Before you start to map
It’s very important that your mapping configuration settings match what you’ve set on your HRS extranet. This includes any rebates and surcharges (where applicable). This is because your property platform will overwrite information on HRS once the connection is enabled and you don’t want to lose your settings.
HRS doesn’t have room types like your property platform does. Instead, each rate handles its availability separately. It's important to clearly understand the room types and occupancy as well as the rate categories unique to HRS before you being mapping. This ensures a smooth connection process and prevents overbookings.
HRS room types and occupancy
This section outlines how HRS divides the types of rooms sold to guests.
By default, HRS has two room types for each property: SGL (single room) and DBL (double room).
A DBL room can be booked for 1, 2, or more guests.
A SGL room can only be booked for 1 guest.
If you want to have more than these two room type options, you will need to use HRS non-standard rates.
Since 3-bed and 4-bed room HRS non-standard rates won’t allow single occupancy they cannot support SGL rates.
Searching for a room on HRS
When searching HRS to find rooms, guests can filter their search by the number of travellers that will be allocated in a certain number of single or double rooms.
➕ For example, 3 travellers can be allocated to rooms in any of the following ways:
Travellers: 3 adults | Rooms: 1 double room
Travellers: 3 adults | Rooms: 2 double rooms
Travellers: 3 adults | Rooms: 1 single room and 1 double room
Travellers: 3 adults | Rooms: 3 single rooms
Travellers: 3 adults | Rooms: 3 double rooms
In the examples aboveDBL rooms can be booked by one person wanting a more spacious room, 2 adults, or even 3 adults that prefer to share a room.
When booking, potential guests will first see the room price excluding breakfast. The breakfast price (per person per night) is used to adjust the price according to the number of guests booking the room. This means if you are mapping one property platform room type to both the SGL and the DBL,the price between the two rates should not be different. The separated occupancy price is handled by the breakfast price instead.
You can set up the breakfast price in your HRS extranet, but your property platform won’t be able to update it. Depending on your contract with HRS this may mean the price will be fixed for the year.
Please note:
If you wish to sell room-only rates, you will not be able to set a price that varies based on the number of guests in a room.
Before mapping a SGL and a DBL to the same property platform room type, read: Possible unwanted availability duplication on HRS.
Unwanted availability duplication on HRS
Every rate in HRS manages its own inventory and availability. In contrast, the property platform separates your inventory, or room type, from its pricing, or room rates.
As you can see in the diagram above, HRS treats both mapped room rates as though they had their own inventory. When connecting two rates mapped to the same room type, HRS duplicates the room type’s availability for each rate. While the actual availability of double rooms is 2, the duplication in HRS has created a total of 4, creating a risk of overbooking.
It’s for this reason we recommend mapping only one rate for every room type to HRS.
his kind of overbooking will only happen if too many rooms are booked at once, or more than one reservation for the same room is booked at the same time on the channel. If rooms are booked incrementally the availability will decrease after each booking reducing the risk of overbookings.
HRS rate categories
When mapping, you will see what inventory updates HRS allows for that rate. HRS supports various room rate functionalities:
This complexity means it’s important to understand how each room rate behaves when mapped to your channel manager. Information about each type can be found below:
HRS standard rates
If you use the standard SGL and DBL room types in HRS, you can create five types of rates called standard rates: Hot deal , HRS , Special rate , Trade show , and Weekend rate.
Below is a table of the inventory updates your property platform sends to each HRS standard rate:
HRS standard rate groups
⚠️ We advise against using Rate groups when connecting HRS to your property platform. However, if you need to use them for certain functionalities within the HRS extranet, you should map all the rates within the same Rate group to the same property platform room type. Otherwise, your property platform won’t recognise the correct room type of a reservation made for one of these rates. This creates a high risk of overbooking.
Before creating Rate groups , read: Unwanted availability duplication on HRS.
For each of the standard rates listed above, you can create up to three versions.
For example, if you have a "hot deal" rate, it will appear in the mapping drop-down menu as:
"Hot deal (standard category) SGL rate 1 "
"Hot deal (standard category) DBL rate 1 "
However, if you have other versions, you will also have these options:
"Hot deal (standard category) SGL rate 2 "
"Hot deal (standard category) DBL rate 2 ".
All these versions sharing the same name but numbered differently are part of the same Rate group. In the example, "hot deal (standard category) DBL rate 1" and "hot deal (standard category) DBL rate 2" are part of the same rate group. Therefore, they need to be mapped to the same property platform room type.
Reservations made for both these rates will be sent by HRS with no indication of whether the reservation was for rate 1 or rate 2 (aside from the different price). They will simply be labelled as "hot deal DBL".
HRS non-standard rates
If you wish to advertise more than two room types (other than DBL and SGL), you will need to use HRS non-standard rates. These allow you to offer a wider variety of rooms.
What you need to consider when using non-standard rates:
If mapped, you cannot set the price per night separately in your property platform’s Inventory for those HRS rates. Their price will be modified based on the lowest price for that night found in your HRS standard rates.
HRS standard rates have various offer options that are not available for its non-standard rates.
Mapping to a budget room
The HRS budget room price is always the price of the cheapest available HRS standard rate on a given day, minus the Rebate amount or Rebate percentage (if applicable). The rebate acts as a discount.
When mapping a budget room, you will see two fields: Rebate amount and Rebate percentage. These are set at a rate level in your property platform, not on a daily basis.
If you want rebates to change on a daily basis, they will need to be managed on the HRS extranet.
For example:
Your cheapest HRS standard rate is 100.
And your Rebate amount is 20
Your budget room would be offered at 80.
Mapping to a 3-bed room or 4-bed room
The 3-bed room and 4-bed room price is always the price of the cheapest available HRS standard rate on that day, plus the Surcharge amount or Surcharge percentage (if applicable).
When mapping to a 3-bed room or 4-bed room, you will see two fields: Surcharge amount and Surcharge percentage. These are set at a rate level in your property platform, not on a daily basis.
If you want surcharges to change on a daily basis, they will need to be managed on the HRS extranet.
In the HRS system, any room that can hold two or more guests is considered a double room. Guests searching for 3-bed or 4-bed room accommodation will be able to find these DBL rates.
Mapping to other HRS non-standard rate
The price of non-standard rates is always set to the price of the cheapest available HRS standard rate on a given day, plus the surcharge amount.
When mapping to any other HRS non-standard rate rooms, you will only see the Surcharge amount field (not the Surcharge percentage field).
The superior room category has an additional function for corporate rates. See below for more information: HRS corporate rates.
HRS corporate rates
HRS has strong relationships with corporate partners worldwide and provides special offers such as:
Corporate negotiated rates : negotiated directly between HRS, the property, and the corporate partner.
Corporate HRS club rates : negotiated between HRS and the property only.
Any corporate customer who is part of the club will have access to the corporate club rates.
Corporate discounts : works like other discounts applied to standard offers. In this case, customers operating through the corporate booking portal will be offered discounts from the standard available rates.
With a corporate discount, the final price of the booking will be derived from the cheapest available public rate for the room and category.
As corporate rates have derivations on the HRS side, inventory updates sent by your property platform are blocked from the HRS platform for all their corporate rates.
HRS has a portal for corporate customers to make bookings and corporate rates are not sold through the public HRS booking system.
For corporate rates, room availability is derived from the public site offerings. Rates are either uploaded directly into the HRS system or derived from publicly available rates. For this reason, property platform does not submit your prices and inventory updates to set HRS corporate rates. Corporate rates are mapped for reservation delivery only.
If your HRS corporate rates are not mapped, the reservations will be delivered to your property platform as "superior room" rates. If your property doesn’t have a “superior room”, the reservation will not be delivered to your property platform, and you will receive an e-mail regarding any unmapped room.
For more information, see: HRS corporate website.
Corporate rates examples
Map to HRS
Please note:
It is very important to ensure your mapping configuration settings match those set on the HRS extranet, including breakfasts, rebates, and surcharges (if applicable). Failure to do so may result in the loss of your settings.
HRS mapping has particular features and rate categories. Before mapping, you should read: HRS features and HRS rate categories.
Once you have created rooms and rates in HRS, you are ready to map your HRS rates in your property platform’s channel manager.
Keep in mind the mapping fields may vary based on the category of HRS rate being mapped.
HRS mapping - frequently asked questions
It can be tricky to understand which room rate to choose to map to the HRS rate.
⚠️ It is important to pay close attention to the names of the rates that appear in the drop-down menus when mapping.
When mapping to HRS, you should consider:
What should I do if I want my standard rate to receive minimum stay?
Normally, the HRS rate is the one mapped to your standard property platform rate. But, property platform does not send minimum stay information for HRS rates or Weekend rates. If you wish to control your minimum stay from your property platform, it’s better to use Special rates or Hot deal as your standard rates instead of HRS rates.
Which room type for 2 people will be my main room to sell in HRS?
You should choose a room with space for two people to be the main room you advertise in HRS. Usually a double room with the highest availability. You should map a property platform room rate belonging to such a room type to a HRS standard rate with "DBL" in its name.
What do I do with the HRS rates that have SGL in their name?
If you have a room type in your property platform that can only accommodate one person, you should map it to an HRS standard rate with "SGL" in the name.
If you do not have a room type that only accommodates one person, you should either avoid mapping these SGL rates, or map both the SGL and the DBL to the same room type.
Due to the way the search function works in HRS, mapping the SGL rate ensures that more reservations are received. However, there is a slight risk of overbooking. See the section Unwanted availability duplication.