Simplifying Rates

cmartinpage
Posts: 111
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 3:58 pm

Is there any way that the setting of rates could be simplified?

We have 3 rates per year, low season, mid season and high season, but I need to create 12 rates per year in beds24 to show these rate.

There is an overall high season rate, a spring and autumn mid rate and a spring and autumn low rate.

Then I need separate rates for all these because 1 room can take a 3rd person.

Because we have a gap fill strategy during the high season, I also need another rate for each of the 2 room configurations.

I would also like to send only the next 6 months of availability and only our double occupancy rate to booking.com. But to do this I would need to duplicate all the above rates giving us 24 rates for 1 year.

As we basically only have 3 prices per year, is it not possible to make the settings for each rate more flexible?

Thanks
markkinchin
Site Admin
Posts: 935
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 1:43 pm

What about making the complete set of rates you need for one room, and then linking them to the other rooms with any price offset as required?
annettemorgenroth
Posts: 1335
Joined: Sun Jun 30, 2013 8:44 am

Also you could use the "Multiplier" in the CALENDAR to make your seasonal adjustments. Minimum Stays can also be set in the CALENDAR.
cmartinpage
Posts: 111
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 3:58 pm

Thanks for the replies.
What about making the complete set of rates you need for one room, and then linking them to the other rooms with any price offset as required?
I already do that for 4 rooms.

Also you could use the "Multiplier" in the CALENDAR to make your seasonal adjustments. Minimum Stays can also be set in the CALENDAR.
I will have a look at that suggestion. Although I don't know how that would work if I also need separate gap fill rates and separate rates to send to booking.com

It still seems that the rates are quite complicated. When I do set up new rates I have to spend quite a bit of time testing them to are sure that I haven't forgotten something or set something incorrectly.

I know that you have to make it work for everyone and there are many different ways to set rates.

Is it just me or does anyone else think that they could be easier to use?
markkinchin
Site Admin
Posts: 935
Joined: Fri Mar 02, 2012 1:43 pm

Rates do have lots of options which allows them to be used for many different and powerful pricing strategies.

If you do not need all the functions of rates and want to keep things simple, using daily prices might be more appropriate.
You can set up to 4 daily prices for different occupancies or for specific channels, (use one for booking.com and load only 6 months of prices, dates without prices will close at the channel)

Daily prices can be used in conjunction with rates so you could still use your gap filler rate and any other special purpose rates.
cmartinpage
Posts: 111
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 3:58 pm

How do I set up more than 1 daily price and how do I set them up for different occupancies or channels?
The settings in the calendar offer only 1 daily price with no options.
annettemorgenroth
Posts: 1335
Joined: Sun Jun 30, 2013 8:44 am

You can find this information in our documentation (https://wiki.beds24.com/)

How to set up daily prices: https://wiki.beds24.com/index.php?title ... ily_Prices
How to set up prices for channel management: https://wiki.beds24.com/index.php?title ... g_Channels

You will find more information on how to map prices in the channel help pages. For example for Booking.com go to SETTINGS->CHANNEL MANAGER->BOOKING.COM and then click on HELP in the top right menu of this page to open the help page.
cmartinpage
Posts: 111
Joined: Sat May 17, 2014 3:58 pm

OK, thanks.
I need to study this some more.

Have you ever thought of offering a premium support service that you could charge on an hourly basis to help people with particular aspects of setting up beds24?
annettemorgenroth
Posts: 1335
Joined: Sun Jun 30, 2013 8:44 am

cmartinpage wrote:Have you ever thought of offering a premium support service that you could charge on an hourly basis to help people with particular aspects of setting up beds24?
We offer Skype training sessions. The fee is €30.00 (plus VAT if applicable) for a 20 minute session, €79.00 (plus VAT if applicable) for a one hour session and €199.00 (plus VAT if applicable) for a 3 hour package. If you want to book a session please send a support ticket.
menachem
Posts: 9
Joined: Tue Aug 09, 2016 7:09 am

If only 2 people rent the room, do you charge the same whether they are renting the 2 person room or 3 person room? In other words, do you have a base rate for 2 people, and an additional charge for a 3rd person? If so, you can simplify this.

Then I need separate rates for all these because 1 room can take a 3rd person.

You do not need a separate rate for a room that can take a 3rd person. I have several rooms with different occupancies using the same rate. 1st, you setup the "Maximum Guest" in Properties --> Room --> Setup.
then, in the room rate, you set "Room Price" for "up to 2 people" and then you set the "Extra Person rate" to however much you would charge for the 3rd person.

When you do this, you can cover all the rooms with one rate.

Because we have a gap fill strategy during the high season, I also need another rate for each of the 2 room configurations.

You'll still have to create this rate. I wish there was a way to use a Yield Optimiser for minimum dates, like there is for prices. Basically, set up a gap fill rule dynamically, when the Yield Optimiser is triggered.

I would also like to send only the next 6 months of availability and only our double occupancy rate to booking.com.

I have half a solution for you. Since you've set the "Room Price" for "up to 2 people", that is the rate that gets sent to booking.com.

With regards to 6 months availability, I'm not sure if there is a way to do this automatically. I know booking.com usually wants at least a year availability in advance, if not 2. You could set up a virtual room for booking.com which uses the same rates as the real room. Then you can blackout all the dates of the virtual room after 6 months. But you'll have to go in and manually make them available again.

As we basically only have 3 prices per year, is it not possible to make the settings for each rate more flexible?

So, if your 2 person rate is the same for all rooms, and you don't mind having 1 year availability (or manually blacking-out and unblacking-out a virtual room), you can do this with 4 rates. 1 for each season, and 1 gap rate

------
If anyone has any suggestions on how to improve on this, I'd love to see it.
Post Reply