Suggest you combine Seasons and Seasonal Rates into one system

I like the Seasons and Seasonal Rate engine, but I wish they were integrated as one.

I understand why you did it - you can, for example, have 20 different seasons and only 5 rates, and having them separate means less configuration because those 5 rates are applied to multiple seasons.

But for me, I set a unique rate for each season based on demand and availability and how far out that season is. And I start very high and grab a few big spenders then reduce my rates as the dates approach. So I therefore have a 1:1 relationship between Seasons and Seasonal Rates, therefore it is more work to build seasons and rates separately. This is compounded by having multiple properties.

I would love to see an option to set Seasons and put a price right there, without having to go create a Seasonal Rate and apply it to a Season and a Property. Even better would be when editing a Season, be able to set the price for that season for each property separately.

We are doing exactly that. The separate nature of Seasons and Rates is going away and they are going to be combined and simplified. Seasonal Rates will still exist - as separate from Spot Rates - but it'll be a season/rate table on the property as opposed to linking from one to the other and sharing rates between multiple properties. This has been in the planning for awhile.

If you're revamping the Rate engine, please keep this in mind:
It's safe to say that many self-managers tend to tweak their rates for maximum revenue. For example, I set my high season rates at double what I would be happy to get, so that I can grab a couple of big spenders here and there 6-10 months in advance. As the date approaches, I slowly drop them back to Earth. I net thousands more per year this way. I also drop prices for small gaps to make a few bucks here and there.

So I'm just saying that whatever interface you build, it needs to be flexible but not complicated (a lot of OR features are a bit on the complicated side) and we need to be able to jump in and tweak prices here and there in an easy non-complicated way.

For example, your "Spot Rates" feature does the job (like lowering the price on a 2-day midweek gap) but it's far from quick and easy to do that.

Thanks, and I love your service.

Tim

Yep, definitely. On the Spot Rates we're working on a calendar UI for that.

There' also rules based discounts you can apply, like a 10% off if less than 20 days from arrival etc. -- overlaying some of those can really help with auto updating prices instead of having to dig down into the specific rates all of the times.

Gaps is another thing -- you can already lower min nights in gaps, but it would be cool to be able to target gaps with discounts. And also lower min nights for near term arrivals so you can easily have it longer in far future and then drop down as it approaches the time.