This template applies the four-block method — THE THINGS, THE LINKS, THE STATES, THE NUMBERS — to vacation rentals. It's filled in for an owner of three cottages with Saturday arrivals: the example shows how to describe a stay's full cycle, from enquiry to returned deposit, without ever describing a screen.
The trade's specificity: everything revolves around the calendar and the slot between two stays. The 10 am departure and 4 pm arrival leave only hours for cleaning, inspection and linen — so the NUMBERS block always looks at the coming week.
Filled with your vocabulary, this text briefs a developer — or is submitted as-is to Blueprint Maker, which turns it into an application plan you validate, then a generated application: database, screens, dashboard and demo data.
The template to copy
My business: three holiday cottages, Saturday arrivals, one cleaner helping in summer. THINGS tracked: - Properties (name, capacity, weekly rate high and low season) - Guests (name, phone, e-mail, channel — direct, platform) - Bookings (property, arrival and departure dates, number of guests, amount, deposit received, damage deposit taken) - Cleanings (property, date, person in charge, done or not) - Damage deposits (booking, amount, returned or withheld, reason) LINKS: - A booking concerns a property and a guest. - A cleaning prepares a property between two bookings. - A damage deposit attaches to a booking. STATES of a booking: enquiry, confirmed (deposit received), stay in progress, ended, damage deposit returned, cancelled. NUMBERS to see every Monday: - Arrivals and departures this week - Cleanings to schedule before Saturday - Damage deposits to return - Occupancy rate per property over the season
Adapting this template to your properties
- Channels: if you rent direct AND via platforms, note the channel on the booking — the dashboard will show the direct share, the one that truly belongs to you.
- The Saturday slot: if arrivals and departures cross on the same day, "cleanings to schedule before Saturday" is your central alert — describe precisely who cleans and when.
- Damage deposits: distinguish "taken", "returned" and "withheld (reason)" — withholding without a written reason is the classic dispute source.
- Linen and consumables: if linen is a real topic (sheet stock per capacity), add a dedicated entity — otherwise a note on the cleaning suffices.
- This register is your internal tool: automatic platform calendar sync belongs to their tools; the code being exportable, a developer can add it if volume justifies it.