- 7 hours ago
How to create an Integrated Rate
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TravelTranscript
00:01Let's take a look at setting up an integrated rate within the Avio Booking Engine.
00:08Rates are always set up within the Booking Engine menu and under Rate Management on your subnavigation menu.
00:16The first option under Rate Management, Browse Rates, will open up a list of rates already created for an established
00:25property
00:26and a Create Rate tab on the top left.
00:31Regardless of if you are a new property onboarding with no rates set up, you will still have this Create
00:36Rate menu option.
00:40By opening this up, we are now taken through to the Rate Editor.
00:45This is all of the tabs for which we must fill out to create a new rate or edit an
00:51existing rate.
00:53Let's start with the General tab.
00:56For any rate that we set up within Avio, we must add a rate code.
01:02Let me first point out that we are looking here at a demo site.
01:06If you are an integrated property, this view will look slightly different.
01:13As you can see here, in this example, for an integrated hotel, your rate code box is split between an
01:20Avio rate code and an external rate code.
01:24The external rate code is the rate code for the channel manager or PMS system that is directly integrated with
01:31Avio and which will send the pricing through for the rate that we are setting up.
01:38Always set the exact same rate code in Avio as that which is set in the channel manager.
01:44That way, it leaves no room for discrepancy when the rates are mapped across.
01:51The other area that you will not see here on the demo site is this tick box for an integrated
01:57property.
01:59Ticking this means that we are going to state this rate is to be managed by an external interface.
02:05I.e., the pricing, inventory, etc. will be pushed in to us applicable to this particular rate.
02:13Let's go back to the demo site and look at the setup.
02:17First, we must add a rate code as mentioned.
02:21Copy this in from the channel manager or PMS system for the rate that you're creating.
02:26Let's just create a bar rate for the purposes of this example.
02:30Order index. This is if, for instance, we say one, the list in which the rate will appear on both
02:37the back end and the front end of the system.
02:40Looking at the corresponding front end of this site, we can see the advanced purchase was set to show in
02:45the first place, followed by best available, etc.
02:48If we also go back out to our rate screen, they appear in the same way on both the back
02:54end and the front end.
02:56If you don't want to set the order index within the rate tab, it's very easy within this reorder rates
03:02box.
03:03Once your rates are all set up to drag and drop and change which ones appear in what particular order.
03:09You drag them over and hit save changes and it will automatically update this back end and front end view.
03:18Let's jump back into our rate setup screen.
03:21So we added our rate code internal and external.
03:26We're going to leave our order index box blank because we're going to reorder the rates once they're all set
03:31up.
03:32And then we can change the status. Obviously, if it's an existing rate you're editing and maybe want to suspend,
03:37you would do it from within here.
03:39But for a new rate, we're going to set it to active if we're ready to go.
03:44Macro type and price type.
03:47This is important to note for all integrated properties.
03:50The only options that you can set for an integrated rate on your macro type is room slash day prices
03:58and on your price type is non-linear.
04:04If you want more information on any of the other price types in either dropdown, select this question mark and
04:12it talks you through the other macro and rate types available.
04:18Potentially, you may want to create some standalone rates that are going to be managed directly within Avio.
04:24In that instance, you could assign some of the other price types.
04:28But as mentioned, for an integrated rate, if you want your pricing to push in, you must select room slash
04:36day prices and non-linear.
04:38And that is what the integrated systems recognize.
04:42Next, we set the standard information for our rate.
04:46We can add a title for our rate, short and standard.
04:52Just to note with the title, it will generally always appear your standard title unless there's a particular area that
05:00is going to cut that off.
05:02If potentially we have a look at the front end of the system where here our title is best available
05:09rate, we're leading by rate type with our rooms under the rate.
05:12But if we were to lead by room type, the alternate default view, where we have our rooms and our
05:20rates under the room, we could potentially see a shorter name appearing here if there was limited space available.
05:30The shorter title was also used for the older version of the recommender engine.
05:36Description.
05:38Looking at the front end of the system, the title appears like this and then this is where you see
05:44the description as added here.
05:51Terms and conditions then can be set at a rate level.
05:55Generally, your hotel specific terms and conditions will be added to the edit site profile.
06:00If you have differing terms for any rate, you can set them here within the rate terms and conditions box.
06:08To show you on the front end how they appear if somebody makes a booking, if I select, for example,
06:15this best available rate and hit book now.
06:17In the details page, we can see as we scroll down the hotel terms conditions appear here and the rate
06:24terms just above it.
06:26So there is no point adding your hotel terms if they're default into your rate terms box also as they
06:33will appear side by side.
06:36Decide at property level within the edit site profile to hide these terms and conditions by default.
06:42The view then will look like this.
06:44Whereby as a shopper, I must select terms and conditions to open up here to open up the full list.
06:53Jumping back to the rate editor, we can see why there is no need now to enter the full terms
06:58and conditions here based on what we have just viewed on the guest details page.
07:02Let's fill out what we have to date though.
07:05We'll take it from this best available rate here, for instance, to save as typing out.
07:11So as I said, you can copy in your title. If you have a short title, you can add it
07:16up.
07:17We leave our terms and conditions blank in this example because they're going to pull from the hotel default terms.
07:24The next option we can see are rate sales messages.
07:27There's an option for a standard sales message and a reinforcement message.
07:33If you want more information on either of these messages, you can see over here on the right hand side,
07:39there's a see example box.
07:42This tells us what both of these messages refer to.
07:45The top message, the sales message, is where the thumbs up sign will appear beside a rate.
07:52Again, going back to the front end of the system, you can see the thumbs up sign here to the
07:57right of some of the rates.
07:59In this example, the corporate special, there's no thumbs up as that rate sales message was left blank.
08:06Whatever you fill into the message will appear in full as you hover over the thumbs up sign.
08:12In this example, book direct.
08:15The reinforcement message appears when a guest selects the particular rate that we're currently setting up.
08:22So in this example, if we look at this best available rate and we select our room and go to
08:28book and get to the customised page,
08:30we can see this is where our reinforcement message appears.
08:35It's a secondary touch point to ensure you don't lose guests to abandonment at this point by reiterating your best
08:42rate guarantee or book direct policy.
08:46Alternatively, you could use this space if you need to gather information from your guest.
08:52If, for instance, you're setting up a rate that maybe has an airport pickup or a dining reservation,
08:58you could use this space to reiterate the fact that they must contact you in advance with the specified time.
09:07If you want to use the congratulations message that we saw on the demo site,
09:12you can just copy and paste this one here and add it in to your reinforcement message box.
09:20The customisation applied will not be red and green, but will be based on the customisation of your particular property.
09:28For our sales message, let's add in a book direct guarantee, for instance, or a best rate message.
09:37Here's one I prepared earlier.
09:40If we add this in, again just to reiterate, your thumbs up sign appears on both the previous choose page
09:46and this customised page
09:48with the expanded message appearing when you hover over the thumbs up sign.
09:53The final area on the Rate General tab is this section for Rate Incentives.
10:00Similar to the Room Incentives, you can add up to five custom incentives for any given rate.
10:06You can see here as we add the rows, it will cap us at five.
10:12Exactly like your Room Incentives, your Rate Incentives can have a title and a description.
10:19Let's take a look at those incentives from a shopper perspective.
10:24On the Choose page, the Rate Incentives appear in full between the Rate Title and the Rate Description.
10:32Looking at the type of rates we're selling, we can see that we very much tailored the incentives to the
10:37audience of the rate type.
10:39In the example for the Corporate Special, we're highlighting that we have either a cooked or grab-and-go breakfast
10:45option.
10:45Our gym is 24 hours, laptop safe, wake-up calls. Think about your audience and what they want from your
10:53property.
10:54Generic Phraseology. Stay away from things people tend to expect or will know about your property and again tailor your
11:02Rate Incentives for each of your individual rates.
11:06If you do not add Rate Incentives to any of the particular rates, it will just lead with your title
11:11and your description.
11:13This will look quite flat and is a missed opportunity to upsell your property and the rates that you have
11:20spent time creating.
11:24As we saw when we were setting up the Room Types, you also have the ability within Rates to import
11:31incentives from any other Rate Type that you have already set up.
11:35For instance, if we are now going to set up a second Corporate Break, we could potentially look at the
11:42existing Corporate Rate that we have already set up and import the incentives over from that particular Rate.
11:52One of these Rate Incentives have a description added. The description field is not mandatory. Let's have a look at
12:00how this looks to the shopper.
12:03If we go to that Corporate Special Rate and hover over the Rate Incentives, if there is a description added,
12:10it will appear underneath. In this example, our description available from 5am is displaying.
12:16The others have no description, but as you hover over them, it just reiterates the title.
12:24Have a think about the messaging you are trying to get across when looking at your incentives, but I would
12:30say it is a missed opportunity if you are not using these USP fields.
12:35It really allows you to push within the booking path the key elements of your Rate.
12:41Let's keep going.
12:43Within the Advanced tab, you can see here the first option allows us to add an email address.
12:49This email address will be notified every time this rate is booked.
12:56In the Edit Site Profile, you already added at least one email address at property level to be notified for
13:03every booking that comes through.
13:05This is just an alternate touch point that can potentially be used depending on the type of rate that you
13:12are setting up.
13:13For instance, if you were a property with a spa that was creating a spa break, it might be a
13:19good idea to have your spa managers email in here so they will get directly notified every time a spa
13:26rate is booked.
13:29You will still receive the notification to the other email addresses as added to the site profile.
13:36Access restrictions can also be set here.
13:39Ticking Rate is Protected means that this rate will not appear in the general search unless the promo code assigned
13:47to this rate has been added to unlock it.
13:50Promo codes in ABIO are added in the CRM and can be looked at in future training.
14:00Distribution refers to where your rate is going to appear.
14:04By default, the first three options are always ticked.
14:08Public Availability, MDA page refers to that Choose page that we're looking at constantly here.
14:17MDA in ABIO refers to Multi-Day Availability as that page gives you a 7-day view.
14:25Unless this offer is not to appear by default in your general search, then you would leave that ticked.
14:33Mobile means this rate will also appear on mobile booking engines.
14:39Streaming offers refers to a version of an ABIO website whereby this offer may want to appear in a streaming
14:46offers list.
14:46You can leave it ticked by default regardless of if you're unsure if it applies to your particular site.
14:54I would be very careful about ticking the fourth option, Mobile Only.
14:59Selecting this will override the previous three options and this rate will now only appear on mobile devices.
15:06You would only tick Mobile Only if you're creating a specifically targeted mobile offer to entice guests to convert on
15:14mobile devices.
15:17Rate Groups.
15:19If you are a new property onboarding to ABIO, you will note that you have nothing appearing here in your
15:26Rate Groups section.
15:28I, as I'm working on a demo site that already has Rate Groups set up, can see all of the
15:34Rate Groups I have created.
15:36At this point, I can choose to add the rate that I am setting up into any of these Rate
15:42Groups by ticking the applicable groups.
15:47Please refer to how to create Rate Groups video if you want to set up Rate Groups on your own
15:53property.
15:54Within the Rate Group itself, you can also add the Rate Through at that point.
16:01Strike Through Pricing.
16:03In ABIO, you can assign Strike Through Pricing to appear within the booking path against any rate.
16:10You will note there are two options here for Strike Through.
16:14Strike off a policy you have set up at the property or strike one rate off any other rates that
16:21you have already created.
16:23If you would like further information on setting up a Strike Through policy, please see the Help Desk article and
16:30corresponding video on how to create that policy.
16:33If you're striking off another rate, you can choose the rate here on the system.
16:38So, for instance, if this was an Advanced Purchase Rate, we might want to select our Best Available Rate as
16:44a Strike Through price.
16:47Let's have a look at that set up on the demo front end.
16:51In this example, if we were to look here on the 7th of May, for a stay on my Advanced
16:58Purchase Rate, I can see it's displaying a price point of 81 euros.
17:02But above that, this is the Strike Through.
17:05It's showing a price of 95 euros with the Strike Through.
17:09That 95 euros is pulling from the Best Available Rate as, in that example, when creating the Advanced Purchase Rate,
17:17I had selected the Best Available Rate to apply the Strike Through on.
17:23If you do not wish to display Strike Through, please just leave either of these blank.
17:31Meals. By ticking this, it will display a default incentive under the Rate Type.
17:39As mentioned, you can add up to five custom incentives to appear against any rate.
17:45By default, there are other incentives that Avio will also display alongside the five custom incentives.
17:53Breakfast Included is one of them.
17:55In this example, Breakfast Included is appearing because it was ticked here in the Rate Setup.
18:02If, for instance, you did want Breakfast Included to appear as an incentive but wanted a more descriptive version of
18:08it,
18:09even if Breakfast is included in the Rate, I would suggest not ticking that box and using the Rate Incentive
18:15custom option to potentially state the expanded message such as
18:20Cooked Order Breakfast, Grab and Go Breakfast, whatever alternate messaging for breakfast included you want to state.
18:28The other default messages that will appear under a Rate are No Deposit if the Rate has been mapped, as
18:34we will go through to the Finance section to see that No Deposit is going to be taken,
18:37or potentially Free Cancellation if Free Cancellation is set against the Rate.
18:43Restrictions can be set at Rate Level from within Avio.
18:46Generally, your restrictions will pull through from the Channel Manager PMS system,
18:51but pertaining to the individual rate, we can select these options also.
18:57They're quite easy to navigate, and the restrictions apply to Length of Stay, LOS patterns,
19:02so you can set a minimum and a maximum Length of Stay pattern for your rate,
19:06so potentially if you don't want any given rate to be booked for more than seven nights, you could cap
19:11your LOS Length of Stay at seven.
19:14You can also set lead-in times for a rate.
19:17Looking at the advanced purchase options potentially, if you wanted to say if you book at least 14 days in
19:22advance,
19:23you will save X percentage.
19:24You would then add your lead-in at 14.
19:28If you have a higher discount then for a 30-day lead-in, you could cap this particular rate to
19:3429,
19:34and have your other higher lead-in from 30+.
19:39For our best available rates, we're just going to leave this at zero or one.
19:45Check-in days, so if you are creating a weekend break, you would deselect all of your midweek nights from
19:52check-in.
19:55LOS pattern Length of Stay allows you to assign a set length of stay.
20:01So, for instance, if we're creating a three-night break, including an evening meal or an activity,
20:05we would set our LOS as three against that particular rate type.
20:12Sell dates.
20:14This allows you to assign a date range for which this rate will appear for sale on your website.
20:21I would be quite mindful of setting this as we find a lot of people can use this in error
20:29whereby they mix it up for the actual stay dates for the rate that you're creating.
20:33It's not when somebody can physically stay at the property, it's only when it will show on the website for
20:39sale.
20:42Length of Stay discounts
20:44This is a really nice feature within the rate set of an Avio that I would strongly encourage any property
20:51to adopt.
20:53Length of Stay discounts allow you to create rules for the given rate
20:58whereby you can assign a discount if people stay for longer periods of time.
21:05So, for instance, if this is our standard bar rate, we can then set a rule to say,
21:10but if you book this for three nights or more, they're from nights, you can assign any of the discounts
21:17that you can see here.
21:18There is a really good mix of discounts such as percentage or cash off totals or number of nights free.
21:27So just say, for instance, we were to create a stage discount here based on how many nights somebody is
21:33looking to stay.
21:34So if we're going to do it in a percentage, we can say if you stay three nights, potentially you
21:39will save 10%.
21:40And then we can add another rule whereby if you stay for five nights or more, you will save 15%.
21:47Again, selecting our percentage and adding in.
21:50And then we could do a rule whereby if you stay seven nights, you will get the cheapest night free.
21:57To view those rules on the front end, they appear like this under the rate.
22:03So you can see here, if somebody is looking at your particular property, if they click into any of these,
22:11it automatically assigns the two nights and applies the two night value reduction.
22:18Again, if we hit on the five nights, it automatically shows us the price point for five night stays from
22:24515 to 412 euros.
22:29These discounts should entice shoppers to stay at your property for longer periods of time.
22:34And you can have different discounts set up on different rates potentially.
22:39In this example, you can see we're only showing our LOS discounts on our bar rate.
22:44You can also add restrictions on certain dates if you jump back to the back end of the system and
22:53that browse rates tab that we were previously looking at.
22:56In browse rates on the demo site, this icon here denotes that length of stay discounts are in play on
23:04the rate that we're currently looking at.
23:06As I hover over it, it briefly outlines the LOS discounts and you'll note there's a manage restrictions tab.
23:16You will see from within here that you can set your restrictions on an individual rule basis or at global
23:25level.
23:26Selecting global will mean that the restriction applies to all of the LOS discounts.
23:34I would be mindful of turning all of the discounts off based on an event for one or two days
23:39at a property.
23:41If, for instance, you have an event on a weekend where you don't want your LOS rules to apply,
23:46I would maybe just turn off your LOS 2 or LOS 3 on those dates, but leave your LOS 5,
23:537 plus.
23:55It should be still incentive enough to get a five night booking in over that one or two night period
24:01where the event is running without turning everything off and putting off your longer stay shopper.
24:09Have a think about this before you apply restrictions.
24:11Again, your restrictions can be found under browse rates by hovering over the LOS tab and scrolling down to the
24:20manage restrictions option.
24:22From within here then you can either set global or the individual rule and you can choose potentially to say
24:28turn that off for every Saturday in June or just this particular Friday and this Sunday in the month of
24:35August when I have an event on.
24:37If you select global, the restrictions apply to every rule on the date selected.
24:47Next, we must add what rooms can be made available to book under the rate that we're currently creating.
24:55In the rooms tab, all of the rooms set up at your property will list here on the left hand
25:00side.
25:02We can choose to add a selection of these particular room types or all of the rooms potentially to the
25:08rate that we're setting up.
25:11In this case, let's add these five room types.
25:14You now have the option to set minimum and maximum amount of adults and total max occupants to include children.
25:22Please note your occupants have already been set when creating your room types.
25:27You would only set them again here if you wish to override the standard occupancy for a different variation for
25:36the particular rate.
25:38For example, you might use this if you were creating a romance package around Valentine's Day.
25:45Generally, let's say we have specified our double room can be booked for a mix of one to two adults
25:51with children allowed also.
25:53For the romance package, we would change that and reset it in here to min two, max two, total max
26:00occupants two,
26:01which means two adults can only stay in the room and no children.
26:07As mentioned, please leave this blank if you're creating a general rate.
26:15Next, within the rooms tab, you will note you have the ability to set room limits.
26:21The minimum room limit is very effective if you're looking to set up group rates, for instance.
26:28Just say you were creating a golf tour break and you wanted to ensure that this is only bookable if
26:37a minimum of six rooms have been added to the rate.
26:41If you set your min rooms as six here, only when the sixth room has been added can a guest
26:49complete the booking in the checkout phase.
26:53You also have the option to set a max room limit for any given rate.
27:02Next, we move on to the finance profile.
27:05In the finance profile, you can do things like assign a tax policy applicable to the rate that we're currently
27:12setting up.
27:13Generally, for Ireland and UK properties, it would be default all taxes included.
27:18But based on your location, you may need to assign things like city taxes, resort fees, etc.
27:26If this is relevant to you, please speak to Avio support or your e-commerce manager who can help you
27:32get those fees set up.
27:34Once created, they will be made available in your dropdown list here.
27:41Cancellation policy then must be added for the rate that we're currently creating.
27:46A list of all of the cancellation policies that you have set up will appear here and you can assign
27:52the explicit policy to the rate.
27:57Infant pricing.
27:58You will note in this dropdown you have the ability to deny infants from being bookable under the rate or
28:05assign a custom infant price.
28:09Potentially, say if it was coming up to Christmas time where you had a break that maybe included a visit
28:13to Santa with a photo and gift,
28:15you may want to load a price where you generally don't charge for infants.
28:20So in that example, you could add 20 pounds or euros as your price point.
28:30Alternatively, if it's pulling from your standard default infant price, you can just select this option.
28:37Deposit modes must then be added for the rate.
28:41You will see a different list here depending on if you are connected to a payment gateway or not.
28:47There are general and offline options available.
28:51Have a look through the list and apply the specific deposit mode.
28:56Be it a percentage, fixed amount or no deposit.
29:02Non-secured bookings can be set up but this is not common and would need to be enabled as an
29:08option in the advanced site profile if you do not see this listing here.
29:13Potentially, a use case may be for a corporate rate whereby you are taking non-secured bookings and billing the
29:20company at the end of a negotiated term.
29:25Channels. Within here, you can explicitly state what channels you wish to push this rate out to.
29:32The list on your property will vary depending on what has been connected.
29:36Within the upsells tab, all upsells created at your property will list here.
29:43You'll note over here on the right hand side, it talks you through choosing to include or exclude certain upsells
29:50from appearing for sale on the rate that you're creating.
29:52For instance, if this rate included breakfast, we could choose to exclude the breakfast upsell as we would not want
30:02this breakfast upsell to appear for a rate that already includes breakfast.
30:07Rate messages. This allows you to add custom content to the confirmation email a shopper will receive and to the
30:15finished page within the booking path.
30:18You can create custom messages under rate management and list messages.
30:25I had already created these two messages here, which when I go to create a new rate appear to be
30:32added on that upsells page.
30:37Potentially, if this rate included a spa treatment, I could add this custom message asking the guest to specify which
30:45spa treatment they want to add to the particular rate.
30:50It could also be used potentially if somebody booked a type of family break where you want to offer them
30:56a discount off a future family break as it may be also of interest to that particular guest.
31:01You would not want that message to appear on every confirmation email though, as it would be niche content.
31:09There is a full guide on the help desk as to how to set up those list messages.
31:15From within here, it's just choosing to show that list message if somebody books the type of rate that you're
31:22creating.
31:24Tags. You'll note here there are multiple default tags that you can add to any particular rate as long as
31:33they're relevant.
31:34You can also add custom tags.
31:38For example, you would type out the word and a comma will then create the tag.
31:47Tags tie in with smart ordering and the way in which these rates will appear higher up in the listing
31:54to certain shoppers if they are of relevance.
31:57Again, I would suggest looking at tags on the help desk page for more information on this.
32:05The final tab is images within the rate setup.
32:09This allows you to select an image from the Avio folders you'll see here or any of your hotel specific
32:17folders that will appear against the rate within the booking path.
32:23You can search for the particular image or drag it over and just hit save changes and that is the
32:30final step in creating your new rate.
32:33As your property is going to be integrated, you do not need to add rate periods or any pricing.
32:40This will all push in from the channel manager or PMS system to Avio.
32:46Always ensure though that you do hit save changes.
32:49If you do hit save changes.
32:51All right.
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