Weekly/Monthly Rates will not appear as available for booking without a corresponding Room Charge Transaction Code.

The following are a list of the necessary steps to create a Rate Plan in RoomKey.

The first step to creating a Rate Plan is to create a Rate Category to correspond with the Rate Plan.

NOTE: IF A RATE CATEGORY FOR THIS RATE PLAN ALREADY EXISTS, SKIP TO STEP 2.

In RoomKey, go to System Configuration -> Rate Wizard, and click on the "Rate Categories" button at the bottom.

To add a Rate Category select the “Add” button to the right of the screen.

Enter the following information:

• Rate Category – enter the name of your rate category

• Description – enter a brief description of any terms or conditions for this rate to be valid while booking on the eRes Online Booking Engine (if this rate will not be displayed on eRes or you do not use eRes this field may remain blank)

• Sort Order – a number entered here tells RoomKey in which order you wish for this Rate Plan to display on your eRes Online Booking Engine. (if this rate will not be displayed on eRes or you do not use eRes this field may remain blank)

Select “OK” to save the Rate Category.

Once the Rate Category has been created proceed to System Configuration -> Rate Wizard. Hit the + sign in the bottom left hand corner to create a new Rate.

Fill in the following information:

• Category – use the drop down menu to select the Rate Category for this Rate

• Rate Name – type in the name of the Rate

• Rate Code – type in the Rate Code

• Direct Hotel – check this box if you want this Rate to be available for booking internally within RoomKey

• Hotel Website – check this box if you want this Rate to be available for booking via your eRes Online Booking Engine

• CRS – check this box if you use and wish for this Rate to be available for booking via your RoomKey CRS (NOTE: CRS is not the same as GDS – RoomKey CRS is a product offered to Multi-Property operations so that reservations can be created for multiple properties within one system)

• GDS – do not select this checkbox, Monthly and Weekly Rate Plans cannot be distributed to GDS or Direct-Connect interface partners

• More Details – this button allows you to streamline which Room Types you wish to make available under each Rate Type (ie: Hotel Direct, Hotel Website, GDS and CRS). You may decide you do not want to attach an entire Room Type to a Rate – in this case, you would uncheck the box beside the Room Type. OR, you may decide you do not want a GDS Rate created for a specific Room Type – in this case you would hit the + sign next to the Room Type in question and then uncheck the box beside “GDS”. Once all the desired changes are made, select the “Apply” button below to apply all your changes.

NOTE: You can modify this area later if you wish to add or remove (ie: make inactive) certain Rate Plans from specific Room Types or Rate Type.

• Lock off (using for online booking) – check this box if the Rate Plan you are creating is for a Lock Off Room. To learn more about creating rates for Lock Off Room Types please consult RoomKey Smart Support located under your RoomKey Help Menu

• Special Rate - During a Promotion no other Rates will display on eRes except for your Online Promotion Rate. If you wish for this Rate to display at the same time as your Online Promotion Rate, then you must check the “Special Rate” checkbox in order for it to appear at the same time as your Online Promotions.

• Non Commissionable – check this box if Travel Agent Commissions do not apply to this particular rate if it is booked by a Travel Agent.

• Sort Order (Hotel Web Site) - if your property uses the eRes Online Booking Engine and this rate is set to appear on online, you may select in which order you wish this rate to appear by assigning a Sort Order number to the Rate Plan.

• Cutoff Days –By setting a Cutoff Day, you are telling RoomKey that this Rate is not available X Days before booking. For example: We want to encourage guests to book in advance, therefore we are offering a 30 Day Advance Rate which provides the guest with a 20% discount on the Room Rate if they book more then 30 days in advance. Therefore, we set the “Cutoff Days” to 30 on the 30 Day Advance Rate Plan. To learn more about Cutoff Days please consult RoomKey Smart Support

• Number to Sell – for eRes Online Booking Engine ONLY – allows you to dictate how many of this particular Rate Plan do you wish to sell online per Room Type Per Day

• Min Persons/Max Persons - The “Min Persons” indicates the minimum amount of adults that can stay in this Room Type and the “Max Persons” indicates the maximum amount of adults that can stay in this Room Type. NOTE: If the Max Persons is set higher then the “Sleeps (max)” found on the Room Type, the “Sleeps (max)” will define the maximum number of adults allowed for this rate plan.

• Min Stay Default/Max Stay Default nights - For Weekly Rates and Monthly Rates when the “Period” is set to week or month, the Min Stay Default can be left blank. Because the period is set to “week”, this rate will only appear when the Weekly Room Charge Code is selected. When the Weekly Room Charge Code is selected, it automatically defaults to 1 week which is a minimum of 7 nights. The same rules apply for monthly stays. If a Max Stay Default applies enter the number here.

• Period – select if this will be a Daily, Weekly or Monthly rate (IMPORTANT NOTE: If this is a Weekly or Monthly rate ensure that you have a Weekly or Monthly Room Charge Transaction Code setup under System Configuration -> Transactions Code or else this rate will not be available for booking. For more information on Transaction Codes please see the Transaction Codes Module Training Document located on Smart Support.) If the Period selected is Weekly or Monthly, a default Daily Rate must also be selected. The purpose of a default Daily Rate is for situations where a guest plans on staying for 33 days (so not for 1 month or not for 4 weeks exactly). For the first 30 days the Monthly Rate would apply and then for the remaining 3 days selected, the Daily Rate would apply.

• Market Segment - A Market Segment may also be entered into the Rate Plan to identify in which Market Segment this particular Rate Plan belongs. This field is not mandatory

• Base Rates – leave this area blank. Base Rates will be discussed later in this document.

• Description – enter pertinent booking information regarding the rate into this area. This description will appear on your eRes Online Booking Engine, CRS and internally in RoomKey when you right click on a Rate Plan while creating a new Reservation.

Select “Create” to create your Rate.

Once the Rate is created it will appear in the Rate Wizard list. From this list you can quickly see the following:

• What Rate Types it is setup on
• If it is a Lock-off Rate or not
• If Tiering is Enabled
• If it is a Daily/Weekly/Monthly Rate

After you create a Rate you will be brought to the Rate Wizard Main Screen. Ensure that you click on the Rate you are working on in the list above and then click the Modify button below (the one with the notepad icon)

Proceed to the “Client Type” tab. A list of the different Rate Types (ie: Hotel Direct, CRS, Hotel Website, GDS) you selected for this rate will appear.

You must now associate each Rate for the various Rate Types to the appropriate Client Type. To view a list of available Client Types, select the + sign next to the Rate Type name.

In the example below, I have selected my Weekly Rate “Hotel Direct” to attach to my Leisure Client Type.

NOTE: The client type selected should have the weekly room charge set as the 'default rate charge' if you'd like it automatically selected when making a new reservation. You may need to create a new client type depending on your current set up. 

And here I have selected for my Weekly Rate “Hotel Website” to attach to my Online Booking Client Type.

Proceed to attach each Rate for each Rate Type to their appropriate Client Type.

NOTE: FOR CORPORATE & GROUP CLIENT TYPES YOU MAY CHOOSE NOT TO ATTACH THE RATE TO THE SPECIFIC CLIENT TYPE BUT INSTEAD ATTACH IT TO THE APPLICABLE CORPORATE ACCOUNT OR GROUP. RATES CAN BE ATTACHED DIRECTLY TO CORPORATE ACCOUNTS AND GROUPS VIA THE CORPORATE AND GROUP TABS.

Once you have selected all your applicable Client Types for each of your Rate Types, click on the “Update” button below to attach the Rates to your Client Types.

(NOTE: If the Rate Plan you are creating will be tiered off another Rate Plan, proceed to Step 4b to learn how to setup tiering. Remember you can only tier a Weekly Rate off a Weekly Rate and a Monthly Rate off a Monthly Rate)

Ensure the rate you are working on is highlighted in blue up top and then select the “Next” button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

You now have an opportunity to input the different rate structure for each of your Room Types. Uncheck the “Lock the Grid” checkbox located to the right of the screen. Unchecking this box allows you to work within the Rate Grid above.

At this point what you want to do is define the rate difference between your Room Types. So, in the example below:

• My SQQ is my lowest-priced room type. Therefore, the SQQ is left at $0.00 for the Single and Double columns so when I enter my rate of $700.00, my SQQ will be $700.00.
  • There is a $70.00 per-week fee for each additional adult occupant over double-occupancy. Therefore $70.00 and $140.00 are entered into the Triple and Quad columns, respectively. $70.00 is also entered into the Extra column to account for any occupancy above 4-Adults. In this example, there is no charge for Child occupancy, therefore the value in the Child column is always $0.00.
• My SK Room Type is $70.00 higher per-week than my base rate and therefore I input my template rate as $70/$70/$140/$210 and $70.00 for Extra and $0.00 for Child.
• My DQQ Room Type is $175.00 higher per week than my base rate, and therefore I input my template rate as $175/$175/$245/$315 and $70.00 for Extra and $0.00 for Child.
• My DK Room Type is $245.00 higher per-week than my base rate, and therefore I input my rate as $245/$245/$315/$385 and $70.00 for Extra and $0.00 for Child
• My EKS Room Type is $1,645.00 higher per-week than my base rate, and therefore I input my template rate as $1,645/$1,645/$1,715/$1,785 and $70.00 for Extra and $0.00 for Child.

By doing this you are telling RoomKeyPMS that no matter what my weekly base rate is, my SK will always be +$70.00, my DQQ will always be +$175.00, my DK will always be +$245.00, and so on down the list.

NOTE: THESE DIFFERENCES CAN BE ADJUSTED AT ANY TIME BY SIMPLY ADJUSTING YOUR TEMPLATE – OTHERWISE, ROOMKEY WILL DEFAULT TO THESE DIFFERENCES.

Once you have your template set select the "Update Rate Template" button to save the changes you have made to your template. The "Lock the Grind" checkbox can now be rechecked.

Now notice that if you were to change the Single/Double/Triple/Quad rates above in the Base Rate line, the rest of your Room Types would fluctuate along with your rates based on the template you have set.

To set Rates on specific dates, first, enter the Base Rate for the dates you wish to enter and then select the desired Date Range below.

NOTE: IF THESE RATES ONLY APPLY FOR EXAMPLE, ON SUN – THURS, THEN YOU WOULD UNCHECK THE CHECKBOXES FOR FRI & SAT SO THAT THE RATES DO NOT APPLY FOR ANY FRI/SAT FOR THE DATE RANGE SELECTED.

Now you must select what you wish to do for this Date Range. There are 5 options:

• Update Rate Amount

• Close To Arrival (includes Close to Arrival / Clear Close to Arival)

• Close (includes Close / Open Closed Rate)

• Length of Stay Restrictions (LOS)

• Number to Sell Restriction (NTS)

In this situation we wish to Update Rate Amount and therefore we check the box that says "Update Rate Amounts" and select SAVE to update the rate. Next, select the “Save” button located in the bottom right hand corner.

A message will appear confirming the area(s) that are being updated (below we see Rate Amounts appears in black while the other options appear in gray). Select OK

You can now proceed to the Rate Calendar Tab to verify that the rates you have entered have uploaded into RoomKey.

Ensure the rate you are working on is highlighted in blue up top and then select the “Next” button in the bottom right hand corner of the screen.

Skip the General Tab and proceed directly to the “Rate Tiering” tab.

NOTE: A RATE PLAN WITH A WEEKLY PERIOD CAN ONLY BE TIERED OFF A RATE PLAN WITH A WEEKLY PERIOD. A RATE PLAN WITH A MONTHLY PERIOD CAN ONLY BE TIERED OFF A RATE PLAN WITH A MONTHLY PERIOD.

Fill in the following information:

• Enable Rate Tiering – check this box to allow tiering

• Apply for (at least one of these boxes must be checked):

   o Rate – check this box if you wish for the Rate to update through tiering

   o Closed/Closed to Arrival – check this box if you wish for Closed/Closed to Arrival to update through tiering

   o LOS Restrictions – check this box if you wish for Min & Max Length of Stay Restrictions to update through tiering

• Rate Tiered Off – Select the Rate that this rate will be tiered off of.

NOTE: A RATE PLAN WITH A WEEKLY PERIOD CAN ONLY BE TIERED OFF A RATE PLAN WITH A WEEKLY PERIOD. A RATE PLAN WITH A MONTHLY PERIOD CAN ONLY BE TIERED OFF A RATE PLAN WITH A MONTHLY PERIOD.

• Calculation Formula – enter the amount/percentage of the difference into the blank box and then select the dial next to $(Amount) if the is an amount or the dial next to % (Percentage) if it reflects a percentage. Next, use the < arrow to tell RoomKey if the formula should calculate as Less Then (<) or Greater Then (>) the Rate it is tiered off of.

• Rounding Type – if your Calculation Formula is based on a percentage, you can choose to round your rate to the nearest penny (0.01), dollar (1.00) or five dollars (5.00)

The “Apply Changes Now” checkbox should be checked and then proceed to select “Save” to setup this rate as a tiered rate.

After your tiering has been saved, proceed to the “General” tab and select a Room Type & Rate Type to ensure that your Rates have updated correctly.