Direct booking engine for hospitality operators

Somebody wants to book your place. So they do. Online. Correctly.

Guests search your real availability, see the real total, hold what they picked and pay by card. The ones who leave halfway become a follow-up in your CRM, not a mystery.

A guest booking online, from search to confirmedBooking engine

A guest books a site on the booking page of Juniper Lake RV Resort, from search to confirmed. She searches July 17 to 20 for 2 adults and 1 child, and adds her rig, a 32 foot travel trailer with 2 slide-outs, which is optional. Results come back grouped by site type with photos: Pull-through 50 amp is open from $68 a night; Lakeside back-in 30 amp says rig not supported, with the park’s message that its lakeside sites fit rigs up to 28 feet; the Lakeside cabin shows a 4-night minimum instead of Sold out; the tent sites are sold out. She selects the pull-through. Checkout starts and site 12 is held for her with a countdown from 15 minutes, and on the front desk calendar the same site shows as a hold. She types her name, Dana Whitfield, and her email, confirms her rig, and enters the promo code SUMMER10, which takes $20.40 off; the taxes are repriced and the total goes from $240.90 to $218.46. On the pay step, $109.23 is due today under a 50% deposit, with the balance charged July 10. She pays by card. The thank-you page shows confirmation number JL-30417, the dates, the site type, the rate plan Summer nightly, the promo code, what was paid and the balance, and the calendar shows her reservation confirmed. Beside it, the six funnel steps tick as she goes: searched, viewed a site type, started checkout, gave details, reached payment, booked.

Direct booking software with live availability and rates

Real availability. The real total. And a name for everyone who left.

It only sells what you actually have.

The booking page searches the same inventory and rates your team books from. Every hold is a real reservation, admitted through the same check your staff use, so two guests can’t hold the same unit.

  • Same inventory as your front desk
  • Holds with a countdown, then released
  • Only the rate plans you choose

Two guests on the booking page want the last Pull-through 50 amp site for July 17 to 20. Guest A selects it first, and site 12 is held for her with a countdown; the front desk calendar shows the same hold, as a real reservation. Guest B tries a moment later and sees it sold out: it can’t be sold twice. Guest A leaves the checkout, and the hold is released right away. Guest B selects it again and now holds it. Below, the rate plans offered online are Summer nightly and Summer weekly; the Monthly plan is not offered, because only the plans you switch on sell online.

What they see is what they pay. Revolutionary, apparently.

You decide how each fee appears: itemized, in the rent, in the tax, or grouped into a package. The total on screen is the one checkout charges, and what’s due today follows your deposit policy.

  • Itemize, package or fold fees in
  • Due today follows your deposit policy
  • Promo codes show what they took off

A photo of a couple on a sofa, smiling, one holding a card and the other a phone. Over it, their checkout summary for a Pull-through 50 amp site, July 17 to 20, on the Summer nightly rate: site rent 3 nights at $68, $204; resort fee $15; taxes $21.90; total $240.90. The promo code SUMMER10 is applied and shows $20.40 off; the taxes are repriced to $19.86 and the total counts down to $218.46. Then due today: $109.23, under the park’s 50% deposit policy, with $109.23 scheduled for July 10. Charged $109.23, not a cent more. A note reads: The total they saw is the total they paid.

They closed the tab. You kept the email.

Once a guest types a name and an email or phone, a trip opens in the CRM. If the hold expires, it’s flagged for recovery, and a sequence can follow up or hand your team the task.

  • Abandoned checkouts become CRM trips
  • Followed up by sequence or by task
  • The funnel, from search to booked

The Booking Engine page in CRM, on the last 30 days, published. The Abandoned checkouts table, 7 guests who gave their details but did not pay, each with a trip opportunity. Marcus Lee, July 24 to 27, Pull-through 50 amp on Summer nightly, $231, left 2 hours ago; Priya Raman, a Lakeside cabin in August, with one declined card; Tom Becker, a week in August. Marcus picked a site, typed his name and email, and never paid. Open trip goes to his opportunity: Quoted, from the booking engine, $231, and because the hold expired it is flagged Abandoned checkout with the next step Recover abandoned booking. The sequence trigger Guest abandons booking fires, and two hours later either an email tells him his site is still open, or a high priority task asks your team to call him, with the stop rule Guest books.

It knows the house rules. It enforces them.

Pet, children and minimum-age policies apply by property, unit type or unit. Minimum stays show on the card instead of Sold out, and a rig that won’t fit an RV site is turned away with your message.

  • Policies set once, applied everywhere
  • Minimum stays shown, not Sold out
  • Rig length checked on RV sites

A photo of a couple relaxing outside a lit silver travel trailer at a campsite at dusk. Over it, the guest’s rig, a 32 foot travel trailer with 2 slide-outs, for July 17 to 20, checked against each site type: Pull-through 50 amp fits; Lakeside back-in 30 amp says rig not supported, with the park’s own message, our lakeside sites fit rigs up to 28 feet, try a pull-through; the Lakeside cabin shows a 4-night minimum rather than Sold out. Then a pets policy: allowed on the property, not allowed on the Lakeside cabin site type. Set once, and the most specific setting wins. A note reads: Found out before they hitched up.

Booking engine features for direct bookings

The whole booking, start to finish. We didn’t skip the boring parts.

Search by dates and party

Direct booking engine FAQs

Reasonable questions.

What is a direct booking engine?

A direct booking engine lets guests search, choose and pay for a stay on your booking page, with no channel in between. In ApexOS it books against the same inventory, rates and policies your team uses, so it never sells a night you don’t have.

Does the booking engine show live availability?

Yes. Search runs on the same inventory your staff book from, and every hold is a real reservation, so two guests can’t hold the same unit. Guests see the rate plans you choose to offer online.

What happens when somebody abandons a booking?

If they gave a name and an email or phone, a trip opens in the CRM. When the hold expires it’s flagged for recovery, a sequence can follow up, and the abandoned checkouts list shows who left and what they were quoted.

Can we control how fees are shown to guests?

Yes. Each fee can be itemized, carried in the rent or the tax, or grouped into a named package, and each still maps to its own accounting code whatever the guest sees.

Can guests use a promo code on the booking engine?

Yes, at checkout. A code has to be one you set up and has to meet your rules for booking window, stay length, blackout dates and redemption caps. A code that takes nothing off is refused.

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Somebody nearly booked with you yesterday. Want to know who?