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A stay's rules

Use the stay rules to control availability and changeovers for each property. These fields appear on its booking rule when How it is booked is set to Nightly stay.

For pricing, see Rates and seasons. For occupancy limits and charges, see Guests and fees.

Before you begin

  • kahunacart.bookings.view to read the rule, kahunacart.bookings.manage to change anything on it.
  • A configured property with an assigned schedule. Without applicable hours it is closed; see Getting started.

What a night is

A night uses its starting date. The night of the 9th runs from the 9th to the morning of the 10th.

A stay from the 9th to the 16th covers seven nights, from the 9th through the 15th. The 16th is the departure date and is not charged as a night.

Count nights in the property’s timezone. If it has none, use its schedule’s timezone, then the store’s. A Florida property therefore uses Florida dates even when the store is based in Denver.

Clock changes do not affect the number of nights charged. A seven-night stay remains seven nights even if one night is an hour shorter or longer.

Check-in and check-out times

Default times are 4:00pm check-in and 10:00am check-out. A stay reserves the property from check-in on arrival through check-out on departure.

The six-hour gap is available for cleaning. One party can leave at 10:00am and the next arrive at 4:00pm on the same date. The calendar marks that date as both a departure and an arrival.

Leave a day between stays

To prevent same-day changeovers, set check-out later than check-in, such as 6:00pm check-out and 4:00pm check-in. The next arrival must then be on a later date.

There is no separate changeover-day switch; the arrival and departure times determine whether stays can share a date.

Calendar date states

What you see What it means
Free This night and the previous night are available.
Arrivals only The previous night is occupied; a new stay can start this afternoon.
Departures only This night is unavailable, but a stay can end this morning.
Taken This night and the previous night are occupied.
Blocked Closed or unavailable because of time off, notice or booking-window rules.

The arrival-only and departure-only states show which part of a changeover date is available.

The first date of a closure appears as departures only, allowing an existing guest to leave that morning. Dates within the closure appear as blocked.

Minimum and maximum stays

Shortest stay sets the minimum nights per booking and defaults to 1. Use a rate band for a higher seasonal minimum.

Longest stay defaults to 28 nights. Set it to 0 for no maximum.

The picker prevents departures before the minimum stay is reached. Invalid ranges report Shorter than the shortest stay here or Longer than the longest stay here. See The picker.

Allowed arrival and departure days

Leave arrival and departure weekdays empty to allow any day.

Select Saturday under Arrivals on to restrict check-in. Also select Saturday under Departures on if stays must end on Saturdays. A seven-night minimum alone does not restrict departures to Saturday.

Rate band overrides

Rate bands can override two stay rules:

Rule Can a band override it?
Shortest stay Yes. Sets a minimum for arrivals within the band.
Arrival days Yes. Restricts arrival weekdays within the band.
Longest stay No. It is the property's, all year
Departure days No. Also the property's, all year
Check-in and check-out times No
Guests, fees, deposit, cancellation No

Band rules apply according to the arrival date. A stay beginning on Thu 30 Jul is not subject to an August band’s minimum, even if it departs in August.

See Rates and seasons for the rest of what a band carries.

Prevent unbookable gaps

Do not take a stay that would leave a gap too short to sell is enabled by default. It rejects otherwise valid stays when they would create an unbookable gap.

For example, the minimum stay is three nights and another booking starts on the 14th. A guest requests the 8th to the 12th.

The proposed stay would leave the 12th and 13th free. With a three-night minimum, that two-night gap cannot be booked. The gap rule prevents this result.

The request is refused with the first affected night identified:

That would leave nights nobody could book — nobody could book the night of Wed 12 Aug.

Use the named date to check which existing booking or closure creates the gap.

The gap rule also follows these conditions:

  • Back-to-back stays are allowed. Consecutive stays can share a changeover date.
  • Gaps reaching the search boundary are ignored. The engine examines at most about two months on each side of the stay and does not assume availability beyond that range.
  • A seasonal minimum applies within its band. The gap is checked against the minimum a new booking would need to meet there.
  • Multi-unit properties remain available while any unit is free. The gap rule rarely applies to interchangeable rooms; the bnb example disables it.

Disable the rule on the property if you want to accept stays that leave short gaps.

Reschedule a stay

Guests can reschedule only when the new dates cost the same amount. If the price differs, they are asked to contact you. The existing order retains its agreed price, tax and any deposit already collected.

Free stays and payment-on-arrival stays can be rescheduled without the equal-price restriction.

Use Move it on the booking management page to choose new dates. Availability excludes the guest’s existing reservation. See The picker.