Until now, with Sitely (ex Sparkle), anyone who needed to display booking calendars on their site (rentals, accommodation, etc.) was bound to feel a bit frustrated. Calendly, 10to8, and Houfy are rather restrictive subscription-based cloud solutions that rarely achieve their objective with a satisfactory workflow. You could embed a Google Calendar via an <iframe> in a code block, but those tend to look pretty ugly and offer very little customization. The only real alternative, as I ended up doing myself, was a DIY approach cobbled together with personal code and workarounds of varying practicality and safety.
But here’s the thing: Sitely V7 now offers a direct CalDAV link to platforms that support this protocol, iCal and Google chief among them. And that changes everything! You can now fine-tune the calendar’s appearance and behavior to match your site’s theme exactly, and best of all, updates happen completely automatically, almost in real time with iCloud or Google!
You can check out a live implementation here:
Honestly, in my opinion, this is one of the standout new features in V7 !
This looks really brilliant but handling is still not nice, is it? If one wants to book and clicks/presses “I want one”, the input for date(s) is unsatisfying. Would be nice to click on a date and have this date already being shown or so?
But to have the styling in hands is gorgeous, yes.
What you are describing is similar to how platforms such as Airbnb or Booking.com work. However, it requires an entire front-end/back-end system that goes far beyond simple calendar management :
If users can select and book their own dates directly through the calendar, they must be able to complete the entire booking process independently. So the website needs to handle all the informations and interactions involved in an actual reservation, including payment processing. At a minimum, this requires a database and a significant amount of JavaScript and PHP development—not to mention the security issues involved. Furthermore, if the rooms are also listed on OTAs such as Airbnb or Booking.com, availability must be automatically synchronized across all calendars to prevent double bookings. In short, it is a real development project and goes far beyond the scope of Sitely
In this case, the best turnkey option is probably the Houfy solution and its widget, which provides this functionality. The entire booking workflow is managed and hosted by Houfy, although, naturally, this comes with subscription costs.
There is another point worth considering: I offer three charming guest rooms, not a 200-room Holiday Inn hotel. I therefore try to build a personal and human relationship with my guests. In this context, a booking request is useful because it allows me to reply by phone or email, creating an immediate personal connection and a more welcoming relationship.
I therefore try to build a personal and human relationship with my guests. In this context, a booking request is useful because it allows me to reply by phone or email, creating an immediate personal connection and a more welcoming relationship.