Strategies: How to customize your rates using strategies and rules

Rate strategies in Rategenie give you complete control over how your rates will be generated for each night. Creating fully dynamic and customized nightly rates has never been this easy. Powerful strategies and potent rules are combined using clever machine learning algorithms to generate the perfect price every day.

Create a new rate strategy

• Navigate to Strategies.

Here you can create, edit and duplicate rate strategies. You can also search for specific strategies by both strategy name and rental name. Moving your mouse over the different active rules for each strategy will reveal details about each rule’s settings.

• Click the Add Strategy button.

There are two different options available to start creating a strategy.

• Genie Strategy - This option allows you to complete the Genie Strategy wizard to create a new rate strategy. RateGenie will do all the hard work and decide what rates are best for your rental. This strategy contains numerous pricing considerations based on data pulled from multiple external and internal sources. The Genie Strategy differs from the other strategy types in that it is created using a multi-step wizard. To learn more about the Genie Strategy, please see the Create New Genie Strategy article.
• Other Strategy - This option allows you to use the other five strategy types available. Nightly rates can be based on the historical rate for similar rentals in your geographic region, change based on the occupancy of your rental, remain constant, custom occupancy and change based on custom feed. You can then adjust the nightly rate further using rules.

When selecting the Genie Strategy option, you can not choose any of the other five strategy types, until after the strategy has been saved. Then you may make the change during an edit. Likewise, when selecting the Other Strategy option, you can not choose the Genie Strategy until after the strategy has been saved.

1. Click Other Strategy
   This example will demonstrate how to create a changing occupancy strategy. On the Create New Strategy overlay, first enter a Title for the strategy. This should be a contextual name that allows users of your account to quickly determine which rentals, locations, or rates behavior is associated with the specified rate strategy.

   

2. Select one of the three available strategies types
   
   Each strategy type offers a different method of determining the general movement of your nightly rates. For this example, select Change with changing occupancy from the dropdown list.
   
   Note: The Genie Strategy is not included in this list, as that strategy type is created using a multi-step wizard.

   

   There are six different types of rate strategies in all. These provide you a variety of options for determining the general movement of your nightly rates.
   • Historical Demand - Nightly rates will be based on the historical rate for similar rentals in your geographic region. You can then adjust the nightly price further using rules.
   • Changing Occupancy - Nightly rates will change based on the occupancy of your rental. You can then adjust the nightly price further using rules.
   • Remain Constant - Nightly rates will remain constant for all dates. You can then adjust the nightly price further using rules.
   • Custom Occupancy - Nightly rates will be adjusted on the basis of your occupancy ranges. Rates can be increased or decreased depending upon your requirements.
   • Change based on custom feed - Select this option to feed your custom rates for each single day into the system by using a CSV or using your server feed URL.
   • Genie Strategy - RateGenie will do all the hard work and decide what rates are best for your rental. This strategy contains numerous pricing considerations based on data pulled from multiple external and internal sources. The Genie Strategy differs from the other strategy types in that it is created using a multi-step wizard. To learn more about the Genie Strategy, please see the Create New Genie Strategy article.
3. Fill in the parameter fields
   
   Some fields in the strategy details are only available with specific strategy types.

   

   For this example, the changing occupancy strategy will use all of the fields below, except for the Price Percentile. All fields in the strategy details must be completed.
   • Base Rate - The default nightly price before any rules are applied. This is overridden by values set in the rental rates settings.
   • Min Rate - The lowest nightly price that can be set. This is overridden by values set in the rental rates settings.
   • Max Rate - The highest nightly price that can be set. This is overridden by values set in the rental rates settings.
   • Min Stay - The default minimum nights requirement for bookings. This is overridden by values set in the rental rates settings.
     
     To learn more about how the minimum night stay is calculated for each calendar date, please check out the Rategenie Blog to learn more about how your rates work.
   • Price Percentile - The pricing tier used when applying historical pricing. The higher the percentile, the higher the nightly price. This is overridden by values set in the rental rates settings.
   • Low Occ - The minimum occupancy level before increasing the Low Rate.
   • High Occ - The occupancy level at which the High Rate is reached.
   • Rate Interval - The interval used for calculating occupancy and setting rates.

   

4. Click Create

Adding rules to the rate strategy

Now that that the strategy details are completed, you have the option of saving your strategy now, and using only the nightly rates movement of the selected strategy type. However, if you desire a higher level of control and customization with your rates, you will want to consider adding some strategy rules to augment the rates behavior.

• To get started adding rules, click the New button.

This opens the Create Strategy Rule modal. Here you can select a rule from the dropdown list, and customize the settings of the rule to fit perfectly into your pricing strategy for your rental. Each strategy rule covers a different booking scenario, and the effect of all the rules applied on a given calendar date are cumulative.

• Additional Guest Rule - Do you often have extra guests on a booking? Set the price or percent increase you charge for extra guests booking your rental. Settings in this rule are overridden by values set in the rental rates settings.
• Advanced Booking Adjustment Rule - Do you want to increase your occupancy for months or years from now? Set a percent adjustment and change the minimum night stay requirement for guests booking dates far into the future.
• Channel Adjustment Rule - Do you charge different rates on different channels? Set a percent or absolute adjustment for each channel that rates are pushed to.
• Date Specific Adjustment Rule - Do you have certain dates on the calendar that require specific rates? Set a fixed rate or an adjustment to the rate for any set of dates on the calendar.
• Day Specific Rule - Do you have certain days where you always charge the same amount? Set a fixed price or an adjustment to the price for any day of the week. The amount charged for extra guests can also be modified for the specified days.
• Special Event Rule - Do you have many entertainment or social events near your rental? Set how far away you want to look for certain events and how strongly you want the pricing to change as a result.
• Gap Night Adjustment Rule - Do you want to convert more orphan days into booked nights? Set the price and minimum night stay adjustments for booking gaps up to the number of nights you specify.
• Last Minute Adjustment Rule - Do you want to maximize your booking opportunities through the current day? Set the number of nights from today that you want to adjust your nightly price up or down. The minimum night stay for those nights can also be adjusted in order to further increase appeal.
• Minimum Nights Rule - Do you have a different minimum night stay requirement on the weekends than during the week? Set the minimum night stay you want to apply to each day of the week.
• Month Adjustment Rule - Do you have a few months that are extremely busy or extremely slow? Set an absolute or percent adjustment for any month of the calendar year.

• For this example, select Special event rule from the dropdown list.

  

  For most rules, there will be a selection of adjustment types, along with other settings that let you tailor the rule perfectly to your rate strategy. This example will set the special event rule for the rate strategy. Once this rule is added to a strategy then you can look for certain events and how strongly you want the rates to be changed as result.

• Distance (KM) - Set the maximum distance from your rental location that events can be in order to affect your nightly rates. For the example below, we have set a distance of 10km. The maximum distance allowed is 10 kilometers.
• Impact - Set the impact that you want special events to have on your nightly rates.Passive impact will result in a slight increase in nightly rates. Moderate impact will make a larger increase in nightly rates. Aggressive impact will result in more drastic increases to nightly rates. In the example below, we have selected the option to have a moderate impact when special events are found.
• Categories - Select the event categories for events that you want to have impact your nightly rates.Leave the field blank, if you want all event categories to be used. In the example below, we have selected conferences, expos, and festivals, in order to limit which types of events will cause changes to our nightly rate.

• Click the Save button to save the rule to your strategy.

Once again, you have the option of saving your strategy now, and using your strategy as currently composed, or you may continue adding more rules, and fine-tuning other settings in the strategy details. Be sure to review your details and rules settings before clicking the Save button to save the strategy. This will result in new rates being generated for the rental.

Adding rentals to the rate strategy

After saving your rate strategy, you will want to assign rentals to your rate strategy, so that Rategenie knows which calendars to generate rates for.

• From the strategies overlay, click the Rentals tab.

Here you can add or remove rentals from the strategy. If a rental is added to the strategy, and rates are set in the rental rate settings, then the values set in the rental will override the values in the strategy details. If there are no rental rates set, then the values set in the strategy details will be used to generate nightly rates in the calendar.

• A strategy set as default will be used for any rentals that do not have a strategy assigned to them. To set a strategy as default, toggle the Default switch at the top of the overlay.

• Click the Add Rentals button to open the rental selector.

• Select a rental from the list and click the Save button to add the rental to the strategy.

Now that you have added rentals to your strategy, it is ready to start generating rates for the rates calendar. Click the Save button to save the strategy. This will result in new rates being generated for the rental.

Reviewing changes to the rate strategy

As time passes by, or if your property management team is large, you will want to check the activity logs for your strategies to keep up-to-date on any changes that have been made to the strategy details, rules settings, or assigned rentals. This will make it easy to correct any unwanted changes that might have been made.

• From the strategies overlay, click the Activity Logs tab

• The activity logs will show an audit trail of the most recent updates made to your rate strategy.