AblazeRich2

Damn I hate cheap ass clients. They will have to learn to live with one calendar or cough up the jaw dropping $50 lol.

Not necessarily, the data might be synced one way, it depends on the integration they have setup. In most cases you need something to pull the data back down, as it won't automatically sync back up. For example, I could have a scheduled task that runs every 5 mins to pull new sign-up data from Mailchimp into a WP site. Unless I request the data from Mailchimp's API, it's not automatically going to run itself and sync up without being told to. If you think of how a server works in a basic sense, or HTTP in this case, you make a request, you get a response back, and the connection closes. Unless you have something making that request, or keeping the connection open, you won't get any data.
I don't say this often, but I'd honestly advise refunding and walking away. The problem is, this can be an expensive problem, and the client is relying on a free solution. Multiple integrations on anything is tricky, let alone bookings, and the maintenance of keeping them all in sync can be time consuming. You have to consider that for every system you integrate with (Tripadvisor, Expedia etc) every one is subject to API changes.
Third-party plugins don't solve problems like this. You're putting all of your chips on it working, if you're not able to debug it and fix it yourself, you're completely reliant on that developer keeping on top of it, and it's not uncommon for developers to just ditch their own product because they lose interest. If you have a plugin, that stopped being updated for a few months, and the Tripadvisor sync stopped working, how long would it be until it started affecting business?
I wish I had some answers, maybe someone will, but everything I can think of involves throwing money at it. I think they will have to opt for a manual process, build them something that can handle the calendar and payments, and every time they get an email from a third-party they just have to manually go in and update the other services and their own site. If they have so many bookings that this is troublesome, they need to look at investing more into solving the problem.

Syncing is complicated. You usually need different scripts for each platform and it just increases the complexity and cost of the project.
She only has a BandB so isn’t dealing with thousands of bookings. It’s going to be far simpler for her to manually update the availability calendar. What you could do is build a plugin that lets her select a date and make a room unavailable. When a confirmation email arrives it would take a few seconds to access a webpage, select the date and confirm the booking. This way there would be not restrictions on where the booking is made, she could be listed on dozens of websites.

I did a trial a while back it's not as integrated as you think. It's an external service - they leave your site and go to the smoobu booking site.
But it does work and for €19/month it's not too expensive.

Don’t know anyone using the system. We trialled it and binned it because of how you were taken off site to make the booking.

It’s not possible. Why is it so important to her business to automate everything?

Systems like this are designed for when it's cost effective to automate workflows. I'm guessing that for a lot of the users that use Smoobu it works out cheaper.
There are a couple others, just search for property channel management software.
https://www.iroomi.com
http://www.uplisting.io
https://www.booksterhq.com
What your client could also do is link out to a booking engine instead of trying to bring everything back into Wordpress. You could list properties, and just use the book button to go to the booking platform.
 

I've got a theme you can use for classified listings. If you want it just ask. It's got maps, subscriptions and adding a membership function is a doddle.

I'll have to set up a demo site for you to see the directory plugin working but it uses the same core code as this:
https://quick-plugins.com/quick-event-manager/guest-event-plugin-test/
and this:
http://tradesman-theme.co.uk/new-testimonial/
The idea is someone fills in the form, it gets moderated and then displayed wherever. For example: http://tradesman-theme.co.uk/testimonials/
It's all standard wordpress functions which means the footprint is tiny. The whole testimonial module is a single php file under 15kb

1. I've got a plugin I built for a client that does this. you can have it if you want. If not there are plenty of plugins that allow people to post content.
2. Yes. You just need to create the menu styling
3. Maps can be a right pain. It's all possible but you end up writing a lot of bespoke code. If you want to link the directory and the maps you need to build your own for both.
4. I think the site works well as it is.
5. Use WPML

I doubt it will consist of more than a dozen pages. The most taxing thing on it will be an application form and maybe some nice gallery sliders. Planning on making it Wordpress. We've decided to go with Host With love - Thanks Inventive for the suggestion. Also found some discount vouchers online.
Well let the fun commence. Thanks guys

Hi!
It depends on the reason why you want to hide or show the product types. If the page would be too long if everything would be visible, then you can collapse and expand the types.
Examples for this:
https://jqueryui.com/accordion/#collapsible
http://v4-alpha.getbootstrap.com/components/collapse/
 
Is this what you are looking for?

Links pages went out with the ark so don't even think about creating one of these.
 
Internal linking is very powerful so make sure you lead people (and the search engines) to related pages on your site.
 
Inbound links from other sites need to have context. This means for example a woolen mill linking to your sock page. But the link would have to be on page describing how wool is turned into socks and the link be to your site as a provider of such socks. Or it could be from a local newspaper website on an article about local sock providers. Or a health site talking about keeping your feet warm. These a re quality links and they are becoming increasingly hard to obtain.
 
Which is why more and more people now use advertising rather than chase a diminishing number of organic ranking spots.
 
Or pay for links. A link on a really popular site can generate a lot of leads that you can exploit.
 
The days of free marketing via Google is almost past, if you want to compete there will almost always be a cost.