What are rate plans?
Rate plans are a way to sell room types with different restrictions and pricing to attract more travellers to your property and increase potential reservations.
Rate plans allow you to sell the same room type in different ways by varying pricing and restrictions.
The more rate plans you have, and the more channels they are mapped to, the greater the chances of increasing reservations.
Types of rate plans
Rate plans are used to create different rates for each room type based on multiple factors. You can derive a rate plan’s daily rates from another rate plan by subtracting or adding an amount or percentage.
Here are some common rate plans:
Standard: Usually the base rate
Non-refundable: Usually cheaper than the standard and doesn’t allow refunds
Breakfast included: With breakfast included and usually more expensive than the standard
Minimum length of stay: Usually cheaper than the standard, with a minimum night restriction applied
Other popular rate plans include:
Day-of-week specials: Different pricing for weekdays versus weekends
Seasonal promotions: Special rates for holidays or local events
Early bird/last-minute deals: Time-sensitive offers with appropriate restrictions
Length-of-stay discounts: Incremental discounts for longer stays
How rate plans work
The process flows through these steps:
Create a rate plan in Little Hotelier
Assign it to a room type to create a room rate
Configure pricing and restrictions for the room rate
Map the room rate to your distribution channels
To show discounted prices alongside the standard rate, you can create derived rate plans that automatically adjust based on your standard rate (using fixed amounts or percentages).
Creating a rate plan
Go to Rooms and rates > Rate plans and click Add a rate plan
Configure these settings:
Rate plan name: Create a clear internal identifier (not visible to guests)
Rate plan description: Add details for your reference (not visible to guests)
Minimum/maximum length of stay: Set night requirements to encourage longer stays
Release period: Specify how many days in advance bookings must be made
Inclusions: Define meal options included (these will appear on channels like Booking.com)
Minimum rate: Set your minimum rate allowed for this rate plan
Direct booking controls: Add date filters and create special offers exclusively for your Direct booking rate plans
For Rate setup, choose either:
Manually input daily rates: You'll update daily rates yourself
Derive daily rates: Rates automatically calculate based on another rate plan (cannot be manually overridden)
After creating your rate plan, assign it to a room type, entering the base rate, included occupancy, and extra person charges to complete the room rate configuration. Once assigned, you can edit the room rate to configure any extra settings, such as overrides.
Editing rate plans
To modify an existing rate plan:
Navigate to Rooms and rates > Rate plans
Select the rate plan you wish to update
Open the Rate plan actions menu and choose Edit
Make your changes and click Save
Deleting rate plans
To remove a rate plan:
Go to Rooms and rates > Rate plans
Select the rate plan to delete
Open the Rate plan actions menu and select Delete
Confirm the deletion
Deleting a rate plan removes all associated room rates from Little Hotelier and stops updates being sent to your channels.