{"id":2141,"date":"2019-11-04T19:41:18","date_gmt":"2019-11-04T18:41:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/da-software.de\/?p=2141"},"modified":"2019-12-23T17:58:42","modified_gmt":"2019-12-23T16:58:42","slug":"booking-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/da-software.net\/en\/2019\/11\/booking-form\/","title":{"rendered":"Booking Form"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>What is a booking form?<\/h2>\n<p>Via a <strong>booking form<\/strong>, which is a special form of the <a title=\"Create contact form\" href=\"https:\/\/da-software.de\/en\/2019\/10\/contact-form\/\">contact form<\/a>, the visitors of a website can make a concrete booking request, in most cases for one or more overnight stays. In principle, the booking request can also refer to a special, temporary event. In order that communication regarding the booking is possible and, if necessary, can be further processed electronically, an appropriate online form with the appropriate form fields should be provided. This increases the <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Web_usability\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">usability<\/a> for the visitor of the homepage, since the detour via e-mail or telephone does not have to be taken. As the data of the booking form can be provided by e-mail in a structured form, a later processing and management of the available time windows is also much easier.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2359\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2359\" style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/da-software.de\/wp-custom\/forms\/online-form-booking-enquiry.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2359 size-thumbnail\" title=\"Online form for booking request\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/online-form-booking-enquiry-150x150.png\" alt=\"Preview of a booking online form\" width=\"150\" height=\"150\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/online-form-booking-enquiry-150x150.png 150w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/online-form-booking-enquiry-300x300.png 300w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/online-form-booking-enquiry-100x100.png 100w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 150px) 100vw, 150px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2359\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Example of booking online form<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Below you will find some examples of booking requests and booking forms:<\/p>\n<h3>Form for booking holiday apartment<\/h3>\n<p>You are the operator of a holiday apartment and would like to offer your potential holiday guests the possibility on your website to make a booking request for a certain period in advance. This way you can for example avoid customers calling at an inconvenient time and you can answer the booking request at a flexible time.<\/p>\n<h3>Form for booking overnight stay<\/h3>\n<p>This is the generalized case for an online booking form of the examples given here. It is also conceivable that if you have the space or do not use it yourself, you offer your apartment temporarily for overnight stays and make it available <em>&#8220;\u00e0 la AirBnB&#8221;<\/em>.<\/p>\n<h3>Hotel\/Hostel Booking Form<\/h3>\n<p>As the operator of a small hotel, hostel or youth hostel, it can also be useful to make booking enquiries using a booking form. Especially in the target group of these young guests, it can be assumed that they would like to use the Internet as their first point of contact to make their overnight booking.<\/p>\n<h3>Camping booking form<\/h3>\n<p>Camping operators who present their campsites for tents and caravan pitches on the Internet can also make booking enquiries using an online form. For example, the <strong>backpacker<\/strong> can quickly request a place to sleep via his smartphone.<\/p>\n<h2>Form fields of a booking form<\/h2>\n<p>As different as the above examples are, so different can be the requirements for a suitable booking form. However, there are a few form fields that should always be included. There are also so-called mandatory fields, which must always be filled in by the guest. The mandatory fields should then be checked before sending the form.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Arrival date<\/li>\n<li>Departure date<\/li>\n<li>Number of persons (if necessary distinction between children and adults)<\/li>\n<li>Salutation<\/li>\n<li>Name (first and last name)<\/li>\n<li>Address<\/li>\n<li>Email<\/li>\n<li>Phone<\/li>\n<li>Special wishes<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h4>Form field arrival date<\/h4>\n<p>This should be a mandatory field in which the overnight guest enters the desired arrival date. If necessary, this field can be extended by the desired arrival time if this is important.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2217\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2217\" style=\"width: 207px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2217 size-full\" title=\"Selecting the date via the calendar form field\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/select-date.png\" alt=\"calandar field\" width=\"207\" height=\"257\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2217\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Selection field for the date<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h4>Form field date of departure<\/h4>\n<p>This is also a mandatory field, because you want to know how many nights the guest wants to stay.<\/p>\n<h4>Number of persons<\/h4>\n<p>Also a mandatory field, since you have to estimate how many rooms, extra beds or apartments you have to provide. Alternatively, you can also offer a selection by <a title=\"Example and html code of a combobox\" href=\"https:\/\/vaadin.com\/components\/vaadin-combo-box\/html-examples\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">combobox<\/a> with, for example, &#8220;<em>2-bed room<\/em>&#8221; or &#8220;<em>4-person holiday apartment<\/em>&#8220;.<\/p>\n<h4>Form fields salutation and name<\/h4>\n<p>In principle, these fields could be optional in the booking form. However, it is always nice to be able to use a correct salutation when replying to the guest. The field of address can also be set up as a combobox and at least &#8220;<em>Mr.<\/em>&#8221; and &#8220;<em>Mrs.<\/em>&#8221; can be selected or if necessary academic titles such as &#8220;Dr.&#8221; or &#8220;<em>Professor<\/em>&#8220;. The name fields can be distinguished by first name and surname.<\/p>\n<h4>Form fields for the address<\/h4>\n<p>The address does not have to be mandatory for a non-binding booking request. For a binding booking you have to enter the address. This is the known address data, such as street, house number, postcode, city. If you offer your overnight stays internationally, you should definitely offer an additional address field and also a combobox for the selection of the country\/state.<\/p>\n<h4>Email form field<\/h4>\n<p>This is a 100% mandatory field and should be checked before sending. If necessary also with a <a title=\"website for regex check\" href=\"https:\/\/regexr.com\/\">regex check<\/a> whether the syntax of an email address is correct, in order to avoid wrong entries, because for the further establishment of contact or confirmation of the reservation inquiry it is important that the email address is correct.<\/p>\n<h4>Telephone details<\/h4>\n<p>The telephone field can be, but does not have to be, a mandatory field. That depends a little bit on how the accommodation requests are to be processed preferentially. The telephone number is very helpful for short-term arrangements, for example if the arrival is delayed because of a traffic jam or if the handover of keys is delayed because the room service has not yet been completed. Here you can also check the correct entry with a regex query.<\/p>\n<h4>Form field for special requests<\/h4>\n<p>This is an optional field that can be filled with a free text. In this field the overnight guest can give hints or ask questions, e.g. about the journey, accommodation and the like. So that no novels are written it can be meaningful to limit the number of characters.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2075\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2075\" style=\"width: 764px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2075 size-full\" title=\"free text field with character delimiter\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/10\/daform_v49_chars_anim.gif\" alt=\"Screenshot text field for special wishes of a booking form\" width=\"764\" height=\"408\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2075\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Example of a free text field with character delimiter<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Special fields may also be added if special offers are involved, such as when a fishing boat is offered separately for your holiday apartment or if you want to distinguish between smoking and non-smoking rooms. Or the number of required car parking spaces.<\/p>\n<h2>Create booking form<\/h2>\n<p>The large number of form fields makes it difficult to create everything yourself in HTML. In addition, there is the effort for JavaScript to create appropriate verification methods for the mandatory fields and checks for correct input. The best way is to use a program like <strong>DA-FormMaker<\/strong>, which is a kind of <a title=\"Form generator for booking enquiries and booking forms\" href=\"https:\/\/da-software.de\/en\/software\/da-formmaker\/\">form generator<\/a>. With the help of a form wizard, experienced persons can create a booking form on the computer in less than 5 minutes.<\/p>\n<p>From the available templates, you choose the template for the booking form. There are also form templates for <a title=\"create contact form\" href=\"https:\/\/da-software.de\/en\/2019\/10\/contact-form\/\">contact forms<\/a>, <a title=\"create appointment agreement\" href=\"https:\/\/da-software.de\/en\/2019\/11\/appointment-agreement-appointment-request\/\">appointment requests<\/a> and <a title=\"create reservation request\" href=\"https:\/\/da-software.de\/en\/2019\/11\/reservation-request\/\">reservation forms<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2142\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2142\" style=\"width: 506px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2142 size-full\" title=\"Choose the template for the booking form\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/create-booking-form-1.png\" alt=\"Screenshot 1: create booking form; select from template\" width=\"506\" height=\"454\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/create-booking-form-1.png 506w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/create-booking-form-1-300x269.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2142\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Step 1: Select booking form from template<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the next step you choose one of three available designs. The designs <em>W3.CSS<\/em> and <em>Bootstrap<\/em> are also especially suitable for mobile devices, as you can see in the integrated preview.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2144\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2144\" style=\"width: 506px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2144 size-full\" title=\"Choose a design for the booking request form\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/create-booking-form-2.png\" alt=\"Screenshot 2: create booking form; select design\" width=\"506\" height=\"454\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/create-booking-form-2.png 506w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/create-booking-form-2-300x269.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2144\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Step 2: Select design template<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In the third step, you only make the general form settings. The form data with the <strong>subject<\/strong> specified here will be sent to the <strong>email address<\/strong> entered there when the overnight guest submits his booking request via the online form. The <strong>captcha<\/strong> should be activated to avoid automated spam via the form. In the <strong>text field<\/strong> you can enter a free text, which appears as an introduction before the booking form.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2146\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2146\" style=\"width: 506px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2146 size-full\" title=\"Make the basic settings for the booking request form.\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/create-booking-form-3.png\" alt=\"Screenshot 3: create booking form; form settings\" width=\"506\" height=\"454\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/create-booking-form-3.png 506w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/create-booking-form-3-300x269.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2146\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Step 3: Make basic settings: Recipient address, introductory text and e-mail subject<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Finally, you can preview the now generated booking form, edit it further or export it directly online.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2148\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2148\" style=\"width: 506px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2148 size-full\" title=\"Here you can further edit the booking form or preview it.\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/create-booking-form-4.png\" alt=\"Screenshot 4: create booking form; preview, export or edit\" width=\"506\" height=\"454\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/create-booking-form-4.png 506w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/create-booking-form-4-300x269.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 506px) 100vw, 506px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2148\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Step 4: Upload the booking form, preview or edit it<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The following picture shows a <strong>part of a booking form<\/strong>, which has been created in bootstrap design. This makes it easy to display on smartphones and tablets and is also easy to use and fill out on these devices.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2359\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2359\" style=\"width: 416px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/da-software.de\/wp-custom\/forms\/online-form-booking-enquiry.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2359 size-full\" title=\"Web form for Booking request\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/online-form-booking-enquiry.png\" alt=\"shows a booking enquiry form\" width=\"416\" height=\"747\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/online-form-booking-enquiry.png 416w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/online-form-booking-enquiry-167x300.png 167w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 416px) 100vw, 416px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2359\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">booking enquiry form<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<figure id=\"attachment_2150\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-2150\" style=\"width: 442px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/da-software.de\/wp-custom\/forms\/online-form-booking-enquiry.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-2150 size-full\" title=\"Example of a Booking Request Form in Bootstrap Design\" src=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/booking-form.png\" alt=\"Screenshot of a booking request form in responive design\" width=\"442\" height=\"928\" srcset=\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/booking-form.png 442w, \/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/booking-form-143x300.png 143w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 442px) 100vw, 442px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-2150\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Example of a finished form for booking requests in responive design<\/figcaption><\/figure>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Here you can find out how to create a booking request form (holiday apartment, hotel, camping, accommodation), what it is and which form fields you should consider.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2137,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[122,121,124,123,92,126,111,125,127],"class_list":["post-2141","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-tips-and-tricks","tag-booking","tag-booking-form","tag-booking-inquiry","tag-booking-request","tag-da-formmaker-en","tag-homepage-form","tag-internet-form","tag-online-form","tag-website-form"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/da-software.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/da-software.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/da-software.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/da-software.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/da-software.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2141"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/da-software.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2141\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/da-software.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2137"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/da-software.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2141"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/da-software.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2141"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/da-software.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2141"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}