The bookable units app in Lodgify is a way of adding several identical units of a particular rental. If you configure units in Lodgify and connect to external channels such as Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb or HomeAway/Vrbo via API, you will need to consider how to map them correctly. In the following, we will explain how this works for each channel.
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General concept
To make sure we understand correctly how bookable units work, let's look at a quick example.
🔎 Example: If you own a compound with 4 standard bungalows. You could set up one rental for the standard bungalows in Lodgify and use the bookable units to configure that you have 4 of these. This allows you to sell the same rental 4 times for a particular date.
In Lodgify, rentals are identified by an ID number, units are not. So you need to be aware that Lodgify cannot connect individual units from Lodgify with separate listings in HomeAway/VRBO or Airbnb, or with separate rooms in Booking.com and Expedia.
| Setup in Lodgify | Setup in OTA | Mapping |
1 rental A in Lodgify with units:
|
1 rental/room/listing A (which includes units) | ✔️ mapping possible |
1 rental A in Lodgify with units:
|
1st rental/room/listing 2nd rental/room/listing 3rd rental/room/listing |
❌ mapping not possible |
How bookable units work with OTA
If you are using units in Lodgify, all units will be sent to Booking.com, Expedia, Airbnb and HomeAway/Vrbo and you will need to make sure that you follow the same structure in the OTA as in Lodgify. To make it clearer, let's look at an example.
🔎 Example: In Lodgify you have a rental called Property A (with ID 12345). For this rental, you have 4 identical units and so you are using Bookable Units in Lodgify. These 4 units do not have individual ID numbers in Lodgify, but all belong to Rental ID 12345.
➡ In Booking.com/Expedia/HomeAway/Vrbo you should therefore have the same structure: 1 property (e.g. with ID 456789) which you would like to sell 4 times.
💡 Note: On Airbnb, you will not be able to set up multiple units per listing, but once the connection with the channel manager is enabled the units will be sent one by one.
Lodgify will then connect your Lodgify rental Property A (with ID 12345) with your (e.g.) Booking.com property (ID 456789). Once connected, Lodgify will keep sending availability for all dates until all 4 units are booked.
Bookable units and iCal
If you are connected to an external channel via iCal, the bookable units will not work, as in this case, the moment a rental with bookable units has one booking, an iCal closed period will be blocking the calendar and all units will be automatically blocked.