Prices and minimum stays: seasons in the panel and what the assistant quotes
How you set the nightly price, seasons and minimum stay for each property in the panel, and what the assistant tells a guest who asks whether dates are free and what they would cost.
Most owners who rent a house in Spain by the week do their sums on the back of an envelope, and the envelope has a problem: the price of the house is not one number. A farmhouse that makes sense at 110 euros a night in November is giving itself away at that price in the second week of August. This article is about how you write those prices down once in the panel, what the assistant does with them, and what stays your decision.
Where prices and seasons are set
In the Seasons tab of the panel you pick a property and set two defaults: the price per night and the minimum stay. On top of those you add seasons. Each has a name ("Summer" or "December bridge", say), dates (from day X to day Y, both included), a price per night and, if you want one, its own minimum stay.
The panel will not let you create two seasons for the same property that overlap, so a night never has two possible prices. The minimum stay that applies is the one belonging to the season of the arrival night, when it is higher than the property's default.
What the assistant does when someone asks about dates
By phone or chat, the assistant can check whether those dates are free in the single calendar: your own bookings, your blocks and the nights imported from Airbnb, Booking.com or Vrbo over iCal. If they are, it says what they would cost with your seasons, with a breakdown: nights, cleaning and tourist tax, with the deposit on top.
If any imported calendar has gone more than three hours without being read properly, it does not say the dates are free. It says it cannot check right now and passes the request on, so that you look at it.
What you decide
The assistant never confirms a booking. Everything remains a request that reaches your panel and your email, and that you accept or decline. The request stores the price the guest was told, so you see exactly what was quoted before you reply.
An example, with made-up numbers
Imagine a fictional house at 90 euros a night by default with a two-night minimum, and a season called "July", from 1 to 31 July, at 140 euros a night. A couple ask to arrive on 29 June and leave on 3 July: four nights. The first two (29 and 30 June) are at the default price, 180 euros; the two July nights are at the season price, 280 euros. With 50 euros of cleaning and 8 euros of sample tourist tax, the assistant says that according to the calendar the dates are free and would cost 518 euros, with the deposit on top. The arrival night is not in the season, so the property's own minimum applies. It takes a phone number, leaves the request with that price, and you accept it in the morning.
What it does not do
- It is not a real-time channel manager: StaySuite reads the iCal calendars roughly every 20 minutes and each portal re-reads ours at its own pace. That is why, when an imported calendar has gone more than three hours without being read properly, the assistant does not claim the dates are free.
- It does not confirm bookings: it creates a request and you decide.
- It does not take online payment. You agree the payment and the deposit with the guest as you already did, outside StaySuite.
- It is not a revenue manager: it does not adjust your rates to demand. The prices are the ones you write.
Who it suits, and which plan
It suits an owner whose offer changes through the year and who wants the assistant and the website to give the right price for each date without answering every question personally. The assistant, the seasons and the calendar are part of every plan: €29 a month for one property on the annual rate (pioneer price, excluding VAT, with the normal rate at €59), €49 for up to three properties and €99 for the manager plan with up to ten.
To see how it works, open the demo, ask the assistant about some dates and a price, and look at the request in your panel afterwards.