What a booking engine needs
- Live availability from the same room rack the desk uses, or it will sell a room that is gone.
- Prices from the rate plans and the rate calendar, per night.
- A way to be found — a link on the property's Google listing, Instagram, WhatsApp and website. A booking page nobody visits takes no bookings.
- A decision about payment. Taking money online needs a payment gateway account in the property's own name, with its own KYC; without one, bookings are pay-at-the-property.
Example
Three nights at ₹3,500 is ₹10,500. Booked through a site charging an illustrative 18% commission, the property keeps ₹8,610; booked on its own page, it keeps ₹10,500. The ₹1,890 difference is the whole argument for a booking engine — provided guests find the page.
How Nivasik handles it
- Nivasik's booking page quotes from the rate calendar and takes a booking as pay-at-the-property, with no commission.
- It sells the flexible, freely cancellable rate (the plan coded BAR where one exists) and never a non-refundable one, because it takes no money.
- A room type switched off in Rooms & Rates leaves the page.