Flexible Stays is a powerful feature that helps you maximize your rental income by opening up bookable nights during calendar gaps that would normally remain unavailable due to your minimum-stay requirements or fixed check-in and check-out settings. By enabling this feature, you can capture short-stay demand and fill periods between reservations that would otherwise go unboooked.

Understanding Flexible Stays

Calendar gaps are the purple-marked nights on your booking calendar that fall between existing reservations. Normally, these gaps may be too short to accept bookings based on your property's minimum-stay rules. Flexible Stays allows you to temporarily adjust these restrictions, making those nights available to guests without changing your standard property settings.

How to Activate Flexible Stays

You can enable Flexible Stays from two locations in your Holidu account. Both options lead to the same result, so choose whichever is most convenient for you.

Method 1: From the Discounts Section

1. Log in to your Holidu account and select your property
2. Navigate to Configuration on the left-hand sidebar
3. Scroll down and click on Discounts
4. Scroll to the bottom of the page to find the option labeled "Fill short gaps between reservations"
5. Click Configure to open the Flexible Stays settings
6. Select your preferred minimum stay length for gap periods: 1, 2, or 3 nights
7. Set your pricing for these gap nights, which can be up to 50% higher than your standard rate per night
8. Click Activate to enable the feature

Method 2: From the Calendar Section

You can also access and configure Flexible Stays directly from your calendar view. The steps are similar, and the final configuration will be identical to the Discounts section method.

Key Benefits of Flexible Stays

• Increase Booking Volume: Short-stay nights become available during peak seasons when demand is highest, converting previously unbookable gaps into revenue opportunities
• Capture Market Demand: Over 20% of peak-season searches are specifically for short stays, representing significant untapped demand
• Build Your Review Profile: Every new booking creates an opportunity for guest feedback and reviews, which strengthen your property's credibility
• Improve Search Visibility: Properties with more available dates and bookable gaps typically perform better in Holidu search rankings
• Reduce Administrative Work: Automated gap-filling means you won't need to manually adjust your calendar settings for each individual gap

Important Considerations

How Flexible Stays Impacts Your Calendar

• Flexible Stays only affects existing calendar gaps where your current property settings prevent bookings
• When activated, this setting temporarily overrides your standard minimum-stay requirements and fixed check-in/check-out day rules
• Check-in and check-out days become flexible for these gap bookings, allowing guests to arrive and depart on any day
• Flexible Stay bookings will appear with special tags or indicators in your calendar for easy identification

Booking and Pricing Rules

• When a guest books a Flexible Stay, the special pricing and stay requirements you set apply only to that specific booking period
• Your standard property rates and minimum-stay rules remain in effect for all other bookings outside of these gap periods
• You can adjust the pricing premium (up to 50% above your standard nightly rate) to reflect the short-stay nature of these bookings

Managing Your Settings

• You retain full control over your calendar and can manually block any specific dates you prefer to keep unavailable
• Flexible Stays settings can be modified or disabled at any time through the same configuration menu
• Changes to your Flexible Stays settings take effect immediately on your booking calendar

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I exclude specific dates from Flexible Stays?

Flexible Stays applies to all gap nights that meet your configured settings. However, you maintain the ability to manually block any individual dates you wish to keep unavailable. Simply use your calendar's blocking feature to prevent bookings on specific dates, and those dates will remain unavailable regardless of your Flexible Stays settings.

Will Flexible Stays change my property's standard settings?

No. Flexible Stays operates independently of your property's default settings. Your minimum-stay requirements, check-in and check-out day restrictions, and standard pricing remain unchanged. Flexible Stays only affects the gap nights between existing reservations and will not impact bookings made outside these gap periods.

Can I modify my Flexible Stays configuration later?

Yes. You can update, adjust, or disable Flexible Stays at any time. Changes to your minimum-stay length, pricing premium, or the feature's activation status can all be modified through the same configuration menu. Simply navigate back to either the Discounts or Calendar section and adjust your settings as needed.

How is pricing calculated for Flexible Stays bookings?

You set a specific nightly rate for Flexible Stays bookings during the configuration process, which can be up to 50% higher than your standard nightly rate. This premium pricing compensates you for the shorter stay and helps offset any additional turnover costs associated with shorter booking periods.

Will guests be aware that they're booking a Flexible Stay?

Guests will see your special Flexible Stays pricing and conditions when booking gap nights, but the booking experience remains seamless. They'll notice the different nightly rate and any minimum-stay requirement you've set for these gap periods.

How often should I check my Flexible Stays bookings?

Flexible Stays bookings appear tagged in your calendar for easy identification. We recommend reviewing your calendar regularly to monitor which gaps are filling and track the success of your Flexible Stays settings. This data can help you optimize your pricing and minimum-stay requirements over time.