Rentalot Plus- Joomla Extension
Rentalot Plus is an online booking system for holiday properties. Rentalot Plus runs on your own Joomla website. You control the design, the words, the pictures, and the prices. You sell direct to the public and you keep all the profits. There are no fees or commissions to pay, other than your hosting fees and payment gateway fees.

Extension Features
The software is open source and unrestricted. You manage the business in the Joomla administration interface, and your data is stored in your own Joomla database.
- Online availability and enquiries
- Online booking with payment via a choice of gateways
- Search on availability, occupancy or feature
- Choice of displays including clickable Daily Calendar View
- Full back end administration system with reports and charts
- Any number of properties
- Multi-currency with any number of currencies
- Flexible pricing - every day can have a different price
- Flexible discounting for multi-period and/or early bookings
- Flexible payment scheduling
- Automatic exchange rate updates
- Automatic payment due reminder emails
- Highly configurable
- Multi-language with full JoomFish and FaLang support
- Detailed PDF User Guide
Guide to Using and Configuring Rentalot Plus for Joomla
Rentalot Plus should be viewed not as a basic availability calendar, but as a working booking system for short-term rental properties on a Joomla site. In this guide, we'll look at how to approach installation, which settings to check first, how to connect the property, pricing, calendar, forms, payments, reminders, and guest page, and where problems usually appear.
This material is written for the site owner, Joomla administrator, and developer helping launch direct bookings without relying on an external platform. It does not cover how to purchase or pay for the extension itself. The focus is strictly on what to do with a package you already have: how to prepare the site, which features to enable gradually, how to test the public-facing side, and when it makes more sense to avoid an overly complex setup.
The article uses facts from the official Les Arbres Design page, demo site, FAQ, download pages, version history, and the developer's reference materials. Where the exact screen or setting depends on the component version, the wording remains deliberately cautious: it is better to check the latest PDF guide from the developer and test changes on a site copy.
The main goal of this guide is to help you build a minimally reliable setup: rental property, calendar, pricing, extras, forms, front-end display, payment flow, iCal sync, reminders, and troubleshooting. If you read it in order, you will get not a marketing overview, but a practical implementation map.
What Problem a Joomla Booking System Actually Solves
Rentalot Plus is built for sites where the customer chooses a specific accommodation unit: a villa, apartment, cabin, mobile home, boat, or another unique property that is booked as a whole. That limitation matters. In these projects, the visitor needs to see the property description, photos, available dates, price, extra services, an inquiry or booking form, and a clear way to return to their request later.
The system runs on your Joomla site. That means the content, images, menu structure, page design, and booking data remain under the site owner's control. The official page emphasizes that the data is stored in your site's database and the business is managed from the Joomla admin panel. For smaller accommodation businesses, that is often more practical than moving the entire process to a third-party platform.
In practical terms, Rentalot Plus connects several layers:
- The administrator defines properties, periods, prices, discounts, extras, documents, currencies, and payment rules.
- The visitor selects dates and sees availability, pricing, and inquiry or booking buttons.
- The component records the inquiry, booking, emails, documents, payments, and logged events.
- The plugin lets you display the required views inside articles and modules, not only through separate menu items.
This architecture is especially useful for sites where the property page needs to function as a full landing page: description, photo gallery, map, check-in conditions, availability calendar, form, and extras can all live together. The official FAQ explicitly notes that the plugin can combine property description, availability, and other blocks on the same page.
Key principle: first build one property and one working booking flow, then expand the system to additional properties, currencies, discounts, languages, and iCal. That makes it much easier to tell a data issue from a configuration issue.
Who Rentalot Plus Fits Best, and Where It Is Overkill
Before installation, it is important to compare the product model honestly with the actual business model. Rentalot Plus works well for direct bookings of unique properties where the owner wants to manage rules, content, and the payment flow inside Joomla. It should not be used as a replacement for a hotel room allocation system if guests book a room type rather than a specific unit.
Good-fit scenarios
The extension makes sense if you have one or more properties and each one is something the customer intentionally chooses. That could be a site for villas, apartments, vacation homes, cottages, camping cabins, or other overnight accommodations. In that model, the visitor compares properties, checks the calendar, selects dates, and submits an inquiry or books directly.
Another strong use case is a site that needs to show availability in several ways. The demo site includes a classic period list, a daily calendar, a block view, availability checking, a searchable property list, a map, and a cleaning schedule. These are not just visual variations; each one solves a different user need.
Scenarios where you should be more cautious
The official limitations can save time by ruling out the wrong model early. Rentalot Plus is not a hotel room allocation system. The customer does not book "two double rooms" but selects a specific accommodation unit. The product also books nights, so it is not a good fit for hourly rentals or short time-slot booking.
Another risk area is a business with multiple independent owners. The official page and FAQ state that the system is designed for a single owner who has access to all properties. If you need to split administration between different owners, you will need a different architecture or a serious permissions review.
How to decide before installation
Define one test scenario: "A guest selects a specific property and dates, sees the final price, chooses extras, submits an inquiry or booking, receives an email, and later returns to their booking page." If that looks like your business flow, Rentalot Plus is worth testing. If your flow starts with room allocation, hourly slots, or separate owner dashboards, you should look at alternatives instead.
What to Check Before Installing on a Live Site
Rentalot Plus is not a small widget. It is a component and plugin that affect menus, articles, forms, emails, payments, languages, currencies, and booking data. That is why preparation matters more than installation speed. The cleaner your starting conditions are, the easier it is to understand why something does not appear on the site.
Joomla and environment compatibility
The developer's download page lists support for current Joomla branches, as well as a separate component and article plugin. For older sites, it is especially important to match the package against the current guide and version history: the component and plugin have their own version numbers and their own change history. Do not move a live site to a new Joomla version and a new Rentalot Plus version in a single step without a backup copy.
Check the basic conditions:
- You have a full backup of the files and database.
- The site runs on a Joomla and PHP version supported by the developer's documentation.
- Joomla's standard mail delivery mechanisms are working, because reminders and guest emails depend on mail configuration.
- The site template does not break standard Joomla forms, tables, buttons, or messages.
- If online payments are planned, the connection between Payage and the required payment gateway has been reviewed in advance.
Data you should prepare in advance
The most common mistake when launching booking systems is starting with the interface before the data is ready. For Rentalot Plus, it is better to prepare the property list, names, descriptions, capacity, amenities, photos, pricing periods, minimum and maximum stay length, extra charge rules, and email templates ahead of time.
If you have multiple properties, agree on consistent terminology. The official documentation and demo use the term unit, which in this context can mean a property, accommodation unit, or specific rentable item. Inside Joomla and in images, the real interface may still remain in English, so it is better not to mix several inconsistent terms on the public-facing side.
Test launch plan
Do not enable all currencies, languages, discounts, iCal, payments, and documents at once. The first launch should answer a simple question: can a user view one property, choose an available period, get the correct price, and submit an inquiry? After that, add online booking, My Booking, reminders, and synchronization.
Installing the Component, Plugin, and Running the First Check
Rentalot Plus is delivered as a Joomla component and a Joomla plugin. The component handles data management, bookings, settings, and the administrative side. The plugin is needed to embed Rentalot Plus views inside articles or modules and to build pages from multiple blocks. That distinction is important: if the component is installed but the plugin is not enabled, some display scenarios inside articles will not work.
Basic action order
- Install the component package through Joomla's standard Extension Manager.
- Install the article plugin package if you plan to display Rentalot Plus blocks inside articles.
- Enable the plugin in the Plugin Manager and verify that it is available for the required content types.
- Open the component in the admin panel and confirm that its administrative sections load without errors.
- Create a test property, a minimal pricing period, and a menu item for one availability view.
- Open the public page in a separate window without being logged into the admin panel.
If the page does not open at this stage, do not move on to payments or discounts. First verify that the component works in the admin panel, the menu item actually points to the correct view, and the property has the data the view needs in order to display availability.
Initial post-installation check
The minimum check should be short and repeatable. Open the property page, the availability page, and the inquiry form. Make sure dates are available, pricing is displayed in the expected currency, buttons are not hidden by settings, and submitting the form does not trigger a mail error. If Joomla multilingual mode is in use, open the page separately in each language and confirm that the menu routes to the correct language context.
Short takeaway: installation is successful not when the package appears in the extension list, but when the public page displays a test property with availability and a user action.
Configuring Properties, Prices, and Calendars Without Chaos
The most important part of Rentalot Plus is not the design and not the booking button, but the data model. If the property, pricing periods, and availability are configured ambiguously, the visitor will see strange month ranges, missing prices, or unavailable dates. The official FAQ directly explains that month display depends not only on menu parameters, but also on whether pricing exists for specific periods and properties.
Properties as separate accommodation units
Each property should have its own description, images, pricing, and bookings. Do not try to use one property as a "room type" if in reality the guest is booking one of several identical rooms. In Rentalot Plus, the property should be something the visitor can choose specifically: "Lake House," "Terrace Apartment," or "Sauna Cottage."
You can use standard Joomla capabilities in the property description, including formatted text, images, and plugins. The demo site shows that a property description can include a gallery, map, video, or even Rentalot Plus blocks. That gives you flexibility, but it also requires discipline: if every property page is built differently, troubleshooting becomes much harder.
Pricing periods and stay length
The official page describes a flexible period model: a period can be daily, weekly, or another length, and the final price is built from the periods touched by the booking. In that logic, it is important not to leave gaps. If a property has no price for some dates, availability may not display the way the administrator expects.
For a typical site, start with a simple setup:
- One property or a small group of properties.
- One default currency.
- One seasonal pricing set without complex discounts.
- A clear minimum and maximum stay length.
- One public availability view that is easy to test.
After verification, you can add more refined rules: different minimum stays for different periods, long-stay discounts, early booking, coupons, and extras. But every new rule should be tested through a trial booking, not just saved in the admin panel.
Availability views and choosing the right format
Rentalot Plus offers several public formats. The classic list is convenient for weekly seasonal rentals. Daily View helps users choose dates day by day. Block View and Check Availability work well when the visitor needs to understand open periods quickly. Unit List with Search is useful for projects with multiple accommodation units, and the map helps when location affects the decision.
| Situation | Best-fit view | What to verify |
|---|---|---|
| One property with weekly arrivals | Classic period list | Period start and end dates, price, occupancy status, and inquiry or booking buttons. |
| Flexible arrival dates | Daily View or Check Availability | Arrival and departure date selection, final price calculation, and whether unavailable-date messages are clear. |
| Multiple properties | Unit List with Search | Date, capacity, and amenity filtering, plus correct links to the property and form. |
| Selection depends on geography | Clickable Maps | Markers, pop-up descriptions, and links to inquiry and booking actions. |
The table does not replace testing. It helps you choose the starting view, but real validation always happens on a public page with a specific property and specific dates.
Forms, Extras, Discounts, and Payment Schedule
Once the property and price display correctly, you can move on to what makes the system commercially useful: inquiries, bookings, extra services, discounts, payments, and documents. The key here is not to enable everything at once, because several rules may affect the final amount at the same time.
Inquiry or online booking
The official page describes two behavior paths after the visitor selects a property and dates: they can submit an inquiry or complete a booking and payment. For new sites, it is helpful to start with inquiries, especially while the owner is still checking pricing and rules. Later, an inquiry can be converted into a booking, and the administrator will also see the kinds of questions guests actually ask.
Online booking makes sense once the price, extras, cancellation rules, emails, documents, and payment flow have already been tested. Rentalot Plus uses a separate extension, Payage, for payments. That means payment troubleshooting is split into two parts: Rentalot Plus must create the booking and amount correctly, and Payage must execute the payment flow correctly.
Extra services
Extras in Rentalot Plus can be calculated in different ways: per day, per week, per stay, or per person. The official page also notes support for minimum and maximum quantities, including mandatory extras. That works well for linens, cleaning, a crib, transfers, equipment rental, or other services the guest selects together with the stay.
The best order for configuring extras is:
- Create one optional extra with a simple price.
- Confirm that it is visible in the form and added to the final amount.
- Create one mandatory extra and make sure the guest understands its purpose.
- Check the email, document, and My Booking page if the extra should appear there.
Do not use mandatory extras as a hidden way to increase the price. That reduces trust in the page. If the fee is unavoidable for every guest, it is better to explain it near the price and make sure the total does not look unexpected.
Discounts, coupons, and early booking
Rentalot Plus supports multiple discount levels for bookings spanning several periods, coded coupons, and early booking. The official FAQ confirms that the early discount can be either fixed or percentage-based. In practice, this is a powerful but risky area: an incorrect discount order or an unclear coupon can create disputes with guests.
A safe way to test discounts is to run three bookings in sequence: one without a discount, one with a coupon, and one with an early discount. Compare the final amount, the guest email, and the record in the admin panel. If you cannot explain the result to the site owner in one minute, the rule is too complex for a public launch.
Payment schedule and reminders
The official page states that a booking can be paid in multiple installments and that the system sends reminders to both the owner and the customer. That is useful for deposit, follow-up payment, and final balance before arrival. But these flows need especially careful testing because they depend on dates, statuses, email, and the payment extension.
Do not check only the first payment. Also test the guest's return to the My Booking page. That is where the customer should see the booking details, documents, and the option for a follow-up payment, if your scenario includes one.
Multilingual Setup, Currencies, and the My Booking Guest Page
One of Rentalot Plus's strengths is its focus on international rental sites. The official page mentions built-in multilingual support without a required extra extension, as well as multi-currency support with daily exchange rate updates. For the site owner, that opens up a useful scenario: the same property can be sold to different audiences while keeping all booking data inside one system.
Site languages and booking language
The developer states that Rentalot Plus remembers the preferred language of each booking and creates documents and emails in the booking language. That is especially important for payment emails, confirmations, and documents. If the site is multilingual, testing should cover not only the public interface but also the administrative records.
Check the full chain: the user opens the site in the correct language, selects a property, submits an inquiry or booking, receives an email, and the administrator sees the saved language. If part of the text appears in the wrong language, first check the language file, Joomla language overrides, and translation freshness instead of editing the extension code.
Currencies and guest expectations
Customers can browse prices and book in the offered currencies. Automatic exchange rate updates are convenient, but the owner should understand which currency is the base currency, where the switcher appears, and how amounts are rounded. Do not launch multiple currencies until one base currency has been tested end to end: property page, form, email, My Booking, and reports.
My Booking as the center of follow-up actions
My Booking is not just a confirmation page. According to the official description, the guest can view booking details, download documents, and make follow-up payments there if the scenario includes them. That means the link to this page should be tested as part of the user journey, not treated as a minor feature.
After a test booking, open the page as a guest and check:
- Whether the dates, property, total, and status are displayed.
- Whether it is clear which documents can be downloaded.
- Whether a follow-up payment action is available if needed.
- Whether unnecessary internal data is hidden from the customer.
- Whether the page language matches the booking language.
iCal Synchronization and External Calendars
Rentalot Plus supports incoming and outgoing iCal files for synchronization with external calendars or booking systems. This is an important feature for owners who use multiple sales channels. But it needs to be understood realistically: the official FAQ emphasizes that iCal usually synchronizes availability, not full guest data and not all booking details.
What iCal actually does
iCal helps reduce the risk of double booking when the property appears in several calendars. An incoming feed can block dates that are occupied in an external system. An outgoing feed can send Rentalot Plus occupancy data to another platform. This is not a full two-way integration with an external platform, but an exchange of calendar events.
Because of that, the article and the settings should not promise synchronization of "all booking data." For the site owner, a more accurate expectation is more useful: iCal blocks dates and helps account for outside sources of occupancy, but guest data, payments, documents, and correspondence remain in the system where they were created.
How to test synchronization
iCal testing should be separate from regular booking testing. Create a test occupancy event in an external calendar, wait for the import or trigger the documented check, then open the public property page. The date should appear occupied or unavailable in the way the owner expects.
Then run the reverse test: create a test booking in Rentalot Plus and confirm that the outgoing calendar publishes the occupancy. If the external system updates with a delay, document that in the administrator instructions. Otherwise the owner may treat the delay as a component error.
Public Pages: Joomla Menus, Articles, and the Rentalot Plus Plugin
Rentalot Plus can be displayed through different public views and through the plugin inside articles. That gives you flexibility, but this is also where confusion often begins: the same property can appear through a menu item, an embedded block in an article, a module, or a combined page. Before publishing, choose a structure your administrators will actually be able to maintain.
Menu item or block inside an article
A menu item is convenient when you need to display a standalone view: a property list, availability check, map, calendar, or schedule. That option is easier to troubleshoot because the parameters are concentrated in one place. In the developer FAQ, the Unit ID parameter is used as an example: if it is empty or zero, the behavior depends on the number of properties; if a specific property is set, availability is displayed for that property only, without a selection list.
The plugin is useful when the page needs an editorial structure: first the text, photos, and property highlights, then the calendar, inquiry form, map, and extra blocks. The official FAQ confirms that almost all views can be placed in articles or modules through the plugin. But you should not turn one page into a collection of ten separate blocks: it will become heavier and harder to diagnose.
How to build a property page
For a single-property page, this sequence often works well:
- A short property description and key photos in a regular Joomla article.
- A block for amenities and stay conditions.
- An availability calendar or date check through Rentalot Plus.
- Extra services, if they need to appear before the form.
- The inquiry or booking form.
- A map, if location affects the decision.
That order matches the guest's logic: first they understand the property, then they check dates and price, then they choose an action. If you place the form before the description and calendar, visitors will ask questions the page could have answered on its own.
Color schemes and visual styling
The official page mentions multiple out-of-the-box color schemes, and the FAQ confirms that you can create a custom CSS file to match the site template. Without knowing the exact classes in the current version, it is better not to include a generic CSS snippet in the guide, because it may not match the real selectors. A safer path is to use the built-in schemes first, then create a custom CSS file or Joomla template override based on the developer's documentation, if your version supports that.
Design check: after changing the scheme, open the calendar, period list, form, My Booking page, and email. The styling should make dates and prices easier to read, not just match the template colors.
Practical Example: A Villa Page with Calendar, Inquiry Form, and Extras
The example below does not try to cover everything Rentalot Plus can do. Its purpose is to show a safe launch sequence for a single property. This is exactly the kind of scenario you should complete on a test copy of the site before moving the setup to production.
Goal
You need to create a villa page where the guest sees the description, checks availability, selects dates, sees the price, adds an extra service, and submits an inquiry. Online payment stays disabled for now so you can test the data, emails, and front-end output separately.
Preparation
Before you begin, the Rentalot Plus component and its article plugin should already be installed. Joomla should already contain an article with the villa description, images, a menu for the rental section, and working mail delivery. For the test, use one base currency and one site language.
Setup steps
- Create the accommodation unit with a clear name, description, capacity, and amenity set.
- Add a simple pricing period for the nearest test date range without mixing in discounts.
- Create one extra service, such as cleaning or a linen set, and make it optional.
- Create a menu item or embed an availability-check view into the property article through the plugin.
- Make sure the page is tied to the correct property, not to the full list of all properties.
- Enable the inquiry form and temporarily keep online booking turned off if the pricing is still being verified.
- Open the page as a guest, choose dates, verify the price, and submit a test inquiry.
Verifying the result
On the public page, the available dates, price, period status, inquiry form, and extra charge should all be visible if they belong to the selected scenario. In the admin panel, an inquiry or record should appear that the administrator can process. The email should arrive with clear information, without technical strings or the wrong language.
After a successful inquiry, you can repeat the same scenario with online booking and Payage. Do not change extras, discounts, and payments at the same time. If something breaks, you will not know which rule affected the outcome.
A nuance people often miss
If the calendar shows unexpected months or the price is missing, check not only the view settings but also the pricing periods for the specific property. In the FAQ, the developer explains that availability is tied to the existence of prices. An empty price range can look like a calendar issue even though the real cause is in the data.
Admin Panel, Reports, and the Event Log
Rentalot Plus is valuable for more than just its public calendar. The official page describes an administrative area where you can view, create, and edit bookings, manage inquiries, prices, emails, reports, charts, and the system log. For a property owner, this is a working dashboard, not just a settings page.
What to check in the admin panel after a test booking
After any test inquiry or booking, open the record in the component and make sure the administrator can see enough information to do real work: property, dates, guest, total, extras, status, email history, and documents. If the team will use the component daily, they need to know in advance where to find the record and which fields should not be changed without understanding the consequences.
System Log as a troubleshooting tool
The official page states that System Log records details of what happens behind the scenes, including the text of emails sent by the system. That is an important clue for troubleshooting. If a guest says they never received an email, first check the log and Joomla mail settings. If the email appears in the log but was not delivered, the issue may be at the mail transport, domain, or filtering level.
Reports and service schedule
For multiple properties, Booking Overview, financial reports, payment reports, and Schedule Report can be useful for preparing properties for guests. They do not need to be treated as a mandatory part of day-one launch, but once real bookings appear, they help the administrator avoid working blind.
If Rentalot Plus Shows the Wrong Result: Symptom-Based Troubleshooting
Troubleshooting works best from simple to complex: first the property data and prices, then the menu item or plugin, then the form, email, payments, iCal, and template. The situations below are typical for booking systems of this kind and are supported by the logic of the official FAQ, demo, and feature descriptions.
The calendar or period list does not show the expected dates
Symptom: the public page shows the wrong months, some periods are missing, or the property looks unavailable.
Possible cause: menu parameters define the display range, but availability also depends on prices created for the specific property and period. If no price exists, the system cannot always display the expected result.
What to check: the property, pricing periods, minimum and maximum stay length, the selected Unit ID in the view settings, and the page language and currency.
How to fix it: create a minimal test pricing period, open the page in guest mode, and check one date range. If the result appears, expand the periods gradually.
A property list appears when the page should show one villa
Symptom: the visitor sees a property selector even though the page should show only one specific property.
Possible cause: no specific property is set in the menu item parameters, or the value was left empty. The developer FAQ explains that when Unit ID is empty or zero, the behavior depends on the number of properties.
What to check: the menu item settings, the article with the plugin, the linked property, and the language-specific menu copy.
How to fix it: set a specific property in the view configuration or build the page through the plugin tied to the required property, following the developer's guide. After making changes, clear the Joomla and template cache if caching is enabled.
The form submits, but no email arrives
Symptom: the inquiry or booking appears in the system, but the owner or guest does not receive an email.
Possible cause: the problem is not in the form itself, but in Joomla mail configuration, domain email, filtering, or the reminder schedule.
What to check: Rentalot Plus System Log, Joomla global mail settings, sender address, spam folder, the domain's DNS records, and a Joomla test email.
How to fix it: first make sure a standard Joomla test email sends successfully, then repeat the inquiry submission. If the log contains the record but the recipient gets nothing, troubleshoot deliverability at the mail service level.
The online payment total does not match the booking total
Symptom: Rentalot Plus shows one total, but the payment flow or email shows a different amount.
Possible cause: the total is being affected simultaneously by the period price, extras, discounts, coupon, payment schedule, currency, and Payage rules.
What to check: test one booking without discounts, then one with a single extra, then one with one coupon, then one with the payment schedule. Do not test everything at once.
How to fix it: disable the questionable rule, recalculate, and restore the rules one by one. If the error appears only during the payment stage, check the Payage and payment gateway configuration.
iCal does not block dates or blocks them with a delay
Symptom: external occupancy does not appear on the site or appears later than the administrator expected.
Possible cause: iCal works as an exchange of calendar events and depends on the update schedule, external file availability, and the limitations of the outside system.
What to check: the incoming calendar URL, whether the file is accessible without authorization, the update interval, and one test property with one test period.
How to fix it: start with one iCal channel, confirm that it changes availability, and only then add other channels. If the delay is unavoidable, include that in the administrator's operating instructions.
The page looks broken after changing the template or CSS
Symptom: tables, buttons, forms, or the calendar become hard to read even though the data is correct.
Possible cause: the site template or custom CSS is overriding Rentalot Plus styles. The FAQ allows front-end styling, but such changes need to be verified across all main views.
What to check: the standard color scheme, the page without custom CSS, conflicting template rules, the mobile view, the calendar, the form, and My Booking.
How to fix it: roll back the custom CSS, restore the built-in scheme, then reapply changes in small blocks. Do not edit the extension core CSS.
Limitations and Risky Settings You Should Understand Up Front
A strong booking system always has boundaries. Good configuration starts not with "how do we enable more features," but with "which features do not fit our model." Rentalot Plus honestly describes several limitations that should be understood before launch.
Not a hotel room allocation engine
If the business sells room types and the administrator assigns the actual room later, Rentalot Plus will be awkward to use. Its model is built around specific properties. The customer chooses a property, not an abstract accommodation type. For villas and unique apartments, that is a strength; for a traditional hotel, it is a limitation.
Not for hourly rentals
The system books nights, and the minimum period is one night. For equipment rental, office or treatment rooms, cars rented for a few hours, or day slots without overnight stays, a different logic is required. In the FAQ, the developer allows careful use for unique transport-related units with a minimum overnight stay, but not for large-scale car rental with short daytime intervals.
One price per period
The official page notes that a period can have one price. If the business historically offers several parallel prices for the same period, such as different packages for the same dates, you will need to model that through daily pricing, discounts, or extras. Before launch, make sure the final price can be explained to the guest without relying on internal accounting logic.
No separation of property owners
If you run a marketplace where different owners should manage only their own properties, Rentalot Plus is not a ready-made multi-owner platform. That is not a drawback for a single-owner site, but it is an important limitation for portals.
Questions to Resolve Before Launching Rentalot Plus
Can Rentalot Plus be used on a multilingual Joomla site?
Yes. The official page describes built-in multilingual support without a required extra extension. That said, you still need to test the language of the public page, email, document, and booking record separately. If the translation is outdated or needs adjustment, use language files and standard Joomla overrides instead of editing the extension core.
Can the calendar be displayed inside a Joomla article?
Yes. That is what the Rentalot Plus plugin is for. The developer FAQ states that almost all views can be placed in articles or modules. It is important to enable the plugin and use the syntax from the current guide instead of inventing your own tags.
Is the extension suitable for a hotel with identical rooms?
Usually no, if guests book a room type rather than a specific accommodation unit. Rentalot Plus is designed around specific properties. For hotel-style room allocation, it is better to look at solutions built for room-based booking.
Can it accept online payments?
Yes. The official materials connect online payments to Payage, a separate payment extension from Les Arbres Design. It is best to configure that part only after testing the standard inquiry flow, price, extras, emails, and the My Booking page.
What should I do if the dates do not display as expected?
First check the data, not the template: the property, pricing periods, menu item range, Unit ID, and minimum stay length. In the FAQ, the developer explains that availability is tied to the existence of prices for the specific property and period.
Can bookings be synchronized with external calendars?
Rentalot Plus supports iCal import and export. But iCal usually transfers occupancy, not full guest data, payments, or documents. Use it to prevent overlapping dates, not as a full integration for all booking data.
Should all currencies and discounts be enabled right away?
No. First test one currency, one property, and one simple price. Then add currencies, coupons, early booking, extras, and the payment schedule one rule at a time. That order can save hours of troubleshooting.
Where is it safest to change the look of the public blocks?
Start with the built-in color schemes and the approach described in the developer's guide. The FAQ confirms support for a custom CSS file, but selectors and structure may depend on the version. Do not edit the core files of the component or plugin.
When Rentalot Plus Is the Right Choice
Rentalot Plus is worth using if your Joomla site sells direct bookings for specific overnight properties and the owner wants to control the content, calendar, pricing, emails, documents, payments, and data on their own site. The product is strongest not as a simple "book now" button, but as a connected system: property, availability, price, extras, inquiry or booking, My Booking, reminders, iCal, and reports.
Before launch, do not try to beat complexity by piling on more settings. Build one working scenario, then verify the public page, email, admin-panel record, guest page, and event log. After that, add multilingual support, currencies, discounts, payments, and external calendars. This order produces a clear result and reduces the risk of hidden errors.
If the product fits your model, you can download the latest version of Rentalot Plus and start with a test copy of the site. If instead you need a hotel room allocation system, hourly slots, or independent dashboards for multiple owners, it is better to compare alternatives first rather than forcing the extension to work against its own architecture.
Final pre-launch check: one property, one currency, one language, one availability view, one form, one test email, one admin-panel record, and one clear guest journey. When that chain works, Rentalot Plus is ready to be expanded into real-world scenarios.
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