Owner guide
Everything you need to get your property live: from your first room type to taking PayFast payments and showing your availability on your own website. All of this is done in your dashboard under My property.
01
1
Go to My property → Add property.
2
Enter your Property name, Bookings email (where booking notifications are sent), Phone and Address, then save.
3
New properties are reviewed before their booking page goes live. You can change all of these details later.
4
Open My property → Property settings to complete your profile: tagline, description, property photo, town/area, province, country, currency, and check-in / check-out times.
5
Fill in the country, province and town. Guests search by all three, so a missing field means guests may not find you.
6
Optionally add Booking terms. If you do, guests must accept them before booking.
Your booking link (e.g. https://book.managemyguests.co.za/book/your-property/) can be changed in Property settings. Use letters, numbers and dashes only. If you change it, your old link keeps working and forwards guests to the new one.
02
A room type is a group of identical rooms, e.g. "Sea-view Double" × 4 units. Guests book a room type and the system tracks how many units are still available.
1
Go to My property → Rooms & rates and scroll to Add a room type.
2
Enter the Name and a Description (shown to guests).
3
Set the Number of units (how many identical rooms you have) and Sleeps (maximum guests per unit).
4
Set the Base rate / night, Min nights and Max nights (0 = no limit), then save.
5
Click Edit next to the new room type to add photos, amenities, seasonal & special rates and closed dates.
Seasonal & special rates override the base rate for the nights in a period (both dates included). If periods overlap, the newest one wins.
Close dates take units off sale for maintenance or owner use. Closed dates are also exported to your channels.
Untick Show on booking page (or click Hide in the list) to temporarily hide a room type from guests.
03
Connect your own PayFast account and guests pay you directly. PayFast pays the money out to your bank account. Manage My Guests never holds your money and takes no commission.
1
No PayFast account yet? Sign up free at payfast.io (you'll need your bank details and ID).
2
In PayFast, go to Settings → Developer settings. Copy your Merchant ID and Merchant key, and set a Salt Passphrase if you haven't already.
3
In your dashboard, go to My property → Property settings → Get paid: guest payments.
4
Choose your Online payment option: a deposit online (balance on arrival), the full amount online, or no online payments (bookings confirm immediately and you collect the deposit by EFT).
5
Set the Deposit (%). It's used for deposit payments, and as the EFT deposit you ask for when online payment is off.
6
Paste your Merchant ID, Merchant key and Passphrase. The passphrase must match the Salt Passphrase in PayFast exactly (leave it blank only if you haven't set one).
7
To test first, tick Test mode and make a test booking with your PayFast sandbox details.
8
Save. The status changes from "Not connected" to connected.
Going live: untick Test mode to receive real payments. With online payment, a booking is held for 30 minutes while the guest pays and confirms automatically when PayFast confirms the payment.
04
Google Calendar talks to your booking calendar using iCal links. Google Calendar has no room types or unit counts, so create a separate Google calendar for each physical room (unit). A room type with 3 units needs 3 Google calendars, each connected with its own iCal link.
1
Open Google Calendar on a computer (these settings aren't available in the mobile app).
2
In the left sidebar, click + next to Other calendars → Create new calendar. Name it after the room, e.g. "The Oak Tree – Cottage 1", and click Create calendar. Repeat for every room.
3
Open the calendar's Settings and sharing (hover over it and click ⋮).
4
Scroll to Integrate calendar and copy the Secret address in iCal format. Do this for each room's calendar.
Important: if you use Google Calendar, an iCal link must be connected for each room, not just once per room type. Keep the secret addresses private. Anyone with the link can see the calendar.
05
Connecting works in two directions. Do both for a full two-way sync.
Export
1
Go to My property → Channels.
2
Under 1. Export, copy the iCal link for the room type.
3
In Google Calendar, click + next to Other calendars → From URL, paste the link and click Add calendar.
4
Repeat for each room type.
Import
1
Go to My property → Channels and scroll to 2. Import: channel calendars.
2
Choose Google Calendar as the channel and select the Room type the room belongs to.
3
Paste that room's Google Secret address in iCal format (step 04) into Channel's iCal export link and save.
4
Repeat for every room's Google calendar. Each event now takes one unit of that room type on those dates.
Good to know: channels sync automatically every 15 minutes, but Google only refreshes calendars added "From URL" every few hours. iCal can lag, so leave a small buffer on your last available room. The same Channels screen connects Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia and Vrbo.
06
Under My property → Channels you can connect any site that offers an iCal link. Links work per room type. Do both directions for a full two-way sync.
Export
1
Go to My property → Channels and, under 1. Export, copy the iCal link for the room type.
2
Booking.com: in the extranet go to Rates & Availability → Sync calendars, add a calendar connection and paste the link.
3
Airbnb: open the listing's Calendar → Availability → Connect to another website and paste the link.
4
Expedia / Vrbo / other sites: look for Import calendar (often under Calendar → Import/Export) and paste the link.
Import
1
On the channel, copy its export iCal link (Booking.com: Sync calendars → Export; Airbnb: Export calendar; Vrbo: Import/Export → Export calendar).
2
Go to My property → Channels → 2. Import: channel calendars. Choose the channel, or Other for any site not listed, and select the Room type.
3
Paste the link into Channel's iCal export link and save.
4
Each booking in that feed takes one unit of the room type. If a booking is cancelled on the channel, it is cancelled here on the next sync.
Good to know: iCal sends booked dates only, not unit counts. If a room type has more than one unit, a single booking will close those dates on Airbnb and Booking.com, so iCal works best for room types with one unit. Each channel also checks your link on its own schedule, so leave a small buffer on your last available room.
07
Landscape
3:2 or 16:9 ratio
1600–2000 px
wide (minimum 1200 px)
200–500 KB
per photo, under 1 MB
JPG / WebP
for photos
A good all-round size is 1600 × 1067 px.
Up to 30 gallery photos per room type or activity.
Use PNG only for logos or graphics, not photos.
Phone originals are often 4000+ px and 3–8 MB. Resize or compress them first with a free tool such as Squoosh or TinyPNG.
Use bright, sharp photos and put your best one first. It's the one guests see in search results.
08
1
Go to My property → Property settings.
2
Under Property photo, click × to remove the current photo (if there is one).
3
Click Choose photo, then upload a new image or pick one from the Media Library.
4
Click Save at the bottom of the page.
The property photo is shown in property listings. A landscape photo at least 1200 px wide looks best.
09
1
Go to My property → Rooms & rates and click Edit next to the room type.
2
Scroll to Photos.
3
Main photo: click × to remove the current one, then Choose main photo. This is the photo guests see in search results.
4
Gallery: click Add photos (you can select several at once, up to 30). Click × on a photo to remove it, and drag photos to change their order.
5
Save your changes.
10
1
Go to My property → Activities and click Edit next to the activity.
2
Scroll to Photos.
3
Under Main photo, remove the current photo with × and click Choose main photo to pick a new one.
4
Use Add photos to build a gallery (up to 30 photos, drag to reorder).
5
Save your changes.
11
Go to My property → Property settings and scroll to Add the booking form to a website. Your personal link and embed code are there.
Option A
The simplest option. Link a "Book now" button, menu item, email signature or social profile to your booking page:
https://book.managemyguests.co.za/book/your-property-link/
1
Copy your link from Property settings.
2
On your website, add a button or link and paste the URL.
3
Guests click through, see live availability and book on your Manage My Guests booking page.
Selling activities? Your activities page is at /book/your-property-link/activities/.
Option B
Shows the booking form directly on your own website, so guests never leave your site. Copy the full embed code under On any other website. It looks like this:
<iframe src="https://book.managemyguests.co.za/book/your-property-link/?embed=1" style="width:100%;min-height:…"></iframe>
1
Add an HTML block where the form should appear: Custom HTML in WordPress, an HTML widget in Elementor, or an "Embed code" element in Wix or Squarespace.
2
Paste the embed code and publish the page.
3
Check the page on desktop and mobile to make sure the form shows fully.
Pages on this site? Use the shortcode shown in Property settings instead, e.g. [mmg_booking property="your-property-link"].
Head to your dashboard and work through the steps above.
