Rates and availability: how it all fits together

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Why	See the whole picture — what a night’s price is made of and what shapes availability — and know where every setting lives.
Who	A newcomer setting up prices for the first time — and an experienced administrator, as a map of the section.
What you’ll get	A clear scheme — rate plan → price per date → restrictions → meals → guest mix — and routes to the articles of the section.
Limitations	An overview without step-by-step instructions: the steps live in the articles the bridges lead to.

A night’s price is not one number but a chain of settings: from the room type and the rate plan to the price of a specific date and the terms on which that date can be sold. This page is the map of the section: a paragraph per link of the chain, and a bridge to the article with the details.

What the price is made of

The nightly price is calculated for the combination of rate plan, room type, occupancy variant, and date:

Room type — the type of room the price is calculated for.
Occupancy variants — the price per guest mix: “2 adults”, “2 adults + 1 child”.
Rate plan — the rules for selling a room; the rate plans screen puts it briefly: price, meals, cancellation, restrictions.
Price per date — a concrete amount for a concrete day; edited in the Price Manager.
Restrictions — whether the date can be sold at all, and on what terms.
Meals — if a rate plan sells with meals, meals carry their own price, separate from the room price.

Pricing by guest mix is a topic of its own: Occupancy variants: pricing by guest mix.

Rate plans: the rules of selling

Each rate plan carries its own currency, meal plan (six plans, from room only to all inclusive), and cancellation policy. A rate plan is tied to room types, and rate plans are exactly what guests see in the booking engine on the hotel’s website.

Rate plans form a tree: child rate plans inherit the parent’s base prices and differ by a price modifier — “a set percentage below the parent”, for example. A modifier can apply to all occupancy variants at once or only to the base one.

The rate plan tree, what RO/BB/HB/FB/AI stand for, and the difference between a rate and your subscription plan — in Rate plans: how they work.

Prices per date

Prices per date live in the Price Manager. The Calendar tab is a grid of room types × dates: a price can be changed right in its cell; the ”+ Meal” mode manages meal prices in the same grid. The Bulk Update tab changes prices for a period: by days of week (“Weekdays”, “Weekends”), by room types, with excluded dates — and before anything is applied, the “Changes” preview shows the result.

How to change prices one date at a time or in bulk — in Change prices: one date or in bulk; how to read the price calendar in day-to-day work — in The price calendar: how to read and use it.

Sales restrictions

Restrictions are conditions for selling a specific date; they are set in the same place as prices. A date can be closed entirely, closed to OTA sales only — the external booking channels — or blocked for arrivals and departures (closed to arrival, closed to departure). On top of that, a minimum and maximum stay applies.

Restrictions travel to the channels together with prices and availability. The full set of conditions — in Sales restrictions: conditions for selling a date.

What availability depends on

Availability is how many rooms can still be sold for a date. It is counted from the room inventory: free rooms are all rooms minus the ones taken by bookings and minus blocks.

Closing a date zeroes its availability in the channels, and hourly bookings are not exported to the channels. Price and availability sit side by side: in the Planner, the Prices in cells toggle shows both in the grid. Where the whole property’s occupancy is visible and how bookings change the picture — in The Planner: how it works.

Where to start

A launch sequence:

Room types and variants — create the room types and occupancy variants for your guest mixes.
Rate plans — set up rate plans: currency, meals, cancellation policy; add children with their own modifiers for “the same, but cheaper”.
Base prices — set the prices per date in the price manager.
Restrictions — close what must not sell yet and set stay lengths.
Channels — connect your channels; prices, availability, and restrictions travel there together.

The whole sequence step by step — in First rates and prices: launch sequence.