Rates and availability

A night’s price is set on a room type’s rate plan — “Standard Rate”, “Non-refundable”, “With breakfast”. Day by day you change it in the calendar’s Rates view. All of these changes are made by people allowed to manage properties (by default Owner and Admin); everyone else sees the prices without buttons.

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Where a night’s price comes from

For each rate plan and night, Gridbeds takes the first level that has a price:

1. a price you fixed on that night (when the plan is priced by a dynamic pricing service);
2. the price sent by the pricing service, if you let it publish — see Dynamic pricing;
3. the rate grid: the daily price set from the calendar for that plan;
4. a season that covers the night — see Seasons;
5. the price of the plan this one follows, moved by its rule — see Plans that follow another plan;
6. the rate plan’s base price;
7. the room type’s price per night, only if the plan’s price is 0.

In the calendar, clicking a cell shows the Source: Price you fixed, Adjustment you set, Pricing service, Rate grid, Season, Follows another plan, Rate plan default or Room type default. A night with no price at all goes out to the channels closed (“No level has a price for this night, so it goes out closed.”).

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Rate plans

On the property, Room types tab, the room type’s ⋮ menu → Rate plans (“The priced options guests can book for this room type”). Every room type starts with a plan created along with it, “{type} — Standard”. Add rate plan asks for: A plan already used by a booking and the default plan cannot be deleted: “This rate plan has existing bookings and cannot be deleted. Deactivate it instead.” For the default plan, make another plan the default first. A plan that other plans follow cannot be deleted either: “Other rate plans follow this plan’s price. Detach or delete them first.” Packages (breakfast included, with its own VAT) are set up from the same menu, Packages — see Fixed charges, packages and extras.

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Daily prices: the Rates view

Calendar → the Rates view (Rates & Availability) works on the property in the switcher; if the switcher is on all properties, pick one (“Select a single property to edit rates & availability”). Choose the window: 7 days, 14 days, 21 days or 28 days. Every room type has an Availability row and one row per rate plan. Clicking a plan’s cell opens:

• Rate — the night’s price;
• Min. stay — the minimum stay for an arrival on that day;
• Max. stay — the maximum stay (empty means No maximum);
• Closed to arrival (CTA) and Closed to departure (CTD) — no check-ins or no check-outs that day; the grid marks these nights with CTA and CTD;
• Stop sell — closes the night.

A price typed into a night of a plan that follows another plan fixes that night: “Typing a price here fixes this night: it stops following the other plan.” Changes collect on screen; Save changes sends them all (“Changes saved successfully”). Changing or moving the window keeps the changes on the days it still shows; when a change would fall outside it, you are asked first (“Discard unsaved changes?”): Keep editing stays where you are so you can save, Discard and continue drops them. On the Availability row you change how many rooms you sell that night; bookings, blocks and allotments are taken off it.

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Bulk edit

Bulk edit (Bulk Edit Rates & Availability) changes a period at once: choose the Room type (its availability row or a rate plan), the Date range and what to change — availability, rate, minimum stay, maximum stay (or No maximum), Closed to arrival (CTA), Closed to departure (CTD) (Unchanged, Open, Closed) or Stop sell (Unchanged, Open for sale, Closed for sale). What you leave on Unchanged or empty is not touched. Apply. A range can be at most 60 days long, and its end cannot be before its start: the dialog says so under the dates and keeps Apply disabled until you correct them.

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Restrictions

Minimum and maximum stay for the whole period can also be set on the rate plan, and a season can set them for a period. For each night Gridbeds takes the first that has a value: the night’s own setting in the grid, then a season, then the plan’s own limit, then — for a plan that follows another — the other plan’s. A closing set by the grid, a season or the plan it follows is a closing. A night’s minimum stay cannot be longer than its maximum stay, wherever the other limit comes from: the grid marks such a night in red and Save changes refuses it, and a bulk edit that would leave one says so in the dialog and changes nothing.

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From the staff app

Properties → the property → Rates and availability (with permission to manage properties). Choose the Room type and Rate plan; you see 30 days at a time, up to two years ahead. Tap a day, or pick a range, and Edit rates and availability opens: Days of the week, Price per night, Availability (units) and, under Restrictions, Minimum stay, Maximum stay, Stop sell, Closed to arrival (CTA) (“No check-ins on these days.”) and Closed to departure (CTD). Empty fields stay unchanged. Past days can no longer be changed. The Seasons button beside the range button lists, adds, edits, switches off and deletes the property’s seasons, and a plan that follows another says so under the plan chips.

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Seasons

A season is a named period that prices the nights it covers, so you define “Christmas, +30%” once instead of typing every night. Calendar → Rates view → Seasons (everyone who can open the view reads the list; people allowed to manage properties can add, edit, switch off, copy to next year and delete). New season asks for: How seasons are applied:

• A percentage or an amount moves the plan’s base price, so the season follows it when it changes. A Fixed price per night replaces it.
• A price you typed for that plan on that night in the grid wins over a season, and so does a night you pinned. A season wins over the plan’s base price.
• When several seasons cover a night, the most specific wins (a rate plan, then a room type, then the whole property), then the higher Priority, then the one that started later. Each rule — price, minimum stay, maximum stay, no arrivals, no departures — comes from the first season that sets it, so a “no arrivals on 24 December” for the whole property still applies when a room type has its own summer price.
• A percentage of -100 or less is refused (“A percentage of -100 or less would make the night free.”), and a result below zero is not sold.
• Seasons do not repeat by themselves: Copy to next year opens a copy one year on. Deleting a season gives its nights back to the plan’s own price; bookings already made keep the price they were sold at.

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Plans that follow another plan

A plan can follow another plan’s price instead of having its own — “Non-refundable”, always 10% under “Standard”. On the plan’s form, switch on Follow another rate plan’s price and choose:

• Follows — the other plan (a plan of the same room type, in the same currency, that does not follow another plan itself);
• How it differs — Percentage or Amount per night; a negative figure is cheaper, a positive one dearer;
• Round the price to — No rounding, The whole unit, Nearest 5 or Nearest 10;
• Take the other plan’s closings and stay limits — on by default: a night the other plan closes is closed here too, and its minimum and maximum stay apply unless this plan sets its own.

The plan has no price to enter (“Priced from …”). Each night it costs the other plan’s price for that night — its grid prices, its pinned nights and its seasons included, each counted once — moved by the rule. When the other plan’s price changes, this one follows at once, and the channels get the new prices. Example: 135.00 under “Standard”, less 10%, is 121.50 (to the nearest 5: 120).

• The default plan carries the room type’s price, so it cannot follow another plan, and a plan that follows another cannot be made the default.
• A plan that other plans follow cannot follow one itself.
• A plan a dynamic pricing service writes cannot follow another plan, and a plan that follows another cannot be handed to the service.
• A season’s percentage or amount cannot name a plan that follows another (it takes the one from the plan it follows); a fixed price can.
• Turning the switch off keeps the price the plan has that day, which you can change afterwards.

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Prices by number of guests

The room price covers a number of adults; each guest beyond it adds to the night, and children pay by age. It is set in three places:

1. Base occupancy (adults the price covers) on the room type’s form. Empty means the price covers everyone and nothing is added — which is how every room type starts.
2. The property’s Pricing tab, Children’s age bands: ranges of ages between 0 and 17, at most eight, that cannot overlap, such as 0-2 and 3-12. Save bands. A band you remove is deleted together with the prices set for it.
3. On a saved rate plan, Prices by number of guests (shown when the room type has a base occupancy or the property has bands): Extra adult, per night, Adult fewer than the base, per night and an amount per band. Save guest prices.

How it is charged:

• Each adult above the base adds the extra-adult amount for every night, inside the room price. Each adult below it takes the other amount off, never below zero.
• A child pays the amount of the band their age falls in; a band with no amount is free. The front desk and the staff app ask each child’s age when the property has bands. An age no band covers is refused (“falls in none of this property’s age bands”), instead of being priced at nothing.
• A booking made without ages — the website, a channel — keeps the plan’s flat fee per child, so nothing there changes. Extra adults do apply on the website, which already knows how many adults there are.
• A plan that follows another uses the other plan’s amounts unless you set its own, and the percentage or amount it follows by never discounts them.
• These amounts apply to direct bookings only. The channels receive the room price and the plan’s flat child and infant fees.
• A booking keeps the price it was sold at. Changing its dates prices the nights added for the guests it will have; changing the guests also moves the nights it keeps by the difference, extra adults included — see Changing dates.

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What reaches the channels

If the property is connected to Channels, every change of price, availability or restriction goes to Channex on its own, usually within a few minutes: Gridbeds gathers a property’s changes and sends only what differs from what the channel knows. A season or a followed price is sent like any other: the channel receives the final price and rules of each night, never the season or the rule behind them, and when a season or the price a plan follows changes, only the nights that changed go out. An hourly check and a full sync every night also catch any difference. The staff app confirms: “Saved. The changes are being sent to the connected channels.”

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Dynamic pricing

Settings → Pricing (Operations group; the Dynamic Pricing page) connects Gridbeds to a pricing service: PriceLabs, Beyond Pricing or Wheelhouse, one tab each. It is part of your subscription’s integrations module. Recommendations are fetched every 6 hours and change the price only in automatic mode, on the chosen plan, and only if the service sends prices in the plan’s currency — otherwise they are discarded, never converted. If something stops publishing, the card says what. A plan tied to a group or an allotment contract cannot be handed to a pricing service. Pause publishing stops it for a while; on a plan the service publishes, a price you type in the calendar becomes a Price you fixed and wins.

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Promo codes

Promo codes, in the Sales & Distribution group: “The codes guests type on your own booking page to pay less.” New code asks for:

• the Code (in capitals);
• the Discount: Percentage or Fixed amount (with Currency);
• When it can be booked and Which nights it covers (from – to);
• Minimum nights and Maximum uses.

The code and its discount type cannot change once bookings have been made with it. The discount comes off the VAT-inclusive total and applies only on your website, not on the channels. A code created here is valid at every property of the organization. Retire code deletes it or, if it has been used, deactivates it. Codes are managed by people allowed to manage properties.

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What is not covered yet

Groups and allotment contracts, which hold rooms back from availability, are described in Groups and allotments.