Sometimes you have availability that is only available for guests that are participating in a special event. For example a wedding, cooking/quilting/art class, or even a murder mystery weekend. Often your availability is reserved for the guests who will be enjoying the special event at the property. We will set up an exclusive rate type for a wedding weekend in our example below, but the concept is the same for other event types.
Understanding the concept
In order for a room to be bookable on any given rate type, it must have vacancy (no reservation or blackout) and it must be made available with rates.
A room has vacancy (vacancy vs. reservations and blackouts), and a rate type has availability (pricing or no pricing).
Rates and availability go hand-in-hand. With ThinkReservations, you turn availability on and off per rate type with pricing.
Setting a "stop sell" removes pricing, making that particular rate type unavailable.
Having rates or pricing makes that particular rate type available.
When more than one public rate type have pricing for the same room and dates, the guest's will have a choice which rate type to book.
Rates and availability for rate types go hand-in-hand
No rates = stop sell = no availability
Rates set = availability (provided there is vacancy)
Important: When only one rate type has pricing, that will be the only option for guests to book. This is how we make that rate type exclusive! To accomplish this, a stop sell needs to be set for all other public rate types.
(Removing pricing is the same as setting a stop sell.)
Set up the new rate type
In our example, we're going to set up a new wedding rate type. Only guests who are part of the wedding can book, so we want to make this the exclusive rate type for the wedding weekend. We control this with rates and restrictions. First, we are going to create a new Rate Type to use...
Navigate to Settings > Rate Types > New
Please complete the Details tab of the rate type as needed. Also, remember to set your deposit settings.
If you need this rate type to be available only to guests who have a special promo code or link, then select Promotion Code under "THIS RATE TYPE IS AVAILABLE TO"
Click on the Rates & Restrictions tab at the top.
Enter room pricing for the event dates.
Optionally, enter pricing for buffer dates before and/or after your event for guests who might want to stay a bit longer. Use the Closed on Arrival (XA) restriction to ensure guests don't check in after the event and use the Closed on Departure (XD) restriction to ensure that guests cannot check out before the event starts. (See below for more on that.)
Review your rate and click Save when done to commit your changes.
Explanation of optional restrictions
Buffer dates are needed because guests cannot change rate types mid-stay. If you only had pricing on Friday and Saturday for our wedding, then a guest who might want to stay a day longer is not even given the option. If you do add buffer dates, it's important to use restrictions to prevent unintended stays outside the event dates.
Our example wedding is on March 8th. Restrictions, seen in red, allow only the following scenarios:
Arrival on Thursday/Friday, departure on Sunday
Arrival on Saturday, departure on Monday
If you didn't want guests to arrive Saturday, simply enable Closed on Arrival for Saturday.
XD means Closed on Departure. Guests cannot depart or check out on Friday or Saturday.
XA means Closed on Arrival. Guests cannot check in on Sunday.
2 means that guests need to stay 2 nights. Set on a Saturday, that means Friday-Saturday or Saturday-Sunday stays or longer.
We don't need to set XD on Thursday because there is no buffer pricing added on Wednesday.
Make the Rate Type Exclusive
As noted above, we use pricing to control what rate types are available to guests. If we only have pricing on March 7th and 8th in our Wedding rate type, then that will be the only option for guests searching on March 7th or 8th. If we have a promotion code set, then only guests who also have the promotion code will be able to book on March 7th or 8th.
If you only have pricing set in the special rate type, then it becomes an exclusive rate. It's exclusive when it's the only option for guests. If needed, make it even more exclusive with a promotion code!
Next, we need to set a stop sell on all other base rates for the primary event date(s).
Tip: Note that setting a stop sell and removing pricing are the same thing. When there is a stop sell or no pricing, you will see a -- double dash.
Navigate to Settings > Rate Types
Click a"base rate" that has pricing already set for your event date.
Click the Rates & Restrictions tab and navigate to the event date.
Select the event dates and click backspace on your keyboard to remove the pricing for the critical dates of your event. In our example, that's the Friday and Saturday.
Optionally, use the Modify button to programmatically set a stop sell.
Review your work and click Save to commit your changes.
You are now ready to use your special rate type!