Before we get started, users should know that Minimum Stay Restrictions are used to control how long a booking should be on certain dates. These settings should be used with a knowledge of your market, and the kind of bookings you want to get. 

How to set minimum stay restrictions? 

Next, head to the "Stay Restrictions" tab.

Once you toggle on the "Minimum Stay Update" option to see a larger menu will open up.

Here's how you can use the available options:

1. Select a minimum-stay profile: There are two available options here -
   
1. If you have an appropriate min-stay profile saved on your account, you can just use that profile instead of entering all the fields again (more on min-stay profiles later in this article!).
   
2. If you want to enter custom values, you can choose the custom option and fill in the fields below as desired.
   
2. Default Min Stay Rule: This is the default setting that'll be applied to any dates that don't have one of the special rules that can be applied as an exception. You can choose one of three values:
   
   • Fixed (most common): You can choose a default minimum stay to be set for weekdays and weekends. You must set a min-stay in each box, and must enter a number greater than zero.
     
   • Booking Value: If the value in the box is 300 (currency same as that of the listing), then we calculate a minimum stay for the check-in date such that a booking value less than 300 is not possible. As an example, if the prices for 5 consecutive dates between 2 bookings is (100, 200, 150, 100, 200), then the minimum nights for those dates will be (2, 2, 3, 2, 2) where the values will be calculated like this: 100+200=2 night, 200+15=2 nights, 150+100+200=3 nights, 100+200=2 nights. If your primary focus is revenue then this is a good fit for you.
   • None (rarely used): This implies that by default we won't apply a minimum stay for your listing. You won't be able to save any of the special options below. (If you already have settings saved for last-minute, orphan, or far-out bookings from our previous UI, those will continue to apply as before - we recommend turning these off if choosing "None").
     
3. Minimum Stay for Last Minute Bookings: You can specify a minimum nights length and specify how many days out this should become active. In the image above, we have set the next 7 days to have a 1-night minimum requirement for weekdays, and 2-nights for weekends - this can greatly increase the chances of getting last-minute bookings which tend to be shorter in length. You can specify up to 3 last-minute min-night rules.
   
4. Minimum Stay for Far Out Bookings: You can specify a minimum nights length and how far out this should be active. In the example above, we have set a 7-night minimum stay more than 180 days out. This is useful to try and fill up your calendar with longer bookings far out, and allow regular 3-night minimum in the main booking window (depends on your location!). You can specify up to 3 last min-night rules. 
   
5. Minimum Stay for Orphan Bookings: You can specify that any of the above minimum nights rules be overridden if the default minimum nights rule is longer than an orphan gap in bookings, so a 2-night gap will not be adjusted if your default min-stay is for one night. To turn on this setting you should also have a default minimum stay rule in place so a gap length can be determined. You get a few different options in the drop-down (each of these is activated only if the min-stay setting needs to be reduced to accommodate a booking):
   
   • Length of Gap: For any gap of length specified in the box (in the example above, gaps between 1 and 4 days), we will set the minimum to be the same as the length of the gap. If you are using a value-based default minimum stay, this will change the daily rates of the orphan period to meet your required booking value.
     
   • (Length of Gap - 1): For any gap of length specified in the box (in the example above, gaps between 1 and 4 days), we will set the minimum stay to be one night shorter than the length of the gap. This is useful because it might be pretty hard to fill a 4-day gap with an exactly 4-night booking, but somewhat easier to find a 3-night booking (though it will leave a 1-day gap open). Note that 1-day gaps will stay at a 1-night minimum. If you are using a valued-based default minimum stay then the daily rates for orphan periods will be adjusted so that the shortest stay allowed meets the minimum booking value required. 
     
   • Choose a number: If the value in the box is 1 (as in the example), then we will apply a 1-night minimum for all days in gaps between 1 and 4 days. 
     
6.  Minimum Stay for Adjacent Bookings: These settings allow you to modify the minimum stays of the dates before and after bookings. It was primarily designed to allow users to take shorter bookings when they don't create a gap night. 
   
1. Adjacent bookings BEFORE an existing booking/block: These settings are useful to specify what kind of bookings you're ok taking before another existing booking/blocked date. In the example above, we're saying that a 2-night booking is okay to take if it starts 2 nights before an existing unavailable date (thus resulting in no gap days).
   
2. Adjacent bookings AFTER an existing booking/block:  These settings are useful to specify what kind of bookings you're ok taking after another existing booking/blocked date, and can also be used to avoid orphan gaps from being created after a booking.
   
1. You can specify if you are OK with a shorter booking after an existing reservation, as long as it doesn't create a gap.
   
2. Prevent gap creation: more on this soon.
   
7.  Lowest Minimum Stay Allowed: This option is like minimum price, but for minstays. This rule has the highest priority of all rules, and does not allow the minstay to go below it (even with date specific overrides). It can be useful to set at a listing's-level for a listing that requires a higher minstay, so that group customizations or DSO's does not reduce the minstay beyond what's set up here.
   

Group and Account level minimum stay restrictions