Beds24 is an all-in-one property and channel management system for every type and size of property business, from a single vacation rental to a property management company. You manage your properties, prices, bookings, sales channels and booking page in one control panel, and you set it all up yourself.
Table of Contents
- How Beds24 works
- What you need to use Beds24
- The control panel
- Main functions
- Use Beds24 on mobile devices
- Help and support
How Beds24 works
Everything in Beds24 is built on three ideas:
- Properties: you can manage one or many properties. A property can be a vacation rental, hotel, hostel, B&B, holiday house, apartment house, campground or similar.
- Rooms: each property is divided into rooms, the units guests book. Every property has at least one room. If you rent a property as a whole, such as a vacation rental, you create one room that represents the entire property. A property can have several room types, and each room type can have several units.
- Availability: Beds24 calculates availability for each room from the bookings in the system and the prices you've set. A date without a price shows no availability, so keep your bookings and prices up to date.
For how to structure your properties and rooms, see How to setup Properties. For the terms used across Beds24, see the Beds24 glossary.
What you need to use Beds24
Beds24 is self-service, and setup is free. You need:
- a computer with internet access
- to be comfortable using a browser and following online help to do your own setup
To get started, follow How to Do the initial Setup.
The control panel
The control panel has five main areas. Click Help at the top right of any page for help with that page.
| Area | What you do there |
|---|---|
| Dashboard | See the information most relevant to you at a glance. The content is fully customisable. |
| Calendar | Get a complete overview of your bookings, prices and inventory. Adjust prices, inventory and availability, and add bookings. |
| Bookings | Work with all your bookings. Bookings from your channels are imported through the channel manager, and bookings from your booking page are added automatically. You can also enter offline bookings manually. |
| Prices | Set up almost unlimited combinations of prices and discounts. |
| Settings (cog icon, top right) | Configure Beds24 to match your pricing, strategy and conditions. You only need to fill in the settings you use. |
Dashboard
Calendar
Bookings
Main functions
Automation
Beds24 automates price and availability distribution, messaging, payment collection and changes to bookings when conditions you define are met. See How to use Automation.
Channel manager
The channel manager updates every sales channel when you get a new booking. Turn it on in Settings > Channel Manager. Click Help at the top right of that page for how it works and links to the setup for each channel. See How the Channel Manager works.
Booking engine
Your booking page shows availability and prices and lets guests book directly online. Customise it fully in Settings > Booking Engine. See How to setup the Booking Page.
The booking page shows your offers. An offer is a price combined with booking conditions. Each room has one or more offers, and Offer 1 is your standard offer, always shown to guests.
Booking widgets connect your website to your booking page: booking buttons, booking boxes, booking strips and calendars. Customise them and get the code in Settings > Booking Engine > Booking Widgets, then paste it into your website, or ask your web designer to. To do it yourself you need to be able to edit your website's HTML. See How to use Widgets.
Use Beds24 on mobile devices
The control panel is responsive: open it in the browser on any phone or tablet and it adjusts to your screen, with access to every Beds24 function.
- When you log in from a mobile device, you see a mobile dashboard with key information and links to mobile pages. If it doesn't show, click the mobile icon in the top left corner.
- You can set up a separate dashboard for mobile devices.
- On a smartphone, set the Calendar view to one day.
Beds24 also has a mobile app for Android and iOS. The app has fewer functions than the control panel. See Settings > Marketplace > Mobile App or Mobile App Android and IOS.
Help and support
- Help Center: search this Help Center or watch the video tutorials.
- Setup Wizards: the Beds24 Setup Wizards guide you through the setup and are an easy way to learn the main functions.
- Context help: click the ? icon next to any setting in the control panel, or Help at the top right of a page.
- Forum: browse the Beds24 Forum for ideas and solutions.
- Support: Beds24 offers free support for technical issues. Contact support from Support in the control panel. See How to use Support.