How do I show availability only (without taking bookings)?
Yes. WP Booking System can display a booking calendar as an availability-only calendar without allowing visitors to submit bookings.
Simply embed the calendar without attaching a booking form.
Visitors will be able to see which dates are available or unavailable, but no booking form will appear.
This is useful if you accept bookings by phone, email or another platform, or if you simply want to publish your availability online.
Embed an availability-only calendar
The simplest shortcode is:
Replace 1 with the ID of the calendar you want to display.
Because there is no form_id in the shortcode, WP Booking System displays only the calendar.
Visitors cannot submit a booking through it.
Where can I find the Calendar ID?
Go to:
WP Booking System → Calendars
Each calendar has its own ID.
For example, if your calendar has the ID:
4
use:
Make sure you embed the calendar that belongs to the correct property or resource.
Can I use Gutenberg or a page builder instead?
Yes.
WP Booking System integrates with Gutenberg and popular page builders including:
- Elementor;
- Divi;
- Avada Builder;
- Beaver Builder;
- Bricks Builder;
- Visual Composer;
- WPBakery.
Add the Single Calendar block, widget or module and select the calendar you want to display.
Do not attach a form.
The result is the same as using a shortcode without form_id: visitors see availability but cannot submit bookings.
If your editor or builder does not provide a dedicated WP Booking System element, use the shortcode instead.
Show more than one month
You can control how many months appear in the calendar.
For example:
displays two months.
You can display between 1 and 24 months in the standard calendar.
For rental properties where customers often plan several months ahead, displaying two or three months can make availability easier to check.
Hide the calendar title
If your page already has a heading containing the property name, you may not need WP Booking System to display the calendar title again.
Use:
For example:
Show or hide the legend
The calendar legend explains what the different availability colors mean.
By default, it is displayed.
To hide it:
In most cases, we recommend keeping the legend visible unless the meaning of your calendar colors is already clear elsewhere on the page.
Change the legend position
The legend can be displayed:
- beside the calendar;
- above the calendar;
- below the calendar.
For example:
Available values are:
sidetopbottom
Choose the position that best fits your page layout.
Show prices without accepting bookings
If pricing is enabled, you can display the price assigned to each date even when no booking form is attached.
Use:
show_prices="yes"
For example:
This can be useful if visitors need to check both:
- availability;
- daily or nightly pricing.
They can then contact you or continue to another booking channel after finding suitable dates.
Display tooltips
Calendar dates can contain tooltips with additional information.
When embedding the calendar, you can choose whether tooltips should be displayed.
For example, a blocked date might contain:
“Unavailable due to maintenance”
or an available period might contain additional information relevant to visitors.
Tooltips are optional and can be enabled through the calendar embed settings.
Show past availability
WP Booking System also lets you control how past dates are displayed.
You can:
- display the original booking history;
- replace past dates with the calendar’s default legend item;
- display them using the Booking History color configured in Settings.
For a public availability calendar, many businesses prefer to visually simplify past dates so visitors focus on upcoming availability.
Highlight today’s date
You can enable Highlight Today in the calendar embed settings.
This makes the current date easier to identify when visitors are checking upcoming availability.
Display week numbers
If your customers commonly refer to bookings by week number, you can enable:
Show Week Numbers
This adds week numbers to the calendar.
It can be useful for some European holiday rental markets where customers frequently refer to “week 28”, “week 29”, and so on.
Example availability-only setup
A practical availability-only shortcode could be:
This displays:
- Calendar 1;
- no duplicate calendar title;
- the availability legend;
- two months at once;
- no booking form.
Visitors can check availability but cannot submit a reservation.
Add a clear next step
If visitors cannot book directly from the calendar, make it clear what they should do after finding available dates.
For example, below the calendar you might add a button such as:
Request a Booking
Contact Us
Book by Email
Book on Airbnb
The availability calendar answers the question:
“Are my dates available?”
The call to action should answer:
“What do I do next?”
Can I take bookings by phone or email instead?
Yes.
An availability-only calendar works well if you manage the booking process manually.
For example:
- A visitor checks available dates on your website.
- They contact you by phone or email.
- You confirm the booking.
- You add the booking manually in WP Booking System.
- The calendar availability is updated.
To create the reservation in WordPress, open the relevant calendar and use:
Add Booking
If appropriate, enable Automatically Block Dates when creating the manual booking so its dates become unavailable.
Can I manually block dates without creating a booking?
Yes.
Open:
WP Booking System → Calendars
and edit the relevant dates.
Assign them an unavailable Legend Item such as:
Booked
Unavailable
Owner Stay
or another custom legend item.
This is useful if your availability-only calendar includes dates blocked because of:
- maintenance;
- owner use;
- offline reservations;
- temporary closures.
You do not need to create a booking record simply to make a date unavailable.
Can I synchronize availability from Airbnb or Booking.com?
Yes.
If your calendar’s availability is also managed through platforms such as Airbnb or Booking.com, you can use WP Booking System’s iCalendar Import/Export functionality.
Import the external platform’s iCalendar feed into the appropriate WP Booking System calendar.
Imported reservations can then appear as unavailable dates on your WordPress availability calendar.
This lets you display availability from multiple booking sources even if visitors cannot book directly through your website.
Remember that iCalendar synchronization is not instant. WP Booking System refreshes imported feeds periodically, and external platforms have their own synchronization schedules.
Show several resources in one availability calendar
If you want visitors to compare availability for several properties or resources, use the Overview Calendar.
The Overview Calendar combines multiple WP Booking System calendars into a single display.
For example:
- Apartment A;
- Apartment B;
- Apartment C;
- Villa.
The Overview Calendar is specifically designed for availability display only and does not accept bookings.
You can display:
- all calendars;
- selected calendars.
This is often better than placing several full-size individual calendars one after another on the same page.
Link Overview Calendar resources to their pages
Each WP Booking System calendar can be linked to a WordPress page or an external URL.
Go to:
Calendar Options → Link Calendar
For example:
Apartment A → /apartments/apartment-a/
Apartment B → /apartments/apartment-b/
When those calendars appear in the Overview Calendar, their titles can link visitors to the corresponding property pages.
This creates a useful flow:
- Visitor compares availability.
- Visitor finds an available property.
- Visitor clicks its name.
- Visitor opens the property’s page.
- Visitor contacts you or books using your preferred method.
Show an entire year at once
WP Booking System also includes a Yearly Calendar.
The Yearly Calendar displays the availability of one calendar across an entire year.
Like the standard calendar, it can be embedded without attaching a form, making it suitable for availability-only pages.
This can be useful for:
- holiday properties;
- seasonal rentals;
- venues;
- long-term availability planning.
The Yearly Calendar can be embedded using a shortcode or dedicated Gutenberg, Elementor and Divi elements.
Standard calendar, Overview Calendar or Yearly Calendar?
Use the Single Calendar when you want to show detailed availability for one resource.
For example:
Apartment A availability
Use the Overview Calendar when you want visitors to compare several resources.
For example:
Availability for all apartments
Use the Yearly Calendar when you want visitors to see an entire year for one resource at a glance.
All three can be used without a booking form.
Why is a booking form still showing?
If you are using a shortcode, check whether it contains:
form_id="..."
For example:
attaches Form 2 and therefore allows bookings.
Change it to:
to show availability only.
If you use Gutenberg, Elementor or another page builder, edit the WP Booking System element and remove the selected form.
Why doesn’t my calendar appear?
Check that:
- WP Booking System is active;
- the Calendar ID is correct;
- the calendar still exists;
- you copied the shortcode correctly;
- the correct WP Booking System widget or block is being used.
If the calendar appears incorrectly after optimization changes, also test with caching or JavaScript/CSS optimization temporarily disabled.
Why is the availability incorrect?
First open:
WP Booking System → Calendars
and verify that the dates are correct in the calendar itself.
Then check:
Correct calendar
Make sure the page is displaying the intended Calendar ID.
Saved changes
After manually updating availability, click Save Calendar.
External synchronization
If unavailable dates are imported through iCalendar, manually refresh the feed from the calendar’s iCal Import/Export page.
Caching
If the WordPress admin shows the correct availability but the front-end page does not, clear your website cache and test again.
Summary
To display availability without taking bookings, embed a WP Booking System calendar without attaching a form.
The simplest shortcode is:
You can then customize the number of displayed months, legend, title, prices, tooltips and other display options.
For multiple resources, use the Overview Calendar.
For an entire year of availability, use the Yearly Calendar.
If you later decide to accept bookings directly from the same calendar, simply attach a booking form to it.
