StayPilot Documentation

StayPilot is an all-in-one hotel operating system. Follow these steps to go from sign-up to accepting live bookings in under 30 minutes.

• 1
  Request Administrative Access

  StayPilot is a curated platform. To get started, Try live demo or contact our sales team. We will set up your hotel instance, create your administrative credentials, and walk you through the initial configuration.

  Once your account is provisioned, you will receive a secure login link to access your dedicated dashboard.

• 2
  Configure Your Hotel Profile

  Navigate to Settings → Hotel Info. Fill in:

  • Hotel name, address, and contact details
  • Check-in / check-out times
  • Currency and timezone
  • Cancellation policy
  • Property photos (used in your booking widget)

  Click Save Changes. This information appears in booking confirmation emails sent to guests.

• 3
  Add Your First Room

  Go to Rooms → Add New Room. Each room requires:

  • Room name — e.g. "Deluxe Sea View", "Standard Twin"
  • Room type — single, double, twin, suite, etc.
  • Base price per night
  • Capacity — max adults and children
  • Amenities — Wi-Fi, AC, minibar, balcony, etc.
  • Photos — at least 3 for best conversion

  Once saved, the room appears live in your booking widget and dashboard calendar.

• 4
  Configure Email Notifications

  Go to Settings → Email Configuration. Enter your SMTP details and configure notification preferences. Send a test email to confirm delivery before going live.

  See Email Configuration for full setup instructions.

The StayPilot dashboard is your command center. It gives you a real-time view of occupancy, revenue, and upcoming arrivals.

• Total Rooms — count of all rooms configured for your property
• Total Bookings — all-time reservation count
• Pending — reservations awaiting your confirmation
• Revenue — total revenue from confirmed bookings
• Recent Bookings — latest 6 reservations with booking ID, guest, room, dates, and amount

Access via Rooms in the left navigation. The rooms list shows all configured rooms. Click any room to edit its details, set pricing, manage photos and amenities, or view its booking history. Use the Availability section to block dates for a specific room.

The Bookings page lists all reservations. Use filters to narrow by date range, status, or room. Each booking record contains:

• Guest name, email, and phone number
• Check-in and check-out dates
• Room assigned, number of guests, branch/property name
• Total amount, payment status
• Special requests

Booking statuses: pending — awaiting hotel approval. confirmed — reservation confirmed. payment_pending — online payment initiated but not yet received. cancelled — reservation cancelled. You can manually update a booking's status from its detail view.

The Availability page shows a calendar for each room across a date range. Each cell indicates whether the dates are open, booked, or blocked. You can:

• Click a date range to block dates for maintenance or hold
• Click an existing booking block to view or update that reservation
• Bulk-update availability across multiple dates in one action

Revenue and booking data is available directly on the Dashboard. The Payments page gives a transaction-level breakdown:

• Total bookings & revenue — displayed in the four stat cards at the top of the Dashboard
• Pending bookings — reservations awaiting your approval
• Payments — a list of all transactions with method, amount, and status

The StayPilot WordPress plugin lets you embed your hotel booking widget directly on your existing WordPress website with no coding required.

1. 1
   Install the Plugin

   Download staypilot-booking.php from your StayPilot account portal and upload it via WordPress Admin → Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin. Activate the plugin once uploaded.

2. 2
   Configure API Settings

   Go to Hotel Booking → Settings in the WordPress admin sidebar. Fill in both required fields:

   • API URL — the backend server URL (e.g. https://api.staypilot.lk). Provided by StayPilot when your account is provisioned.
   • Hotel Property Key — your unique hotel API key from StayPilot Dashboard → Settings → Property Key.

   Both API URL and Hotel Property Key are required. The widget will not load without them.
3. 3
   Customize Appearance (optional)

   In the same settings page, expand Appearance Settings to configure:

   • Primary color — brand color for buttons and highlights
   • Font family — pick a Google Font or leave blank to inherit your theme's font automatically
   • Widget Layout — classic (full-page wizard) or horizontal-bar (compact search bar)

   Advanced users can also inject Custom CSS from the Advanced Customization section in the plugin settings. It is scoped inside the widget's Shadow DOM and never affects the rest of your site.

The plugin registers the [hotel_booking] shortcode. Add it to any page or post via the block editor (Shortcode block) or the classic editor.

[hotel_booking]

[hotel_booking api_key="YOUR_HOTEL_API_KEY"]

The widget is fully self-contained inside a Shadow DOM — it handles room search, date selection, guest details, and checkout in one flow, and its styles never affect the rest of your WordPress theme.

For websites not using WordPress — plain HTML, React, Vue, or any other framework — embed the widget using the CDN script. There are three mounting strategies; pick the one that fits your site:

1. A
   Declarative div container Recommended

   Add data-stay-pilot-widget to any <div> on the page. Load the script once anywhere (e.g. before </body>) — all matching divs mount automatically:

   htmlCopy

   <!-- Place this where you want the widget -->
   <div
     data-stay-pilot-widget
     data-api-key="YOUR_HOTEL_API_KEY"
   ></div>
   
   <!-- Load the script once, anywhere on the page -->
   <script src="https://cdn.staypilot.lk/widget/latest/stay-pilot-widget.js"></script>

   You can also pass optional configuration attributes on the same div:

   html — with optional attributesCopy

   <div
     data-stay-pilot-widget
     data-api-key="YOUR_HOTEL_API_KEY"
     data-primary-color="#1a56db"
     data-font-family="Poppins"
     data-template="horizontal-bar"
   ></div>

2. B
   One-liner script tag

   Add data-api-key directly to the <script> tag. The widget auto-creates a container immediately before it:

   htmlCopy

   <script
     src="https://cdn.staypilot.lk/widget/latest/stay-pilot-widget.js"
     data-api-key="YOUR_HOTEL_API_KEY"
   ></script>

3. C
   Explicit container target

   Place an empty <div> with a specific id, then point the script at it via data-target:

   htmlCopy

   <div id="booking"></div>
   
   <script
     src="https://cdn.staypilot.lk/widget/latest/stay-pilot-widget.js"
     data-api-key="YOUR_HOTEL_API_KEY"
     data-target="booking"
   ></script>

4. D
   Programmatic — React / Vue / plain JS

   Call window.StayPilot.mount() after the script loads. In React, always call window.StayPilot.unmount() in your useEffect cleanup — this is required for React 18 Strict Mode:

   html / vueCopy

   <div id="booking-container"></div>
   
   <script src="https://cdn.staypilot.lk/widget/latest/stay-pilot-widget.js"></script>
   <script>
     window.StayPilot.mount('booking-container', {
       hotelApiKey: 'YOUR_HOTEL_API_KEY',
     });
   </script>

   react — strict mode safeCopy

   import { useEffect } from 'react';
   
   function BookingPage() {
     useEffect(() => {
       const script = document.createElement('script');
       script.src = 'https://cdn.staypilot.lk/widget/latest/stay-pilot-widget.js';
       script.onload = () => {
         window.StayPilot?.mount('booking-container', {
           hotelApiKey: 'YOUR_HOTEL_API_KEY',
         });
       };
       document.body.appendChild(script);
   
       // Required cleanup — prevents double-mount in React 18 Strict Mode
       return () => {
         window.StayPilot?.unmount('booking-container');
       };
     }, []);
   
     return <div id="booking-container" />;
   }

   The server URL is baked into the widget bundle — you only need hotelApiKey. Do not pass apiUrl; the baked-in value is always used.

Place these on the <div data-stay-pilot-widget> container (Method A) or on the <script> tag (Methods B / C):

Two layout templates are available:

• classic (default) — full-page multi-step wizard; best for a dedicated booking page
• horizontal-bar — compact single-row search bar with results appearing below; ideal for header areas or hotel chain-style sites

The widget runs inside a Shadow DOM — host-page CSS can never affect it and widget CSS can never bleed into your site.

The StayPilot REST API lets you integrate with third-party tools or build custom booking flows. The public widget API uses an API key; the hotel admin API uses a JWT token.

All public widget endpoints require your Hotel API Key. Pass it as a header:

X-API-Key: YOUR_HOTEL_API_KEY

Alternatively pass it as a query parameter: ?api_key=YOUR_HOTEL_API_KEY

The hotel management API (rooms, bookings, settings) requires a JWT issued at login. POST your credentials to /hotels/login, then include the token:

Authorization: Bearer YOUR_JWT_TOKEN

Base URL:

https://api.staypilot.lk

All responses are JSON. Successful responses include "success": true and a data key. Errors include "success": false, an error message, and a machine-readable code.

{ "success": true, "data": { /* payload */ }, "message": "" }

{ "success": false, "error": "Room not found", "code": "NOT_FOUND" }

Hotel Admin endpoints (requires JWT). Base path: /hotels/rooms

{
  "success": true,
  "data": [
    {
      "room_id": 1,
      "name": "Deluxe Sea View",
      "description": "...",
      "capacity": 2,
      "price": 149.00,
      "branch_id": 1,
      "branch_name": "Main Building"
    }
  ]
}

Hotel Admin endpoints (requires JWT). Base path: /hotels/bookings

Public widget endpoints (requires API Key). Base path: /api/public

{
  "room_id": 1,
  "check_in": "2026-03-15",
  "check_out": "2026-03-18",
  "guests": 2,
  "first_name": "Jane",
  "last_name": "Smith",
  "email": "jane@example.com",
  "phone": "+1-555-0100",
  "country": "US",
  "special_requests": "Early check-in if possible"
}

Public widget endpoints (requires API Key). Base path: /api/public

{
  "success": true,
  "data": {
    "room_id": 1,
    "available": true,
    "nights": 3
  }
}

StayPilot sends automated emails for new booking requests and status changes. Configure your SMTP server and notification preferences from the Email Settings page in the left navigation.

Go to Email Settings (left navigation) and fill in the SMTP section:

• SMTP Host — e.g. smtp.gmail.com, smtp.sendgrid.net
• Port — 587 (TLS) or 465 (SSL). Port 587 is recommended.
• Username — usually your email address or API username
• Password / App Password — use an app-specific password for Gmail
• From Name — displayed as the sender name (e.g. "The Grand Hotel")
• From Address — the reply-to email address

Click Send Test Email to confirm the configuration works before going live.

From Email Settings, toggle which events trigger automated emails to your hotel inbox:

You can also set a custom From Name, Reply-To address, and email footer text to match your hotel's branding.

All general hotel configuration lives under Settings in the left navigation. Changes here affect your booking widget, emails, and invoices.

Go to Pricing & Taxes in the left navigation. You can configure:

• Base currency — all prices are stored and displayed in this currency
• VAT / Tax rate — applied to all bookings; can be included in displayed price or added at checkout
• City tax — per-person per-night tax (tourism levy)
• Seasonal pricing rules — adjust prices by date range (e.g. +20% in peak season)
• Length-of-stay discounts — e.g. 10% off for 7+ nights

Yes. The WordPress plugin is optional. Embed the booking widget on any website using the CDN script — it works with plain HTML, React, Vue, or any CMS. The recommended approach is the declarative <div data-stay-pilot-widget> method. See Custom CDN Script for full instructions.

We offer a live demo so you can explore StayPilot before committing. Book a demo with our team and we'll walk you through the platform with a real hotel environment.

StayPilot integrates with Stripe and PayHere for online card payments. Configure them under Settings → Payment Settings. You can also set the payment mode to Pay at Hotel (no upfront charge) or Bank Deposit (guests transfer funds manually with a reference number).

The booking widget currently supports English. Multi-language support (French, German, Spanish, Arabic) is on our roadmap — contact us if this is a priority for your property.

StayPilot uses real-time availability locking. When a guest begins a booking, the dates are soft-locked for a short window. Once confirmation is received, dates are permanently blocked. This prevents double bookings for all direct reservations.

You can view all bookings with filters from the Bookings page. CSV export is on our roadmap. For urgent data exports, contact support and we'll assist you.

Email us at support@staypilot.com. Pro and Business plan customers have access to priority support with a 4-hour response time during business hours. All customers also have access to this documentation.