► The Brief
Bank transfer and PayPal payments had to be chased and matched by hand, guests had nowhere to check their booking, and the owner had no single view of the money.
► What I Built
Infinite Lives built a full direct booking system into the site.
- Live availability with booking from the homepage.
- Card payments and a private booking page for every guest.
- Automatic emails for reminders, arrival and reviews, all logged.
- An owner dashboard showing money in, money due and deposits to refund.
- Deals, price comparison and pass calculator pages.
The brief
Doniford Bay Caravan Hire lets one privately owned three bedroom caravan, sleeping up to eight, on Haven’s Doniford Bay park on the Somerset coast. Guests could already book through the site, but payment by bank transfer and PayPal meant chasing and matching money by hand, guests had nowhere to check their booking, and the owner had no single place to see what was paid and what was due. Infinite Lives, who built the original theme, turned it into a full direct booking site with card payments, automatic guest emails and an owner dashboard.
What we built
A live availability calendar
Guests pick a midweek or weekend break and tap a free start date, right on the homepage. The calendar knows which dates are booked, which are blocked and when the park is closed, and everything is checked again when the booking is sent.
Card payments and a private booking page
The booking fee and refundable cleaning deposit are paid by card when booking. Each guest then gets their own private booking page with their details, and can pay any amount towards the balance by card whenever they like before it’s due.
Emails that look after the stay
Payment reminders go out on a schedule and when a balance is overdue, a what-to-bring email arrives ten days before, and a message the night before arrival. The key safe code is only sent once the stay is paid in full, and a review request follows afterwards. Every email sent to a guest is logged on their booking.
An owner dashboard
The owner sees money received this year and this month, what’s outstanding, cleaning deposits waiting to be refunded, a to-do list, live visitors and the searches that brought people to the site.
Pages that help guests decide
A price list, a last-minute deals page that updates itself from the calendar, a page comparing each break with Haven’s own price for a similar caravan, and a calculator for Haven’s optional play passes, which guests buy straight from Haven.
Pet-free and local area pages
A designed page for guests looking for a pet-free caravan shows the next free breaks live from the calendar. Things to do, a Watchet, Minehead and Exmoor guide and a how to find us page cover the area around the park.
Search and speed
Titles, descriptions, share tags and schema for the holiday let, FAQs, blog posts and breadcrumbs were all tidied up. The theme photos were re-saved, taking them from 18MB down to 2.4MB.
The result
A holiday let that takes its own bookings and payments, keeps guests informed without the owner having to, and shows exactly where the money stands at a glance.
Screenshots
See it live: Doniford Bay Caravan Hire, a private three bedroom caravan at Haven Doniford Bay.