Set up minimum length of stay restrictions that complement your revenue strategy, on NightsBridge, using Minimum Stays. This tool helps you restrict shorter stays and encourage longer booking.
Navigate to Availability Conditions
- Select 'Rates & Rules' from the Main Menu
- Select 'Availability Conditions'.
Add the Minimum Stay
- Click 'Minimum Stays'.
- Click 'Add New'.
Add a Note
- Type in a note to help you identify the reason or purpose of the restriction.
In this example, the restriction is for peak season, so we've added this as the note - helping to distinguish it from other Minimum Length of Stay restrictions.
Set the applied date range
Click on the 'Choose a date range' field to open the calendar widget.
- Click on a date to select the restriction start date.
- Now, click on a date to select the end date.
- Once you have selected a start and end date, the calendar widget will close and the selected end date will display
Overlapping Minimum Stays
Minimum stay rules can sometimes apply to the same dates.
When two minimum stay restrictions overlap, the rule with the longer minimum stay will apply.
For example:
If a 3-night minimum stay overlaps with a 2-night minimum stay, the 3-night minimum stay will apply to those overlapping dates.
Specify the Minimum Stay duration
- Type in the minimum number of nights required.
To allow one-night bookings, make sure there are no minimum stay restrictions applied to the dates in question.
You cannot create a minimum stay of one night, as one night is already the default minimum.
The only time you may see “Minimum stay: 1 night” is under “All Other Nights” when you have applied a minimum stay to only certain days of the week.
Setting up minimum stays for specific arrival days
Set the days of the week that the restriction should apply to.
The restriction will have all the days of the week selected by default.
- Select or deselect the days of the week accordingly - leaving the days of the week selected that you want the restriction to be applied to.
- If you've decided to apply the restriction to select days of the week, you'll have the option to set the minimum length of stay for the days other days that fall within the date range.
Select the room type(s) that the minimum stay applies to
All room types will be selected as a default.
- Tick to select the room type(s) that this minimum stay restriction will be applied to.
- Alternatively, you can switch the toggle on 'Yes' to apply the restriction to all room types or units.
Ignore rule
By default, the Ignore Rule will be set to 'No', but the system can be set to ignore the restriction for last minute bookings.
To ignore the minimum stay rule and accept last minute bookings regardless of the restriction:
- Change the toggle switch to 'Yes'.
- Type in the number of days prior to arrival the restriction should be ignored.
Example: In the imaged example, 1 day is indicated.
Should a guest search for availability 1 day before their arrival date, the minimum stay restriction will be ignored and a one-night booking will be possible.
This is a way you can have a minimum stay restriction in place, without harming your last-minute booking strategy and losing any last-minute bookings.
The ignore rule will only apply to channels using the NightsBridge Booking Engine.
The Ignore Rule is not sent to Booking.com in the same way it updates on your Booking Engine.
Instead, the system adjusts the minimum stay by only sending it to Booking.com after the number of nights set in the Ignore Rule.
Example:
If your Ignore Rule is set to 3 nights and you have a minimum stay restriction in place, the minimum stay will only apply from 3 days after today.
So, if today is the 19th, the minimum stay restriction will start on the 22nd.
Click on Save
Once you have filled in all steps that apply to the Minimum Stay you are setting up, click 'Save'. This will update to your booking form and booking channels.
This minimum stay will now update to your NightsBridge booking engine and booking channels.
- You can follow our tutorial 'How to test your rates online' to check that everything is working as expected.