One of the things that's become clear through the coronavirus happenings is that additional levels of control over bookings are very useful even for channel based bookings. Last month we added the Cancel For Any Reason (CFAR) option for Travel Insurance and made canceled bookings more visible in lists and filters and exports.
We've spent the last couple of weeks developing several more in depth features: Required/prep time between bookings and the option to unlink bookings from channel API calendars so you can move them independently.
Required/prep time between bookings
This option is available in the Changeover Restrictions section of each property's rules. If you want to require a gap between bookings for cleaning etc. you can control that here. The resulting block will be validated for direct bookings and also sent to API based channel integrations.
While we were working in the rules area, we also added an option to use a specific minimum nights in gaps as well as improved and simplified the interface for availability rules in general. Read all about it in our Availability Rules guide.
Unlinking bookings from channel API calendars
This has been requested for a very long time. Before, bookings for API integrated channels were controlled by the channel and you would have to make all changes on the channel side -- which means that you could only move bookings around as supported by the channel.
Now, you've got the option to unlink the booking from the channel calendar when moving it around. You should still make the change on the channel if you can, but this allows you to make any other changes regardless of whether the channel allows it or not.
We've also had manual modes for charges and transactions for awhile. Check out our article on Manual Modes for all of the details on the different types of manual modes.
