Minimum Stay Restrictions

Minimum stay restrictions are a vital tool for hoteliers and revenue managers to optimise occupancy, increase revenue, and attract the right guest segments. RoomPriceGenie supports fully automated setting and removal of Min Stay rules — so you can stop chasing restrictions in your PMS and let the system manage them for you.

Plan availability

Capability	Core	Premium	Professional
Min Stay Calendar (view & manual edits)	✓	✓	✓
Orphan Gap Correction	✓	✓	✓
Automated Set & Remove rules		✓	✓
Restrictions on Rates (PMS-dependent)		✓	✓
Stay-through vs Arrival mode (PMS-dependent)		✓	✓

PMS compatibility: 3RPMS, Avirato, Cloudbeds, Apaleo, Beds24, Booking Factory, Guestpoint, Ibelsa, Mews, Resly, RMS Cloud, SabeeApp, Zonal (HLS), Previo, Preno.
In pilot: Elina, Eviivo, Guestline

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What is a Minimum Stay restriction?

A Minimum Stay (Min Stay or MLOS) restriction limits bookings to a defined number of consecutive nights.

Example: If a 3-night Min Stay is set on Friday, any booking that includes Friday must be at least 3 nights long.

Why use it?

• Protect high-demand nights by filtering out short stays
• Reduce orphan gaps (short unbookable windows between reservations)
• Capture more revenue by lifting restrictions automatically when demand softens
• Avoid lost bookings caused by forgotten or overly strict rules

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How Min Stay works in RoomPriceGenie

RoomPriceGenie reads your existing Min Stay restrictions from your PMS, displays them in the calendar, and lets you layer automated rules on top.

The product has five building blocks:

1. Automated rules — apply and remove restrictions based on lead time and occupancy.
2. Orphan Gap Correction — automatically shortens restrictions to make unbookable nights bookable.
3. Fixed restrictions — override automated rules with a fixed number of nights.
4. The Min Stay Calendar — a single view of every active restriction by date, room type, and source.
5. Restrictions on Rates — extends Min Stay beyond the primary mapped rate (where the PMS allows it).

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Understanding automated rule types

In RoomPriceGenie there are three types of automated rules.

1. Set & Remove rule

A rule that puts a restriction on when conditions are met, and takes it off again when one or more removal conditions fire. This is the most common pattern.

2. Set-only rule

A rule that puts a restriction on but never removes it automatically. The restriction stays on for the entire effective period (or until you archive the rule).

3. Universal Removal rule

A rule that only contains removal conditions — no Set logic, no minimum number of nights. It acts as a global safety net: when its conditions are met, it removes any active restriction on that date, including restrictions set on other automated rules and restrictions set in from your PMS.

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How rules interact

You can have several rules active on the same date at the same time — they don't have to be mutually exclusive. RoomPriceGenie evaluates them all and picks the most specific match.

Prioritisation

When multiple rules apply, the most specific matching rule wins. Specificity is judged in this order:

1. Effective period — Custom dates beats specific days of the week beats Always.
2. Days before arrival — Less than X beats More than X beats Any.
3. Occupancy — Above X% / Below X% beats Any.
4. Tie-breaker — if two rules are equally specific, the one with the longest minimum stay wins.

If the winning rule is later removed (for example, because a removal condition fires), the system falls back to the next most specific rule still active.

Reversibility

Both activation and removal are reversible:

• If occupancy drops below a Set rule's threshold, the restriction lifts.
• If occupancy then climbs back, the restriction reactivates.
• The same applies to removal conditions and Universal Removal rules — they switch on and off with the conditions that drive them.

This continues until the day of arrival.

Day-level overrides

If you manually set a date to Always X nights or No min stay in the calendar, that day-level override always wins.

Where PMS restrictions sit

Restrictions sent to RoomPriceGenie by your PMS are treated as Set-only rules with no removal logic. RPG rules sit above PMS rules — so an RPG rule (or a Universal Removal rule) can override a PMS-sourced restriction. Day-level overrides sit above everything.

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Creating a rule

Go to Pricing Strategy → Minimum stay → Add rule. The rule builder is a four-step wizard.

Step 1 — Details

Define when and where the rule applies.

• Effective period: Always (year-round) or Custom dates (a specific range).
• Days of the week: which weekdays the rule should run on.
• Room types: which room types it should affect.

Step 2 — Minimum stay

Choose whether this rule sets or removes a restriction.

If you choose Set:

• Pick the minimum number of nights.
• Define the activation conditions:
  • Days before arrival: Any, More than X, or Less than X.
  • Occupancy: Any or Above X%.

All activation conditions must be true at the same time for the restriction to apply.

If you choose Remove:

• Define the conditions under which restrictions should be lifted on the affected dates.
• If this rule has only a Remove condition (no Set), it becomes a Universal Removal rule and will lift restrictions from any source, including the PMS.
• Define the activation conditions:
  • Days before arrival: Less than X.
  • Occupancy: Any or Below X%.

Step 3 — When to remove (optional)

If you set a restriction in Step 2, you can optionally define when it should be lifted.

• Add one or more removal rules.
• Each rule can be a combination of Days before arrival and Occupancy.
• The restriction lifts as soon as any one of the rules is met (OR logic between conditions).

If you skip this step, the restriction stays on for the entire effective period.

Step 4 — Review

Review the rule summary and confirm. If the new rule conflicts with an existing one, RPG will warn you:

• Duplicate rule: creation is blocked.
• Conflicting rule: creation can continue, this is just a warning.

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A real-world example

Most properties don't need a complex setup. The most common pattern — used by around 60% of properties with Min Stay rules on RPG — is a single rule with a tapered removal:

"Protect weekends, then gradually remove as arrival approaches."

Step	Configuration
Set	2 nights, Fri & Sat, Any lead time, Any occupancy
Remove condition 1	Less than 21 days before arrival, occupancy below 60%
Remove condition 2	Less than 14 days before arrival, Any occupancy

What this does:

• Every Friday and Saturday gets a 2-night minimum.
• If you're more than 21 days out, the restriction holds regardless of bookings.
• Between 14 and 21 days out, the restriction lifts if occupancy is still low.
• Inside 14 days, the restriction lifts unconditionally — you'd rather sell a 1-night stay than nothing.

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Managing existing rules

The Rules page shows all your rules grouped into Active and Archived tabs. Each rule card shows the effective period, days of the week, affected room types, and the Set / Remove summary.

For each rule you can:

• Edit — opens the same four-step wizard.
• Duplicate — handy for creating variations.
• Archive / Unarchive — pauses a rule without deleting it.
• Delete — permanent.

At the top of the page you'll see the last sync timestamp, so you can confirm changes have reached your PMS.

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Orphan Gap Correction

The scenario:

• All rooms of a type are fully booked on Thursday and Sunday night.
• You have a 3-night minimum on Friday and Saturday.

The problem: No one can book a 3-night stay covering Fri or Sat — they can't arrive on Thursday (booked) or stay through Sunday (booked). The room becomes unbookable even though it's empty.

The fix: Orphan Gap Correction detects these stranded windows and automatically reduces the restriction so the gap can be sold.

How to enable

1. Go to Pricing Strategy → Minimum stay → Orphan gap correction.
2. Choose whether Orphan Gap Correction should also override fixed (manual) restrictions.
3. Select the room types you want it enabled for.

How it behaves over time

On every evaluation, Orphan Gap Correction looks at the current calendar state:

• If the gap still exists, the reduced value stays.
• If the gap disappears (for example, after a cancellation), the original rule value is restored.

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The Min Stay Calendar

The calendar gives you a single view of every active restriction.

Per-date display

For each date you'll see:

• The minimum stay value (e.g. "3 nights"), or an empty state if none applies.
• The source of the restriction:
  • Rule — set by an RPG rule
  • Orphan Gap — adjusted by Orphan Gap Correction
  • PMS — pulled in from your PMS
  • Fixed — set manually on this specific day

Hover or click a date for a tooltip showing the value, the source, and which rule produced it.

Filters

Filter the calendar by:

• Room type
• Restriction type (Rules, Orphan Gap, PMS, Fixed)

Bulk edits

Calendar → Bulk Edit → Adjustments dropdown → Min Stay. Select an interval and days of the week, then set a fixed value or No minimum stay. Useful for events, seasonal blocks, or undoing a configuration mistake.

Day-level edits

Click a date and edit the Min Stay directly. You can pick No min stay, an explicit number of nights (Always X nights), or revert to the rule-driven value. Day-level overrides bypass the rule engine entirely.

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Restrictions on Rates

Available on Premium and Professional for selected PMS integrations: Avirato, Cloudbeds, Apaleo, Eviivo, Guestpoint, Zonal (HLS).

By default, Min Stay restrictions are applied only to your primary mapped rate. With Restrictions on Rates, you can extend them to additional rate plans.

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Stay-through vs Arrival mode

Available on Premium and Professional for selected PMS integrations: Eviivo, RMS Cloud, Booking Factory. For other PMSs the mode is determined by the integration and is shown in the Calendar.

Mode controls how a restriction applies to a date.

• Stay-through mode: the restriction applies to any booking that includes that night, regardless of arrival date.
• Arrival mode: the restriction applies only to bookings that start on that date.

Example — a 2-night minimum on 17 July:

Mode	Effect
Stay-through	Any booking including the night of 17/07 must be at least 2 nights. A guest arriving 15/07 must stay until 17/07; arriving 16/07 must stay until 18/07; arriving 17/07 must stay until 19/07.
Arrival	Only guests arriving on 17/07 are affected — they must stay at least until 19/07. Bookings starting earlier or later are not restricted by this date.

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Good to know

• A Min Stay value of 1 night means "no restriction" — RPG removes the restriction from your PMS.
• RoomPriceGenie only sends changes to your PMS — restrictions that already match what's in the PMS are not re-sent.
• For Mews properties, manage Min Stay exclusively in RoomPriceGenie — Mews restrictions take precedence over anything sent from RPG.

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Common questions

Why isn't my minimum stay being applied?
Check (in this order): is the rule active, does the effective period and day of week cover the date, are the activation conditions met (lead time and occupancy), and is there a more specific rule winning the prioritisation? Remember day-level overrides bypass rules entirely.

Why am I still seeing gaps with Orphan Gap Correction turned on?
Orphan Gap Correction only reduces restrictions where reducing them would make a stranded gap bookable. If the gap is longer than the restriction would allow even at 1 night, or if the room type isn't enabled, the gap stays.

Will a restriction come back after it's removed if conditions are met?
Yes. Both activation and removal are reversible. If a removal condition stops being met (for example, occupancy climbs back up), the underlying restriction reactivates — provided the original Set conditions are still satisfied.

What happens to rules during a cancellation?
The system re-evaluates on every run using the current calendar state. Restrictions and removals adjust accordingly. Orphan Gap Correction is also recalculated against the current state.