Weekly and Monthly Rates

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Weekly and Monthly Rates
January 13, 2012, by John Amato

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We are currently implementing "true" weekly and monthly rates in Bookerville. This will be a big improvement over how it works now - currently, to offer weekly (or monthly) rates in Bookerville, you have to make use of the Multi-Day Discounts feature. This works, but it is tedious, and also does not permit you to have different weekly/monthly rates for different seasons.

So basically, in the Rates tab, we will add two more amount fields: one for weekly rates and another for monthly rates. These will be in addition to the daily rate field, and you will be able to set all of these seasonally with the Range tool, or individually with the "Set Rates by Clicking" tool. For bookings at least a week long, the rent calculation will use the weekly rate for the first 7 nights it can find with weekly rates entered, and will then fall back to daily rates for the remaining days in the booking. Monthly rates will work the same way, but for "month-long stays" (more on this later).

That part sounds nice and clean and easy, right?

And it is, except when we get a scenario where someone books a stay that straddles two or more differing weekly (or monthly) rates. How should Bookerville handle this? My thought was to simply average all of them, but we are interested in hearing from the community on this.

Also, it seems pretty clear that Multi-Day Discounts ought to be applied only to any remaining days after all whole-week (and whole-month) groups of days have been priced with the weekly and monthly rates. Does anyone feel differently about this?

Finally, what constitutes "month-long" stays? 28 days? 30 days? 31 days?

Please weigh in...

Cheers,

John

8 Responses:

Ron Molinas, January 14, 2012:

Since I had requested this feature I figure that I should chime in...

Regarding the straddle issue, I don't care for averaging. I feel this way because it is harder to explain to a renter, and I don't want people feeling that my rates aren't as advertised in the summary. Either "rate as of day 1 of the week" or "rate as of day 7" rules would work for me, and I'll just publish the rule statement with the rate table. (I would expect the rates to be determined week-by-week, rather than being the same for the an entire extended booking.) If it looks like the cutover dates might bite me, then I need to shift my schedule by a few days.

On Multi-Day discounts, I'm fine with application to remaining days, but I would just as soon see them applied as "if you stay N or more days, I'll take xx% off the entire final total" (as computed by the daily/weekly rates)". Again, simpler is better, for both me and the renter.

I'm not planning on using monthly rates, but if I did I would prefer months to be defined by day of month ("if you check in on the 5th, I'll give you a monthly rate if you stay thorough the 4th of the following month"). Fixed length definitions work fine for the first month, but they start to confuse the issue after that.

Sandra Berube, January 16, 2012:

I'm so excited to have the option of weekly and monthly rates I've struggled with multi day discounts. I wouldn't use a system that averages rates because the guest would become confused and oppose being charged something different than advertised.

Straddling dates? Could we enter weekly, nightly or monthly with specific options for each? Example, minimum stays or Saturday to Saturday only guest? I don't see myself using multi day discounts once the new option is implemented, I hope. My monthly guest usually arrive the first and depart the last day of the month but I've been flexible to drive sales but would it matter if I set rates per each month?

Thank you for the wonderful surprise John!!

Cindy Amato, January 20, 2012:

Hi,
We posted a poll on LinkedIn in the Vacation Rentals's group. There are a few good responses in here.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups/Lets-say-your-guest-wants-881917.S.89807281?view=&gid=881917&type=member&item=89807281&trk=NUS_DISC_Q-ttle

Cindy

John Amato, January 20, 2012:

Also, if I may clarify a bit: what we're really looking for here is how the software should enforce your rates when guests price out stays. Saying that you handle it on a case-by-case basis is fine, but that only occurs when you're already in contact with a potential customer. And customizing the pricing manually is already available when you are entering the booking from your Master Calendar, because you can override all amounts.

Even if you run in "Manager-Centric" mode, guests can still price-out stays on your public calendar, so it's important to have simple, concise policies for calculating weekly & monthly rent prices for this reason.

Thanks for the valuable feedback!

John

DP, February 4, 2012:

Our monthly rates are based on a 28 night stay, usually Sat. to Sat. The cleaning fee is usually increased also.

dlxhivac, February 5, 2012:

Some of my renters base part of their length of stay decision upon air fares (fly in/out on Tues), others by weeks and a few by months. For monthly rates, I would prefer 28 days and any longer stays get the same rate. Likewise for weekly rates, I would prefer that they get the same rate/day if they stay 7, 8, or 9 days etc.
For stradles, I would prefer averaging over choosing either the higher or lower rate.

John Amato, March 17, 2012:

Excellent, and thank you all again for your help. We are going to make it optional for how to deal with "extra days" - you'll be able to choose whether you want the pro-rated weekly (or monthly) rate, or if you want it to fall-back to the daily rate.

More to come...

John

Ricardo Torres, February 7, 2015:

This is great to hear!

First, we are happy to extend "monthly discount" to 28 days or more. But, in order for us to waive taxes, the stay must at least be 30 nights. If we can toggle these price rules independently, I say 28 days is fine, because that's 4 weeks.

Secondly, my biggest request sort of coincides with all of this, because it seems it might be key to the rest of it.

DEFAULT RATES: Weekday, Weekend, Weekly, Monthly

Special/Season/Blocked RATES: Weekday, Weekend, Weekly, Monthly

I think basing a price on WHEN it begins as well as the date COUNT (rather than date BLOCK) is key rather than assuming that guest x will begin his/her vacation on the date that we designated for them.

if ( requested date falls during a special price) {
//count the days, and apply that pricing per these rules
if( requested date cuts special time into partial) {
check that it meets requirements, and apply the rules (minimum days at price x, or special weekly/monthly)
}
elseif( excess days do not fall into special block) {
//refer to default rates, and apply according to overall count (30+ days means, remaining days use monthly protocol)
}
}

But, say I have a block from March 12 - 22nd where we charge $1K/night with a 4-night minimum, I know that the $1K for 4-nights is key. So that MUST apply. But, I don't know if a "long" stay will be 28 or 39 days long or if it will begin the month before or end the month after. So long as the software knows that my "month" means 30 nights that include these dates (instead of necessarily "beginning April 22nd and ending March 22nd"), then the rules I set are honored, and the rest defaults based on Default and "length of stay".

I hope that helps. I'm currently bracing myself, in anticipation of manually entering our default rates as 3 regular seasons (instead of simply "default") along with our special date blocks FOR 10 PROPERTIES...

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