Rate plan: what it means for a hotel, and how to set them up

Booking.com describes rate plans as the booking options a hotel sets up for a room, each with a price, a cancellation policy and conditions such as the length of stay, the dates it is valid or the meals and extras included. Expedia says a rate plan must have at least a name, a rate, a room type and a cancellation policy, and that a hotel needs one even with a single room type and the same price all year.

• The price, for each night and each number of guests.
• The cancellation policy.
• What is included: room only, breakfast, or more meals.
• Conditions: a minimum or maximum stay, how far ahead it can be booked, and the dates it is valid.
• Who can see it: every guest, or only members, companies or travel agents.

Hotels in India often name rate plans by their meal plan, and MakeMyTrip's help uses EP as its example of searching for every rate plan of one kind across your room types. OneHorizyn's page on meal plans explains those codes.

• Flexible: free cancellation until a deadline, at the full price.
• Non-refundable: a lower price, paid whatever happens.
• With breakfast, or with more meals.
• Long stays: Booking.com offers weekly and monthly rate plans.
• Early booker: a lower price for booking well ahead.
• Packages: Expedia sells rooms bundled with flights or transport, at a price the guest doesn't see on its own.
• Business: Expedia's business rate plans are for business travellers and companies' travel partners, for hotels that opt in.
• Business to business: Expedia's B2B distribution rate plans go to its network of other sellers and aren't shown on its own websites.

Most back offices let one rate plan follow another. Expedia says a linked rate plan follows the pricing of its parent, updating whenever the parent changes, and that the package, standalone non-refundable and B2B rate plans you add are linked to your standalone rate plan automatically. Agoda's help says linking lets one rate plan manage the rates of several others: choose the base under “Use prices from”. Booking.com's derived pricing works the same way for the number of guests: you set a standard rate for one occupancy, and the price is raised or lowered by a set percentage per person.

1. 1On Booking.com, sign in to the extranet and go to “Rates & availability”, then “Rate plans”.
2. 2Click “Add a new rate plan”, choose its kind, such as flexible or non-refundable, and answer the questions about its policy, meals and conditions.
3. 3Click “Review”, then “Activate rate plan”.
4. 4Go to the calendar and add prices and open dates: Booking.com says a new rate plan may not be bookable until you do.
5. 5If a connectivity provider manages your rates, check with it whether rate plans must be created in its system rather than the extranet, and map the new plan there.

To change one later, open the same menu, click the rate plan and choose “Edit” or “Delete”. Booking.com says edits apply to future availability only, and a deleted plan is no longer available for new bookings. On Expedia, rate plans can't be deleted, only made inactive, and their base rate and ID can't be edited.

A rate plan has to exist, meaning the same thing, in your PMS or channel manager and on each site, and the two must be mapped to each other. Expedia warns hotels using a connectivity provider that once a main rate plan is mapped, the plans derived from it become bookable automatically, and to map every rate plan so the rooms to sell stay accurate.

• Give each rate plan the same name everywhere, so a booking says plainly what was sold.
• When you add a plan on a site, add and map it in the channel manager the same day.
• After changing a plan, check its price and policy on each site as a guest would see them.

Booking.com advises starting simple: a fully flexible plan and a non-refundable plan cover the two main things guests want, flexibility and price, and weekly, monthly or early booker plans can follow. It allows up to 200 active rate plans per property, and the same plans can be used across several room types.

More plans don't always mean more choice for guests. Expedia says travellers see several rates when the plans differ in ways that affect the stay, such as the cancellation policy or extras, but when two plans differ only in their restrictions, a guest who qualifies for both sees only the cheaper one.

Each month, look at which plans guests actually book, and close the ones they don't: each one is another price to keep right on every site.