Step 5: Price and availability

LOS pricing model

In LOS pricing, it is possible to specify fixed nightly pricing plans for different numbers of nights and (optionally) for different number of guests. It means that your prices can depend on the number of booked nights and guests staying at your property.

Here is how LOS pricing works. For example, let's say your Daily price is 200 USD. If you continue using the Daily price model and one guest decides to book your property for three nights - the total is 600 USD.

In case you use LOS pricing, you can easily set that one guest pays a different amount per night, depending on how many nights were booked. For example, 1 guest can pay 200 per night if a 3-night stay was booked - the total is 600 USD. But you can easily set that 1 guest can pay 190 USD per night if a 4-night stay was booked - the total is 760 USD.

You can do the same for the number of guests and set different prices for different cases. You can see more examples as well as how to correctly set it at LOS pricing.

Note: LOS pricing can be referred by different names in various PMS's, including: weekly pricing, monthly pricing, and more. Please, refer to the PMS-dedicated documentation in order to learn what the name for LOS pricing is in your PMS.

In order for LOS pricing to be synchronized, you need to have LOS pricing enabled in Escapia. The LOS pricing allows Rentals United to retrieve the exact rent price for a stay starting on a particular day and lasting a particular number of nights. The LOS records include discount data as well as occupancy, so ensure full precision.

In Escapia: Rates > Select property > Edit pricing details
Note: Escapia provides LOS records for 31 nights.

FSP pricing model

FSP pricing model can be used if you are a PMS or an API user. It defines a fixed price for the whole stay, that is for an exact number of guests and nights.

  • Note that if any reservation will be made for a period in which prices are not defined, it will be automatically rejected.

  • Note that FSP pricing does not respect Standard number of guests or Maximum number of guests. Whatever is provided as the FSP records will be respected.

    Example 1: Your standard number of guests = 4 and you provided prices only for 1 and 2 guests.

    Result: The reservations with 3 and 4 guests will be rejected.

     

    Example 2: Your maximum number of guests = 4 and you provided prices only for 5 and 6 guests.

    Result: The reservations with 5 and 6 guests will be accepted.

In Escapia: Rates > Select property > Edit pricing details

Daily price model

Daily price model calculation is based on the values retrieved from various data fields. It allows for detailed pricing settings if set carefully. Also, Daily price model is based on seasons.

The season refers to a period of time when particular pricing is applied. It is possible to set as many seasons as required, varying in length and specification. The minimum settings require:

  • Season name,

  • Date range,

  • Price.

Daily price

Daily price is the standard way of setting prices. It indicates the base price per night for the Standard number of guests.

Escapia does not provide Rentals United with the exact Daily price. Rather, Rentals United calculates the Daily price on the basis of LOS pricing or FSP pricing records received in the baseRent node. In order to receive the Daily price, each LOS price value is divided by the number of nights.

 

In Escapia: Rates > Select property > Edit pricing details

Standard number of guests

Standard number of guests refers to the maximum number of guests included in the Daily price for whom the price does not change. If more guests than specified book a stay, the extra guests will be charged with the price set in the Extra guest price element.
Example: If the Daily price includes 3 standard guests, the price stays the same in the case when either one, two or three guests book a stay.

In Escapia: Rates > Select property > Edit pricing details

Extra guest price (N/A)

This element is not synchronized. In case it is mandatory to connect to some Sales Channels or you want to have this information filled in for your property, switch off the synchronisation of this element and update this information directly in the Rentals United platform. Note that if you switch the synchronisation on again, whatever you have in Rentals United will be overwritten with the data from your PMS again.

Minimum stay

Minimum stay indicates the minimum number of days a reservation can be made for. Guests will be not be able to book your property if they want to book stays shorter than minim stay. This value is mandatory to provide.

In Escapia: Rates > Select property > Edit pricing details

In Escapia: Rates > Global rates

Weekend pricing (N/A)

This element is not synchronized. In case it is mandatory to connect to some Sales Channels or you want to have this information filled in for your property, switch off the synchronisation of this element and update this information directly in the Rentals United platform. Note that if you switch the synchronisation on again, whatever you have in Rentals United will be overwritten with the data from your PMS again.

Occupancy pricing (N/A)

This element is not synchronized. In case it is mandatory to connect to some Sales Channels or you want to have this information filled in for your property, switch off the synchronisation of this element and update this information directly in the Rentals United platform. Note that if you switch the synchronisation on again, whatever you have in Rentals United will be overwritten with the data from your PMS again.

Complimentary topics

Discounts (N/A)

Discount data is partially passed in the LOS pricing records, however, Rentals United does not display it separately.

Calendar

Calendar stands for the property's availability to rent. You can check here the availability of your property in the selected time frames. Once a reservation is inserted in Rentals United, the availability in the calendar gets blocked for this period. The calendar is updated automatically every time the availability of the property changes or at predefined times to remain up-to-date.

Every time availability is retrieved from Escapia, Rentals United receives it in the following format:

 

In Escapia: Rates > Select property > Edit pricing details

Preparation Time Before Arrival (N/A)

This element is not synchronized. In case it is mandatory to connect to some Sales Channels or you want to have this information filled in for your property, switch off the synchronisation of this element and update this information directly in the Rentals United platform. Note that if you switch the synchronisation on again, whatever you have in Rentals United will be overwritten with the data from your PMS again.

Changeover restrictions

Changeover restrictions specify whether check-in or check-out is allowed for a given day. This is a great option if you need the guests checking in and out to fit your schedule and it will help you avoid unexpected guests. If some days are restricted from changeovers, then your guests will simply not be able to select such a stay if the start or end day falls on a changeover-restricted day.

It is important to notice that Escapia provides Rentals United with the changeovers data, while Rentals United saves it to changeover restrictions fields. Bear this in mind when looking at the data received from Escapia.

The default value for changeovers is "true", which means that check-in and check-out are both possible on a given day.

In Escapia: Rates > Select property > Edit pricing details

In Escapia: Rates > Global rates

Example:

  • from 2019-03-01 to 2019-03-31 > no checkbox is ticked on any day of the week because all attributes are set to “true”

  • from 2019-04-01 to 2019-05-31 > no checkbox is ticked because changeovers are not defined and the default value is set

  • from 2019-06-01 to 2019-07-23 > no checkbox is ticked on any day of the week because all attributes are set to “true”

  • from 2019-07-23 to 2019-08-30 > no checkbox is ticked for Monday, Saturday and Sunday because these attributes values are “true”, however the check-in checkbox is ticket for Tuesday Wednesday, Thursday, Friday because these days are set to "false"

Tax and Fee

Tax refers to mandatory charges legally levied on particular types of goods, services and transactions, paid as a contribution to the state’s revenue, for example VAT or city tax.

Fee refers to mandatory or optional charges paid in exchange for particular services. These include:

  • Charges for additional services, for example Internet access or shuttle.

  • Fees defined by local governments that do not fall into the tax category, for example environmental fees.

Taxes and fees after they are synchronized to Rentals United, they need to be mapped for each customer separately by the Onboarding team.

Note: All fees and taxes (including the in-rent fees) should be added on top of the rent price received from Escapia,
Note: Fees marked as optional in Escapia are always set as mandatory in Rentals United.
Note: In case any fee or tax has a <StayDateRange> defined, Rentals United synchronizes this fee or tax if the minimum <StayDateRange> has been defined for a day before the current day and the maximum <StayDateRange> has been defined on a day after the 12/31 of the current year. On the day of the maximum <StayDateRange>, the fee or tax will be removed from Rentals United upon synchronization.

Tip: If you have taxes and fees being synchronized with Rentals United in the PMS Settings, but they are not visible in Rentals United, make sure that you allowed them to be included in the feed for Rentals United.

In Escapia go to Accounting > Setup > Charge Templates. You will see a list of your charges, click on the charge you wish to enable (or disable).

The edit view is opened. Click the dropdown menu under Channel partner scope and select Specific channel(s).Move Rentals United to the left column and then click Apply.

Tip: In Escapia go to Accounting > Setup > Charge Templates. You will see a list of your charges, click on the charge you wish to edit.

  • If you want this charge to be included in the FSP pricing, tick the box Group this charge with rent.

  • If you want the fee to be a separate line item in Step 5: Price and availability, untick the checkbox Group this charge with rent.

In Escapia: Accounting > Setup > Charge Templates

Down payment (N/A)

This element is not synchronized. In case it is mandatory to connect to some Sales Channels or you want to have this information filled in for your property, switch off the synchronisation of this element and update this information directly in the Rentals United platform. Note that if you switch the synchronisation on again, whatever you have in Rentals United will be overwritten with the data from your PMS again.

Security deposit

Security deposit is a mandatory or optional refundable charge the guest needs to pay to cover for potential property damages.

In Escapia: Accounting > Setup > Deposit Policies

Tip: In case the Security deposit exists in Escapia and it is enabled in the PMS Settings, but still does not show in Rentals United, please ensure Rentals United is selected in the scope in Escapia. Go to Channel partner scope and click on the drop down menu. Select Specific channel(s) and ensure Rentals United is selected.

Currency

Currency in Rentals United is a fixed value, by default established on the basis of the property location. The currency of any property can be checked in Rentals United, go to Step 5: Price and availability after selecting All properties tab. For more information, please see Step 5: Price and availability in Rentals United: User Guide.

Therefore, if the property's currency does not match the one of the city the property is located in, the currency defined in PMS will not be synchronized. In such a case, the currency from PMS will be converted to the currency of the city.