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Bookings and the calendar

Where the price comes from

The rate plan sets the price. Who may change it is a separate question with a deliberate answer.

The nightly rate is not typed. It is looked up: room type, rate plan, and the date being sold. That is what makes a rate report mean anything.

Three things can set a price, in order of authority:

  1. A rate contract — a company or agent with a negotiated rate. It wins, and the desk cannot type over it. The refusal reads "the rate comes from the contract" or similar.
  2. A channel — a booking that arrived from an OTA carries the price it was sold at. Changing it here would put the hotel and the channel out of step.
  3. The rate plan for those dates, which is the ordinary case.

Overriding a rate is possible where authority allows it, and it always asks for a reason from the rate-override list. The reason is not bureaucracy: the rate override report is how a hotel finds out that a receptionist has been discounting all season.

If a booking will not price at all — no rate found rather than a rate refused — the rate sheet does not reach those dates. That is Rates run out, and it is an administrator's job, not the desk's.

More in Bookings and the calendar

Reading the calendarRooms down the side, dates across the top, and four things worth knowing about the colours. Making a bookingNew booking, or click an empty square on the chart. What each field is for. Changing a bookingDates, room, guest and rate can all be amended. Some changes are refused, and some can be overridden. Cancelling, and no-showsBoth need a reason from the list, and both leave the record standing. Holding a room, and the guest pay linkA time-boxed hold with a link the guest can pay on. It releases itself if they do not. Booking the same stay againBook again copies a stay for a returning guest, and tells you what the price would be now. Group bookingsMany rooms under one name, created together and cancellable together. Moving a guest to another roomDrag the bar on the chart, or use Move room. It asks for a reason and refuses for good ones. UpgradesMove a guest up a grade, priced or complimentary, with the reason recorded. Messaging a guestTemplates render the message; a person sends it. Nothing goes out on its own.