Booking System Plugin...

I mostly had all of my main pages laid out so I opted to try and get my more complex pages finished. The more complex pages required me to use plugins which is why I only undertook them after I had all of my basic pages built. I had always intended to put my booking system on my ticket page- so before putting the page together I decided to have a play around with the various plugins that I could use to create a booking system.

My booking system is going to allow people to book a tent space- I'm keeping it simple- there aren't going to be any premium pitch places (like those that feature in Glastonbury) my event isn't big enough for that, but booking a pitch spot will help to determine overall numbers which would be useful if my event were real.

Choosing the plugin

After a quick google I found that there were two main booking system plugins- the Booking Calendar and the Booking System, I opted to try out both and then settle on one once I was happy. 

Booking Calendar Plugin:

Plugin Source: https://wordpress.org/plugins/booking/

The booking calendar plugin was really difficult to use- it was very over complicated and it was really hard to even add in booked events or any sense of categories/events to it. 

Booking System Plugin:

Editing the Booking System

Unlike the Booking Calendar the Booking system plugin was much easier to use, it had a clear calendar to which specific spaces could be added. 

You could set the days that were available and control the length of time people could book their stay for:

You could also set the amount of people that could be booked for - I set mine to the maximum of 8 (I feel like this will then allow for large groups of friends).

Enabling Paypal for payment (a Paypal aspect is required of the brief)

I decided to set my booking system for 4 days (the days of my festival, the day before and the day after- although I wouldn't anticipate many people staying the day after it means that people could leave the morning after the festival if needed). After a brief play I managed to set prices and the amount of available spaces for each day. I also found that I could fully book certain days (the red section), and special book others (the purple).

This is the booking form on the site- I can introduce extra sections if I need to but I think the original form covers everything you would expect to find.

The booking system is really effective- and malleable however it does have some issues: it wont allow me to set a one month only display- so you have to scroll though to the correct month before the booking options appear, it also wont allow me to style the calendar. Style wise I am not too bothered - its more of an official tool so I don't feel that it has any visual impact.

On The Site

In order to rectify the various month calendar display problem I put my main date images at the bottom of the page to really sign post it - it resets as the year goes by to display the month that we are in so it would obviously be easier to navigate to my dates nearer the time.

Plugin Source: https://wordpress.org/plugins/booking-system/