Adding & managing prices & availability

"Getting the most out of your boat depends on how you are managing the most important part of it - the Price calendar. In this quick how-to guide, we will help you understand how to manage it to maximize your bookings."

To find the Price calendar, go to your boat's manager by clicking the Manage button on the boat you want to set up. Then click on the Price calendar link in the Manage prices section or find Prices > Price calendar from the left menu.

These are the four main things you need to know when setting up your boat's prices & availability:

1. Types of calendars
2. Calendar settings
3. Working time
4. Adding, editing, and removing prices

1. Types of calendars
On Sail.me, you have the option to choose to rent out your boat in 4 different ways: Daily, Weekly, Half-day, and Hourly. To do that, go to the top right corner of your Price calendar and find the Calendar types menu. From there - choose the ones you need to work with. Not that you must have at least one calendar activated for your boat to be visible in search results and listings.

1.1. Daily
Your boat will be available for booking on a daily basis, which means guests can book it for at least one full day.

1.2. Weekly
Your boat will be available for booking on a weekly basis, which means guests can book it for at least one whole week.

1.3. Half-day
Your boat will be available for booking on a half-day basis, which means guests can book it for at least one half-day period, which equals 4 hours.

1.4. Hourly
Your boat will be available for booking on an hourly basis, which means guests can book it for at least one full hour.

Each of these calendars is independent, and you can set different prices for each of them, as well as different available days, but accepting a booking for a certain period will block all other calendars in this period; for example, You can set your boat to be available for the period of May 01 2021 (Saturday) until May 07 2021 (Friday) for the four types of calendars, but accepting a pending booking for May 02 2012 (Sunday) will prevent bookings for all other types of calendars in this day, including the Weekly calendar, since a day of the whole week is already booked.

2. Calendar settings
Sail.me's price calendars are super flexible and build to maximize every client's usability. You can set up your calendars from the settings at the top of the Price calendar page.

*Note that all settings are global, which means they are applied to all types of calendars, not independently.

2.1. Currency
Choose between USD, EUR, or GBP. This will be the currency of your boat listing everywhere - including display prices & bookings. For example - if you operate in the U.S. - select USD. You will set prices in the calendar in USD, your boat will be displayed in USD at the listing and search results, and all payments will be processed in USD.

2.2. Time format
Choose between a 12-hour or a 24-hour view of the calendar. This will be helpful to you when using the Half-day and Hourly calendars especially.

2.3. Week starts on
This setting affects only the weekly calendar. Here you can choose whether your weekly bookings shall start on a Saturday or Sunday, select whichever suits best for you.

3. Working time
Working time varies between different calendar types. Some calendar types such as the Half-day and Hourly are flexible and can be adjusted by you as you find best. Others like the Daily and Weekly have predefined working time. Still, suppose you and/or the renter require a different time for departure and return. In that case, you can always discuss it additionally. You can see each calendar type's working time below.

3.1. Daily calendar working time
A single day of a booking in the daily calendar lasts 8 hours. A usual time to set sails is 9 AM, and 5 PM is the time to return the boat at the base. In case a renter books your boat for more than one day from the daily calendar, the departure will be again at 9 AM on the first day of the booking, and return to the base would be at 5 PM on the last day of the booking.

3.2. Weekly calendar working time
A single week of a booking in the weekly calendar lasts 7 days. As mentioned above - here you have the option to choose the starting day of the week. For example: if you select Saturday as a starting day of the week, the time to set sails would be 9 AM on Saturday, and 5 PM on Friday would be the time to return the boat at the base. In case a renter books your boat for more than one week from the weekly calendar, the departure will be again at 9 AM on the first day of the booking, and return to the base would be at 5 PM on the last day of the booking.

3.3. Half-day calendar working time
Half-day bookings last 4 hours and working time for it can be adjusted as you find best. To do so, select the Half-day calendar. Below the calendar title, you will see a blue box containing the Available periods section. Here you will see the three predefined half-day periods (Before midday; Past midday, and Evening), and you can check or uncheck those you wish. Keep in mind that these settings will be your default settings when entering the calendar prices. Still, you can always change a specific day or period manually from the calendar options below.

Setting up the default working time for the Half-day calendar
From the drop-down menus next to each period, you can select each period's starting hour. The return hour will be set automatically, based on your choice, so that it remains 4 hours. Note that you are still limited to choose from working hours in the period you are making changes. For example - you can set for Before midday to start the bookings at 6 AM, but you can not select to start it at 6 PM, since this will be already an evening booking. Suppose you try to change a period, but the hours are blocked in the drop-down menu. In that case, it means you have already selected another period with those hours, and that's preventing you from creating overlapping periods. Note that for boat-servicing purposes after each booking, a 1-hour service break is automatically added after each period, and it will prevent you from selecting it as a starting hour for the next period.

3.4. Hourly calendar working time
Hourly bookings can last at least 1 hour, and as with the Half-day calendar, here you can set your own working time. To do so, again select the Daily calendar, and you will see a green box below containing the Working hours section.

You can choose directly the period in which renters can rent your boat for 1+ hours, let's say if you select 8 AM - 10 PM as working hours, from 8 AM until 10 PM, every customer will be able to book your boat for at least one hour and 11 PM will be your last return hour.

Suppose you have a more fragmented working schedule. In that case, you can choose the option "Custom hours," wherefrom the drop-down menu, you can select the hours you are available for booking. For example, if you are available for booking from 8 AM to 10 AM and again from 2 PM until 6 PM - you should select 8 & 9 AM, and 2, 3, 4 & 5 PM. Note that here as well a checked hour means you are available for booking and the return hour is the next non-selected hour.

As with the Half-day calendar, here a Service hour period between bookings is included and you can manage it. It will automatically block all bookings for the selected period after each booking so that you can have the time to prepare the boat for the next booking. You can also choose 0 if you don't want to have a Service break.

4. Adding, editing, and removing prices
Adding prices in the Price calendar is easy - once added, a price can be edited or deleted, but remember - setting a price for specific periods makes your boat available for booking for that time and vice versa - removing a price or not setting one means your boat is unavailable for booking for that time. You can choose to add prices two ways - check how to do that below.

4.1. Adding flat prices
Flat prices are the best and quickest way to add the same price for your boat for an extended period - for example, if your boat's price calendar doesn't change much for the whole winter season - you can set a flat price of $2500/week for six months. You can do that by selecting the desired type of calendar, in this case, Weekly, and just below the calendar title in the colored box you will see the Set flat prices link. Click on the link, and a menu will open where you will have to enter the flat price and the period you will enter it for. Note that the period you select sets the flat price from today onwards. Choose between 1, 3, 6, or 12 months ahead. Click on Apply, and you will see the prices entered in the calendar below.

4.2. Adding prices manually
Manually adding prices is the more advanced way of creating a dynamic price calendar. Choose this option if your boat's prices change regularly with seasons, holidays, weekends, etc. Just select the type of calendars you will be setting and scroll down to the calendar. Then make a selection of the days you will be setting by clicking on the first and then the last date. You will see a range of dates being colored, and a pop-up window will show up, asking you to enter the price for that period. Enter the price and click "Save." You will see the price for the period entered in the calendar. 

 Suppose you want to set a repeatable price for specific days of the week, for example, weekends. In that case, you can select the "Apply only to these days of the week" option from the same pop-up window. This option will set the price you enter only for the selected days of the weeks you have checked and only for the period selected on the calendar. For example, you want to set all weekend prices for daily bookings during May to be different from the other days of the week. Go to the Daily calendar, make a range on the calendar from 1st to 31st of May and enter the desired price in the pop-up window. Then check the "Apply only to these days of the week" option and select Saturday & Sunday and click "Save." The price will be set only to the Saturdays and Sundays from the 1st until the 31st of May.

4.3. Editing prices
Editing prices happen the very same way entering new ones. You can do it by adding Flat prices, which will replace current ones from today onwards for the selected period. You can do it manually from the calendar by selecting the desired dates you want to change and enter the new price.

4.4. Removing prices
Removing prices will make your boat unavailable for booking for the desired dates. You can do that in two ways - manually to clear desired dates or wipe out a whole calendar.

To do it manually, go to the desired calendar and select the dates you want to remove prices and make them unavailable by setting the "Available?" switch off. This will erase prices for the selected period, and your boat will be unavailable for booking.

*Note that when setting days unavailable for booking, two options appear - "Set these days unavailable to all calendars" which will also clear the selected dates on all other calendars and “Apply only to these days of the week” which works the same way as setting prices - it will remove the prices only for the selected days of the week for the selected period from the calendar.

To clear the whole calendar, go to the calendar type you want to clear and click the "Clear calendar" button at the top right corner. This will erase all price data on the selected calendar. Note that this action can't be undone!