It is important to link your property's booking engine to your website to ensure that the guests viewing your website have a place to click through to your booking engine to make a reservation.
Integrating your direct booking engine into your website is an easy process. In this article, we explain how you can do this on your own with just a few clicks.
⚠️ If you are looking to integrate the direct booking engine with an existing website or platform, please see: Link the integrated booking engine to your website
How do I link my booking engine to my Website builder?
With just a few clicks, you will be able to integrate your direct booking engine to your website builder. Follow these simple steps:
In your Website Builder, go to Dashboard. and click on Booking Engine
Select a Button label between Book now and Search.
💡 These are the words that your potential guests will read in the button that will lead them to your direct booking engine.
Select booking engine Provider from the drop-down menu. If you are using the Little Hotelier booking engine, select Little Hotelier.
⚠️ If your booking engine provider is not on the list, select Other. Selecting this option will disable the booking widget (the one where guests can select the arrival and departure date when they book) on your website homepage. Guest will only see the book now button on the upper right section of the website.
Enter the complete URL of your online booking engine. You can find the URL in your Little Hotelier:
Go to Setup in your Little Hotelier.
Under Booking Engine Display Settings, click on General Display Settings.
You will see your property's URL under Booking engine URL. Copy it and paste it into your Website Builder.
Under Open the URL link in, select if you wish to open your booking engine on the same page as your website or in a new tab.
The Configuration of number of guests menu will configure how your guest would choose the (number of) guests on the booking widget of your website.
⚠️ This option does not display if you select Other from the provider drop-down menu (See Step 4).
Select the field type:
If you select an Insertable number menu, this will allow guests to manually enter the desired number of guests on the booking widget.
If you select a Predefined drop-down menu, this will allow guests to choose the number of guests from a drop-down menu.➕ Don’t forget to enter the max number of guests that you allow per booking.
Click on Save.
Click on the Preview site at the bottom right of your website builder to view the changes you have just made.
If you are happy with these changes, click on Publish changes to push the updates to your live website.
If your booking engine provider is on the list of providers, guests will be able to see a widget on the front page of your website, which allows them to choose from a list of values before opening the booking engine page:
Arrival date
Departure date
Number of guests
Quick Video overview: linking your booking engine and website
⚠️ This video has no audio and is a quick demonstration of the actions required only.
Website integration FAQs
What’s the difference between my official website and my direct booking engine page?
Your website is your marketing tool to advertise your property and capture the interest of all your potential guests, whereas your direct booking engine is the site (linked to your website) that captures and processes direct online reservations from your guests.
💡 Guests will typically access your booking engine through your website.
Why is it important to have my direct booking engine linked to the official website of my property?
Imagine that a few potential guests are looking for accommodation around where your property is located, and they come across your website. They love your property, what you offer, and they are willing to book right now! But they can’t find a way to do it.
This happens when properties don’t have their website linked to their booking engine. If this is a situation you find yourself in, do not worry. You can read below to find out more about how you can link your direct booking engine to your website so that potential guests can finalise their reservations at your property without any hassle.
💡If you want your guest to book directly with you instead of going through different online travel agencies (OTAs), you should have your direct booking engine linked to your website.
➕ Your direct booking engine is given to you in the form of a URL that you can use to link to your website through some button links and widgets. This URL should look something like https://app.littlehotelier.com/properties/hotelnamedirect. Learn how to get this URL in the section: How do I link my booking engine to my Website Builder?
What if I don’t have a website?
If you don't have a website for your property as yet, you might have thought this is complicated and time-consuming and needs a lot of technical know-how to accomplish.
However, this is far from the truth. Nowadays, putting together a website is a quick and easy process. Little Hotelier offers a website builder that can be set up seamlessly, and you don’t have to know anything about coding or hire someone else to do it for you. You can set up your web page easily with a friendly app that can help you do the following:
Build your website's tabs and content with ease.
Link to your booking engine with a couple of straightforward steps.
Help you upload banners and photos, and even set up slides that change images every couple of seconds.
💡 Having a website brings numerous benefits to the business: it gives your property a 24/7 online presence and credibility. A website also allows you to reach potential guests all over the world.
Do I need to hire a webmaster?
As mentioned, you can easily integrate your direct booking engine to the website builder on your own without a web developer’s help.
💡 Notes:
If you are interested in getting the website builder, you can learn more in: Website builder
If you already have your website (different from the Website builder), you might need the help of a webmaster or the person who developed the website for you. Please liaise with your website support for more information from their side
To learn more about the technicalities from our side, feel free to jump to the article: Link the integrated booking engine to your website using widgets in Little Hotelier.
Bear in mind that some websites require you to be familiar with editing HTML or CSS. Otherwise, you might need to contact your web developer.