How do I setup the nightly rates for my vacation rental property?
Setting up rates is actually pretty easy and we provide a nice visual interface to make it easier to visualize what periods are assigned to each rate. There is a handy video at the end of the tutorial as well. There are other articles with more details on setting up daily rates, weekly rates, monthly rates and also how to enable per person rates.
First, login to the application. Then follow the steps below:
Step #1: Go to Properties --> List All Units / Rooms
Step #2: Click on the pencil icon to "edit" the property
The Rates Setup Interface
Click on the Rates Tab
It's important that you understand what is occurring in this interface.
Step #3: The initial rates that need to be setup are the daily rates. EVEN IF YOU HAVE PERIODS WHERE YOU RENT BY THE WEEK ONLY, every day must have a daily rate assigned to it (even if it ends up not being used and is trumped by the weekly or monthly rate).
The default daily rate is the area denoted by a grey background. If you only fill out the default daily rate, your entire calendar will be assigned that rate. To save setup time, typically you want the default daily rate to equal your longest season.
Step #4: With the default rates now set, now adjustments can be made for seasonality. Click on the "+" icon to create an additional rate band. Give the rate band a name that makes sense to you, like "Low Season Nightly Rate" or "Peak Season Nightly Rate", etc. and then fill in the rate for that season. Repeat this process for all of your seasons.
Step #5: YOU MUST ASSIGN EACH RATE BAND TO THE CALENDAR. Each rate band is assigned a color. Choose the color and then apply that color to the dates on the calendar which correlate the particular season you chose above.
Note: If minimum night rule(s) were setup previously, there will be a line item already setup for you which will be titled "Minimium Nights: __" and there will be an AUTOFILL option next to the rate. This is simply a time saving feature. The application is saying to you "Hey, you've already setup a minimum night rule for ___ nights. Would you like me to automatically apply a rate to those same dates on the calendar below?". The thought process is that if you have setup a minimum night rule, most likely it correlates to one of your seasons or a holiday period. In theory there is a high probability that those exact same dates in which the minimum night rule is applied will have the same rate. Thus you can sync the dates between the rules and rates by using the AutoFill feature.
Vacation Rental Rates Setup Video using Lodgix.com
The video above shows how easy it is to setup daily rates for each season and then apply those rate to dates on the calendar. Please make sure to click on the on the link within the video player to have it run in full screen.