How to set up a guest suite with fixed check-in and check-out times
Some amenities are booked the way a hotel room is booked: a resident reserves a range of nights, arrives after a set check-in time, and leaves before a set check-out time. A guest suite is the usual...
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Some amenities are booked the way a hotel room is booked: a resident reserves a range of nights, arrives after a set check-in time, and leaves before a set check-out time. A guest suite is the usual example. This guide shows how to configure that in URBI so residents pick dates only, and the times are fixed for them.
Who can use it: Staff, PMs, or board members with amenity edit permission (amenities_update) on the property.
Requires: KORE or PREMIUM property tier. On BASIC the multi-day controls are visible but locked.
How URBI models a suite
URBI does not have a separate "suite" amenity type. A suite is the combination of two existing settings:
| Setting | What it does here |
|---|---|
| Use predefined time slots | Turns the amenity's times into fixed bookends instead of a flexible hourly window |
| Allow multi-day bookings | Lets a single booking span a range of dates |
Turn on both, and give the amenity one time slot whose start is your check-in time and whose end is your check-out time. That slot is the whole configuration. The start time becomes the arrival time on the first day, and the end time becomes the departure time on the last day.
Because check-out is the morning after check-in, the slot's end time is earlier in the day than its start time. That is correct and expected for an overnight amenity.
1. Open the amenity and go to the Schedule tab
From the Amenities directory, click the amenity card, then click Edit. Open the Schedule tab.
If you have not created the amenity yet, the same fields appear in the creation wizard's Schedule step.
2. Turn on "Use predefined time slots"
This is the setting that switches the amenity from flexible hourly booking to fixed bookends. Once it is on, the opening and closing time fields become read-only, because they now derive from your slots.
3. Turn on "Allow multi-day bookings"
Scroll to the Multi-day & service buffer card and turn on Allow multi-day bookings.
On a BASIC property this toggle is locked with an upgrade note. The tier is also re-checked when a booking is created, so a multi-day booking cannot be made on a BASIC property even if the setting is somehow enabled.
4. Add one overnight slot
Click Add Time Slot and set:
- Name: something residents will recognise, for example "Overnight stay"
- Start time: your check-in time, for example 3:00 PM
- End time: your check-out time, for example 10:00 AM
Save the slot.
Use exactly one slot. With multi-day turned on, the resident app reads the earliest start time and the latest end time across all slots to build the locked check-in and check-out rows. A single slot makes those two values unambiguous. Extra slots on a suite will produce times you did not intend.
5. Confirm the operating hours line
After the slot saves, the read-only Operating hours line will show 15:00 - 10:00 (3:00 PM to 10:00 AM). Seeing a later time on the left and an earlier time on the right looks wrong at a glance, but it is exactly right here. Those two values are the check-in and check-out times the resident app displays.
If that line does not match your slot, re-save the slot. The hours are recalculated from the slots every time a slot is added, edited, or deleted.
6. Limit the suite to one booking at a time
Open the Booking Rules tab and set Simultaneous Booking Limit to 1. A suite is a single physical space, so without this a second resident can reserve overlapping nights.
While you are on this tab, consider setting:
- Active Booking Limit Per Unit, so one unit cannot hold several future stays at once
- Annual Booking Limit, if you cap how many nights a unit gets per year
- Booking Notice, if you need advance warning to prepare the suite
7. Set the price as a day rate
Open the Pricing tab, add a price, and set its unit to Per Day.
Stays are always billed in whole days, rounded up. A partial final day is billed as a full day and is never pro-rated. For example, a 3:00 PM Friday check-in with a 10:00 AM Sunday check-out is 43 hours, which bills as 2 days. That matches how people count nights, so a day rate reads naturally as a nightly rate.
If you also collect a damage deposit, add it as a deposit line on the same tab. Deposits are a single flat amount and are not multiplied by the length of the stay.
Setting a maximum stay length
The maximum length of a single booking comes from Max hours per booking, counted in hours. Seven nights is 168, three nights is 72.
That field is hidden while "Use predefined time slots" is on. To set it on a suite that is already configured:
- Turn Use predefined time slots off. Your slot is not deleted.
- Enter the value in Max hours per booking.
- Turn Use predefined time slots back on.
Setting it before you turn slots on avoids the round trip entirely. If you leave it empty, there is no cap and residents can book any range that is otherwise free.
Keep the after-service buffer at 5 hours or less
The After-service buffer (hours) field in the Multi-day & service buffer card blocks time around every booking so staff can clean and inspect between stays. On a suite it needs care, because the buffer is applied to both ends of an existing booking, not only after it.
With a 10:00 AM check-out and a 3:00 PM check-in there are five hours of natural turnaround already built into the amenity. So:
| Buffer | Effect on a same-day turnaround |
|---|---|
| 0 to 5 hours | Works. The next guest can check in at 3:00 PM on the day the previous guest leaves. |
| More than 5 hours | Blocks it. A 6-hour buffer pushes a 10:00 AM check-out out to 4:00 PM, so the 3:00 PM check-in is reported as unavailable. |
If you need longer than five hours to turn the suite around, leave the buffer at 5 or lower and move the check-in time later instead. That way residents see an honest check-in time rather than a day that mysteriously refuses to book.
What residents see in the app
- The booking screen shows a calendar in range mode. The resident taps an arrival date, then a departure date. Dates that would overlap an existing booking, a maintenance closure, or the maximum stay length are greyed out.
- Instead of time pickers, they see two rows: Check-in time and Check-out time, each showing your configured time with a padlock icon and the note "Set by amenity". These cannot be changed.
- The summary shows the length of the stay and the total, calculated in whole days.
- If they try to select a range that is not available, they get a clear message. Residents cannot override it.
What staff see when booking on behalf of a resident
Staff booking from URBI Kore get a check-in date field and a check-out date field, with the times supplied by the slot exactly as they are for residents. Staff can override a buffer conflict where a resident cannot. Staff cannot override the maximum stay length, which is blocked for everyone.
Troubleshooting
| What you see | What to do |
|---|---|
| Residents get single-day booking, not a date range | Confirm both "Use predefined time slots" and "Allow multi-day bookings" are on, and that the property is on KORE or PREMIUM. |
| Check-in or check-out shows the wrong time | Check that the amenity has exactly one slot, then re-save it and confirm the operating hours line matches. |
| The end time picker will not accept a time earlier than the start | Make sure "Allow multi-day bookings" is turned on first. The picker only allows an earlier end time once the amenity is multi-day. On older builds, set the end time before the start time. |
| A day that should be free will not book | Check the after-service buffer. Anything above 5 hours blocks a same-day turnaround. |
| A stay is billed for more days than nights stayed | Expected. Stays round up to whole days and a partial day bills as a full day. |
| Two residents booked overlapping nights | Set Simultaneous Booking Limit to 1 on the Booking Rules tab. |
Frequently asked questions
Can the check-in and check-out times differ by day of the week? No. The amenity has one pair of bookend times that applies to every booking.
Can a resident request a late check-out? Not through the app. Staff can edit the booking's dates, but the times come from the amenity and are the same for everyone.
What happens if the property drops below KORE? Existing multi-day bookings are honoured, editable, and billed normally. Only new multi-day bookings are blocked until the property is back on KORE or PREMIUM.
Can I still use this amenity for single-day bookings? Not at the same time. While the suite is configured with overnight bookends, every booking uses those bookends. Create a separate amenity if you also need hourly use of the same space.