How to setup a Multi-Unit Property on Booking.com

Booking.com allows businesses to manage multiple units/apartments that are available in the same building/location under one single listing (Hotel ID), instead of having to advertise each unit/apartment as separate bookable listings. Homhero also supports this property setup, however there are some steps required in Homhero and Booking.com for this to work correctly. 

Below is an example of two types of Multi-Unit Property setups.

Example 1 - Property = 3x Rooms

Property
Property Name: Gold Coast Beach House Apartments = Hotel ID 12345678

Rooms
Room 1: Beach House 1 = Room ID 1234567801 | Update Type = Room
Room 2: Beach House 2 = Room ID 1234567802 | Update Type = Room
Room 3: Beach House 3 = Room ID 1234567803 | Update Type = Room

Example 2 - Property = 1x Listing, 4x Rooms

Property
Property Name: Gold Coast Beach House Apartments = Hotel ID 12345678

Rooms
Room 1: Beach House 1 = Room ID 1234567801 | Update Type = Room
Room 2: Beach House 2 = Room ID 1234567802 | Update Type = Room
Room 3: Beach House 3 = Room ID 1234567803 | Update Type = Room
Room 4: Beach House = Room ID 1234567804 | Update Type = Listing/Room

Using example 1, we have listed the steps below to set this up:

Step 1 - Setup Multi-Unit Property on Booking.com
The first step is to contact Booking.com to request some assistance for setting up your Mult-Unit Property.

Step 2 - Complete Booking.com setup
Once this is done, you will need to ensure the details for each room are setup correctly on the Booking.com side. Each room that is attached to this multi-unit listing property needs to have a unique Apartment Name set on the Booking.com extranet. If you have the same Apartment Name name appearing on multiple rooms, you will receive errors during the onboarding process.

To update this, please follow the below steps:

1. Login to your group partner account
2. Select the Property
3. Head to the Property menu, then select Property Layout
   
    
4. On the Property Layout page, click Edit on the first room
   
   
   
   
5. Open each Room to check if the Apartment Name is unique. If there are duplicate names showing in your Room setup, you can update the Apartment Name directly if there are no forward bookings against that Room.
   
   If there are forward bookings, you will need to reach out to Booking.com and request them to update the Apartment Names manually. Please note, this process may not be instant as a request will need to be submitted to Booking.com to update these on your behalf.
   
   Updates to the ''Custom Name (optional)'' field will NOT resolve this issue as this field is not linked to Homhero.
   
   
   
   
   
   
6. Next, from the Property Layout page, click on Upload Photos to upload the Images for each room via Booking.com. Unfortunately for this type of setup, the images cannot feed from Homhero, because we cannot set the images directly on the room via the API.
   
   Images can only be uploaded to Booking.com from Homhero at the hotel level which is when there is a parent property involved in the setup. This is when the Update Type = ''Listing'' vs Room in the Homhero setup.
   
   
   
   
7. The last step is to head back to the Property menu, then click Facilities & Services and add these in for your Multi-Unit property.
   
   Services can only be uploaded to Booking.com from Homhero at the hotel level which is when there is a parent property involved in the setup. This is when the Update Type = ''Listing'' vs Room in the Homhero setup.

Step 3 - Complete Homhero setup
Booking.com listings need to be set up in Homhero to match the same setup in Booking.com.

The following process will apply to each Room/Listing under this Multi-Unit Property setup.

1. Open the first Booking.com listing
2. Connection ID's - Add the Hotel ID and Room ID (Room ID can be retrieved from the Booking.com extranet)
3. Property Name - Add the name of the main Property that appears in Booking.com searches. This needs to be the same for any rooms that are linked to this property
4. Update Type - Set this to Room. You would only select Listing if you have an interconnecting listing and you are making this listing the Parent listing.
5. Property Type - This must match the same Apartment Type on Booking.com
6. Room Type Code - This must match the same Apartment Type on Booking.com
7. Room Type Name OVERRIDE - This must match the same Apartment Name on Booking.com
8. Click Save, but do not publish
9. Repeat the same steps for all Rooms within this property setup
   
   

Step 4 - Publish Listings
Once all setup matches the Booking.com setup, please request for Homhero to assist with cross-checking and publishing the listings to Booking.com. This process can take approximately 15 minutes.

If everything is successful, all listings will update to green to represent the active status.

If any listings fail, all listings in the Multi-Unit Property will update to red to indicate there are errors that are preventing the listings from going live. Please see below issues that may occur below.

• Duplicate Room Types (due to incorrect setup)
• No Kitchen or Kitchenette (due to incorrect property type)