Wordpress plugin for holiday rental site

[sallysqueak]

I'm looking for some advice on wordpress plugins if anyone can help...

I'm wanting to create a part to my existing wordpress site which allows users to list and search for holiday accomodation.

My site must be capable of the following;

Users must be able to register on my site, and then list their own properties for rent. It must be possible for me to be able to charge them for this and for them to pay online and the listing appear for a year thereafter until renewal.

Users must be able to add a map of the location of their apartment to their listing.

Users must be able to add images and possibly a video to their listing.

The listings must have an availability calendar which the user is able to update themselves as and when their apartment gets booked up.

Potential renters must be able to then contact the owner through a form on the site - I do not want the function of renters being able to book and pay through the site. All bookings should be made directly with the owner.

The software must work with wordpress and be useable in the UK - ie there must be an option to list prices in £'s, and hopefully it will convert to other currencies when displaying in other countries, although not compulsory.

The user must be able to add details of the prices for their accomodation at different times of the year.

Please can anyone recommend any plugins which will do all of the above, and if there are upgrades required to get this all up and running, which ones are they and how much will it cost me?

I seem to be going round and round in circles trying to find something suitable here...

I am new to wordpress, so I'm also wondering whether I can do all this without one big plugin, but instead add one for a calendar, one for a contact form, one for a map, one to allow users to create an account to bundle all this together etc? Maybe that's impossible? I'm not sure? Any suggestions very welcome!

Everything I've found so far seems to want people to book directly through the site, but I don't want this. I even considered classifieds plugins, but having looked through all of those I still can't find anything suitable.

Cheers to anyone who can help!

 

[JonathanSEO]

This will require something custom. But I wouldn't waste money on it.

"The listings must have an availability calendar which the user is able to update themselves as and when their apartment gets booked up."

I have to pay and update my own availability calendar? Sounds like a good deal.

--

You could go down the route of separate plugins for each. But then each hotel owner will need a working knowledge of Wordpress.

To be honest you're not going to get people signing up for this in bulk, if it all. So you may as well just create the listings yourself then you can rely on several plugins to achieve what you want.

 

[Alan]

Yes, you can do it either as a 'package' or using several plugins, espcially if you are handy with a bit of html/css/php too.

Everything I've found so far seems to want people to book directly through the site, but I don't want this.

This shouldn't be an issue, all decent solutions will have a booking module that will be accessible in the front end or back end. Simply don't display it in teh front end and use the back end for the manual adding of availability.

Sorry I can be more specific in terms of recommendations, as it would take many hours (based on similar investigations maybe 8-12 hours work) of downloading plugins, reviewing functionality against your requirements and testing integration to tell you exactly what you should do.

However a quick google might help you in the right direct, I found this one http://ebusinessmatters.com/make-a-property-rental-website-with-wordpress/

 

[fisicx]

There is no all in one solution. In fact I'm not even sure wordpress is the right platform for your idea.

However...

Wordpress can have as many users as you want but it's not automatic. You would need to approve each one.

The uploading part needs to be a custom post - this needs a plugin.

The payment bit is a standard plugin - auto renewal isn't.

The booking area is another plugin.

So it's quite possible to do everything but not as a single plugin. Either way there is going to be some development required and you will have to administer the site to make sure owners are behaving.

 

[OldWelshGuy]

We have just launched a site for this area it is on wordpress but doesn't do half of what you are asking for. One thing you ned to understand is that if you ask property owners to upload their own text etc, they will copy and paste it from other sites, this devalues your site to the point it could well be considered a scraper site.

this is a compoetitive marketplace, and to stand out you are going to need to do something different. Don't expect people to pay you money AND do all the hard work.

Finally, many are moving away from availability calendars as they are being used to target empty properties.

 

[tukoko]

Hi Sally,

Sounds like you need a THEME not just a plugin.

There are a few "accommodation" themes on the market --

http://lmgtfy.com/?q=wordpress+accommodation+theme

If I had experience with any of them I'd recommend, but I've mostly installed/customized general themes for niche sites.

Good luck with your project.

If you find a few themes you like but unsure if they're worth it (including FREE ones) feel free to post and ask for opinion on them.

Cheers,
Carole.

 

[PoundPig]

A few years ago I worked on a project for a company in the south of France that was starting something very similar to what you have described.



@Oldwelshguy is spot on with his advice about copy and paste as most property owners have listings on multiple sites such as Ownersdirect, Holidayrentals etc and they are too damn lazy to rewrite their property descriptions in my experience! This then becomes a problem for not only your site but the time you have to put in to administer and amend.



So bare this in mind, as the majority of your clients will be retired people that top up their pensions by renting out their properties during the peak seasons that don't necessarily know their way around a computer let alone WordPress.



I used WordPress for this project for the simplicity of the UI. I used the Genesis Framework and the AgentPress StudioPress theme - found here: <NB this is an affiliate link> http://www.poundpig.com/studiopress/agentpress which comes with a lot of the features you want and further enhancements (plugins) for event diaries (bookings) which would need to be implemented.



I believe this to be the best starting point for your project as it's built for this application in mind.


For the membership/subscription based side I would use WishList: <NB this is an affiliate link> http://www.poundpig.com/wishlist-member-plugin


Let me know if you need any further assistance or advice.


Good luck with business venture and project!