This article offers a general overview of the new Cloudbeds Booking Engine Plus and includes the steps you need to follow to enable it in your Cloudbeds PMS account.
Overview
The Cloudbeds Booking Engine is a powerful tool that helps you attract and retain customers, improve conversion rates on your property website, and increase direct reservations. By providing a smooth and user-friendly booking experience, you can streamline the booking process and make it easier for potential guests to make a reservation for your property in just a few clicks.
The new Cloudbeds Booking Engine Plus introduces a set of enhancements that go beyond the Standard Booking Engine (legacy version):
| Feature / Benefit |
Cloudbeds Booking Engine (Standard legacy version) |
Cloudbeds Booking Engine Plus |
|
Pricing shown directly on date picker Guests see rates before they even click “search,” reducing bounce. |
❌ | ✅ |
|
One-click Add to Cart No dropdown gymnastics. Just hit “Add” and it’s in the cart. |
❌ | ✅ |
|
True shopping cart (add, remove, edit mid-flow) Add multiple rooms, activities, and packages in one flow. Delete items, change dates, or tweak quantities mid-booking—without starting over. |
❌ | ✅ |
|
Back-and-forth navigation without restart Change your mind? Adjust details and move forward without losing your place. |
❌ | ✅ |
|
Pre-checkout upsells Offer breakfast, spa passes, or event tickets before payment. Properties have seen up to 300% revenue spikes from smarter upsells. |
❌ | ✅ |
|
Sold-out inventory display Show popular rooms even when they’re booked, nudging guests to adjust dates to snag them. |
❌ | ✅ |
|
Customizable collapsed/expanded rate plans Choose collapsed or expanded rate-plan layouts to match your design and guest flow. |
❌ | ✅ |
|
GTM & GA4 integration out-of-the-box Drop in your container or measurement ID. |
❌ | ✅ |
|
Real-time add-on & Room popularity tracking |
❌ | ✅ |
|
Granular guest and occupancy controls Sort by adults, kids, and soon even age ranges. Lock in accurate capacities—no awkward surprises at check-in. |
❌ | ✅ |
|
Travel AI ready Structured data baked in so chatbots and AI booking agents can instantly find and book your rooms. |
❌ | ✅ |
|
Ongoing feature rollouts Only the Cloudbeds Booking Engine Plus gets new integrations, UI enhancements, and performance boosts. The standard (legacy version) stays in the past. |
❌ | ✅ |
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Continue reading below to learn more! ㅤ
A reimagined booking experience
Based on your valuable feedback and suggestions; and after comprehensive research, the new Booking Engine Plus opens the door to endless possibilities to boost your business operations; with a new, smarter design and a more visually appealing interface:
How to upgrade to Booking Engine Plus
- Go to the Booking Engine section of your Settings page
- Click to Upgrade to Booking Engine Plus
Booking Engine Plus features
Want to see these features in action? Explore the details below to learn how each enhancement works in the new Booking Engine Plus:
Mobile-focused user interface
In today's digital age, mobile devices play a pivotal role in the booking process for travelers worldwide. Recognizing this trend, we've prioritized optimizing our properties' mobile booking experience to ensure convenience and efficiency for your guests.
- The Booking Engine Plus has been meticulously redesigned to offer a seamless and user-friendly interface across all screen sizes and devices.
- With this optimization, we're enhancing the overall user experience and addressing the specific needs of mobile users.
- In today's fast-paced world, where travelers increasingly rely on mobile devices for on-the-go bookings, a robust mobile booking platform is essential. By embracing mobile optimization, we're tapping into a growing market segment, expanding your reach, and giving our customers a competitive edge in the hospitality industry.
New accommodations layout and unavailable rooms displayed
This feature enhances the user experience by highlighting unique offerings and showcasing the full inventory of your property:
- Increased conversions: By showing inventory with flexible dates, potential guests seeking specific accommodations but with flexible travel dates can easily find and book the accommodation they need.
- Unique accommodations highlighted: If your property offers special and unique accommodations such as a penthouse or a tree house overlooking the sea, this feature allows potential guests to easily discover and book these special accommodations.
- Sold-out inventory displayed: When users see that certain rooms or accommodations are in high demand and sold out, they are more likely to make a reservation promptly to secure their spot, leading to faster booking decisions and increased occupancy rates.
- Comprehensive inventory showcase: The new accommodations layout not only highlights current rate plans and room details but also showcases the entire inventory of your property, including unavailable rooms marked as such.
Early Add-Ons
Offering add-ons before checkout can significantly increase your average booking revenue for several reasons:
- Increased visibility and awareness: By presenting add-ons before the checkout stage, you ensure that customers know additional products or services they can purchase alongside their main booking.
- Convenience and ease of purchase: Offering early add-ons makes it easier for customers to add them to their orders.
- Enhanced value perception: Early add-ons highlight the value your add-ons bring to the customer's experience.
- More selling opportunities: Offering add-ons before checkout provides an opportunity for upselling and cross-selling. You can suggest complementary products or services that enhance the customer's booking.
- Reduced cart abandonment: Customers who see relevant add-ons that enhance their booking are more likely to complete their purchase within your booking engine.
Learn more about Add-ons
Enhanced E-Commerce Shopping Cart
- Our new and improved intuitive e-commerce shopping cart has become an essential feature for properties as it streamlines the booking process, increases convenience for guests, and ultimately drives higher conversion rates.
- By allowing guests to easily add multiple items to their cart, such as accommodations and add-ons, in one seamless transaction, the functionality enhances the efficiency in the booking process.
New date picker
- The new date picker stands out with its sleek and modern design, providing a visually appealing interface.
- With its streamlined appearance, users will find it visually pleasing and effortless to navigate.
Guest Stepper (Filters for Rooms, Adults, and Children)
The new Guest Stepper simplifies the way your guests select rooms and travelers. Instead of multiple buttons for rooms, adults, and children, all options are now available in a single, streamlined module:
- Unified Controls: Guests can adjust rooms, adults, and children with plus/minus steppers in one place.
- Real-Time Summary: A live tally shows the total number of guests and rooms before adding to the cart.
- Filters Integration: Guests can apply filters at the search stage to display only accommodations that match their group size and composition.
- Compliance with Limits: Supports maximum adults/children rules defined at the accommodation level — if a room doesn’t allow children, the child stepper will be hidden.
Improved Image Display
- We have revamped the image display, enabling you to showcase your property's amenities and rooms more engaging and captivatingly.
- The user experience has been carefully optimized to guide your guests effortlessly through the booking process, ensuring a smooth and enjoyable experience from start to finish.
Take a look at the Booking Engine Plus settings section in the Cloudbeds Booking Engine Settings
Comments
Is there a way to make an add-on required? For example, mandatory boat transport to an off-grid resort? bundling it in a room rate doesn't work as it is a one time cost, and adding it as a "fee" that just shows up feels "tricky". Also, mandatory full board. Adding it to the room rate makes the resort look abnormally expensive in comparison to other hotels, but in an offgrid resort full board is required.
Hello!
Thank you so much for asking this question!
For the moment, add-ons cannot be individually set as mandatory in Cloudbeds PMS. However, including them in a package is possible, making them mandatory. For more information about add-ons, please access this section in our Help Center.
We kindly invite you to submit this interesting idea via our Cloudbeds Community, so other community members can see it and vote for it. This idea will be sent to the corresponding team for review.
If you have any other doubts, please do not hesitate to contact our Support Team.
Best regards!
Hello,
Love the design, but :
- where did the policy disappeared to ? It's important people know what kind of policy we have before they book and then it's back and forth discussion because they didn't know this and that (cancellation policy, but also rules about our b&b)
- I charge extra for a second adult in the room as breakfast is included (so price for one or price for 2 is justified. I love that now by default you show up 2 people straight away rather than 1 like before... however it doesn't show in the price above the room, only when you add it to the cart then an "extra people fee" shows up and feels like a trick. it would be better to show the price, and if people change to one person, then the price change too.
Can't make the change for now because of that.... but I really want to :-)
Hi, Nicolas Diemert!
Thank you so much for your feedback! We are happy to hear from you!
It will be my pleasure to assist you with your inquiries:
1. Policies in the new Booking Engine: Users can find the policies (check-in and check-out as well as the Property and Cancellation policies) after clicking "Book now" right before confirming the reservation. I am attaching an image for reference:
2. About the extra person fee: Users can click on the guests' drop-down menu for more information about the applicable prices for the extra guests. If I understand currently, your suggestion is that once users click on the extra person fee, it automatically updates the total on top (USD 850.00 in the example below)
Is it correct?
Please let us know if this information helps, we will be looking forward to hearing from you.
To submit your ideas and improvement suggestions, remember to access the Ideas Hub for the Cloudbeds Booking Engine in our Cloudbeds Community.
Thanks for your contribution! ⭐
Hi,
Can we please have a custom code to remove the Rate Checker from the mobile version of the booking engine. I already have the code to remove it from the Desktop version (see below), but it doesn't affect the mobile version.
<style>
#root > div > div.d-k9cet8{
display:none;
}
</style>
Hello, Alan Tainton!
Thank you so much for reaching out!
We kindly suggest you please contact our Support Team for assistance with this request. Our team will escalate your inquiry to dedicated experts to take a closer look at this for you.
We remain at your disposal if you have any other doubts.
Regards!
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