Sometimes, you may want to charge a different rate to guests who stay 1 night versus guests who stay 2 or more nights. This might be to help cover housekeeping costs, discourage guests from only staying 1 night, or encourage guests to stay at least 2 nights. ThinkReservations supports a few ways to handle either the discount (carrot) or the higher rate (stick). The most common option, and the one that we recommend first, is to use the discount to encourage your guests to stay 2 or more nights when their travel dates are flexible. See our article on how to create a Multi-night Discount Promotion here.

Creating a Single-Night Rate Type

If you want to show your guests a premium rate as opposed to a discounted rate, then you might prefer a Single-Night Rate. If you have package rate types, you will need to create multiple single-night rate types to accommodate that. Otherwise, we recommend the Promotion option above. To create a single-night rate, which is a premium rate for guests that only stay one night, follow along below.

Above: Guest experience when searching for 1 night.

Above: Guest experience when searching for 2 or more nights.

Step 1: Decide what the price difference will be

The amount that you want to charge more for guests that only stay 1 night is the same as the discount that guests get when they stay 2 or more nights. The only difference is how your guests perceive this.

The first step is to determine the difference. This could be a dollar amount or a percentage. In our example, we will use $30.

Step 2: Create the Rate Type

Next, we need to create the new rate type that would only apply to guests who are searching for 1 night.

Navigate to Settings > Rate Types > click the New button on the top right.
Enter the following rate type parameters:
1. Name: Single-Night Rate (or similar)
2. Description: Stay two or more nights, and save! (or similar)
3. This rate type is available only if stay meets maximum nights: 1
4. Pricing: Select Derive rates and restrictions from another rate type
  1. Parent Rate Type: select your main rate type, such as your Best Available Rate
  2. Pricing adjustment: Add 30 Dollars
5. Yield Management Plans: Match your standard rate if you have any set
6. Deposits: Set a deposit policy for guests that stay only 1 night as you see fit.
Click Save on the bottom right to commit your changes and create the rate.

If you need to only increase single-night rates during the week or set blackout dates, set the pricing manually instead of derived. This will give you full control over the pricing that is offered for guests that stay just one night.

Make sure you put a process in place to update this rate when you update your other rates when not derived (linked) to another rate.

Please note: If you have multiple rate types, such as a repeat guest rate, military rate, package rates, etc. you may also need to create a single-night version of each.

(This extra work is not needed for the Promotion option.)

Step 3: Update Best Available Rate and/or your other rate types

In order to ensure that guests only see the single-night rate when they are searching for 1 night, and don't see it when searching for 2 or more, we need to update the other rate types. Next, we will update the other rate types so they only show up when searching for 2 or more nights.

Navigate to Settings > Rate Type > click on a rate type to update
Under Rate Type qualifiers, set This rate type is only available if stay meets minimum nights to 2.
Click Save at the bottom right when done.
Repeat for all other rate types designed for 2+ nights as needed.
Done!

This concept can be applied to some OTAs as well. If you can set a similar rate plan up on the OTA with their platform directly (such as in Expedia Partner Central or the Booking Extranet), then you can offer a premium rate for those who stay only one night.

Create a Single-night OTA Rate with the needed pricing and set the rate type with the OTA. Work with the OTA for instructions on how to set up the rate plan on their side or to see if they recommend setting it up differently, such as with a derived rate.

Reach out to ThinkReservations for help with the mapping of the rate types.

There is a lot of nuance that can be programmed to support multiple different options to suit your needs. If you need any guidance, please reach out to support!