Direct booking
Prepare, pause, and open rentals for direct booking
Review each rental and control whether it accepts direct bookings without hiding or disabling the operation.
- I own or administer an agency
- Agency
On this page
The outcome is that each visible rental sells only after its content, rates, availability, and payment path have been checked.
What pausing means#
A non-disabled vacation-rental operation can appear on the website automatically. Pause keeps its listing visible but replaces the booking form with a notice that it is temporarily not accepting new bookings.
Pausing does not close Booking.com or Airbnb, remove existing reservations, or hide the property. It is the safe control for preparing direct sales without disabling the entire operation.
The public state shown in this guide is what the guest receives: the booking form disappears and Bookings paused displays the temporary notice. That listing does not offer a path into checkout while it is paused.
Only an administrator with Manage team permission can pause, reopen, or change same-day check-in. Other authorized users can see the state but must escalate the change.
Pause while preparing#
- Open Operations and select the correct operation.
- Find the Holidario card within the vacation-rental operation.
- Select Pause and confirm the property shown in the warning.
- If the request completes successfully, wait for the button to change to Reopen, then reload the operation to confirm the state is retained.
- Open View Property in another tab and confirm that the listing remains visible but shows Bookings paused.
The paused view in this guide shows the exact Holidario card after its status request returns paused: the available action is Reopen, and same-day check-in remains off in the example. The button changing on screen is not a substitute for checking again after a reload.
If the status check or action fails, do not click repeatedly. Reload the operation, confirm the current state, and retain the operation, time, and error message.
Per-rental launch checklist#
Before reopening, verify:
- correct public title, description, cover photo, and complete gallery order;
- approximate location and features without private data;
- consistent capacity, bedrooms, bathrooms, and beds;
- licence and NRA where applicable;
- cleaning fee;
- daily prices for the period you intend to sell;
- minimum stays, reservations, and blocks;
- default and high-season cancellation policies;
- responsible office email and phone;
- at least one agency-approved and tested payment gateway.
Use Review prices and availability as the calendar control. Do not reopen a rental with dates lacking prices: guests can encounter Price unavailable even though the listing exists.
Decide on same-day check-in#
The Same-day Check-in toggle allows today as a valid arrival date for that operation. It is off by default. The control does not show a saved confirmation or restore its previous position by itself if the request fails.
Enable it only when front desk, cleaning, key handover, and payment verification can operate at that notice. After changing it, reload the operation; if the toggle does not retain the value, treat the change as not applied. Then test that today is selectable on the public listing. If you cannot prove that circuit works, leave it disabled.
Reopen in a controlled way#
- Have someone other than the configurator repeat the checklist above.
- On the Holidario card, select Reopen and confirm once.
- If the request completes successfully, confirm that the available action changes to Pause; reload the operation and verify that it remains so.
- In a private window, select a valid, available future stay.
- Verify price, cleaning, minimum stay, capacity, policy, and payment methods before leaving checkout without paying.
Success is not merely the appearance of a booking button. A complete and coherent quote must reach checkout without error.
The active view in this guide represents only that the card's status request returns the rental as not paused and therefore offers Pause. It does not by itself prove that rates, availability, payment, or checkout are ready.
When to pause again#
Pause the rental if an occupied date is sellable, prices are incomplete, payment is unavailable, legal information is wrong, or the agency temporarily lacks operating capacity. Keep it paused until the correction and test have both completed.
Do not use operation disabling as a substitute for this control, and do not edit availability in several sources at once to conceal a discrepancy.