Booking systems
Whether You Need a Booking System for Your Holiday Let
Not every holiday let needs booking software yet. Here's how to tell, and what to use until you do.
You’ve got a holiday let, a website or a plan for one, and someone has told you that you need a booking system. Maybe you do. Maybe not yet.
A small holiday let doesn’t always need booking software. If you take a handful of bookings a month and reply quickly, an enquiry form and a calendar can do the job. A booking system starts to pay for itself when you’re losing time or bookings to admin. It also helps when you list in several places and need dates to stay right.
When you need a booking system for your holiday let
You don’t need one on day one, but most lets want one once bookings pick up. The honest test is whether your current set-up loses you guests or eats your evenings.
If you have one cottage, a few enquiries a week and you answer fast, there’s no rush. Paying for software you barely use isn’t a win. If you have a shepherd’s hut with a hot tub that books out every weekend, or three pods on a farm listed on several sites, manual admin gets messy quickly.
Holiday let owners tend to say the same things. “I keep forgetting to block the dates.” “Someone asked for a weekend I’d already given away.” Those are the jobs a booking system takes over.
Three ways to take bookings
There are three common set-ups, and they sit on a ladder. You can start at the bottom and climb when you need to.
| Enquiry only | Request to book | Instant booking | |
|---|---|---|---|
| How it works | Guest sends a message, you reply | Guest picks dates and requests, you accept or decline | Guest picks free dates, pays and is confirmed |
| Needs software | Usually no | Usually yes | Yes |
| Payment | Arranged by you after the reply | After you accept | At the time of booking |
| Good for | New or quiet lets | Owners who want to vet guests or protect gaps | Busy lets and guests who book on mobile |
| Main risk | Slow replies lose guests | Guests wait for an answer | Dates must always be right |
Most guests know instant booking from the big listing sites, which is why it feels normal to them. That doesn’t mean your own site has to match it from the start.
Enquiry only
An enquiry-only site is a page showing your property, your prices and a form. It’s the cheapest way to take bookings and it works for plenty of small lets.
What’s good about it
- Low cost and simple to run.
- You talk to every guest before they arrive, which suits owners who like to know who’s staying.
- You can flex on prices or minimum stays for a longer booking.
What’s not so good
- Every booking depends on how fast you reply.
- You answer the same “is it free that weekend” question again and again.
- Dates are copied by hand, so mistakes creep in.
An enquiry form works much better with an availability calendar beside it. Guests can see what’s free before they ask, which cuts out the pointless messages. Our page on website availability calendars covers how that looks on a site.
Request to book
Request to book sits in the middle. The guest chooses dates and sends a request, and you accept or decline, usually within a set time.
It suits owners who want a say over who stays, such as a hut that’s popular with groups, or who need to protect a gap between longer stays. You keep control without writing back and forth about dates first.
The catch is the waiting. The guest has dates in mind and no answer yet, and they may look elsewhere. If you pick request to book, check your phone for requests often and answer the same day if you can.
Instant booking
Instant booking means the guest sees what’s free, pays and gets a confirmation without waiting for you. It’s the closest to how guests book on the big listing sites.
It suits busy lets, owners who can’t watch their inbox all day, and guests who browse on mobile and want to sort it there and then. It also means fewer back-and-forth messages for you.
The trade-off is that dates and rules must be right. Minimum stays, changeover days and seasonal prices all need setting up before the first guest books. If you’re also listed elsewhere, your calendars need to stay in step, otherwise two guests can book the same night. Calendars can sync with Airbnb, Booking.com, Canopy & Stars, CoolStays and others, and that’s worth setting up properly before you go live. Our anytime booking integration page explains one way to add online booking to a site.
What each option costs
Enquiry-only costs the least. A form and a calendar are often included in a website, and you pay nothing extra per booking.
Request to book and instant booking need a booking system, and systems charge in different ways. Some take a flat monthly fee. Some take a percentage of each booking. Some are free to start with paid add-ons. Each provider publishes its own pricing, so check the page for the one you’re looking at and work out what it would cost at your number of bookings.
Two costs apply whichever way you go.
- Card payments. Taking a payment online carries a fee from the payment provider.
- Your time. Chasing deposits, copying dates and answering repeat questions costs hours, even if it costs no money.
If you’re comparing an own-site booking system with a listing site, put the listing’s commission next to it. Millie the Hut’s site brought 42 direct bookings in its first year, which saved the owners over £3,000 in commission. Commission adds up, and that’s a big reason owners look at taking more bookings directly.
Taking bookings without software
You can run a holiday let without a booking system. Plenty of owners do, especially in the first season.
Millie the Hut shows how well a simple page can work. Its booking page puts an availability calendar, a short enquiry form and a seasonal rate card with midweek and weekend prices and minimum stays on one page. A guest can see what’s free and what it costs, then get in touch.
Guests then find what they need on one page, and you get fewer questions you’ve already answered. If you’re thinking about a site for your own let, our holiday let website design page shows what we build.
When to upgrade
Upgrade when the admin starts to cost you more than the software would. Most owners recognise the moment.
One or two of these is a nudge. Three or more means it’s time. The step up doesn’t need to be huge. Many owners move from enquiry only to request to book first, then to instant booking once they trust their calendar.
Listings and your own site
If you’re on Airbnb, Booking.com, Canopy & Stars or CoolStays, you already have a booking system of sorts. Those sites handle availability and payment for you, in return for commission.
A listing doesn’t stop guests looking for you directly. Even when someone finds a place on a listing site, they often search for the owner’s own website afterwards, hoping for a better deal or because they know the owner keeps more of the money. If they land on a site with no way to check dates or ask a question, many will go back to the listing.
That’s the case for having your own site with at least an enquiry form and a calendar, even if most of your bookings still come from listings. Tidy that up first, then add online booking when your volume asks for it.
FAQs
Do I need a booking system for my holiday let?
No, not always. A holiday let with a few bookings a month can run on an enquiry form and a calendar you keep up to date. A booking system earns its place once you’re answering the same date questions repeatedly, taking payments by hand, or listing on several sites and risking a double booking.
What is the difference between instant booking and request to book?
With instant booking, the guest picks free dates, pays and is confirmed straight away. With request to book, they choose dates and send a request, and you accept or decline before any payment is taken. Instant booking is faster for guests. Request to book gives you control over who stays and which gaps you fill.
Can I take holiday let bookings without software?
Yes. Many small lets run on a shared calendar, an enquiry form, and bank transfer or a payment link. It works while volumes are low and you reply quickly. The risks are slow replies, mistakes copying dates between calendars, and chasing deposits by hand, so move to software when those start costing you bookings or time.
Is an enquiry form enough for a holiday let website?
It can be, if the form asks for dates and guest numbers, the page shows what’s available and you reply the same day. The weak point is the wait. A guest who wants an answer now may book somewhere else while your reply is still sitting in your inbox.
When should I move to online booking?
Move when admin starts costing you bookings. Common signs are late replies, repeat availability questions, double bookings and deposits you chase by hand. Another sign is guests asking whether they can just book and pay online. At that point a booking system saves you time and stops guests drifting to a listing site.
Find out where your site stands
Send us your website and we’ll tell you, for free, what’s stopping it getting bookings. Start your free website audit or get in touch.