FAQ Q259: I want Planyo to manage bookings for many independent owners. Should I create a meta site?

There are many aspects to consider before deciding whether to create a metasite where each owner would have their own site or create a single planyo site where each owner would manage their resources as a resource admin. The most important aspect to consider is whether you prefer to give more flexibility and control in configuration and administration to the owners (meta-site solution is better), or if you prefer to make the administration very easy (but limited) for the owners (single-site solution is better).

Multi-site solution using a meta site

The meta admin will only see the reservations made through the meta site. They won't see the reservations made privately by the site admins or, if the site owner accepts reservations through their own website, these will not be accessible by the meta admin. The meta admin can be allowed moderator-level access which will give them full (or limited) administration permissions for the member sites.

Meta site - advantages:


Meta site - disadvantages:


Single-site solution:

Each owner gets the resource admin access to all their resources (using the 'moderator' role with the resource filter it's also possible to have multiple admins for selected resources). Additionally the site admin can limit resource admins' access to many different functions. This means the configuration and administration will be very easy but limited at the same time. If you will be having many owners publishing their listing with you and/or if the listings change frequently, you may want to consider automation of the publishing/signup process for the listing owners using the Accept listings from new users extension available in the Planyo store.

Single site - advantages:


Single site - disadvantages:


Please note that a mixture of the two solutions is possible in case you have owners with businesses of different types, e.g. a tourist area with holiday homes, tours, and transportation. In such case you can create 3 sites (holiday home site, tour site and transportation site) grouped together into a metasite. This way each site can be personalised to fit given business model, including the reservation process, emails sent to the customers and wording used (e.g. 'apartment' or 'tour' instead of a general 'resource').

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