Holiday let websites and direct bookings
ROISynth builds holiday let owners a website that takes bookings direct, keeps every booking on one calendar whatever route it came in by, and sends guests everything the house can’t tell them — because nobody is there when they arrive.
Saturday, twenty past four. The cleaner has just left, the next family is on the motorway, and your phone lights up: where is the key safe, what’s the wifi, is there a supermarket open on a Saturday evening?
You answer from a car park forty miles away. Then the same three questions arrive from the other cottage, and a new enquiry for October sits unread underneath them.
A holiday let is the only kind of accommodation where the host is never in the building, so every question the house can’t answer lands on one phone.
Who this page is for
Owners and managers of self-catering holiday cottages, flats, cabins and short-stay homes: properties with no reception, guests who arrive on their own, changeovers squeezed between one departure and the next arrival, and bookings that come in from listing sites and from guests who book direct.
What does ROISynth build for a holiday let?
A site for the property with its own booking page and payment, one calendar that every booking lands in whichever route it arrived by, and a guest guide — access, parking, heating, bins, the nearest shop — sent before arrival so the guest has it before they need it.
The booking arrives without anyone typing it into a second calendar, and a guest who has stayed once can find you directly next time.
What goes wrong with a holiday let that doesn’t in a hotel?
There is no one to ask. A hotel guest walks to the desk; your guest opens their phone and messages you, whatever time it is and wherever you are. Most of those questions have the same answers every week.
The other failure is the double booking. Two routes into the same dates and a calendar updated by hand is how a family turns up to a cottage that somebody else is already in.
How do bookings and questions reach a holiday let?
Bookings come through listing sites and direct; questions come by message, mostly on changeover day and on the first evening. The bookings need to end up in one place, and the questions need answering before they are asked.
Guests who stayed last year are the easiest bookings you will ever take, if they can reach you without the listing site standing in the middle.
How does it fit around changeover day?
Every booking on one screen means the changeover is planned from the calendar rather than from memory, and the cleaner can see the same dates you see. The guide goes to the incoming guest the day before without you sending it.
When you change the price for half term or add photos of the new kitchen, you do it yourself and the site shows the change.
What does a holiday let owner own at the end?
The property’s website, the booking record and the list of guests who stayed, in accounts in your name, with the code yours.
The guest list is the part the listing sites never hand over. With it, the family who loved the cottage in August can be asked about next year directly.
What actually changes, in the order it matters to you.
- An order in one place turns up everywhere else it needs to be, without anyone retyping it.
- Every customer hears from you at the right moment, and nobody sends one by hand.
- Money's collected, receipts go out, and nothing gets chased.
- One screen tells you where everything stands.
- Your prices and photos change when you say so, without waiting on anyone.
- Someone who left without buying gets a reason to come back.
- It reads properly on a phone, which is where most of them are.
The audit will show you what somebody sees when they search for your cottage by name — your own page, or a listing site charging you commission for the same guest.
Questions people ask
- Can bookings from different places end up on one calendar?
- Yes — one calendar that every booking lands in whichever route it arrived by, and each booking arrives without anyone typing it into a second calendar.
- How do guests get the key safe and wifi details?
- In a guest guide — access, parking, heating, bins, the nearest shop — sent before arrival so the guest has it before they need it.
- How does a holiday let end up double booked?
- Two routes into the same dates and a calendar updated by hand is how a family turns up to a cottage that somebody else is already in.
- Can my cleaner see the changeover dates?
- Yes. The changeover is planned from the calendar rather than from memory, and the cleaner can see the same dates you see.
Want to talk through how this would fit your business? Message on WhatsApp, or send a message and it reaches the person who would do the work.