Playbook, holiday rental
The nightly rate is the smallest part of the answer
Every listing carries a from price and it is always the cheapest week of the year, usually midweek, usually out of season, usually for the smallest party the property sleeps. The guest arrives with that number in their head and the real figure for the week they want is a different animal made of four separate parts. Setting out the parts is the whole job here, because a guest who discovers the third one at the payment screen leaves.
Why this is not the general answer
The handling pattern for pricing questions holds across every trade. What follows is the part that does not.
- The rate is a function of two things at once, which week of the year it is and how many nights are booked, and shortening a stay usually raises the nightly figure rather than reducing the total in the way a guest expects.
- Owners price by week in a table with dates down one side rather than by a single published figure, so the material behind this answer is a grid, and the assistant can read a row out of it without ever being asked to add anything up.
- Three charges sit outside the rate and each behaves differently: the changeover clean is usually once per stay, the pet supplement is often per animal per stay, and a short break premium is a percentage rather than a fee.
- The price is for the whole property regardless of how many people come, which is the single most common misunderstanding in this trade and the reason a family of six thinks a cottage is expensive until somebody divides.
How it arrives
- whats the difference between low and high season
- is the cleaning fee on top of the rate
- do you charge extra for the dog
- is that per night or for the week
- is there a minimum stay in the summer
- how much cheaper is it out of season
What has to be indexed for this to work
| The rate table, week by week | The grid you actually price from, with the changeover dates down one side and the figure beside each. Season names such as high, mid, low, peak and school holiday mean nothing on their own, so the table has to carry the dates that define them or the assistant will guess which season a week falls in. |
|---|---|
| Everything charged that is not the nightly rate | The changeover clean, the pet supplement, a hot tub charge, firewood, oil or bottled gas, linen hire if it is optional, and any tourist tax collected locally. State for each one whether it is per stay, per night or per animal, because that is the part guests get wrong. |
| Minimum stay and short break rules by season | Which weeks are whole week only, which allow three or four nights, what the short break premium is, and whether the minimum changes at the school holidays. A guest asking about a long weekend in August needs the rule before they need the price. |
| What the figure covers and who it covers | That the rate is for the property rather than per person, up to the permitted occupancy, and what is included in it: heating, electricity, wifi, a starter basket, the end clean. Owners assume this is obvious. Guests coming from hotel pricing do not. |
The reply
The rate is for the whole cottage rather than per person, and it changes by week of the year, so the tariff page lists each week with its own figure [1]. On top of the weekly rate there is a changeover clean charged once per stay, and a supplement per dog per stay if you are bringing one [2]. Stays shorter than a full week carry a short break premium and are only available in certain weeks, which the same page sets out. I cannot add up a total for particular dates, so the booking page is the place that will show you the full figure.
It corrects the per person assumption first, because that single sentence changes how the guest reads every number after it. The extras are named with their unit attached, per stay and per dog, since the unit is what gets misread. It then stops cleanly at arithmetic, which is where an assistant quoting a rate table would start inventing.
Where it stops
The trigger. The guest gives specific dates and asks what the whole thing would come to, or asks for a discount, a late deal or a reduction for a smaller party.
I can quote the tariff but I cannot total a stay or agree a price, and I have no way to see what your dates would come to. Leave me your name, an email and the dates you have in mind and the owner will send you a figure.
It stops answering before it guesses, says who will pick it up, and asks for the one thing that makes a reply possible. Nothing about it reads as a dead end.
Never say this here
Out of bounds
- Never add up a stay, because a total combines a rate row, a length of stay rule and at least two supplements, and a wrong total is treated as a quote.
- Never repeat the from price as though it applies to a school holiday week, which is the fastest way to lose a booking at the payment screen.
- Never describe the changeover clean as included when the tariff lists it separately, or the other way round.
- Never offer a discount, a late availability rate or a reduction for a shorter party, since pricing is the owner's decision and a chat window is not where it gets made.
Questions
- Can it work out the total if we upload the rate table?
- No, and it should not try. It can quote the row for a week you name and quote the supplements, but a total is arithmetic across several rules, and once it produces a figure the guest treats that figure as your price.
- Our rates change every year. Is this worth doing?
- Point it at the tariff page you already maintain rather than uploading a copy. A page you update in January stays right. A document you uploaded last spring quietly quotes last year's high season all summer.
- Should we publish the cleaning fee at all?
- You are publishing it either way, at the tariff page or at the checkout. The second one costs you the booking and a mildly annoyed message. Owners who name it early get asked about it and then get booked.
Keep reading
- Everything for a holiday rentalWhat is provided, deposits and cancellation terms answer well. The exact address and the door code stay back until a booking exists.
- Handling pricing questions in generalPublished price versus the price for this buyer. Bands, ranges and from pricing, and why a firm number for unscoped work is the damaging failure.
- The postcode is not the address and the lane is narrower than it looksOne allocated space, a lane a long car cannot manage, the shop four miles off, and a postcode that drops people in the wrong field.
- A grandparent is coming and the stairs are the problemSteep stairs, low beams and a step at the door. When the honest answer is that the property will not suit, saying so early is the useful reply.
- They have paid, they are not coming, and they want it backMoney already paid, a cancellation outside the window, and the difference between a refund and a credit against another week.
Try it on your own material
Upload a document or point it at your site, paste one line of HTML, then ask it something only your business could answer.