Setting a hotel up

Rates, plans and the cancellation policy

A rate per type and date, and the rules that go with selling it.

A rate plan is a way of selling a room — room only, with breakfast, a corporate plan — and it carries a price per room type per date. The wizard loads a starting rate for every type across a horizon; seasons and adjustments come after.

Section 4 of the setup wizard: rates and policy, with the preview of what will be written.

Do this

Weekend uplift — a percentage on Friday and Saturday nights.
Non-refundable discount — a second plan, cheaper and non-refundable, made from the standard one.
Free cancellation window — hours before arrival. Later than this retains one night.
Load rates for — how far ahead the rate sheet is written. Rates that run out are the commonest reason a hotel stops selling.
Meal plan on the standard rate.
Opening business date — the day the hotel starts trading in the system.
The preview — what will be created: every type, every plan, and how many rate rows. Read it before pressing Create.

Restrictions live on the plan: minimum stay, maximum stay, closed dates, stop sell. They are what refuse an amendment with "minimum stay is 2 nights", and a manager may override at the desk.
The cancellation policy decides what may be retained when a booking is cancelled. Setting it here is what lets the desk retain money with a reason instead of arguing.
A contracted rate for a company or agent overrides all of this for their bookings, and cannot be typed over at the desk.

The one thing to diary: a rate sheet has an end. See Rates run out.

Setting these yourself

Rate plans and restrictions used to be ours to change. They are not any more. Operations → Rate plans adds, renames and retires a plan, including one priced off another — see *Adding and changing rate plans*. Operations → Restrictions sets the minimum stay, the closed dates and the stop sell described above — see *Closing a date, minimum stay and stop sell*. Both need a manager. Neither needs us.

More in Setting a hotel up

Opening a hotel: the whole thing in orderSix phases from the GST certificate to the first night audit, and what each one needs. Getting the hotel group signed upWhat Asar does, what the hotel does, and why nobody here chooses your password. After the wizard: making the hotel actually readyThe wizard makes a hotel that exists. This is what makes it one that can trade. Setting the restaurant up, in the order it has to be doneGST groups and stations before dishes, dishes before tables. Backwards means rebuilding the menu. The first real dayOne booking end to end before you rely on it, then the three daily habits. The month after openingFour things to read on a schedule, and the one that changes on its own. Adding a hotel: the five stepsOne wizard, five steps, and the hotel exists. Everything after it is adjustable. Room types and real room numbersThe type sets the price. The numbers are the rooms a guest is actually given. Room categories and room numbersAdding a category, putting rooms in it, moving a room, and taking one out of the inventory. Adding and changing rate plansCreating a plan, what the meal codes mean, pricing one plan off another, and what stops you retiring one. Closing a date, minimum stay and stop sellThe five rules that decide whether a night may be sold, how to set them, and how to lift one. Rates run out — the check that is not about configurationA hotel that was ready in August stops being sellable in February. Load rates further ahead. Changing a room's numberA room keeps its bookings, bills and history when its number changes. A guest in the room does not stop it. Seasons — a date range that prices differentlySetting a peak or a lean period once instead of typing a hundred nights. Moving a room to another category, and what is waiting on youA room can change category even with bookings ahead of it. Each of those bookings waits for a manager: upgrade it free, upgrade and charge, or release the room. Going live: the readiness checksEleven or so checks per hotel, and what each one means it cannot do yet. The rate sheetEvery room type, every plan, every night, with the rooms still free above them. It opens on All plans. Counting a room as another category for a few daysWhen something about a room changes for a while — a balcony shut, a lift out, a view gone — the room can be counted as a different category for stated nights and go back to its own on the night after. The onboarding boardEvery hotel in the group at once, and what each is still missing. One number and the gaps — the derived rate sheetPrice the cheapest room once; every other room type and plan is a gap on top. Type what you want in hand and be shown the rate to push. Invoice numbers: where they start and how they countHotel details has a box for the next invoice number — type it the way your accountant writes it, 27ACP01, and every bill after counts up. The system's own bill number stays beside it as the internal record. Only an administrator; never rewound over a bill already issued. Lists and reasonsEighteen short lists your staff pick from, and why free text was worse. GST registrations — one per state, and every rule with a dateThe registration is the unit of filing: one GSTIN per state per legal entity, its kind, its dates, its e-invoice threshold; which hotel invoices under it; the HSN/SAC master with dated rates and the condition in words.