Playbook, hotel
Same room, same night, two rates and a tax on top
A guest looking at a hotel page sees a number and assumes it is the price of the room. It is the price of one rate plan, on one night, for the occupancy the search assumed, and the identical room along the corridor is being sold at a different figure to somebody who booked in March. Then a city or tourist tax goes on at the desk, breakfast is inside some rates and not others, and none of it is arithmetic anybody should attempt in a chat window.
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.
- Two rate plans on the identical room on the identical night is ordinary practice here and reads as a fault to the guest. The cheaper one is cheaper because it cannot be cancelled, and explaining that trade is worth more than the number itself.
- City or tourist tax is collected at the property in many places, per person per night, so the amount a guest actually pays is not the amount the booking page displayed, and an unavoidable charge revealed at checkout is the argument the desk has most often.
- The rate is for the room but the occupancy caps it, so two people on a single occupancy rate is a different rate rather than a supplement, which is the reverse of how most trades price and the reason a family arrives one bed short.
- A figure seen on a travel site is that site's price with that site's inclusions and cancellation position, and the hotel can neither explain how it was arrived at nor honour it at the desk.
How it arrives
- why is the room cheaper on the app than on your site
- is breakfast in that price
- do you charge city tax on top
- is the price per person or per room
- whats the difference between the flexible and the saver rate
- do you do a single occupancy rate
What has to be indexed for this to work
| One document per rate plan, named as the booking page names it | Flexible, advance purchase, room only, bed and breakfast, member rate, whatever they are called where a guest sees them. Each with what it includes, the occupancy it covers and its cancellation position. Named identically, so the assistant can say which rate it is describing instead of blending them into one friendly average. |
|---|---|
| Every charge that is not the room rate | Breakfast where it is not included, city or tourist tax with its per person per night basis, any facility charge, car parking, a cot, an extra bed, a pet. Say for each whether it is per night, per person or per stay, and whether it is paid at booking or at the desk. |
| Occupancy written against each rate | How many the rate covers, what an extra adult costs, the age at which a child is charged as an adult, whether an infant in a cot is free. Guests read a room rate as unlimited occupancy, and the first person to discover otherwise is whoever is on the desk that evening. |
| Your position on prices seen somewhere else | One plain paragraph saying that a figure on a travel site is set by that site, carries that site's inclusions and terms, and cannot be matched, explained or honoured at the property. This answers a large share of the traffic and almost nobody publishes it. |
The reply
The same room is sold on more than one rate plan, which is why you may be looking at two figures for one night. The flexible rate can be cancelled up to the published deadline, and the advance purchase rate is cheaper because it is paid at booking and cannot be [1]. Breakfast is inside some rates and charged separately on others, and the rate page says which is which. On top of whichever you choose there is a city tax charged per person per night and collected at the desk rather than by the booking page [2]. I cannot see live rates or price a stay, so the booking page is the only place with tonight's figure on it.
The two rates are explained as a trade rather than presented as a discrepancy, because a guest who thinks the site is glitching stops believing anything else on it. The tax is given with its basis and the place it is collected, since that pairing is what makes a checkout total differ from a confirmation email. The refusal is narrowed to live pricing, which leaves everything published still answerable.
Where it stops
The trigger. The guest asks what a particular night costs, asks for a price seen elsewhere to be matched, or asks for a discount, a corporate rate or a long stay reduction.
I cannot see live rates, match a price or apply a discount, and I have no view of what any date is selling at. Leave your name, an email and your dates and reservations will come back with a figure. The booking page will show you tonight's rates now if you would rather look.
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 quote a figure for a specific night, since rates move with the date and the demand and a stale number is read as a promise.
- Never merge the rate plans into one price, because the cheaper one carries a cancellation position the guest has not knowingly accepted.
- Never present a rate as the final amount when a city tax or a facility charge is added at the desk.
- Never explain, match or undercut a price shown on a travel site, which is set by somebody else and is not the hotel's to account for.
Questions
- Can it quote tonight's rate if we upload the rate sheet?
- No, and it should not try. Rates move by date and by demand, so an uploaded sheet is wrong within a day. What it can quote is what each rate plan includes and excludes, which does not move and which is the part guests actually misunderstand.
- Guests keep saying an app is cheaper. What should it say?
- State the position once and then move on: that is that site's price on that site's terms. Then name what the direct rate includes, since inclusions are usually where the real difference sits and nobody compares them.
- Should the city tax be published on the rate page?
- Yes, with the per person per night basis attached, rather than buried in the terms. It is the most preventable checkout argument in this trade and the one guests take personally, because they feel they were quoted a price and charged another.
Keep reading
- Everything for a hotelRate inclusions, check in times, parking and room accessibility answer well. Live availability and a named reservation do not.
- 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 guest is upstairs and the duty manager is downstairsNoise at two in the morning, a room not made up, a shower running cold. Somebody is on shift, so the reply's job is to reach them fast.
- You booked a room type, not a room numberCheck in from three, a room type booked rather than a room number, and early arrival as a request. Published answers shorten the desk queue.
- Changing the dates buys a new price, not the old oneA date change reprices at whatever the new night is selling at, an advance purchase rate usually cannot move, and an agent booking is not ours.
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.