Editing a Rate
Editing a Rate is the most important part of Rate setup and the most intricate. Editing can be done while adding a new Rate from the ‘Add Rates’ screen and when you need to apply a change to an existing Rate which is done from the ‘Rate sheet’.
What happens to bookings after editing a Rate?
Every new booking made after editing a Rate will have the updated Rate settings applied. Existing bookings that have already used this Rate will continue to apply the old settings. For them to apply the new Rate settings, click on the ‘Regenerate itineraries’ button on the Details or Financials tab of the reservation. To update bookings in bulk, regenerate itineraries using the Folio invoice report.
‘Rate Edit’ editing tabs
The four Rate tabs on the ‘Rate Edit’ popup enable you to apply specific settings to your Rates:
- The grey area above the tabs displays the static fields on which this Rate applies. Adjustment of this will require deleting this Rate in the ‘Rate Sheet’ and creating a new Rate on the ‘Add Rates’ screen with the correct filter settings.
- Property and Accommodation type
- Rate type
- Rate period
- Currency (this pulls from the Rate type)
- Dates
Click on the Date button to see the date range set for the Rate. This date range is pulled from the Rate period code table.
TBA message
The words “To be advised (TBA)” are displayed in the header area, below Currency, if a rate has not yet been fully set up.
A rate is considered to be TBA if any of the following conditions exists:
- Component attributes have not been defined.
- Component split has not been specified.
- No rate amounts have been entered.
Header tab
On the Header tab, apply settings like whether the Rate will be commissionable at the various levels and if the Rate can be overridden by the reservationists at the time of the booking creation (this is also subject to user access permissions).
Use the table to select the settings that will work for your Rate.
Field | Question | Description |
---|---|---|
Commission enabled | Will this rate be commissionable to agents? | This could be fixed or a percentage based commission. |
Override level | What will be the default override level, if any? | This selection governs the default level at which an override may be specified: – None: No override permitted – Unit: Override specified per unit / room. – Person – Override specified per person / night. – Stay Override specified per stay / itinerary item. |
O/ride Commissionable | If this Rate is overridden at reservation level, will the overridden amount be subject to commission? | |
Single Supp. Comm. | Do you charge a single supplement for one person alone in a room? If so, is this supplement subject to commission if the rest of the Rate is commissionable?
Is the difference between the Sharing and Single rate (i.e. the single supplement) subject to commission? | |
Rounding type | Would you like rounding to take place on an itinerary line level, at the Rate Group level or neither? | Per person means that the rounding is applied at the Rate Group level.
Note that rounding only takes effect when commission is applied. |
Rounding direction | Do you wish to round your rates up or down? | ‘Default’ means that the standard mathematical default applies, i.e. a decimal point of 5 or higher will round up, while a decimal point of 4 or less will round down. ‘Up’ means that if there is any decimal point it will round up. ‘Down’ means that if there is any decimal point it will round Down. The pppn Rate is not rounded, the total amount charged for all pax and nights booked on an itinerary line is rounded, e.g. the total charge for 4 pax staying for 2 nights. |
Rounding scale | This selection governs the level to which you round your amounts charged. You can round to unit, nearest 10, nearest 100 or nearest 1000.
The pppn rate is not rounded, the total amount charged (for all pax and nights booked on an itinerary line) is rounded. | |
Waive value checks | If this checkbox is selected, the system does not perform any integrity checks on the amounts entered for the Rate. It therefore becomes possible to enter values on the ‘Amounts’ tab that do not match the breakdown of fixed values entered on the ‘Component split’ tab screen. | |
Use “Pax” rate group | This replaces all Rate Group values that have been saved on the Amounts tab with a single Rate Group called “Pax” allowing for the Rate to be charged irrespective of how many people from each Rate group are staying in the accommodation. | |
Status | The ‘Status’ option is not selectable here. It will only display here if the Rate type code table of your Rate has been made inactive and the ‘Inactive’ option will be selected here. |
Components tab
The Components tab enables you to apply Rate components to the Rate. Rate components may be added, deleted or edited from here.The tab lists the Rate components which have been added and shows their attributes. These attributes or settings will default to the settings pulled from the Rate component code table. Should you require different Rate component attributes for your Rate, they may be adjusted at this point.
Before working on this tab it is important to understand the different attributes of a Rate component, see the Rate component code table tutorial for a detailed description of each attribute and directions on how to create Rate components code tables.
To adjust the Rate Component per Rate from this screen, simply click on the Rate component and each attribute becomes editable.
Component split tab
On the Component split screen you can specify how the Rate amount is to be apportioned across Rate components for each of your Rate groups. The apportionment may be either a fixed or a proportional amount and is applied per Component / Rate Group. Only the components linked to the Rate in the ‘Components’ screen are listed. The mandatory components that you selected on the Components tab, e.g. Accommodation, are listed first and then the Optional Rate components, e.g. Park fees, are displayed beneath.
Example
E.g. Adult Rate: 100% of the amount is allocated to Accommodation. Should the reservationist choose to add an Optional component, e.g. Park fees, at the time of booking, then $10 would be added over and above the Rate amount.
Field | Description | Notes |
---|---|---|
Sequence | This determines what order the Rate groups are listed on the booking screens, i.e. the Rate groups are listed in the ‘Room configuration’ column of the ‘Itinerary information’ booking popup. | If Sequence is set to “0” the Rate group will be hidden on the booking screens. |
Apply component commission | This selects which Rate group in the Rate are subject to commission. | E.g. Adult rates may be commissionable, but Guide or Child rates are not. |
Rate component | Rate components form the building blocks of your Rate and are set up as Rate component code tables. The components selected on the Components tab will display here with mandatory components above and optional components below. | |
Fixed | This is a fixed value applied per Rate component (per stay or per night, depending on the component attributes set on the Components tab). | Any number may be added here including negative values. 2 decimal places are permitted. |
% | The percentage of the balance of the Rate amount to be applied to this component after the deduction of any fixed amounts.
Optional components can not be based on percentage of accommodation so only fixed amounts can be applied for Optional components. | Any number under or equal to 100. Negative values are permitted. 2 decimal places are permitted.
When setting up a zero Rate for which you can use for overrides, the Unit, percentages must be set to 0 for a per person rate. Or Adult and Child percentages must be set to 0 for a Unit rate. |
Total: Fixed | Calculation = sum of the values in the column. | |
Total: % | Calculation = sum of the values in the column. | Must total to either 0 or 100. If not, the field will highlight in red as a warning. |
To better understand how the Rate amount distribution works using the Component split settings, let’s take a look at a simple Rate example.
Rate component split:
Rate components | Fixed | % |
---|---|---|
Park fees | 75.00 | |
Tourism levy | 3.00 | |
Game drives | 20% | |
Food and beverage | 30% | |
Accommodation | 50% |
Rate amount calculation:
Rate amount | 500 | |
---|---|---|
Park fees | 75.00 | |
Tourism levy | 3.00 | |
Balance to be split by % | 497 | |
Game drives | 99.4 | |
Food and beverage | 149.1 | |
Accommodation | 248.5 | 500 – (sum of all other components) = Accommodation amount |
When working out the amount distribution across components, the system will follow a few rules:
- Applies Fixed amounts from smallest to largest, e.g. $3 Tourism Levy applied first and then $75 Park fees.
- Applies proportional amounts from the smallest percentage to the highest with the balancing figure being allocated to the last component processed, e.g. 20% Game drives first, 30% Food & beverage second and 50% Accommodation last. This process caters for any rounding differences.
In a case where multiple components share the highest percentage, the component receiving the balancing figure will be determined arbitrarily.
These rules will still apply when both:
- A standard Rate amount is distributed across components and
- When an override is entered during booking.
Add and remove Rate groups
Certain Rate groups are system generated and don’t need to be added and cannot be deleted, e.g. Unit, Adult, Child. These Rate groups will therefore always appear on this screen. To add a new Rate group to the Rate definition, select one from the drop-down field and click ‘Add Group’. It will then appear in a new column in the table below.
To remove a Rate group, click on the red ‘x’ alongside the Rate group heading. When a Rate group is added or removed the screen is refreshed which means that any data entered since you last saved the screen is lost. Therefore, you should finalise your Rate group selections before entering new data.
To edit the amounts of the Component split simply click on the entry field and it will become editable.
Amounts tab
Specify the actual Rate amounts to be charged on the Amounts tab. Amounts are specified per number of pax per Rate group.
Fixed | Description | Notes |
---|---|---|
Rate groups | Rate groups are displayed in columns. Any additional Rate groups added on the Components split screen will appear to the right, e.g. Guide / Pilot. | |
Qty (Quantity) | – The number of rows displayed is derived from the ‘max capacity’ number of pax recorded for the accommodation type (this is set in the Business structure).
– The numbers represent the number of pax in a room, e.g. 2 indicates 2 pax and the corresponding Rate for each group is for a booking with 2 pax. – Rows may not be added or removed. – Two rows are shown for single ‘Single’ and ‘Sharing’. ‘Sharing’ means sharing with another rate group, e.g. an adult sharing with a child. If no value is entered for ‘1 sharing’, then the system uses the value under ‘1 Single’ if such a situation arises. If there is no value entered under ‘1 Single’, there is no default, e.g. if you entered 1 adult and no other pax, the Rate would be TBA. | |
Amounts | Rate amount per Rate group / Quantity combination. Click on a field to enter an amount. | The amount entered may not be less than the sum of the applicable fixed amounts entered in the component split unless the ‘Waive value checks’ option has been selected on the Rate Header tab. |
Apply a formula
Use the formula facility to edit values. Select the check boxes alongside the cells you want to edit and then enter a formula into the ‘Apply formula’ box, then click on ‘Apply’
- Enter ‘=’ followed by an unsigned number (no + or – preceding the number) to place a specific amount into each of the selected cells.
- Enter a signed number (+ or – preceding the number) to add or subtract the number from the current cell contents.
- Enter a signed percentage value, e.g. +10%, to increase or decrease the amount in each cell by the specified percentage.
Set Assumptions
When you click on ‘Set Assumptions’, the system automatically calculates the values of blank cells. It does this by determining the average value of the highest quantity in a column that does contain a value and then multiplying by each subsequent quantity. When assumptions have been calculated, the affected cells are shown in yellow until they are saved.
While they are showing in yellow you can click on ‘Clear Assumptions’ to remove the assumed values.
Use the Calculator
The calculator utility can be used from any of the Rate setup screens. It provides the facility to check the Rate calculation for any combination of Rate group quantities for a single night, showing the component breakdown.
A maximum of 4 rate groups are listed in the top section. If more rate groups exist a button to ‘Show all rate groups’ appears. To apply a quantity to a group, click on the ‘0’ and enter a quantity amount. ‘Unit’ represents the number of rooms. Enter a commission % figure to see the effect of applying commission. A toggle for ‘Default optionals’ allows you to either include or exclude these components in the calculation.
The rate calculation is for a single night.
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