It's the first week of the season, and your manager is updating rates. Four room types, four meal plans and up to three guests make 48 prices, typed one by one into the channel manager. On Friday a couple books breakfast and dinner for less than room only, because somebody typed ₹3,100 where ₹4,100 belonged. This post shows how to price every plan from one base rate, with a ladder you can copy and change.
Every rate plan should follow one number
Many hotels sell the same room several ways. In India the plans go by EP, CP, MAP and AP. Elsewhere you will hear room only, bed and breakfast, half board and full board.
| Short name | What the guest gets | Also called |
|---|---|---|
| EP | Room only | European Plan |
| CP | Room with breakfast | Continental Plan, bed and breakfast |
| MAP | Breakfast and one more meal, usually dinner | Modified American Plan, half board |
| AP | All meals | American Plan, full board |
Each plan is the same room with something added. So price it that way: one base rate for the room, and a plan adjustment for what each plan adds.
The percent part grows and shrinks with the room's price. The amount part stays fixed, whatever the room sells for. Most plans need only one of the two, and some need both.
Build the ladder: guests first, then meals
A ladder is the full set of prices one base rate produces. Guest counts run down one side, and meal plans run across the other. The numbers below are a starting example, so change them to fit your costs and your guests.
- Guests. 1 guest +0%, 2 guests +10%, 3 guests +50%. A third guest usually needs an extra bed, so the step is bigger.
- Meals. Room only +₹0, with breakfast +₹200 a guest, breakfast and dinner +₹400 a guest, all meals +₹600 a guest.
Worked example
A ₹3,000 Deluxe
In this example, the Deluxe base rate is ₹3,000.
| Plan | 1 guest | 2 guests (+10%) | 3 guests (+50%) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Room only | ₹3,000 | ₹3,300 | ₹4,500 |
| With breakfast, +₹200 a guest | ₹3,200 | ₹3,700 | ₹5,100 |
| Breakfast and dinner, +₹400 a guest | ₹3,400 | ₹4,100 | ₹5,700 |
| All meals, +₹600 a guest | ₹3,600 | ₹4,500 | ₹6,300 |
That is twelve prices with one number behind them. Take two guests with breakfast: ₹3,000 × 1.10 is ₹3,300, and ₹200 for each of the two guests makes ₹3,700.
Meals are priced per guest because each guest eats. The guest steps are a percent, because a step on a ₹3,000 room should be smaller than a step on a ₹9,000 suite.
Change one number and every plan moves
Say a festival week lifts the Deluxe base from ₹3,000 to ₹3,600. You change one number, and the whole ladder follows it.
| Two guests | Base ₹3,000 | Base ₹3,600 |
|---|---|---|
| Room only | ₹3,300 | ₹3,960 |
| With breakfast | ₹3,700 | ₹4,360 |
| Breakfast and dinner | ₹4,100 | ₹4,760 |
| All meals | ₹4,500 | ₹5,160 |
Look at what stays the same. Breakfast still adds ₹200 a guest, because the eggs cost the same whether the room sells for ₹3,000 or ₹3,600. The room price moves with demand, and the meal price covers the kitchen.
This is also what makes a pricing engine useful. The engine moves the base for each night, and every plan follows it on every channel. How a dynamic pricing engine works covers the engine's side.
A small step between plans sells the upgrade
A guest choosing between plans is really weighing the gap between them. When your booking page shows room only for two at ₹3,300 and breakfast for two at ₹3,700, the decision is about ₹400. For a couple who would buy breakfast somewhere anyway, that is an easy yes.
Make the gap easy to see. Show the plans side by side for the same room, and name what each one adds. A guest who can see that breakfast costs ₹200 more a person has a simple choice. A guest who has to work the difference out may just pick the cheapest line. What a hotel booking engine does covers how the plans should look to the guest.
Price each meal to cover your kitchen. For example, if breakfast costs your kitchen ₹120 a guest, ₹200 leaves ₹80 for the work and the margin. Check your own food cost before you copy any number from this page.
Price the room once, and let every plan follow the base.
Hand-typed plan prices are where money leaks
When every plan is its own number, every rate change is a chance to break one. Open your rate calendar for next month and look for these signs.
- A plan with meals that costs less than room only on some date.
- Two guests paying less than one guest for the same room.
- A plan still at last season's price after you raised all the others.
- An OTA plan that doesn't match any plan of your own.
- Gaps between plans that change from date to date, for no reason anyone can explain.
Each of these sells a room below what you meant. Often nobody notices until a guest mentions the price at the desk. The same drift between channels is what puts an OTA below your own website, which we cover in why your website must never cost more.
Base first, with exceptions priced on purpose
Some prices should not follow the base. A rate agreed with a company, a honeymoon package or a block for a wedding group is a deal of its own. Give each of those its own price, set on purpose, with a name everyone at the desk understands. Everything else follows the base.
In ZimmerStack, each rate plan carries its own plan adjustment, so it follows the base on every channel and on your website. The Rates tab in the admin app has a Rate patterns tool that starts from the ladder above. Guests run down the side, and meal plans run across the top. You preview every plan it would create or change before you apply it. When the pricing engine moves a base rate, every plan follows, and the channel manager sends the new prices out.
For a single night that needs its own price, hold the price yourself. The engine leaves a held night alone until the hold ends.
Build your own ladderSet a base rate and plan adjustments, then change the base and watch every plan move with it.Open the pricing labWhat to do this week
- List every plan you sell. Write each room type's plans and guest counts in one table.
- Pick the base. Use the room-only price for one guest as the base rate for each room type.
- Turn every other price into an adjustment. Write it as a percent, a rupee amount or both, on top of the base.
- Hunt for leaks. Check next month's calendar for a meal plan cheaper than room only, or two guests cheaper than one.
- Change one base and check every channel. Make sure every plan moved, on your website and on each OTA.