Minimum stay settings not transmitting to booking.com

Pam W
Feb 28, 2024 10:38 AM
Joined May, 2023 1 post

Hi there,

I use Pricelabs for my pricing and have my minimum night settings set up there. However, my minimum nights are not showing on my booking.com listings. I have no problem with my other channels (direct, airbnb, vrbo). Has anyone experienced this issue before? Do you know how to resolve this? Thanks in advance!

 

Stacey & Pam

Ken T
Feb 28, 2024 11:18 AM
Joined Aug, 2019 1706 posts

Please write in to the Helpdesk with specific examples and screenshots.  We are actively working to improve our Booking.com API connection, so, this is very timely if there's something not working correctly.

Michael E
Mar 4, 2024 11:22 AM
Joined Jun, 2023 5 posts

If you are looking at the Booking.com rate calendar, then you won't see the minimum stay info from Pricelabs/Ownerrez, but in my experience, it will still be there - in the STANDARD RATE PLAN ONLY.  If you hover, it will tell you "has restrictions". You can test it by attempting to set up a booking.

The bigger issue that you will run into is if you have a longer minimum stay in Price Labs of, for example, 28 days and also a WEEKLY price plan set up in Booking.com's Rate Plans. Owner Rez will (can only?) send the PriceLabs minimum stay TO THE STANDARD RATE PLAN. So the WEEKLY plan will still have a 7-day minimum.  This is a loophole that I discovered in the worst fashion.  Someone booked a 7-day stay via Booking.com that I had specified via Price Labs as a seasonal 25-day minimum for far-ahead bookings to protect those months for longer-term stays if booked far enough in advance. I was freaking out, because I could not figure out how this happened, and of course, I could only reach individuals at booking.com that did not speak my language as their primary language, and didn't have any idea what an API is or what it is connected to. They, of course, ultimately came back and determined it was 'an Owner Rez problem'.

I have submitted this to the help desk hoping for a fix or at least a work-around.

UPDATE: I found the help center article saying "DON'T USE Booking.com RATE PLANS". Use "promotions" to set up discounts.  That works perfectly for a weekly discount, put a promotion can only be for up to 7 days minimum stay, so you still would need a 'Monthly rate plan' if you want to discount longer minimum stays than that. So far I haven't found a downside to doing that. So I would submit to the experience of others.

Jeff C
Apr 5, 2024 3:53 PM
Joined Oct, 2023 1 post

I just had this happen. Price Labs shows a minimum 5 night stay, and Booking.com just booked it for 1 night.

Nathan
Aug 7, 2024 11:42 PM
Joined Jun, 2023 12 posts

Yes, I’m experiencing the same issue. Booking.com is not enforcing the minimum night requirement, even though PriceLabs is configured correctly, and it appears as intended in my OwnerRez calendar. I tested it on Booking.com and was able to make a 1-night booking.

 

Update: I had a non-refundable rate hidden in booking.com which appears to have been causing the issue. I deleted it and only have a single rate option. It does make my calendar look to be unavailable if a minimum length of stay applies. e.g., August 13th and later is available/bookable but has a 2 night minimum while the 12th and before is 1 night minimum.