Lay My Hat

I would like to offer online payments and am wondering about using Free to Book? I have a Wordpress site

Is it any better to use Stripe rather than Fab Pay? I see you need to e mail guests with a link for payment through Fab Pay .. What happens if you use Stripe?

Would anyone recommend using SuperControl instead? I know they are expensive

Take a look at HBook WordPress plugin... I just learned about this from another owner and think it looks v promising. It didn't come up on the plugin search on WordPress, but it does if you Google. A one-off $49. For around £35 I'm seriously tempted... calendar with iCal import/export, forms, Stripe integration. Reviews look good and support gets a particular mention.

The only thing holding me back is the thought of setting it up!

https://hotelwp.com/hbook/

Thanks Neat and Picky

I will take a look!

Setting it up puts me off too... (I wonder if I up to doing it...)

Jenny

Further to my last post about HBook...

You can see it in action on https://mayoholidaycottage.com. (Not my site). See home page calendar and booking page.

I use ftb but it is tricky to set up for short breaks. I don't pay to link Stripe, I just send a Wave invoice (which links to Stripe for payment) after they book. My PMP website will soon be offering online booking/payment facility (using Stripe) I believe so I am holding out for that to streamline my booking process.

I did look into bookalet before and that looked really good but ftb is free!

Jenster wrote:I use ftb but it is tricky to set up for short breaks. I don't pay to link Stripe, I just send a Wave invoice (which links to Stripe for payment) after they book. My PMP website will soon be offering online booking/payment facility (using Stripe) I believe so I am holding out for that to streamline my booking process.

I did look into bookalet before and that looked really good but ftb is free!

Do you use third parties too for bookings (like Homeaway, booking.com etc?) - if so have you signed up for their channel manager and calendar export options? I also wasnt impressed by the fact their ICS calendar option was only one way, you can export to third parties but not import from third parties.

I was going down the route of use FTB but when I started talking to them about interacting with other agents to ensure calendars where up to date everywhere the costs started adding up.

Anyone else have cost effective recommendations for doing availability and bookings on your own website?

If you just want to be able to offer online payments, I'd say Wave/Stripe is a simple solution as Jenster suggests. The 1.4% transaction fee is far lower than PayPal - a big consideration now that it has to be absorbed into your costs.
https://www.waveapps.com/

eRichard has just added a Stripe payments facility to his PIMS online management software.
http://holidayrentalmanagement.com/

HBook (WordPress plugin) that I suggested earlier in this thread is a complete bookings management system - booking form, calendar, dashboard with email templates, card payments, etc.

I am trying to set up an account to accept Stripe credit card payments. It’s proving impossible, as firstly they don’t recognise my website address, and secondly they don’t recognise my IBAN. (Which I have tried twice to enter, and it’s correct) No idea what’s going on here.

limousin-cottage wrote:I am trying to set up an account to accept Stripe credit card payments.

You may have more luck if you register with Stripe via WaveApps - I'm sure I remember reading comments about this, and that's the way I did it. Once registered you don't need to use the Wave invoicing if you don't want to.

NeatandPicky wrote:

limousin-cottage wrote:I am trying to set up an account to accept Stripe credit card payments.

You may have more luck if you register with Stripe via WaveApps - I'm sure I remember reading comments about this, and that's the way I did it. Once registered you don't need to use the Wave invoicing if you don't want to.

Thank you. I think that is what I did, then it went into French, and I filled in all the details asked for, but it just wouldn’t accept my website address or IBAN. I will have another try in the morning.