The Challenge
A client with more than 100 vacation rentals at various locations needed a central booking system built directly into WordPress. Managing bookings manually across several platforms was time-consuming, error-prone and regularly led to double bookings. Excel lists and handwritten calendars could no longer keep up with the growth.
On top of that came the complex tourist tax calculation, which varies by municipality, season, guest age, disability, companions of guests with disabilities and length of stay, a bureaucratic nightmare with more than 100 properties in different municipalities.
Our Solution
We developed a custom WordPress plugin that serves as the central booking hub.
Property Management in the WordPress Admin
Full management of all properties directly in the familiar WordPress backend:
- Property profiles with photos, descriptions, amenities and location map
- Seasonal pricing with flexible periods and minimum stays
- Capacity management with room categories and occupancy limits
- Owner assignment for separate billing per landlord
Interactive Availability Calendar
The occupancy plan shows all apartments at a glance:
- Color-coded status: booked (red), available (green), inquiry (yellow)
- Drag and drop for manual booking entries
- Filtering by location, size, amenities and availability
- Monthly and weekly views for different planning horizons
Channel Management
Bidirectional synchronization with the most important booking platforms:
- Booking.com iCal sync: Booking.com reservations automatically block dates, and direct bookings block the property on Booking.com
- Fewo-Direkt.de integration: The same bidirectional synchronization for the German market
- Central control: All channels managed from one place, no more double bookings
Automatic Tourist Tax Calculation
The tourist tax (Kurtaxe) is calculated fully automatically:
- Municipality-specific rates, since each municipality sets its own tariffs
- Season-dependent, with different tariffs for peak and off-peak season
- Age-based tiers distinguishing between adults, teenagers and children
- Exemptions for people with disabilities and their companions (proof upload)
- Length-of-stay calculation including arrival and departure day rules
- Automatic updates when municipalities change their tariffs
Guest Self-Service Portal
Digital check-in for less administrative work:
- Online registration form with digital signature
- Guest data collection in accordance with German registration law
- Payment processing with an overview of open and settled amounts
- Confirmation of stay as a PDF download
Owner Dashboard
Transparent reports for every landlord:
- Occupancy rates per property and period
- Revenue overview broken down by booking channel
- Channel performance: Which platform brings in the most bookings?
- Billing export for accounting
The Result
- Double bookings completely eliminated through real-time synchronization
- Administrative work reduced by 70% through automation
- Tourist tax calculation automated and error-free across all municipalities
- 100+ properties managed centrally and clearly in one system
- Owner satisfaction through transparent dashboards and on-time statements