Important to know:
To create, edit, or delete a rate plan, go to Rooms and rates > Rate plans.
Rate plans are a way to sell room types in different ways (based on restrictions and pricing) to help to attract more travellers to your property and increase potential reservations.
Create a rate plan, then assign it to a room type to configure the pricing and restrictions, which will create the ‘room rate’. Once the room rate is created, you can map the room rate to a channel.
What is a rate plan?
Rate plans are a way to sell room types in different ways (based on restrictions and pricing) to help to attract more travellers to your property and increase potential reservations.
The more rate plans you have, and the more channels they are mapped to, the greater the chances of increasing reservations.
Types of rate plans
Rate plans are used to create different rates for each room type based on multiple factors.
You can derive a rate plan’s daily rates from another rate plan by subtracting or adding an amount or percentage.
Here are some common rate plans:
Standard — usually the base rate.
Non-refundable — usually cheaper than the standard and doesn’t allow refunds (you can derive daily rates from the standard rate plan by subtracting an amount or percentage).
Breakfast included — with breakfast included, and frequently more expensive than the standard (you can derive daily rates from the standard rate plan by adding an amount or percentage).
Minimum length of stay — usually cheaper than the standard, with a minimum night restriction applied (you can derive daily rates from the standard rate plan by subtracting an amount or percentage).
Other popular rate plans include pricing strategies based on mid-week or weekend deals, alternate check-in and check-out times, and early bird or last-minute deals (with applicable restrictions applied).
Rate plans also allow you to create deals for special times of the year (e.g. Christmas, New Year’s Eve, Valentine’s Day, Easter, Summer, etc.) and many other important festivals, events, public holidays, or tourist attractions in your area.
How rate plans work
Create a rate plan in the SiteMinder platform, then assign it to a room type to configure the pricing and restrictions, which will create the ‘room rate’.
Once the room rate is created, you can then map the room rate to a channel.
You can also map a room rate with your connected property management system (PMS), revenue management system (RMS), or central reservations systems (CRS).
To show discounted prices alongside the standard rate, you can create rate plans by deriving them at a discounted price from the standard rate.
Create a rate plan
To create a rate plan, go to Rooms and rates > Rate plans, then click Add a rate plan.
Fill in the following details when creating your rate plan:
Rate plan name — set a rate plan name to make it easier to distinguish your rate plans. It will appear in your SiteMinder platform only and will not be shown to your guests.
Rate plan description — add a description in addition to the rate plan name, if needed. It will appear in your SiteMinder platform only and will not be shown to your guests.
Minimum length of stay — the minimum number of nights that must be booked.
Maximum length of stay — the maximum number of nights that can be booked.
Release period — also known as “advance purchase” restriction or “minimum advance reservation” restriction. The number of days in advance a reservation must be made.
Inclusions — the meals included in the rate plan such as Breakfast or Dinner. The inclusions will be sent to certain channels who support receiving inclusions (e.g. Booking.com).
Minimum rate — the minimum rate allowed for this rate plan.
Direct booking controls — add date filters and discounts for your Direct Booking rate plans.
Rate setup — how you will manage the daily rates for the rate plan:
Manually input daily rates — you will manually update daily rates.
Derive daily rates — you can derive daily rates from a certain rate plan. Adjust daily rates by an amount and/or percentage. Note that derived rate plans cannot be manually modified in the Inventory grid.
Once you have created a rate plan, assign it to a room type, which will create the “room rate”. When assigning the room type, enter the Full rate, Included occupancy, and Extra adult and Extra child charges. Once assigned, you can edit the room rate to configure any extra settings, such as overrides.
Edit a rate plan
To edit a rate plan, follow these steps:
Go to Rooms and rates > Rate plans.
Click on the rate plan you want to modify.
In the Rate plan actions menu, select Edit.
Make the changes, then click Save.
Delete a rate plan
To delete a rate plan, follow these steps:
Go to Rooms and rates > Rate plans.
Click on the rate plan you want to delete.
In the Rate plan actions menu, select Delete.
Click Delete again to confirm the action.
Note:
Deleting a rate plan will delete all associated room rates from the SiteMinder platform; the rate plan’s updates will no longer be sent to your channels.
Deleting a rate plan will not automatically delete the rate plan and its room rates on your channels or connected PMS, RMS, or CRS. If you want to remove the rate plan and its associated rates from a channel or PMS, RMS, or CRS, you must do so directly on the channel or PMS, RMS or CRS extranet.