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.
What are some examples of rate plans?
Here are some common rate plans:
Standard: Usually the base rate
Non-refundable: Usually (10-15%) 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
Why should I create multiple rate plans?
Different rate plans attract different travellers to your property. The more variety of rate plans you have, the more chances of attracting different groups of travellers to your property.
You can set up different rate plans with different restrictions, discounts, for different room types, and so on.
How do derived rate plans work?
Derived rate plans derive their daily rates from another rate. The price of the derived rate plan will be automatically adjusted by adding or subtracting a percentage or amount (or both) from another rate plan, which is usually the standard or best available rate plan.
Examples:
Adds or subtracts a fixed amount (e.g.,£10 for breakfast inclusion)
Applies a percentage adjustment (e.g., -15% for non-refundable bookings)
Uses a combination of both methods
When you update the base rate, all derived rates adjust automatically, maintaining your pricing structure without manual recalculation.
What are manual rate plans?
Setting your rate plans with a manual pricing setting means that you will input and adjust rates manually via the Inventory tab. If you want to create multiple rate plans, adjusting prices this way can lead to more chances of human error.
What are the benefits of having derived rate plans?
Derived rate plans are efficient and reduce the effort of needing to change the prices of multiple rates manually. Using derived rates can save you time and help you to better organise and structure your inventory.
Derived rates will automatically be adjusted if the rate they are derived from changes — meaning less chance of potential pricing errors.
Can I switch between derived and manual rate plans?
No, once you've created a rate plan as either derived or manual, you cannot change its method. Instead:
Create a new rate plan with your preferred pricing method
Apply stop sells to the old rate plan
Wait until all existing reservations on the old rate plan have checked out
Delete the old rate plan
Note: You can create temporary exceptions to derived rates via Edit room rate > Pricing details > Override rate plan pricing without changing the underlying calculation method.
Can I sell my rooms at a different price based on the number of guests booking the room?
To charge different amounts based on guest count:
Configure your occupancy settings to define maximum guests per room
Set default extra person rates for adults, children and infants
These rates automatically apply when guests exceed your base occupancy
Occupancy-based pricing only applies to your direct booking engine. For connected channels, you'll need to:
Configure similar settings in the channel mapping (if available)
Manually adjust these settings in each channel's extranet
Can I create exclusive promotion-only rates?
Yes, you can create special rates only visible to guests with promotion codes:
Create a unique promotion code
Create or edit a Direct Booking rate plan
Enable the Restrict rate toggle
Assign your promotion code
This rate will only display on your booking engine when a customer enters the specific promotion code. Disable the Restrict rate toggle if you want the rate visible to all customers.