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Software package

Guesthouse booking package

A website and owner diary for a handful of named rooms: guests request or book online, you confirm from your phone, deposits and breakfast choices are captured, and the listing-site calendars stay in step.

Custom build Concept demo
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Who it is for

Built for

A good fit

Guesthouses, bed and breakfasts, small inns and farm stays with roughly three to twelve individually named rooms, run by an owner or a couple who host, cook and keep the diary themselves. It suits owners who want direct bookings on their own site without losing the right to say no, who sell breakfast as part of the stay and who list on a few third-party sites they need to keep honest. The daily users are the owner, whoever covers the diary on a day off, and the guest.

Not the right fit

It is not for hotels selling room types with inventory counts, rate plans and group blocks, which have their own package, nor for whole-property holiday lets with changeover days and damage deposits, which the villa rental package handles. A property with a property management system already in place should look at the hotel route.

The operational problem it solves

How it runs, step by step

Half past seven and the owner is frying eggs.

  1. Her phone shows this morning's breakfast sheet: six guests, one vegetarian, one gluten-free, two late breakfasts at nine, all captured when each guest booked.

  2. A notification arrives: a request for the Garden Room, Friday to Sunday in three weeks, two adults and a dog.

  3. The weekend is a peak season with a two-night minimum, so the request waited for her rather than confirming itself.

  4. She reads the guest's note, taps accept, and the system sends the confirmation, takes the deposit by card and marks the room on every listing-site calendar through the exported feed.

At ten a quiet midweek night in the Attic Room is booked instantly online, because she allows instant booking outside peak dates; the rate for that season applied itself.

  1. At eleven a listing site sells the Blue Room for Saturday; the imported feed blocks it on her own site within the refresh window, so a direct guest looking at the same night sees it gone.

  2. The afternoon turnaround list shows which rooms need changing today and which guests arrive after six.

  3. Four days before each arrival the system requests the balance and sends directions and the door code; two days after departure it asks for a review.

  4. When a couple who stayed last autumn enquire again, their details and the note about their early train are already on file.

  5. In the evening the owner glances at the week ahead: occupancy by room, deposits held, balances due and tomorrow's breakfast numbers.

Features

What the package does

The package ships as modules that mirror the guesthouse day: the rooms and seasons that decide what can be booked, the request-and-confirm diary the owner runs from a phone, and the guest layer of deposits, breakfast capture, messaging and calendar feeds. Each module below lists what it does; the comparison table shows which package variant includes it.

Content and editorial

  • Room pages with live availabilityA page for each named room with a live availability calendar, so guests see what is free before they ask.

Bookings and diary

  • Request-and-confirm or instant bookingChoose per room and per season whether guests book instantly or send a request you confirm.
  • Seasonal rates and stay rulesSet seasonal rates with minimum stays and occupancy rules for each room.
  • Linked rooms as a suiteSell linked rooms together as a suite or separately.

Forms and requests

  • Breakfast choices and kitchen sheetCapture breakfast choices and dietary notes at booking and get a daily kitchen sheet.
  • Pre-arrival messages and review requestSend directions and arrival details before the stay, and ask for a review after checkout.
  • Returning-guest notesKeep notes on returning guests and recognise them when they enquire.

Billing and payments

  • Deposits, balance request and cancellation policyTake a deposit on confirmation, request the balance before arrival and show a cancellation policy in plain words.
  • Extras such as evening meals and dog chargesOffer extras such as evening meals, packed lunches or dog charges at booking.

Workflow and tasks

  • Turnaround list between staysA list of rooms to turn round between stays for whoever is cleaning that day.

Integrations

  • Calendar feeds per roomExport and import a calendar feed for each room to keep listing sites in step.

Roles and permissions

Who does what

  • Owner

    • Name rooms, set occupancy and write each room page
    • Define seasons with rates, minimum stays and whether bookings confirm instantly or wait for approval
    • Accept or decline requests from a phone and take the deposit on acceptance
    • See the breakfast sheet, turnaround list and the week ahead
    • Export and import calendar feeds for each listing site

  • Relief host

    • See today's arrivals, departures and breakfast sheet
    • Accept or decline requests when the owner is away
    • Record a payment or a note against a stay
    • Cannot change rates, seasons or room pages

  • Housekeeper

    • See which rooms turn over today and expected arrival times
    • Mark a room ready
    • Leave a note about damage or supplies

  • Guest

    • Browse named rooms and live availability
    • Request or book a room, choose breakfast and leave dietary notes
    • Pay the deposit and the balance online
    • Receive directions, arrival details and a review request

Example screen

Concept demo

Concept demo of a guesthouse owner diary on a phone showing named room rows, a pending booking request and a breakfast sheet.

The owner diary on a phone: six named rooms down the side, the next fortnight across the top, a pending request for the Garden Room highlighted with accept and decline buttons, and tonight's breakfast sheet in a panel below.

Scope and options

What is included and what is extra

In the base package

  • Website with a page per named room and a live availability calendar
  • Request-and-confirm or instant booking, set per room and per season
  • Seasonal rates with minimum stays and occupancy rules
  • Breakfast choices and dietary notes captured at booking with a daily kitchen sheet
  • Deposits on confirmation, balance request before arrival and a plain-words cancellation policy
  • Turnaround list between stays
  • Pre-arrival messages with directions and arrival details, and a review request after checkout
  • Calendar feed export and import per room for listing sites

Common add-ons

  • Linked rooms sold together as a suite or separately
  • Extras such as evening meals, packed lunches or dog charges
  • Returning-guest notes and recognition on enquiry

Needs custom work

  • Channel manager connection where one is already in use, scoped per provider
  • Shared bookings with a pub, restaurant or farm shop on the same site
  • Bespoke reporting beyond the owner's week-ahead view
See the custom development service

Ownership, maintenance and pricing

After the build

Deployment and ownership

Runs on your own hosting or on hosting we manage; the choice is made in the proposal and can change later. You own the code and your data in both cases. Guest details, bookings, payments and messages can be exported at any time in standard formats, and nothing in the package stops a move to another provider.

Maintenance

Maintenance is optional and scoped separately from the build. When taken, it covers security updates, monitoring of calendar feeds, payment callbacks and guest messaging, backups, and a monthly window for small changes such as a new season, a rate change or a reworded room page. Larger changes are quoted as change requests.

Pricing model

Priced per proposal.

Sold as a one-off setup and customisation with optional monthly maintenance and hosting as separate recurring lines. The setup figure depends on the number of rooms, the confirmation rules, how many listing calendars are synced, the add-ons selected, the payment provider and how much content and booking history is entered. The proposal itemises each line so recurring costs are never hidden in the build.

Prefer a fully custom build?

Guesthouse website development

Custom websites and booking diaries for guesthouses, bed and breakfasts and inns that let a few named rooms and want to confirm each booking themselves.

View the service

FAQ

Frequently asked questions

Do I have to accept every booking automatically?

No. Each room and season can be set to request-and-confirm, so the guest asks and you decide from your phone, or to instant booking where you are happy to take anyone. Many owners run instant booking midweek and approval on peak weekends.

How does the breakfast sheet work?

Guests choose breakfast options and leave dietary notes when they book, and can update them before arrival. Each evening the sheet for the next morning is ready on your phone with numbers, choices, notes and requested times.

Will it stop double bookings with the listing sites?

It narrows the gap considerably. Your availability is exported as a calendar feed each listing site reads, and their feeds are imported to block rooms sold elsewhere. Feeds refresh on the schedule each site allows, so a short overlap is possible; a channel manager connection, scoped as custom work, closes it further.

Can two rooms be sold together as a family suite?

Yes, as an add-on. Linked rooms are offered as a suite or separately, and booking either form blocks the other automatically.

What if I need rate plans, group blocks or a property management system?

Those are hotel concerns and sit outside this package. If your property is heading that way, custom guesthouse development or the hotel package is the honest route, and discovery will say which.

Is this a finished product I can see running?

Not yet. The readiness badge shows the real state: the package is a custom build assembled from our availability, orders and messaging modules for each guesthouse, and the owner diary on this page is a labelled concept demo rather than a live client system.

Get a quote for Guesthouse booking package

Tell us about your locations, the people who will use it and the add-ons you need. We reply with a clear, competitive proposal.

Get a quote for this package
Get a quote for this package

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