Guests can now explore your packages instantly – no room or date selection needed. Forms are smoother with custom text limits, booking requests are quicker with optional room types, and you have more control over room selection and display.
What’s new for hoteliers?
1. Packages section on the Booking Engine now works independently from room booking
The Packages section has been redesigned to work on its own, no longer tied to room selection. Before, guests had to choose dates and rooms before seeing your available offers.
Now, when they click on the “Packages” tab in the Booking Engine, they’ll immediately see all available packages – no extra steps required. This includes both date-specific deals and open-date vouchers.
For packages that require a chosen arrival date, guests will see a calendar directly inside the package card and can select dates there, without going back to the main calendar.
2. Set character limits in guest form text fields
In the Guest settings, you can now set a maximum character length for any custom text fields in your guest forms. This means guests won’t be able to enter more text than allowed, which helps keep form responses clean and easy to process. This update applies across both the Booking Engine and Kiosk interfaces.
3. Preselect number of adults in monthly rentals
For properties that offer long-term stays, we’ve enhanced the monthly rent calendar with a new setting that allows you to predefine the number of adults in a booking. This saves guests from having to manually enter that information every time, especially for standard occupancy bookings.
You’ll find this option in the Booking Engine settings, under the Booking Preferences section. Set your preferred default, and it will automatically appear in the calendar for guests.
4. Room type is now optional in booking request forms
When a guest sends a booking request, they are no longer required to choose a room type. This small but impactful change makes the form quicker to fill out, especially for undecided guests or those booking on behalf of someone else. It also gives your team more flexibility to assign room types later based on availability, preferences, or upselling opportunities.
5. New toggle for room quantity and specific room selection
We’ve added a new toggle under Direct Sales > Booking Engine that gives you full control over how guests choose their accommodations. If the “Allow room selection” setting is turned on, guests will be able to choose how many rooms they want to book or even select a specific room number.
If you prefer a simplified booking process or want to maintain full control over room allocation, you can hide these fields entirely.
6. Display room size as a single value or range
You now have more flexibility in how room size is displayed to your guests. Instead of only being able to show a single square meter figure, you can now enter a size range, for example, “20–25 m².”
This is especially useful for room types that vary slightly in layout or size, giving guests a better sense of what to expect. If no value is entered, the room size field will automatically be hidden from the guest interface.
7. New time selection settings for service bookings
You can now manage how guests select time slots when booking services without resource dependencies. Head to In-House > Settings, open any service, and turn on the Time options toggle. A new portal toggle called “Turn off automated time choosing” lets you decide whether guests can pick a date and time for a simple service.
When enabled, the time picker will be hidden, giving your staff full control over scheduling. If left off, guests can choose their preferred time slots as usual.
8. Minor fixes and visual improvements
- ● Unified button styles across the Booking Engine to match the latest design.
- ● Deal editing improvements in the cart – sales period and deal dates now sync more accurately.
- ● Better display of package descriptions in the modal window.
- ● Child selection and validation improved for monthly rentals.
- ● Clear error messages in self-check-in modals for better user guidance.
- ● Enhanced layout for the Rooms block in both the Booking Engine and Guest Forms.
Our team is dedicated to continuously enhancing your one-of-a-kind experience. If you have ideas on how we can make HotelFriend even better for you, reach out to us – we’re ready to listen.
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