What is the Occupancy Based Pricing (OBP) Inventory feature?
The Occupancy Based Pricing (OBP) Inventory feature allows a property to set a price in their PMS/RMS for every combination of room rate, date, occupants 1-5, extra adult, and extra child. Those rates are sent to the channel manager which updates channels that support receiving OBP.
Having an OBP Inventory is different from simply using OBP options in the channel rate settings. You can use the OBP functionality on the channels that offer them instead of using the Inventory's feature. However, those channel- based options are less flexible.
Please note: The OBP Inventory feature is only available for customers using OBP supported PMS/RMS. Please contact support to check if your PMS/RMS is supported.
What are the benefits of OBP Inventory?
The primary benefit is it assists properties in maximising yields for rooms by offering the ability to specify an absolute price for the number of occupants and extra adult and extra child by date.
It allows a property to be far more granular with their pricing strategy compared to the functionality.
Enabling OBP Inventory for the property
Before enabling OBP Inventory functionality the following conditions must be met:
Your property must be connected to an OBP supported PMS/RMS and receiving OBP rate data
Your property must be using rate plans
Please Note: OBP Inventory can currently only be enabled for a property by support. Please contact Support to enable OBP Inventory for your property.
Enabling OBP Inventory on the Room Rate
Before enabling OBP Inventory on a room rate the following conditions must be met:
OBP Inventory must be enabled for the property
Included Occupancy must be set
Maximum Occupancy must be set
The room rate must be mapped to a PMS/RMS room rate
To enable OBP Inventory for a room rate:
Click on ROOMS & RATES
Click the name of the room rate you want to enable OBP Inventory for, and click CONFIGURE
Select the checkbox to Enable Occupancy Based Pricing
Please Note: After enabling OBP Inventory for the room rate you must trigger a resynchronisation of the room rate data for all dates from the PMS/RMS to populate the Channel Manager with OBP rate data.
Please Note: After modifying the included occupancy value of an OBP Inventory enabled room rate you must trigger a resynchronisation of the room rate data for all dates from the PMS/RMS to correctly calculate the included occupant rate value.
Please Note: Room rates that have OBP Inventory enabled are unable to use the Single Guest Discount functionality. Instead, they must specify the rate for 1 occupant.
Please Note: All derived room rates will inherit the pricing model of their parents.
It is possible to identify all room rates that have had OBP Inventory enabled through the ROOMS & RATES screen by the pill-shaped OBP sign.
Viewing OBP rates on the Inventory Grid
Room rates that have OBP Inventory enabled will be indicated through by an OBP pill shaped sign on the inventory grid.
Channels that support receiving OBP data are indicated with an OBP pill shaped sign.
To view OBP room rates:
Click on INVENTORY
Click on the OBP pill shaped sign next to the room rate
The inventory grid will expand to show the OBP rates (1-5 occupants) or up to the maximum occupancy of the room if lower than 5
Occupant levels, extra adult and/or extra child rates that have not been received from the PMS/RMS will be indicated by a red box.
Please note: When viewed in condensed view the inventory grid will display the rate that aligns with the included occupancy value.
Please note: Room rates that are OBP Inventory enabled cannot have their rates edited via the inventory grid. The rates must be sent from the PMS/RMS.
To view OBP channel room rates:
Click INVENTORY
Click on CHANNELS pill shaped sign next to the room rate
Click on the OBP pill shaped sign next to the channel room rate
Please note: Not all channel integrations indicated by the pill-shaped OBP sign support receiving the full payload of OBP rate data. For example some only support receiving single and included occupancy. The channel manager will send as much of the OBP rate data as the current channel integration supports. The channel room rate inventory grid will show all OBP data regardless of whether the channel integration supports receiving it all.
How OBP Inventory data is sent to channels
Channel Manager receives and stores OBP rates received from the PMS/RMS. There is no logic to backfill or forward fill missing OBP rate data on the channel manager inventory grids. Missing rates are indicated by a red box.
It is strongly recommended that a hotel define in their PMS/RMS rate amounts for all occupants.
Channels that support OBP need to receive a complete payload of OBP rate data up to the maximum included occupancy for the room. In the event that OBP rate data is missing the following logic will be applied when calculating the OBP data to send to OBP capable channels:
The data calculated by Channel Manager above was done because those pieces of data were not received from the connected PMS/RMS.
Calculation breakdown
In the above scenario, our included occupancy = 2 and our maximum occupancy = 6.
Assumptions
1-Jan to 6-Jan, the Extra Adult price on the room rate in Channel Manager is not set
*For 7-Jan, the Extra Adult price on the room rate in Channel Manager is set to $40
Calculations are only performed up to maximum room occupancy
Calculation example
On 1-Jan, Channel Manager did not receive the 6 Occupant price - this missing price is calculated by Channel Manager based on the 5 Occupant price plus the OBP Extra Adult price for that day.
On 2-Jan, Channel Manager did not receive the 3, 4 & 6 Occupant prices - these missing prices are calculated by Channel Manager as follows: the 3 and 4 Occupant price are backfilled from the next highest known price, in this case the 5 Occupant price. The 6 Occupant is calculated by Channel Manager based on the 5 Occupant price plus the OBP Extra Adult price for that day.
On 3-Jan, Channel Manager did not receive the 3,4,5 & 6 Occupant prices - these missing prices are calculated by Channel Manager as follows: as the 2 Occupant price is now the highest known price, the remaining prices are calculated by repetitively adding on the OBP Extra Adult price.
On 4-Jan, Channel Manager did not receive the 3,4,5 & 6 Occupant prices, however in this case Channel Manager also did not receive the OBP Extra Adult price and from our assumption above the room rate Extra Adult value is also not set. In this case Channel Manager cannot derive the pricing for the higher occupant levels so Channel Manager will forward fill the highest known price. In this case the 2 Occupant price.
On 5-Jan, Channel Manager did not receive the 3 & 6 Occupant prices, however in this case Channel Manager also did not receive the OBP Extra Adult price and from our assumption above the room rate Extra Adult value is also not set. In this case Channel Manager will backfill the 3 Occupant from the next highest known price, in this case the 4 Occupant price. The 6 Occupant is calculated by Channel Manager based on the 5 Occupant price as this is the highest known price.
On 6-Jan, Channel Manager did not receive the 1 & 6 Occupant prices. In this case Channel Manager will backfill the 1 Occupant from the next highest known price, in this case the 2 Occupant price. The 6 Occupant is calculated by Channel Manager based on the 5 Occupant price plus the OBP Extra Adult price for that day.
On 7-Jan, Channel Manager did not receive the 1,3,4,5 & 6 Occupant prices, however in this case Channel Manager also did not receive the OBP Extra Adult price, but from our assumption above the room rate Extra Adult value is set to $40. In this case Channel Manager will backfill the 1 Occupant from the next highest known price, in this case the 2 Occupant price. As the 2 Occupant price is now the highest known price, the remaining prices are calculated by repetitively adding on the room rate Extra Adult price ($40).
Enabling OBP Inventory en masse for Room Rates using Pricing Model screen
The pricing model screen assists properties that want to enable/disable OBP Inventory en masse for a large number of room rates without having to individually access each room rate. This screen, accessed via a tab in the Rooms & Rates area, becomes available when your property has been enabled for Occupancy Based Pricing Inventory. The pricing model screen allows you to set the prerequisites of included occupancy and maximum occupancy required before enabling OBP Inventory.
Click on ROOMS & RATES
Click on the PRICING MODEL tab
Enter values into the Inc. occupancy field for the room type.
Enter values into the Max. occupancy field for the room type, specify if the associated room rates should inherit the maximum occupancy setting from the room type (locked padlock) or if room rates should have maximum occupancy overridden at the room rate level (padlock unlocked)
Click Copy down
And / or make individual edits to the Inc. occupancy and Max. occupancy fields per room rate if required.
Toggle the OBP slider on the room type to switch all room rates in that room type to be OBP enabled/disabled.
And / or Individually enable/disable OBP per room rate if required.
Click Save
Note : The Max. Occupancy value at room type reflects the value configured for the room type, any changes to this value will update the maximum occupancy value on the room type. The included occupancy and OBP setting is not stored at a room type level and therefore will not be saved against the room type.
Note : OBP room rates inherit the pricing model of their parents, the pricing model screen illustrates the parent by showing the derivation icon (shaped like a chain link) which can be clicked. Additionally any room rate that has inherited the OBP pricing model from a parent will display the OBP slider as a lighter shade (transparent looking).
Note : A maximum of 500 room rate updates can be performed at any one time, in the event you are doing mass changes please commit these changes in separate save actions.