Preventing gap creation using minstay settings

The latest updates allow all PriceLabs users to prevent orphan gaps from appearing in their calendars by using minstay rules for adjacent days after an unavailable night.

Before You Start

1. Consider Check-in/Check-out Restrictions
   
2. If your PMS or channel manager supports check-in/check-out restrictions, you may benefit from using PriceLabs’ Smart Check-in and Check-out feature. This can help manage availability gaps even more smoothly.
   
3. Learn more about Smart Check-in/Check-out here
   
4. The feature allow minstay increase is only available by request. Reach out to our support team at support@pricelabs.co and request that the feature be enabled on your account. Once this feature is enabled, you'll need check the 'allow minstay increase' box in your minimum stay settings.

Setting your minimum stay rules to discourage or prevent orphan gaps from being created in your calendar

As mentioned, you'll need to use rules for 'Adjacent days after unavailable nights'. Let's say your default minimum stay is 3-nights, then start by setting a minimum stay for the first night after a booking as 3-nights. This ensures that guests must stay for at least 3 nights if it's a back-to-back reservation.

To access the 'Adjacent days after unavailable nights' min stay rule, just click the 'More Advanced options' at the bottom right corner of the Minimum Stay Settings.

Next, set a minimum stay of 7-nights for the second night after the booking. This will discourage new reservations starting that day, unless they are for at least 7 nights (Screenshot).

However, if your goal is to completely avoid 1-night gaps, you can set a higher value, such as a '99' nights minimum (Screenshot 2).

If you'd also like to prevent 2-night gaps on your calendar, you can just apply the 7 (or 99)-night minimum 'within 3 nights after an unavailable night' (screenshot 3).

By implementing this rule, if a new reservation is booked starting on day 4, you will have a 3-night gap between reservations. While still not ideal, this gap may be easier to fill than a 1 or 2-night gap.

Overall, these rules will help you to maximize your occupancy rate and minimize any gaps in your calendar. 

It's important to note that the minimum stay rules for orphan gaps have a higher priority than the minimum stay rules for adjacent days. This means that if a conflict arises between the two rules, the minimum stay rules for orphan gaps will take precedence.

To better understand the hierarchy between all the minimum stay rules, you can click here to view a detailed list.

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