This article explains why a guest can book fewer nights on Booking.com than the minimum stay set in RMS, and how to set the restriction so Booking.com enforces it across the whole stay.

Booking.com lets a guest combine more than one rate plan across a stay to get the lowest possible price. This is called Rate Mixing. When it happens, Booking.com applies only the minimum length of stay for the rate on the arrival date. A restriction set as On Arrival Day Only (MLOS) therefore holds for the arrival night alone. To enforce a minimum stay on every night, use the Any Day within Stay (Soft Close) restriction, which Booking.com supports.

Applies to: properties connected to Booking.com through Channel Management.

Please Note! RMS is highly configurable. Some Terminology, User Access & Permissions, Images, Labels, and Functions used in these articles may differ from your setup. CLICK HERE to find out more.

Quick Checks

Run through these first.

1. Check which Restriction Type was used. Go to Charts > Rate Manager, select the Control Panel icon and filter by Restriction Type. On Arrival Day Only (MLOS) enforces the minimum on the arrival night; Any Day within Stay (Soft Close) enforces it on every night of the stay.
2. Check for a newer restriction on the same dates that carries no minimum stay. RMS uses the newest record when more than one exists for the same date and Restriction Type.
3. Check the restriction includes every Rate Type mapped to Booking.com. Open the Booking.com connection in Channel Management and read the Rate Type column of the Area/Rate Mapping.
4. Check the Booking.com extranet to see whether the restriction has arrived for the affected dates.

Possible Causes

The minimum stay is not applying to the whole booking because Booking.com mixed rate plans across the stay

Example: night 1 uses Rate Type A with a minimum stay of 2 nights, and nights 2 and 3 use Rate Type B with a minimum stay of 3 nights. A guest books a 3-night stay. Booking.com enforces only the 2-night minimum for Rate Type A on the arrival date, so the booking is accepted even though the later nights belong to a rate with a 3-night minimum. A guest could book 2 nights the same way.

Fix: add an Any Day within Stay (Soft Close) restriction for the Booking.com channel.

1. Go to Charts > Rate Manager.
2. Select the Control Panel icon.
3. Select the Add icon.
4. In Restriction Type, select Any Day within Stay (Soft Close). RMS describes this as a minimum nights stay applied on any day within the reservation, also known as Min Stay Through Reservation.
5. In General, select the Property, the Date Range, the minimum number of nights and the Booking.com channel.
6. Select the Categories.
7. Select every Rate Type mapped to Booking.com.
8. Select Save/Exit.

Restriction changes are pushed to Booking.com automatically. If the restriction does not appear in the extranet after a few minutes, run a Manual OTA Resync for the Category, Rate Type and date range.

A newer restriction for the same dates overrides the minimum stay you set

RMS applies the newest record when more than one restriction exists for the same date and Restriction Type. A minimum stay added earlier is silently replaced by a later record for the same dates that carries a lower value or no value.

Fix:

1. In the Control Panel, filter by the Restriction Type and the date range.
2. Compare the records for the affected dates and identify the newer one.
3. Delete the newer record, or add the minimum stay again so it becomes the newest record.

The restriction was not applied to the Rate Types mapped to Booking.com

Restrictions apply per Category and Rate Type. If the restriction was set on one Rate Type while Booking.com sells a different mapped Rate Type, Booking.com never receives it.

Fix:

1. Go to Setup > Online Bookings > Channel Management, select Booking.com and select Edit.
2. In the Area/Rate Mapping section, note every Rate Type mapped to a Booking.com room type.
3. Add the restriction again with all of those Rate Types selected.

Prevention

For Categories and Rate Types sold on Booking.com, set minimum stays with the Any Day within Stay (Soft Close) restriction from the outset rather than On Arrival Day Only (MLOS), and include every Rate Type mapped to Booking.com when you add the restriction. When you add a later restriction for the same dates, remember that RMS applies the newest record.

Still Not Working?

Work through Minimum Nights (MLOS), which covers minimum stay restrictions on every channel. If the minimum stay still does not apply on Booking.com, submit a ticket to RMS Support and include:

• The property name, the Categories and the Rate Types mapped to Booking.com.
• The restriction records set in the Control Panel, with their dates and values.
• The Booking.com reservation number that was accepted below the minimum stay.

Related Articles

• Minimum Nights (MLOS)
• Booking.com: Channel Information
• Control Panel for rates and availability
• Manual OTA Resync