Rate Calculation
Weekend Stay Rules
The WebReserv system now has two ways for your bed & breakfast, vacation rental, or campground to set up a weekend stay rule. If you require at least a 2 night minimum over a weekend, then you can now select between “Reservation Must Be At Least” or “Weekend Stay Required“. The difference between them is important, and we will explain each option below.
In the system to define a weekend restriction rule, you will first want to set your Weekend definitions. The system defaults to a weekend being Friday/Saturday, but it can be adjusted by going to Setup – Business Information – Advanced Options.
Change to Per Person (variable) settings
We are pleased to announce that we have released a new version of the WebReserv booking system. The new version allows for up different pricing levels for up to 25 people when using variable rates. As part of this update, there has been a minor change to the way the system calculates the rate. If you are using Per Person (variable) in your setup, we recommend that you review these changes and update your settings if necessary.
When a room/rental/ tour is set to Per Person (variable) as the rate calculation type, the system will pick the rate from the column that matches the number of persons. If no rate is defined for this number of persons, the system will try with a lower number of persons until a rate is found.
Say for example that you have entered a rate for 1, 2 and 3 persons as shown below.
If a reservation is made for 2 adults, the rate will be $55.00. If a reservation is made for 3 adults, the rate will be $80.00. However, if a reservation is made for 4, 5 or 6 adults, the rate will be calculated as $80.00 as there is no rates defined for 4, 5 and 6 adults.
If the rate per person is the same regardless of the number of persons, we recommend that you change the rate type to Per Person (flat).
Adding cancellation fees to reservations
The new version of the WebReserv Booking System has been released. The new version includes the ability to calculate cancellation fees.
To setup a cancellation fee or percentage, go to Setup – Business Information – Changes & Cancellations.
You can enter up to 3 rules for your business. Each rule has a time (prior to arrival date/time), penalty fee or %, and an indication of whether a customer can cancel the reservation directly.
In the example below, the cancellation penalty is 100% if cancelled less than 1 day in advance and 25% if cancelled more than 1 day but less than 7 days in advance. There is no cancellation penalty if the reservation is cancelled more than 7 days in advance. Note the last rule of 365 days. This is added to allow customers to cancel the reservation more than 7 days in advance.
Day/time restriction for discount codes and groupon deals
The WebReserv booking system allows you to restrict discount codes, including groupon and living social deals, to only be valid on certain days and times. To add a restriction to a discount code, go to Setup – Discount Codes and click on the discount code you want to modify.
Scroll to the time restriction section shown below and specify the day(s) the discount code is valid for and optionally the time(s) the discount code is valid for.
Calculating per person deposit
The WebReserv booking system now includes the ability to calculate deposit per person. This is a useful feature for tour operators, bike rental businesses and other businesses that require a certain deposit amount for each person.
To set up deposit payment per person, go to Setup – Products & Reservation Rules – [Select product] – Tax/Deposit. On the Tax/Deposit page, scroll to the Reservation Deposit field and select Fixed Amount as the deposit type. After setting the deposit type, you will be able to enter the deposit amount and whether the deposit is per reservation, per unit or per person.
Tax on custom options
The WebReserv system now uses the tax field for custom options to determine if the custom option is taxable. To set or update the tax rates for your custom fields, go to Setup – Custom Fields.
The tax rate can be set independently from your products (rooms, condos, tours etc).
Making tax-exempt bookings
The webreserv system now allows you to create tax-exempt bookings. If a customer is tax-exempt, set Tax Exempt to yes and taxes will not longer be calculated.
Easier rate setup for bed & breakfasts, vacation rentals and hotels.
We have added a new type of rate categories to the system. The new rate categories are easier to use and more flexible. This section describes the benefits of the new rate categories and how to start using them.
What’s the difference?
The new rate categories can now be for weekdays, weekends and holidays which is typical for hotels, bed & breakfasts, vacation rentals etc.:
The rate categories can also be set up to be specific for a certain period of time, regardless of the day of the week. This rate setup is common for boat rentals, car rentals, RV rentals etc.:
How do I use the new rate categories
If your WebReserv account was set up before November 10, 2010, you will need to enable the new rate categories. Go to Setup – Rates – Rate Categories and click the link Click here to enable new rate categories. When you click the link, a number of standard categories will automatically be added to your setup. You can then adjust the new rate categories as necessary.
How do I start using the rate categories
Once you have enabled the new rate categories, all new rate lists will automatically be using the new rate categories whereas old rate lists will continue to use the old rate categories.
We recommend that you try out a few rates using the rate tester to ensure that the system is calculating your rates the way you want it.
New discount code rules
Four new rules have been added to the discount code setup: Minimum length, maximum length, minimum number of persons and maximum number of persons. The new discount code rules makes it easier set up discount codes for bed & breakfasts bookings, vacation rental bookings and other types of businesses
For example, you can create a discount code that is valid for only for visits that are minimum 2 days and has 5 persons or more on the reservation.
To set up discount codes, log on to your WebReserv account and go to Setup – Discount Codes.
% Service Fee
A new feature on WebReserv.com makes it easy to add a percentage service fee to a reservation. The percentage service fee is calculated of the base rate (i.e. the price of the products) but before additional charges and taxes.
To add a percentage fee to a product, go to Setup – Products & Reservation Rules – Select Product – Tax/Deposit. Enter a description for the charge, enter the percentage and select % as the selection.
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