Tips on how to set the rates

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zagrebpoint
Posts: 123
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:27 pm

Hi everyone


Does anyone have any tips on how to set the prices for booking.com?

Beds 24 offers many possibilities. Is there some smart way to set the prices for booking.com.
Now I have 3 rates for 1, 2 and 3 days min stay. but what ever I do I dont get more reservations even if I lower the prices.
Are there some tips and tricks that could work.
If someone has some advice we would be grateful :)
lesleywoermeijer
Posts: 291
Joined: Wed Dec 28, 2016 2:20 pm

Hi,

Have you had a look at BookingSuite.

Beds24 integrates with Booking.com BookingSuite RateManager. To use this service you will need a paid account with BookingSuite.

Have a look at the instructions in Settings > Apps & Integrations > BookingSuite.com
annettemorgenroth
Posts: 1331
Joined: Sun Jun 30, 2013 8:44 am

We also integrate with Pricelabs. They also provide a service like BookingSuite wich calculates ideal prices based on various criteria and sends these prices as daily prices to Beds24.

Price it not the only factor though. Descriptions, pictures and reviews also have an impact on bookings.
zagrebpoint
Posts: 123
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:27 pm

Thanks.
I am looking into booking suite.
I still dont know how it works. In my opinion it is a great tool for hotels that have multiple rooms.
I have several apartments but they are all on different locations and on separated accounts. So I am afraid that the info I get from booking suit wont be very useful.
Do you know maybe how many rooms i should have to get good data from booking suite.

Also I noticed that booking suite is free of charge. Or they have some limited version for vacation rentals owners that doesn't have much options. It is very simple. you can only see if your rate is higher or lower than your competitors. And you can choose only 5 properties to compare your rates with. I didn't see that booking suit suggest the rate that I should set.
Do you know something about that?
annettemorgenroth
Posts: 1331
Joined: Sun Jun 30, 2013 8:44 am

zagrebpoint wrote:Thanks.
Do you know maybe how many rooms i should have to get good data from booking suite.
Booking Suite RateManager is not a free tool. It is recommended for four or more rooms. I am not sure though if they need to be in the same property or if you can have multiple properties.

Pricelabs is targeted at the holiday rental market. Have a look if their product suits you better.
zagrebpoint
Posts: 123
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:27 pm

It is recommended for four or more rooms.
I suspected that.
I dont know why but for me booking suite is free of charge. But as I said I think we have some light version of it with only simple functions.

Price labs looks better but it is too much expensive.
Also the problem is that they use Airbnb data and Airbnb has the problem of dumping prices to the lowest level possible. For example they suggest that the apartment of 60m2 and 4 persons should be 25€ per day. That is ridiculous. That much I pay for the cleaning of the apartment.

I guess there is not much to do :(
zagrebpoint
Posts: 123
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:27 pm

Hi

I have found out that the very important thing regarding the ranking on booking.com is that the rates dont change.
So once you set the rates you shouldn't often change them.
If you want to change the price it is better to use their promotion tools.

So my question is how to manage more channels with one rate keeping this tip in mind.
If I want to keep the prices always the same on booking com how to change the prices on other channels.
If I create separate price for other channels it would be to many rates to manage.
Any idea how to set it up?

Also if this information is true. It is not good to use yield optimizer which automatically changes the prices.
Is there a way to set Yield optimizer to only influence the prices on my booking page and some other channels, but not the booking.com?
praguecityrooms
Posts: 26
Joined: Mon Dec 07, 2015 10:41 pm

hi,

You said that its important to set a rate on booking.com and then not to change it. I don't agree, the most important thing for b.com is to sell your room and get a commission. They would prefer a definite commission on a lower rate than a possible commission on a higher rate. I would not bother with the promotion tools too much since many OTA's compare your prices across several OTA's and punish you if there is a cheaper rate elsewhere. E.g. expedia price is 100 and b.com price is 90, then expedia will drop you down their rankings.

You can use beds24 rates to publish the same price to all channels and its much easier to manage for you. For individual channels where you want to increase or decrease the price for that channel, you can do it on the channel setup (e.g. we multiply our b.com price by 0.87 to send to airbnb where the commission is mostly paid by the guest).

You said you publish a price for 1, 2 and 3 nights minimum stay. I don't understand how you can do this. Booking.com just receives one price for a particular policy and uses that. If you have a policy for 1, 2 and 3 nights then I guess its possible. A much easier solution is to set a 3 day minimum stay on your beds24 rate from now for the next year (or two). Note its best to set the min stay on the individual rate and not on the property or the room. Then set a 2 day GAP FILL rate so you can sell a 2 day gap if you have one, and then again a 1 Day Gap Fill to fill any 1 day gaps. I am assuming here that you prefer longer stays (more profitable). Check the beds24 documentation on Gap Fill rates and read it carefully.

Finally, if you are new to booking.com and you have no reviews, then you need to price yourself substantially under the market for the next 1-2 weeks and get at least 5 reviews ASAP. You can do this in beds24 by using the price multiplier to cut your normal rate (without having to bother setting up a new rate).

The Yield Optimizer is a great tool to fill beds in the next 30 days according to rules you setup. But its a bit complex so I would adjust prices manually until you are more experienced with bed24.
Hope this helps.

Regards,
Brian
zagrebpoint
Posts: 123
Joined: Thu Jun 18, 2015 6:27 pm

Thank you for your suggestions.
I am sorry that I didn't see that sooner.
I am glad that someone is sharing their experiences.

The thing with the keeping the rates the same and not to change them was an advice from a Booking.com personal. But I believe that you are right regarding this.

The only thing that I did notice is that every reservation I got was on some kind of the promotion. For example "Deal of the day" promotion is great to get bookings. However, you will get them for a really low price. So what I did is, I kept the prices high and then offered discounts. and it seems like this is working. Because booking.com brings your property on the top page if you have a promotion "deal of the day"

You can set in booking com as many rates as you want and associate each of them to Beds24 rates. That is How I have more rates on booking.com.

In the end, I have two rates in BC, one for one day and other for 2 days minimum stay. With 1DMS you have a better visibility on booking.com (I believe) because you always have something available.

I think I will now use the same rate for all channels like you said and if I want to make "deal of the day" discounts on booking.com I will increase the prices for the period of the discount.
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