ROOM GROUPS AND BASE FARES

 Allows you to group rooms characterized by the same properties: price, capacity, standard, services, general description. A modification made to the group will be applicable to all rooms in the group.

Add new room group - different standards and prices
Where?   Administration panel > Hotel offer > click on "+Add" on Room groups and base fares

To add a new room group fill in the necessary details. Here you will also define which rooms belong to specific groups. To unfold the fields for "Pricing", "Additional services" and "Rooms"  - click on "Show" next to the section name.

It's one of the richest part of the system but if you forget anything upon saving the system will indicate the fields where data is missing. After creating groups, to facilitate reviewing charecteristics of rooms, you can use Room reviews.

Modify existing room group - prices, pictures, numbers
Where?   Administration panel > Hotel offer > Room groups and base fares

Choose the room group from the list and click on tha group name. You can modify all the parameters. Save afterwards or click "Go back" in your browser if you want to discard changes.

Fields

Hotel name - dropdown list - hotel to which the room group is/will be assigned

Group name - textbox - unique identifier of the room group. This name will be only used in the administration panel to let you quickly identify the room.

Room capacity - numerical textbox - defines the total number of bed-places and thus the number of travellers that can occupy it during one stay.

Base fare - numerical textbox - net price per night per room

Avaliable online - checkbox - determines whether the rooms from this group shall be available for clients to book it from your website. If unchecked then rooms can only be booked from the administration panel.

Pricing - section - is used to define special prices depending on the duration od stay or calendar date; also to exclude a group from use for specific dates:

• Exclusion period - dropdown list - associates predefined periods when rooms from this group can not be booked, not even from the administration panel.
• Long stay fare - dropdown list - associates predefined rules for pricing discounts in case of a long stay; it is up to you to decide what long means, you can use multiple levels.
• Special fare - checkboxes - allow you to associate special (increased or decreased) prices defined as percentage applicable for chosen periods. You can apply  two or more special fares simultanously  but only if their periods are not overlapping. Decreased prices can be displaed as promotions on the client's page.

Additional services - checkboxes - allow you to select additional services that are associated with rooms from this group. Upon selecting a service it will be avaliable for your clients to choose them during booking process.

Rooms - section - to define which rooms belong to the group:

• Rooms numbers - text area- here you enter numbers or names of rooms for that group, separate them using comma. Make sure that each of your rooms belong to any and only one room group. Adding the room numbers you define in the same time the number of rooms in each group. (e.g. 101, 102,103 wull mean that you have 3 rooms in this given group).
• Admin comment - text area - here you enter any administrative comments associated with this room group. It will never be displayed at the client's pages. If, for any reason, you need to exclude one room but not the whole group from usage, move it's number to the comment field. Then put it back on the numbers list when applicable. You can also put here information for other system users (e.g. "don't change prices before end of the year").

Upsell - New ! - section - after checking certain rooms in this section, system will inform tavellers who chose already a room from your offer, how much would it additionally cost if they wanted to upgrade the room to a higher standard - this way the system will promote booking more expencive rooms. All checked rooms will show to the customer in a form of radio buttons and they will be able to change their minds or go for the original choice.

Price configuration - section - optional functionality: configurations are optional, if none is defined, base fare will be always applicable. If they are defined though, the will be applied by default be the system:

USAGE - 1 - NON-STANDARD NUMBER OF GUESTS: overrides the base price if the non-standard number of people is defined, this way the price of room can be set depending on the number of guests staying in it.

• Number - numerical filed - non-standard number of guests, it can only be equal or lower than room capacity
  
• Price - numerical field - price assigned to the specified number of guests
• Start date - date field - begining of the period when this special fare will be applicable
  
• End date - date filed - end of the period when this special fare will be applicable

USAGE - 2 - WEEKEND / BUSINESS DAY PRICES: defines fares in case when for some days of the week the fare is different than the base fare:

• Number - numerical filed - number of guests (standard or non-standard) for which new fare will be defined, it can only be equal or lower than room capacity
• Start date - date field - begining of the period when this special weekday fare will be applicable
  
• End date - date filed - end of the period when this special weekday fare will be applicable
• Mn, Tu, We, Th, Fr, Sa, Su - numerical fields - fare fields for given weekdays

New !

USAGE - 3 - SEASONAL PRICES: defines the price for seasons in the year when other than base fare should be applicable and you don't want to define it as a Special Fare.

• Number - numerical field - standard or non-standard number of guests for which seasonal price will be defines, it can only be equal or lower than room capacity
• Price - numerical field - seasonal price defined for the given number of guests and period
  
• Start date - date field - begining of the period when this seasonal price will be applicable
• End date - date field - end of the period when this seasonal price will be applicable

Localized names - section - to define names in all used languages as they will appear in search results on your hotel's site:

• Label - textbox - room group name used for display
• Language code - dropdown menu - to indicate in what language version on your internet site this name will be used
• Delete? - checkbox - check and save if you wish to delatea localized name

Localized short description - section - add here a short description of the rooms in this group in different languages. It is displayed for the clients in the search results.

Localized detailed description - section - you can specify here more detailed description for the rooms, it will  be avaliable on the hotel's web page after clicking on the info icon ("i") under the picture of the room. It is not obligatory - whne not used "i" will not be displayed.

Image - upload facility - you can upload here the main image of the room which will appear on the search results page for your customers. All major image formats are accepted: gif, jpeg, png. Only one image is permitted here, adding another one in this section will delete the previous from the server! See below.

Gallery images -upload facility - if you wish to add several images to appear at client's page, use this upload. After clicking on "gallery" icon under the main foto on search results page - customers will be able to review the images. All major image formats are accepted including gif, jpeg, png.

What's new in this section ?

2011-01-05: Seasonal prices in Configurations
2010-10-20: Upsell
2010-07-01: Price configurations