Rate Query

The rate query offers an overview of available room and rate types and their price for a selected period. The rate query screen is the most convenient method of obtaining the required information to convert a customer request into a reservation.
The rate query can be accessed by using the reservations menu, by using shortcut <Ctrl> + <S>, or use the rate query button on the left menu bar



The rate query screen will default to today's date and default values for individual reservations. See default values.
Details for the query can be entered, such as arrival date, number of nights, etc.

Arrival - Enter the arrival date requested.

Nights - Enter the intended number of nights. The allowed number of nights in the rate query is set to 365 nights, unless the option to allow longstay is enabled in Option Front desk.   

Departure - The departure date will be filled automatically based on number of nights requested. (Arrival date + number of nights)

Mealplan - Select a mealplan from picklist (not mandatory and optional setting in IDPMS). See Mealplan.

Room type group - A room type group filter can be used. For example only the rooms in de room type group “SUITES” are displayed. If the room type group field is left empty, all room types are displayed. By default, the room type group filter is set to empty. Filtering on room type group is not mandatory. It is an optional setting in IDPMS. See Room type group.

Rooms - Enter number of rooms requested.  

Adult/Child/Baby - Enter the number of guests per room

Guest/company/travel agent - In the third column a guest, company and/or travel agent can be linked to the query.
Companies and travel agencies might have an agreement with the hotel which could include negotiated rates. Negotiated rates will only be displayed if the company and/or travel agent details are entered in the query.
To link a guest, company or travel agent in the rate query enter the last name of the guest or the name of the company or agent, or a part thereof, in the applicable field and select the <TAB> key on your keyboard or click on the button with the three dots at the end of the field to start a search in the hotel database.
The asterisk (*) search operator can be used to narrow the search. For instance, *smi will find all accounts that include smi, smi* will find all accounts that start with smi. Use @ to look for zip codes, # to look for loyalty numbers and use a comma (,) to search for full names. (Last name, first name). IDPMS will check the database for any guest that matches the search and will open a Browse window.


Select the correct Guest from the browse list.  Note, if there are many names in the browse list, it can be filtered by one of the column headings on top (City, State, Company etc.). To do this, click on the column heading until it appears highlighted in bold. Then select the Seek icon on bottom left    to filter on the selected column heading.  

The example below filters on City (Breda).


Results of search for Jansen in Breda:

Select the appropriate Guest to make the link on the Rate Query Screen.
If the Guest name does not appear, a New Guest name profile can be created by selecting the add new icon (highlighted in red below). This Opens up the 'New' Guest Window. See also The guest profile for more information.  
The Link to this Guest Profile is now made on the Rate Query window.


First Day Rate - If checked, the results will show the rate for the first night in the results window.
Full Stay Rate - If checked, the total of the entire stay will be displayed in the results window.
 Once all the above information is entered in the Query, the results can be obtained by pressing <Enter> or by selecting the icon   in the top right corner of Rate Query screen.  
The results pane in the query screen will yield availability and pricing based on the request. The results pane displays the values from rate management in the rate grid and package grid.
 
Events displayed can be entered in the event calendar.  See event calendar.  



Rate Query Results
The Results pane in the Rate Query screen displays rates per room and rate type. Each box represents a price for the corresponding room type/rate type combination for the selected date range. The results pane can have four different colours.
 
Example results:

 
Room Type The top row displays all the active and available Room types of the hotel. This will vary per hotel based on the number and type of rooms at the hotel. The order of these room types can be setup in the hotel settings of IDPMS. In this example:


 
When hovering the mouse over the room types a pop-up description of the room will appear and a short description of the room will also be given in the grey bar at the bottom of the screen. For example:


 


Rate Type - Codes are displayed in the left column. The order of these rate types can be indicated in the rate type configuration screen. The query result will only display rate types that match the details of the query, so not all rate types may be visible. See rate types for more information.  
When hovering the mouse over the rate types a pop-up description of the rate will appear and a short description of the rate will also be given in the blue bar at the bottom of the screen. For example:
 

 



Remaining Rooms to sell - are displayed in red to the left of the price for that room type.

The number of rooms to be sold for the rate type is set in the Rate Grid in the “Rooms to sell” field. The number displayed in the rate query is the number of rooms to sell set-up in the rate grid, minus the rooms already been sold, for the selected period, room and rate type combination. See Rate Grid and Rate Types.


Messages and colours in rate query screen
The results pane can display multiple colours:   
Grey background - Rate type/ room type not initialized for this combination (not loaded in the rate grid).  See Rate Grid.  

If the rate is not initialized for all days, the background will be greyed out and a price will be displayed.
For example, a request for 3 nights, but only 2 nights are loaded:
 

 
The rate grid:

Yellow background - The room/ rate type combination is overbooked, but rooms can still be booked by users with enough user rights. Hotels can decide per room type if overbookings are allowed and up to what percentage. See Managed overbooking for more information.



Red background - A red background indicates that there are no more rooms available for this rate or this rate has restrictions and no more rooms can be booked.

The red or yellow background (depending on user rights) will be displayed when:  
- the room type is overbooked
- the rate is closed due to maximum hotel occupancy (house availability limit cut-off)
- Hurdle rate is not met    
- the rate is closed in the rate grid
- the rooms to sell are exceeded
- the rate is closed to arrival
- the rate is closed to departure
- the minimum stay through is not met
- the minimum length of stay is not met
- maximum length of stay is exceeded
- rooms to sell restriction is exceeded
- advance booking days not taken in account

Orange background - An orange background indicates that there is a room available for the request, but it requires a room change during the stay.

Example request in Rate query:

Roomrack shows room 0205 is occupied and will check-out July 20th. Room 0203 is occupied as of July 20th.

Move Gast A to room 0203 or Gast B to 0205. When leaving like this, Gast C can make a reservation, but will have to change rooms on July 20th.  

Red outline (box) indicates a rate change during the stay.

For example, for a 3 night stay, the first 2 nights are €100,- per nights and the last night is €120,-.

Red Underline - Means not enough rooms available.  The red underline (can be a full underline or a partial underline) indicates the number of nights that the room type is overbooked. The length of the underline indicates the percentage of the number of nights of the query that this room type is overbooked.

For example:
When a query is done for a stay of 10 nights and for this period 1 night is overbooked the yellow cell will have a red line over 10% of the width of the cell.  
When a query is done for a stay of 2 nights and for this period 1 night is overbooked the yellow cell will have a red line over 50% of the width of the cell.  

This allows the user to see at a glance whether the restrictions is for the entire stay or just for one or two nights of the query and whether the value of the reservation would outweigh the inconvenience of overbooking or the other way around. Hovering the mouse over the cell will give a hint at the bottom of the screen:  

Example restriction for entire stay:


Or just for a part of the stay, in this example 2 nights of a 5 night stay:



Once a room/rate type combination is selected, two icons appear on the left:

The   icon will display the rate per night. For example:



By selecting the  icon, a new reservation can be created for the selected room/ rate type combination. All values from the rate query screen will be taken over into the new reservation screen like arrival date, company card, etc. See New Reservation.