Full installation and operator guide for ReservePress Booking (Plugin v1.4.5 & Theme v1.4.3) — supporting both Hotel/B&B and Vacation Rental modes, Instant Booking, Request-to-Book with one-click email approval tokens, and two-way iCal sync.
ReservePress Booking is a hospitality booking plugin for WordPress that supports two distinct operator modes — Hotel/B&B and Vacation Rental. It ships with a companion theme (ReservePress Booking Theme) that adapts its layout, navigation, and language automatically based on which mode is active.
Component
Description
Plugin v1.4.5
Core booking engine — CPTs, shortcodes, admin dashboard, iCal sync, email notifications
Theme v1.4.3
Companion WordPress theme — mode-aware templates, Customizer controls, auto page management
The plugin operates in one of two modes, selected during initial setup:
Mode
Best For
Hotel / B&B
Properties with multiple room types, event-based bookings, front-desk management, venue rentals
Vacation Rental
Single or multi-property rentals (cabins, cottages, suites) with nightly rates, request-to-book or instant booking flows
⚠shown, Important: The operator mode affects which admin menu items appear, which settings tabs are which pages are auto-created, and how the theme renders every page. Set it correctly before activating the theme.
WordPress: 6.0 or higher
PHP: 8.0 or higher
MySQL: 5.7 / MariaDB 10.3 or higher
Plugin and theme must both be from the same release set — do not mix versions
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
Follow this exact order. Activating the theme before setting the operator mode will cause the wrong set of pages to be created.
1
2
3
4
5
Go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin. Upload reservepress-booking-v1.4.5.zip and click Install Now, then Activate.
Go to RP Booking → Settings → General. Under Operator Mode, select either Hotel / B&B or Vacation Rental. Click Save Settings.
Go to Appearance → Themes → Add New → Upload Theme. Upload reservepress-bookingtheme-v1.4.3.zip. Click Install Now, then Activate.
Go to RP Booking → Settings → Setup. All rows should show a green checkmark. If any show warnings, visit the Theme Setup page (Appearance → Theme Setup) to see full status.
Go to Appearance → Customize. Set your property name, hero images, brand colours, contact details, and footer information.
When the theme activates, it creates all required pages and wires their IDs to the plugin's expected option keys. No manual page creation is needed.
Page
URL Slug
Purpose
Book Now
/book-now/
Main booking page — contains the booking form
My Reservations
/my-reservations/
Guest self-service — view and manage bookings
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
Payment
/payment/
Deposit and balance payment processing
About
/about/
Property story and overview
Amenities
/amenities/
Amenities listing
Nearby Attractions
/nearby-attractions/
Local area guide
Gallery
/gallery/
Photo gallery
Special Offers
/special-offers/
Promotions listing
Contact
/contact/
Contact form and information
Terms & Conditions
/terms-and-conditions/
Legal terms
Privacy Policy
/privacy-policy/
Privacy policy
Cancellation Policy
/cancellation-policy/
Cancellation terms
FAQ
/faq/
Frequently asked questions
Page
URL Slug
Purpose
Venue Inquiry
/venue-inquiry/
Venue rental inquiry form
Front Desk
/front-desk/
Admin-facing front desk management
✅checks
Tip: If you ever accidentally delete a page, simply visit any WordPress admin page. The theme for missing pages on every admin load and recreates them automatically.
If you need to start fresh (e.g. switching from a test install to production):
⚠hookImportant:
Do not use Delete to remove pages before deleting the plugin — the plugin's uninstall will not run if the plugin is already gone, leaving stale option keys that interfere with the fresh install.
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
Access all plugin settings via RP Booking → Settings in the WordPress admin menu. The tabs available depend on the active operator mode.
Tab
Available In
Setup
Both modes — page assignment and shortcode reference
General
Both modes — operator mode, property name, currency, booking page assignments
Payments
Both modes — payment gateway (Stripe / PayPal), API keys
Pricing
Vacation Rental only — nightly pricing, security deposit, cleaning and pet fees, promotions
Rates
Hotel / B&B only — per-room rate overrides per event
Emails
Both modes — customise all email subjects and body templates
Promotions
Both modes — manage active promotions and popup settings
Operator Mode: Hotel / B&B or Vacation Rental. Changing this requires saving and reloading — menu items, tabs, and pages update immediately. Property Name: Used in email notifications and the admin dashboard header. Currency: Sets the currency symbol used throughout the plugin and theme. Booking Management Page / Payment Page: Should already be auto-assigned. Only change these if you want to use a different page.
Stripe Keys: Enter your Publishable Key and Secret Key. Use test keys during setup and switch to live keys before going live.
Deposit Percentage: Set to 100% for full payment upfront, or a lower percentage for depositonly booking.
✅via Tip:
The plugin does not store card details. All payment processing is handled by Stripe or PayPal their secure APIs.
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
All emails are fully customisable. Available template tags vary by email type — the Settings page shows all available tags for each template.
Sent When
(Guest)
Guest completes an instant booking
(Admin)
New instant booking received
Request Received (Guest)
Guest submits a Request to Book
Request Received (Admin)
New request received — includes Approve/Decline links
Booking Approved (Guest)
Admin approves a booking request
Booking Declined (Guest)
Admin declines a booking request
Payment Request
Admin requests deposit or balance payment
Cancellation Confirmation
Booking is cancelled
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
The RP Booking menu in the WordPress admin sidebar adapts based on operator mode.
Menu Item
Available In
Dashboard
Both modes — overview stats, upcoming reservations, needs attention panel
Bookings
Both modes — full booking list with filters, status management
Contacts
Both modes — guest contact list
Properties / Rooms
Both modes — room/property management (labelled by mode)
Events
Hotel / B&B only — event/retreat management
Venues
Hotel / B&B only — venue management
Channels
Both modes — iCal export/import for Airbnb, VRBO, etc.
Promotions
Both modes — manage active promotional offers
Add-ons
Both modes — upsell items that attach to bookings
Coupons
Both modes — discount codes
Settings
Both modes — all plugin configuration
The main dashboard shows at-a-glance stats relevant to your operator mode:
Stat Card
Mode
Inventory
Both (label changes by mode)
Upcoming Room Bookings
Both
Pending Requests
Vacation Rental
Revenue (Next 30 Days)
Vacation Rental
Guests Without a Property
Hotel / B&B
Needs Attention
Vacation Rental — pending requests with inline Approve/Decline buttons
Channel Sync Status
Vacation Rental — last sync time per property
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
Go to RP Booking → Properties (VR) or Rooms (Hotel). The dashboard shows a stat overview and the full property inventory table.
Field
Description
Title / Name
Public-facing property name
Description
Full property description shown on the detail page
Featured Image
Main photo shown on listing cards and hero
Nightly Rate
Base price per night
Weekend Rate
Optional Friday/Saturday rate override
Cleaning Fee
One-time fee added to total (VR mode)
Pet Fee
Per-stay fee if pets are allowed (VR mode)
Min Stay
Minimum number of nights required
Max Occupancy
Maximum number of guests
Bedrooms / Bathrooms
Room count shown on listing cards (VR mode)
Pets Allowed
Shows pets toggle on booking form; enables pet fee
Same-Day Turnover
Allows check-in on the same day as a checkout
Booking Flow
Instant / Request to Book / Inquiry (see Section 5)
Active
Inactive properties are hidden from guests but not deleted
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
Each property can be set to one of three booking flows. The flow is configured per-property in the property edit form.
Flow
How It Works
Best For
Instant Booking
immediately. Booking is confirmed automatically.
always accept bookings
Request to Book
Guest submits a request. You receive an email with Approve/Decline links.
approval.
guests or manage availability manually
Inquiry
dates. No booking or payment is created. You respond and book manually.
where a conversation is needed before committing
clicked Note: The Approve/Decline links in admin emails are single-use secure tokens. They can be directly from any email client without logging in to WordPress.
In Vacation Rental mode, the main Dashboard shows a Needs Attention panel listing all pending requests with inline Approve and Decline buttons — no need to open individual booking records.
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
ReservePress Booking supports two-way iCal synchronisation so your availability stays in sync across Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, and any other platform that supports iCal feeds.
Auto-sync: The plugin syncs imported feeds automatically on a schedule. A manual Sync All button is available in the Channels tab.
At the top of the Channels page is a Combined Export Feed URL. This single URL exports availability for all your properties. Use it if a platform asks for one master calendar rather than perproperty feeds.
Note: iCal dates follow the RFC 5545 standard — the DTEND date is exclusive. This matches Airbnb and VRBO interpret calendars, so same-day turnover (guest checks out and new guest checks in on the same day) is handled correctly.
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
Go to Appearance → Customize to configure all visual and content settings. Changes preview in real time before you publish.
Section
What You Can Configure
Global Settings → Palette
Primary colour, secondary/accent colour, background and text colours, border radius
Global Settings →
Typography
Heading and body font families
Global Settings → Social
Media
Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, LinkedIn, YouTube, Pinterest, WhatsApp, TripAdvisor links
Homepage
Hero image, hero title and subtitle, show/hide booking widget
Booking Page
Hero image and title for the booking page (optional — off by default)
Accommodations Section
Title, description text, image, button label and link for the homepage accommodations block
Reusable Sections
Configure and order reusable content blocks (testimonials, newsletter, CTA, gallery)
Vacation Rental — Policies
Check-in time, check-out time, no smoking, no parties (VR mode only)
Properties Page
Hero title, subtitle, and image for the properties archive (VR mode only)
Footer
Hotel/property name, address, phone, email, Google Maps embed, copyright text
Legal Pages
Enable/disable Terms, Privacy Policy, Cancellation Policy, FAQ in nav/footer
Set your primary and secondary/accent colours in Global Settings → Palette. These colours cascade automatically through:
The ReservePress Booking plugin forms (via the CSS bridge — plugin variables are overridden to match your theme palette)
✅ Tip: You do not need to set colours separately in the plugin. The theme automatically overrides
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
the plugin's CSS variables to match your chosen palette.
The Book Now button in the header navigation can be relabelled via Customizer → Homepage → Book Now Button Label. In Vacation Rental mode it defaults to "Request to Book" to match the booking flow. You can change it to anything — "Check Availability", "Book Your Stay", etc.
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
The theme renders different layouts depending on operator mode. Here is what each key page does.
Element
Behaviour
Hero image & text
Full-width background image with title and subtitle — set in Customizer
Hotel booking bar
Check-in / Check-out date pickers + Adults/Children guest stepper + Pets toggle — submits to booking page as URL params
VR booking bar
Arrival / Departure date pickers + single guest count stepper + Pets toggle (only shown if a property allows pets)
Accommodations section
Hotel: "View All Rooms" → booking page. VR single property: "Book Your Stay" → booking page. VR multi-property: "View Properties" → properties listing
Amenities, Nearby, About sections
Content blocks configured in Customizer
Availability calendar
Optional — enable per-page in Customizer
Mode
What Renders
Vacation Rental
The [rp_book_room] shortcode handles everything. Single property: goes straight to the 2-step booking form. Multi-property: shows a property selector first, then the form. URL params from the hero bar (check_in, check_out, adults, pets) pre-fill the form automatically.
hero bar
Shows a results header with the search criteria, then an AJAX-loaded room availability list. Each room has a Select button that carries the dates through to the room detail page.
Hotel — no dates
Shows the [rp_book_room] shortcode directly — the plugin's own booking widget with its built-in date picker.
Mode
What Renders
VR — single property
Automatically redirects to the booking page. A one-item listing is pointless so the theme skips it.
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
🔔
⚡
✉
VR — multiple properties
A grid of property cards showing: hero photo, booking flow badge ( Instant /
Inquiry), beds/baths/max guests, pets indicator, nightly rate, cleaning fee, minimum stay. Each card has View Details and a flow-appropriate CTA (Book Now / Request to Book / Send Inquiry).
Hotel
A grid of room cards showing bathroom type, max occupancy, nightly rate. Each card links to the room detail page.
Section
Hotel vs VR
Hero image
Full-width property photo — both modes
Quick stats
Hotel: bathroom type, occupancy, rate. VR: beds/baths/max guests/pets indicator inline with the title
Description
Full property description — both modes
Photo gallery
Additional photos from the gallery template part — both modes
Amenities
Amenities list — both modes
Pricing breakdown
VR only: nightly rate, weekend rate, cleaning fee, pet fee, minimum stay
House rules
VR only: check-in/out times, smoking and party policies — all from Customizer
Additional details
Hotel only: floor level, smoking policy, etc.
Availability calendar
Both modes: [rp_availability_calendar] showing blocked/available dates
Booking sidebar
Both modes: shows date/price summary if dates are in URL params, or a search form if not
Mode
Nav Items
Hotel / B&B
"Rooms" link → booking page, plus About, Amenities, Nearby, Gallery, Promotions, Contact
VR — single property
No "Rooms" link — the Book Now button in the header is the primary CTA. All other nav items as normal.
VR — multiple properties
"Properties" link → properties archive/booking page. All other nav items as normal.
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
These shortcodes can be placed on any page to add booking functionality. The required pages already have the correct shortcodes — this section is for advanced use.
Shortcode
Description
Key Attributes
[rp_book_room]Full booking flow — date picker, property/room selection, guest form, payment. Mode-aware: renders VR form or hotel form automatically.
room_id="" — pre-select a property
[rp_availability_calen dar]
date grid showing blocked and available dates.
room_id="", months="2", title="", show_legend="1"
[rp_manage]reservation details, request cancellation via a secure token link.
—
[rp_payment]guests are emailed a link to this page automatically.
—
[rp_promos]plugin Promotions settings.
—
[rp_book_venue]mode only).
venue_id=""
[rp_events](Hotel / B&B mode only).
limit="12", category=""
[rp_calendar]mode only).
limit="24", venue=""
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
If you're using the plugin with a custom theme, add this CSS to your theme's stylesheet to match the plugin's form colours to your brand: :root { –rp-accent: #YOUR_COLOUR; –sb-sage:
#YOUR_PRIMARY;
–sb-sage-dark:
#YOUR_SECONDARY;
–sb-coral:
#YOUR_ACCENT;
}
You can switch between Hotel and Vacation Rental mode at any time:
The theme automatically detects how many published properties exist and adapts accordingly:
/book-now/) shows property cards, "Properties" nav item appears, archive page is accessibleThis means you can start with a single property and add more later — the site layout upgrades automatically without any configuration changes.
Same-Day Turnover allows a guest to check in on the same day that a previous guest checks out. This is enabled per-property in the property edit form. When enabled, the checkout date is treated as available for a new check-in. The iCal export uses RFC 5545 exclusive DTEND, which matches how Airbnb and VRBO interpret same-day turnover in their calendars.
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
Go to Appearance → Theme Setup (admin menu item added by the theme) to see a full status table of all managed pages — their slugs, templates, and whether they are active. This page also shows a notice if the ReservePress Booking plugin is not active.
Go to RP Booking → Settings → Setup to see the plugin's view of page assignments. When the companion theme is active, a blue notice confirms that pages are managed by the theme and the Create Page buttons are replaced with "Managed by theme" labels. The Assign dropdown is always available if you need to manually point a slot to a different page.
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
Symptom
Likely Cause
Fix
warnings after reinstall
from previous install
before reinstalling — the uninstall hook clears all option keys
theme activation
Theme activated before plugin, or before operator mode was set
after setting operator mode in plugin settings
"Page not found"
Old rp_page_promotions option pointing to a deleted page
Update to theme v1.4.2+ — save_options() now detects and overwrites stale IDs automatically on next admin load
"Rooms" in VR mode
label() function cached wrong mode (fixed in v1.4.1)
Update to plugin v1.4.1+ — static mode cache removed
"Check Availability" button in hero bar does nothing
initialised
Ensure the theme's JavaScript is loading — check for console errors.
Flatpickr must be enqueued.
hotel layout in VR mode
rp_booking_mode() returning hotel unexpectedly
Go to RP Booking → Settings →
General, confirm mode is set to
Vacation Rental, save again
iCal sync not updating
server
run wp-cron.php, or use a cron plugin
If you suspect option key mismatches, install a plugin like WP Options Editor or use the WP-CLI command: wp option get rp_page_book_now wp option get rp_page_manage_booking wp option get rp_page_payment wp option get rp_page_promotions
Each should return a valid page ID that matches a published page on your site.
To clear all plugin option keys manually without doing a full reinstall, run in WP-CLI:
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
wp option delete rp_booking_settings wp option delete rp_page_book_now wp option delete rp_page_manage_booking wp option delete rp_page_payment wp option delete rp_page_promotions wp option delete rp_payment_page_id wp option delete rp_manage_page_id
Then visit any admin page to trigger ensure_pages_exist() and reassign all keys from the existing pages.
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
Option Key
Purpose
rp_booking_settings[rp_boo king_mode]
Active operator mode: hotel or vacation_rental
rp_page_book_now
ID of the Book Now / booking page
rp_page_manage_booking
ID of the My Reservations page
rp_page_payment
ID of the Payment page
rp_page_promotions
ID of the Special Offers / Promotions page
rp_payment_page_id
Alias for rp_page_payment (used internally by plugin)
rp_manage_page_id
Alias for rp_page_manage_booking (used internally)
rpbt_booking_page_id
Theme's own backup for the booking page ID
File
Purpose
Plugin: includes/classsetup.php
Page definitions, Setup tab render, auto-create logic
Plugin: includes/classsettings.php
All settings tabs — General, Payments, Pricing, Emails, Promotions
Plugin: includes/classrooms.php
Property/room CRUD and data retrieval
Plugin: includes/classrooms-admin.php
Properties/Rooms admin dashboard
Plugin: includes/classbookings.php
Booking creation, approval, decline, email dispatch
Plugin: includes/classical.php
iCal export and import, cron sync
Plugin: public/classshortcodes.php
All shortcode handlers
Plugin: public/templates/vrbooking.php
VR 2-step booking form template
Theme: inc/class-themesetup.php
Auto page creation and option key wiring
Theme: header.php
Mode-aware navigation
Theme: front-page.php
Mode-aware homepage with hero and booking bar
Theme: page-booking.php
Mode-aware booking page
ReservePress Booking
Installation & User Guide
Theme: archiverp_room.php
Property/room listing — redirects in single-VR mode
Theme: single-rp_room.php
Property/room detail page with pricing and policies
Version
Key Changes
Plugin v1.4.5
Added uninstall.php to clean option keys on deletion; fixed page_exists() alias for rp_page_book_now
Plugin v1.4.4
Mode-aware page_definitions(); plugin Setup tab shows thememanaged notice; create_missing_pages() suppressed when theme active
Plugin v1.4.3
All Divi references removed from PHP hooks and CSS; event_type_body_class() now uses generic selectors
Plugin v1.4.1
Fixed label() static cache bug causing "Rooms" to appear instead of "Properties" in VR mode
Theme v1.4.3
save_options() now overwrites stale IDs; my-reservations wires all three option keys including rp_page_manage_booking
Theme v1.4.1
Full mode-aware templates: header, homepage, booking page, archive, single property page, footer, accommodations section
Theme v1.3.0
Complete rph_ → rp_ migration; all Divi references removed; pagepromotions.php uses [rp_promos] shortcode
Plugin v1.4.5 | Theme v1.4.3 | Big Isle Media