Rate Types

Rate types define the room rates offered at the hotel. Rate types are assigned specific codes, groupings, rules and restrictions. Rate type configuration is step 1 in setting up the hotels’ rate plans. A hotel can create an unlimited amount of rate types in IDPMS. Rate types can for example be created for different bookers, markets and promotions. Go to Settings > Rate Manager > Rate Types

Example:

Rate Type - Rate type code, limited to 8 characters and must be unique.

Description - Description used in IDPMS. Limited to 50 characters.  In above example:

Charge Type - Day, week, Month. Most hotels only use Day. This means rates will be charged on a daily basis during the night audit. Some exceptions: for example long stay hotels use rate types that charge only once a month.

Article -  The transaction PLU code used for room rate. See also Articles.

Charge plan - A charge plan is used to divide/split revenue between several main groups. For example room revenue, breakfast and city tax. For more explanation, see Charge Plans.

Visible - Should be enabled for all public rate types in order to be able to select them in the folio. When disabled the rate type is hidden from the pick list. For example when a rate is no longer used. The tick box visible can also be disabled when using negotiated corporate rates. Rates then can only be booked in combination with the company or travel agent it was assigned to.

Breakfast/lunch/dinner -  These fields should be checked if F&B is included in the rate type. The checkboxes relate to Restaurant 1 and Restaurant 2 and once checked will calculate the number of people for breakfast/lunch/dinner (based on the number of adults and children on the reservation) and provide that information on the F&B reports.

Manual Rate - If checked the rate type will be manual, allowing users to enter or override the rate value in the reservation. Most hotels have a few manual rates, the other rates are managed through the rate grid.



Complimentary - If checked, the rate type is considered a complimentary rate type. When setting up complimentary rate types, this should be checked so as the complimentary rates appear on the Complimentary Rooms Report and  on the daily Management Summary Report. See Reports - Management Summary.

 Ignore Rooms to Sell - When enabled, IDPMS is allowed to sell all available rooms for this rate type. IDPMS will use the actual occupancy and ignores the setting in the rate grid. If this is not checked, the rooms to sell have to be managed through the rate grid. This implies allocating a specific number of rooms to sell per day per rate/room type combination.
For example, a hotel has 45 rooms. No reservations yet so 45 rooms available. With ignore rooms to sell checked, all 45 rooms are available to book for this rate type. The rooms to sell option is greyed out in the rate grid:

 
With the option disabled, the hotel has to enter ‘rooms to sell’ manually in the rate grid for this room/rate combination. This is for example used for Last minute specials. Hotels don't want to sell all rooms for this special (cheap rate) but only a specific number of rooms:


 
Some hotels don’t enable this option and enter rooms to sell manually for each rate type. See Rate grid for more information.

List Order - list order sequence number. This order is used in a reservation, in the rate grid, and sometimes on booking channels (e.g. CWI and iHotelier). Similar rate types can be grouped together so they can be managed more efficiently in the rate grid. For example, all discounted rate types (AAA, EXPEDIA, AARP etc.) could be assigned a list order of 3 and they would be grouped together.  
If no list order is assigned to rate types, the default will be alphabetical.

Not in Rate Query - When enabled, the rate will not appear in the rate query. When disabled, the rate will be displayed. Hotels can decide for example not to display online rates in the rate query. See Rate query
Connector- Only used if the hotel is connected through RezExchange. A connector needs to be added, otherwise room rates won’t be pushed to RezExchange.  The order is important:
1. First add the connector in the rate type settings
2. Then load rates in rate grid.
Note:  if the connector is added after the rates are loaded, the rates need to be triggered by RezExchange support or by updating a value in the rate grid. Before, every channel had its own specific connector. Therefore the connector drop down may display several options. Now it doesn’t matter which connector is used, as long as something is entered.

Distribution Mealplan - Select the Meal Plan associated with the rate type for distribution.
For CWI: If set-up, the price of the mealplan is added to the room rate. The price of the mealplan + the rate in rate grid = Total price which will be pushed to RezExchange (and published on the hotels' own website).
For other OTAs: this is a setting in the interfaces. For most interfaces this setting is enabled, so it works just like for CWI: The price of the mealplan + the rate in rate grid = Total price. For example €100 rate + €15 mealplan = €115 published for one adult for one night, €130 for two adults.  
If the hotel uses mealplans, all rates which are mapped for distribution need to have a distribution mealplan set-up. Otherwise reservations are delivered without the mealplan in the daily rates.
Selectable in Group Blocks - If checked, the rate type is selectable when making group block reservations. See Group block.

Prepaid Rate - For IDPMS this option is not used anymore. It was used for reporting in the past only. For RezExchange: if enabled, CWI provides this information to the website. If set-up, the website can route the guest to an online payment provider for reservation prepayment.      

Default Source - The default Source linked to the rate type. When a reservation is booked using the rate type, the default source will be filled on the reservation screen. Default source set-up in the rate type overrules other defaults. Default sources can be set in:
1 Rate
2 Agent
3 Company
4 Interface defaults
5 Hotel defaults  
When making a reservation, first the source in the rate type is picked. If not set-up, the source in the agent, then the company, etc.

Cleaning Service Interval - If a specific Cleaning Service is associated with the rate type, enter the cleaning interval (1 = every day, 2 = every other day, 3 every 3 days etc.).

Towel Service Interval - If a specific Towel Service is associated with the rate type, enter the cleaning interval (1 = every day, 2 = every other day, 3 every 3 days etc.).
Linen Service Interval - If a specific Linen Service is associated with the rate type, enter the cleaning interval (1 = every day, 2 = every other day, 3 every 3 days etc.).

Turndown Service - If Turndown service is associated with the rate type, check the box.
Note: the housekeeping cleaning section will override the settings in the room configuration for cleaning. see Room Setup.

Min Occupancy- Used to set minimum occupancy for distribution interface. For example, a rate type can only be booked for a minimum of 2 adults.

Max Occupancy- Used to set maximum occupancy for distribution interface.

Derived From - The controlling Rate Type. With derived rates, the rate value of a controlling rate dictates the rate value of the derived rates. See Derived Rates.

Derived Type - Amount or Percentage. See Derived Rates.

Derived Value - Amount or Percentage Value. See Derived Rates.

Rate Type Group - The Rate Group. With grouped rates it is possible to accommodate multiple rates in one rate group. From this rate group, the lowest available rate, will always be booked. See Grouped Rates.

Rate Rounding Type - When using derived rates, the rounding of rates can be set. As derived rates may be derived as a percentage, there is a good chance that the rate will not be rounded up. This setting allows to set a default rounding to derived rates. Pick list includes:

Hurdle Rate Active - Enabled if Hurdle Rates needs to be active on this rate type. See Yield Grid.

Hurdle Rate Boost - Some rates should look at the hurdle rate but are allowed to have a margin. In the hurdle rate boost the amount can be set for this margin. Example: If the hurdle rate is €50,- and this rate is €40,-, it can still be booked because it allows a difference of €10,- per day for this rate type.

Info Text - text field with detailed information for this specific rate type. This text is visible in IDCRS and can be published on CWI. For hotels that have an iHotelier connection note that this information is sent to iHotelier and the GDS.  The text is displayed in the rate query in IDPMS, when hoovering over the rate type:

POS Allowance - Select the POS Allowance if applicable for the rate type.  See POS Allowance for more information. POS Allowances are created in the rate manager menu if POS Budgets are enabled in Settings > Options > Modules.

Publish - if both settings 'publish' and 'visible' are enabled, the rate type can be booked online.

IS CWI Package - With this option enabled, rate types (configured as rate types in IDPMS) can be displayed online as package on the hotels' own website.  

Allotment - Default allotment. See Allotments.