I don't think it should necessarily be on MarketPress - its gotta keep a record of available rooms and calendar dates. Its quite a specific one, to be honest!
I think MarketPress is the perfect plat form. It could be an extendable plugin.
We spoke about using it for ticket sales in other threads and I think Marketpress would be fantastic because of how it works with multiple sites, gateways, etc and so adding a plugin to a plugin to make it more seems to make sense to me.
This way you could have a global market place of products, tickets, rooms to book, etc, etc. Imaging its being MarketMall instead of just MarketPress. :-)
Event manager / booking is in fact quite different.
Was thinking about marketpress as framework, not necessarly as support but booking rooms/services, creates packages in fact is different because of limited places (room, capacity etc.)
Marketpress as the multisite integration and possibility to centralize things , that was why i thought about it.
Tickets is a single product, with a stock. Rooms have servives in plus. (breakfeast, type of brekfeast, etc..) quite different in fact.
I agree, MarketPress is great because of its good MS integration and payment gateways, but it would still require a fairly extensive plugin to add the capabilities for calendar dates and availability.
Either way, definite +1 on a booking system concept, its up to the devs whether they think that as a seperate or add in to MP would be best!
Or we just add more and just make it MarketWorld hehe
an events plugin that would have custom fields i.e you can add date, time, calendar, text, and any other field. you would then be able to add a shopping cart to each event.
the main thing i feel limiting in a events plugin is custom fields. each event can be different. each booking can be different. simply having a date and time and discription may not be custom enough.
Instead of integrating it with marketpress it would be better if each event could have its payment module where we can make it a shopping cart as well.
or we could do it the other way round which would be even better
1) create custom fields for marketpress for user input. this would make things alot easier.
so for every product, you can add date, time discription, price, text, dropdown menus, calendar.
or we could have custom fields for market press + an add on for bookings (date, time, calendar) and another add on for events. the custom fields would take care of details such as number of people, details, etc while the bookings and events add on would be able to create the availiability part.
However i think bookings and events are two different things. events would be displayed publically where as bookings would not.
events plugin that could be integrated with marketpress as a module and marketpress would have its own custom fields for user input
booking plugin that could be integratied with marketpress as a module and marketpress would have its own custom fields for user input
The problem are packages or composed products, at specific prices but that have influence on global stock. (room, place, services etc.)
Custumfields are not so user friendly unless they are "hidden" behind a nice interface.
That must be used by newbies, must be VERY simple to use, even if the admin sction is more "developper friendly". Once paramters set, the basic user MUST use that very simply, and more : he MUST have alrets, detailed, by mail or in dashboard, to have all informations (booking, stocks, free places etc... ) on one eye.
Just think that the interface MUST also be used by the user by phone for ex, and manage his rooms/services in accordance to THIS systeme.
That means this is not just a booking by net plugin : it is a CENTRALIZED hotel/service management system....
And more : each product/room/service must not be "just" a product but as market press a full article, with description, enhanced photos, even mini slides.
Progresses now are very fast. Just have a look on Apple apps for Ipad and how nice and user friendly are thoses systems....
That means this is not just a booking by net plugin : it is a CENTRALIZED hotel/service management system...
That's the other issue - it means the hotel manager will have to switch whatever he currently uses for keeping track of bookings to this system. Building an online plugin that communicated with other systems would be too much hassle, and too specific!
The target of that is all hotel / services sellers that at the moment just use... A manual book !
The target is all small / mediaum hotels that did NOT invest yet in this kind of system because it is just VERY expensive.
Target is guest house, bead & breakfeast, riads, short time rent houses.
Communicating with an existing system is not really a problem. Whose who have this kind of system (generally very expensive) already have their booking system.
A free room is just an "in stock" item. Not so hard.
By the way, that should be on a password protected front end part for all "daily" management (visual free rooms/services, manual booking (by phone) : addind a ressource, change prices, create products packages....
This discussion is important. ANd I will interrogate hotel owner to understand their need.
The existing plugin as told is a real gaz power plant, but that is excatly what it does, but very limited and totally specific, I mean it does not use the whole power of WP as marketpress does for ex.
The market for this type of plugin is huge, many many smal/medium hotel units that never invest in web because of its enormous amount of monney required.
We should be able to offer someting operational for aproximatively 1500/2000 USD that is affordable for that kind of unit.
Even less if this plugin is modular and if we can add several plugins on it so offer deifferent services on the plugin basis.... as market press !
And in addition, the marketpress model (commission on sitewide transaction) can also be a very god option to offer the service even less expensive.
That should include portal functions for main site such as serch by price, prestation, location, options, environement item (touristic items/services external to the hotel).
I will give you the result of a survey done in france from 3000 hotels to explain more details of that problematic.... The added value of any guest house is all the extenal ressources (touristic items, visits, buildings, children interests etc). Those informations should be included in the hotel sites, and searchable, as does any real estate system ;)
Any more news on an event management or booking plugin?
I am about to start work on a project for an entertainment agent who looks after DJs, singers, groups, etc. I thought that MarketPress would be a good place to start so that each act can set their own rates... But ideally the site visitors need to be able to check whether or not an act is available on a given night, and then book them for that night.
Responses (16)
Lifetime Member — 12th August 2011 16:37 #
I don't think it should necessarily be on MarketPress - its gotta keep a record of available rooms and calendar dates. Its quite a specific one, to be honest!
Support Chimp — 12th August 2011 16:53 #
I think MarketPress is the perfect plat form. It could be an extendable plugin.
We spoke about using it for ticket sales in other threads and I think Marketpress would be fantastic because of how it works with multiple sites, gateways, etc and so adding a plugin to a plugin to make it more seems to make sense to me.
This way you could have a global market place of products, tickets, rooms to book, etc, etc. Imaging its being MarketMall instead of just MarketPress. :-)
Sales & Support Lead — 12th August 2011 17:15 #
We've been discussing a calendar/event/booking plugin for awhile. Thanks for your input here. Any other suggestions?
Lifetime member! — 13th August 2011 07:21 #
Event manager / booking is in fact quite different.
Was thinking about marketpress as framework, not necessarly as support but booking rooms/services, creates packages in fact is different because of limited places (room, capacity etc.)
Marketpress as the multisite integration and possibility to centralize things , that was why i thought about it.
Tickets is a single product, with a stock. Rooms have servives in plus. (breakfeast, type of brekfeast, etc..) quite different in fact.
Lifetime Member — 13th August 2011 09:55 #
I agree, MarketPress is great because of its good MS integration and payment gateways, but it would still require a fairly extensive plugin to add the capabilities for calendar dates and availability.
Either way, definite +1 on a booking system concept, its up to the devs whether they think that as a seperate or add in to MP would be best!
Or we just add more and just make it MarketWorld hehe
Member — 14th August 2011 04:43 #
i was thinking of this could work
an events plugin that would have custom fields i.e you can add date, time, calendar, text, and any other field. you would then be able to add a shopping cart to each event.
the main thing i feel limiting in a events plugin is custom fields. each event can be different. each booking can be different. simply having a date and time and discription may not be custom enough.
Instead of integrating it with marketpress it would be better if each event could have its payment module where we can make it a shopping cart as well.
or we could do it the other way round which would be even better
1) create custom fields for marketpress for user input. this would make things alot easier.
so for every product, you can add date, time discription, price, text, dropdown menus, calendar.
Member — 14th August 2011 04:49 #
or we could have custom fields for market press + an add on for bookings (date, time, calendar) and another add on for events. the custom fields would take care of details such as number of people, details, etc while the bookings and events add on would be able to create the availiability part.
However i think bookings and events are two different things. events would be displayed publically where as bookings would not.
events plugin that could be integrated with marketpress as a module and marketpress would have its own custom fields for user input
booking plugin that could be integratied with marketpress as a module and marketpress would have its own custom fields for user input
Lifetime member! — 14th August 2011 07:54 #
The problem are packages or composed products, at specific prices but that have influence on global stock. (room, place, services etc.)
Custumfields are not so user friendly unless they are "hidden" behind a nice interface.
That must be used by newbies, must be VERY simple to use, even if the admin sction is more "developper friendly". Once paramters set, the basic user MUST use that very simply, and more : he MUST have alrets, detailed, by mail or in dashboard, to have all informations (booking, stocks, free places etc... ) on one eye.
Just think that the interface MUST also be used by the user by phone for ex, and manage his rooms/services in accordance to THIS systeme.
That means this is not just a booking by net plugin : it is a CENTRALIZED hotel/service management system....
And more : each product/room/service must not be "just" a product but as market press a full article, with description, enhanced photos, even mini slides.
Progresses now are very fast. Just have a look on Apple apps for Ipad and how nice and user friendly are thoses systems....
Lifetime Member — 14th August 2011 08:27 #
That's the other issue - it means the hotel manager will have to switch whatever he currently uses for keeping track of bookings to this system. Building an online plugin that communicated with other systems would be too much hassle, and too specific!
Lifetime member! — 14th August 2011 09:10 #
No this is not a problem.
The target of that is all hotel / services sellers that at the moment just use... A manual book !
The target is all small / mediaum hotels that did NOT invest yet in this kind of system because it is just VERY expensive.
Target is guest house, bead & breakfeast, riads, short time rent houses.
Communicating with an existing system is not really a problem. Whose who have this kind of system (generally very expensive) already have their booking system.
A free room is just an "in stock" item. Not so hard.
By the way, that should be on a password protected front end part for all "daily" management (visual free rooms/services, manual booking (by phone) : addind a ressource, change prices, create products packages....
This discussion is important. ANd I will interrogate hotel owner to understand their need.
The existing plugin as told is a real gaz power plant, but that is excatly what it does, but very limited and totally specific, I mean it does not use the whole power of WP as marketpress does for ex.
The market for this type of plugin is huge, many many smal/medium hotel units that never invest in web because of its enormous amount of monney required.
We should be able to offer someting operational for aproximatively 1500/2000 USD that is affordable for that kind of unit.
Even less if this plugin is modular and if we can add several plugins on it so offer deifferent services on the plugin basis.... as market press !
Lifetime Member — 14th August 2011 09:27 #
Great point. I agree, there is a market for this stuff.
Lifetime member! — 14th August 2011 10:04 #
And in addition, the marketpress model (commission on sitewide transaction) can also be a very god option to offer the service even less expensive.
That should include portal functions for main site such as serch by price, prestation, location, options, environement item (touristic items/services external to the hotel).
I will give you the result of a survey done in france from 3000 hotels to explain more details of that problematic.... The added value of any guest house is all the extenal ressources (touristic items, visits, buildings, children interests etc). Those informations should be included in the hotel sites, and searchable, as does any real estate system ;)
Member — 15th August 2011 02:14 #
I am +1 for an event management or booking plugin and I would prefer it to be separate from MarketPress.
Member — 5th November 2011 12:43 #
Would love to see this progress, and was surprised no event plugin available here already
Lifetime member! — 5th November 2011 13:47 #
Well there is now the nice All in one event at least ! that works fine.
very fine. So no need for a event manager.
Remain the booking issue :)
Member — 17th January 2012 22:30 #
Hi everyone.
Any more news on an event management or booking plugin?
I am about to start work on a project for an entertainment agent who looks after DJs, singers, groups, etc. I thought that MarketPress would be a good place to start so that each act can set their own rates... But ideally the site visitors need to be able to check whether or not an act is available on a given night, and then book them for that night.
Thanks in advance!
Neil
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