Leaving Hostaway because of the 2% booking fee?

Booking widget by clicking on monthly calendar date

Status: Requested 20 Votes
Kim C
Mar 16, 2021 6:14 PM
Joined Jul, 2020 4 posts

I would love the ability to allow guests to click on a date on the calendar and a booking widget uses this date to populate form to get pricing, quote or book.

yobergervilla
Feb 3, 2023 9:41 AM
Joined Jan, 2023 1 post

I am so surprised that this is not a feature.  At the very least, I need to figure out how to have the availability widget next to the book now widget so a back-and-forth clicking is avoided.

Russ
Feb 3, 2023 11:18 PM
Joined Jan, 2023 32 posts

+1

How is this not a feature already?  Potential guests can see the Availability but they can't interact with it.  This interactivity already exists when selecting Arrival/Departure dates, it's just not enabled on the Availability calendar.

Andrew and Brittney G
Mar 18, 2024 12:35 PM
Joined Oct, 2021 14 posts

Someone told me you can pare down the booking widget so that the phone/email fields aren't there...I think they meant required.  I wish at the very least you could remove them from showing.  It's likely hurting conversions if people think they have to input an email for a quote.  

Ken T
Mar 18, 2024 12:39 PM
Joined Aug, 2019 1706 posts

Someone told me you can pare down the booking widget so that the phone/email fields aren't there...I think they meant required.  I wish at the very least you could remove them from showing.  It's likely hurting conversions if people think they have to input an email for a quote.  

Yes, you can control whether the phone is required - there's a checkbox in the widget settings:

The email is required, because otherwise how do we send the guest a quote for them to accept.  Of course, a quick-quote can be displayed on the screen right away, but in order to actually book, yes we do need the email.

 

Tyler K
Mar 18, 2024 2:13 PM
Joined Dec, 2023 2 posts

Agreed that the ideal behavior here would be to be able to hide (not just disable) all fields. And even for email, but showing any fields at all up front, user psychology is affected—this is now a 'taking' area that requires something of them.

Ideally you wouldn't even see the email field until a second step after inputting dates, etc. and clicking a button. This creates a commitment ladder where a user becomes invested because they've inputted information and clicked a button, and *only then* they're asked for their email to get their result. This makes them much more likely to (1) decide to input the date information in the first place (because there was no up-front "taking" ask for any personal info like email) and (2) follow through to give their email (because by the time they're asked, they've already committed, and the sunk cost dynamic takes over (I've already come this far, I have to finish).

Andrew and Brittney G
Mar 18, 2024 2:26 PM
Joined Oct, 2021 14 posts

Agreed that the ideal behavior here would be to be able to hide (not just disable) all fields. And even for email, but showing any fields at all up front, user psychology is affected—this is now a 'taking' area that requires something of them.

Ideally you wouldn't even see the email field until a second step after inputting dates, etc. and clicking a button. This creates a commitment ladder where a user becomes invested because they've inputted information and clicked a button, and *only then* they're asked for their email to get their result. This makes them much more likely to (1) decide to input the date information in the first place (because there was no up-front "taking" ask for any personal info like email) and (2) follow through to give their email (because by the time they're asked, they've already committed, and the sunk cost dynamic takes over (I've already come this far, I have to finish).

by Tyler K – Mar 18, 2024 6:13 PM (UTC)

Yes, this is exactly what I'm after. 

Scott J
Mar 18, 2024 10:18 PM
Joined Mar, 2019 197 posts

I'm not getting what the issue is. On my website booking widget I put in the dates and number of guests, and the price pops up. What am I missing?

 

Tim K
Mar 20, 2024 1:46 PM
Joined Jul, 2017 77 posts

There are two widgets that I use that are different. There is the mini calendar widget and the booking widget. The minical widget only allows a guest to scroll the months. The calendar is not interactive so they can't choose dates from it or really do anything but scroll it. 

 

Then there is the booking widget: The widget allows guests to choose dates but the calendars aren't visible until the guest clicks on the check in and check out fields.

 

It would be nice if the mincal widget would at least allow the guest to click on it and jump to the booking widget, even better if they could select a date from the minical and jump into the booking widget with the date already chosen. 

Tim K
Mar 20, 2024 1:49 PM
Joined Jul, 2017 77 posts

 

I am so surprised that this is not a feature.  At the very least, I need to figure out how to have the availability widget next to the book now widget so a back-and-forth clicking is avoided.

 

I just have them stacked with the minical sitting above the booking widget. Not ideal but at least it is there. Still, it would be way better if the Calendar on the booking widget was open by default.