Let guests pick their unit by date: a multi-unit booking widget that shows what is free
If you rent more than one of something - rooms, cabins, boats, vehicles, trailers - the cleanest booking experience is the one travelers already know: pick your dates, then choose from what is open. RentalBeam now does exactly that. Guests select dates against your whole fleet's availability and then pick from the units that are actually free for those dates, each shown with its own photo and its real price for those dates. Every booking still belongs to one unit, and there is no commission on direct bookings.
One form per unit does not scale
A common setup for multi-unit hosts is one embedded form per room or vehicle. It works for two units and falls apart at five: the guest has to open each form, check dates, find one closed, back out, and try the next. Most give up before they find the unit that is free. The fix is to flip the order - ask for dates once, then show only what can actually take those dates.
How "By date" works
Group your rentals into one widget and choose the By date picker. Then the guest experience is three quiet steps:
- 1
Pick dates against the whole fleet
The date picker shows merged availability: a night is open when any unit in the group is free. The guest never has to know which specific unit is open to start - they just choose when they want to come.
- 2
Choose from the units that are free
As soon as the dates are valid, the widget shows the units that can take the whole range and meet their own minimum stay - each as a photo card with its real, server-calculated price for those exact dates, so guests compare like for like. The guest taps the one they want. If only one unit is free, it is already selected.
- 3
Book it like any single unit
Pricing, custom fields, and payment all come from the chosen unit's own settings, and the request lands against that one unit. The server re-checks availability before accepting, so two guests cannot grab the same unit.
The photos do the selling
Each rental has an optional photo in its appearance settings. On the By date picker that photo is what the guest compares - "the loft with the balcony" beats "Unit 3." Rentals with no photo show their initial instead, so the picker always looks finished.Or let guests pick a unit first
By date is the most guest-friendly option for a fleet, but it is not the only one. You choose how units are picked when you copy the embed code:
- By date: pick dates first, then choose from the units free for those dates, with photos. Best for most fleets.
- Cards: photo tiles, one per unit - the guest picks the unit first, then sees its dates.
- Dropdown: a compact menu of units - tidy when you have many units or limited width.
- Automatic: no picker at all - the widget assigns the first unit free for the chosen dates.
With the Cards and Dropdown pickers, a guest can also tick additional units for the same dates in one go. Each extra unit becomes its own booking request with its own availability check and pricing - there is never a single charge spanning units. You review and confirm each one as usual.
Set it up in four steps
- 1
Add each unit as a rental
Each rental keeps its own iCal sources, pricing, and booking settings. Import availability from Airbnb, VRBO, Booking.com, or any iCal feed, or manage dates by hand.
- 2
Add a photo to each rental
Open a rental's appearance settings and upload a photo. This is what guests compare in the picker, so use a clear, recognizable shot of each unit.
- 3
Group the rentals
Under Rentals, create a unit group, tick the rentals that belong together, and optionally give each a short display label. Groups need at least two rentals.
- 4
Copy the embed and choose By date
On the Install screen, set the Unit picker to By date and paste the snippet into WordPress, Wix, Squarespace, Webflow, or any site that accepts HTML. The live preview matches the copied code.
It is built for phones
Most guests check availability on a phone, so the experience is mobile-first. On the availability calendar, guests can swipe left or right to move between months instead of hunting for small arrows, and the photo picker stacks into a clean, tappable grid. Swiping the calendar never fights with scrolling the page.
Start free, add the form on Pro
The availability calendar - including the all-units fleet views - is free to start. The booking form and the By date picker are part of Pro direct bookings. See plan pricing for what each tier includes, or read the unit groups documentation.