The reference environment for this RC is WordPress 6.5 on PHP 8.1 or a newer supported minor within the tested policy. Pair Hotel Booking Free 3.28.0-rc.7 with Pro 1.36.0-rc.7 only after Free’s Core schema 3.9.0 is verified. Aurelia 1.1.0-rc.8 expects Theme Contract 1.10.0 and Language Navigation 1.0.0. Pro iCal schema and health schema are both 1.0.0.
The matrix covers fresh install, direct upgrade and rollback rehearsal, Free-only operation, the matching Free/Pro pair, and a missing or expired Pro state. Each row must exercise Search, Room Detail, Book Now, Payment where required, Booking Confirmation, My Bookings, language switching and admin recovery. The critical visual viewport set is 320, 375, 430, 768, 1024 and 1440 pixels; a release screenshot must identify its source version, locale, viewport and capture owner.
Treat this as evidence, not a guarantee for every host. Record the browser, cache state, PHP worker reload and UTC timestamp for each run. A failed or missing row is visible in Known Issues and keeps the documentation non-publishable until Product Owner acceptance. Accepted ZIP checksums and package readmes are immutable derived targets; do not silently alter a package to make a row pass. Product 1.0 remains an RC until the publication launch gate has signoff and target readback.