Elaine though, so we’ll work it out over time.

[Jannis]

@TemplateRepo

Torrox

I think I will drop by sometime and say hello 👋

[TemplateRepo]

It’s called Little Germany by many (mainly Germans!), for good reason. I’d say 50% of the immigrants and holiday makers there are German. So you’ll be in good company.

And yes, I’ve already earmarked a request for help from you when it comes to translating the site ;-)

Just remember when you call by that it’s the pueblo, not the costa.

[Ricardo]

Hi Steve,

Sorry about the long delay answering.

Although you can select date ranges, at this moment there is not a mechanism in datepicker itself to exclude specific dates.

I will look into the code and see if it is feasible to implement this feature.

Cheers,

Ricardo

[bitbumpy]

Looking good!

Can vouch for phpjabbers script.
Easy to install and easy to use.

I have it on a B and B site here: Make a booking enquiry at our simply beautiful Bed and Breakfast

[TemplateRepo]

Thanks. I’ve used their scripts for years now, always found that results good. This is that first time with this one, but equally happy with it.

Got a question for you though… How did you set up half day bookings?

Also, there is s bit of an oddness with your script, at least on Android, see screenshot below…

Seems it’s set up for between 3 and 0 days, which is odd?

[bitbumpy]

From memory I think it is the “Reservations and prices will be based on” - Nights

This might be dependent on the version you have though. This is 4.4, but I know they have just upgraded the script to V5.

Thanks for the bug report, this is suppose to be a 3 night minimum but it must have expired and I forgot to update it. All fixed up now.

[TemplateRepo]

Hi @bitbumpy this may, or may not be of interest to you.

I was setting up another install of the script for a new template I’m building for a guesthouse, with more than a single “property” to rent, like your instance. I discovered a layout issue with the script. I’ve raised it with PHPj, this is the message…

Hi, I’ve found a bit of a layout oddness with the Holday Rental script.

If you opt to install a property you get the option to display 1, 3, 6 or 12 month calendar view. But when you select to install all properties, in the live version, once you click the property, you only get a 1 month view. No option to select to view 3, 6 or 12 months.

Moreover, to get the first screen displayed correctly when installing “all properties” the container must be over 1100px wide. Which then means once a property is selected the single month calendar is huge, far far too big.

See screenshot for examples.

The obvious fix to this is to have at least three months viewed once a property is selected, but unless I’m missing it, this isn’t an option.

Please advise, as the existing layout doesn’t work at all.

This is the screenshot I sent them to explain the issue…

I’m hoping they come back with a solution, but in the meantime I’ve cleaned things up as best it can using some custom css to over-ride things. It now looks like this with the css applied…

https://demos.caffeineinjection.com/guesthouse/book/

If you want the css to use on your site, let me know.

[bitbumpy]

Hey @TemplateRepo thanks for the info.
I think you’ll find that when the space for the script reduces the window becomes horizontally scrollable.

This is probably enough for me but see what phpj have to say.
(Even with your custom css on your site the script goes to scrolling on mobile)

[TemplateRepo]

Ya, but for me it’s not really the scrolling initial view on a smaller container but the daft big calendar once a property has been selected.

If I get anything back from them I’ll let you know.

[TemplateRepo]

I heard back, and it wasn’t much we didn’t already know. Their solution is to just place the script in a container with a max-width set to the size I want the calendar view to display at. Because, we you pointed out, the initial view will scroll sideways.

IMO that approachable is OK for mobile, but not for large devices and desktops, as it’s a a cop-out from making the script itself display correctly on all sizes of screens. If you have the real estate, you use it. Not restricts somethings width to overcome a failing in the user interface.

Anyway, in the end I edited the script myself to overcome the issue. It’s not perfect, but it’s a big improvement over the defauklt, IMO.

I’ve found a few other niggles too, like no room name displaying when clicking into a room calendar, so I may well end up paying them to fix the display issue and add a few new bits, but for now my edited version will do, for me.

If you want to see it, it’s here: Rooms | Guesthouse and will also end up here soon: Online Booking Holiday Let In Torrox

Happy to pass you the instructions if you want to edit your copy.