General

As a reservations or revenue manager, making regular adjustments to prices based on demand, occupancy and competitors is part of the day-to-day job. With the introduction of a feature-based sales strategy, this task remains the same, but the daily changes that are made may differ slightly from the previous work. The same applies to periodic and strategic work and preparations. GauVendi's features include new inventory sales as well as feature-based price adjustments that dynamically change and adapt depending on the rooms sold (Pricing Management).  

Requirements

• The inventory (RFC) including additional room combinations (ERFC) was successfully set up in GauVendi, with additional feature-based data points captured.
• The "former" or possibly still used room categories are recorded as MRFCs
• Price points were set up for the room characteristics based on the existing rate structure (rate range minimum-maximum). 
• Price automation has been activated in GauVendi.
• The general basic structure of prices is set up - corresponding Low, Medium or High demand periods are priced.

The described workflows are presented under the premise that GauVendi is the leading pricing system. Hotels with a "reverse calculation" activation (prices from PMS to GauVendi) have different workflows here. 

Depending on the dynamics of the market and the circumstances of the house, prices need to be adjusted daily or periodically. The fastest and easiest way to do this is to adjust the entire available price range. 

Before making any price changes, look at the previous day's "pick-up" and check which time periods have reservations coming in. The following points should be considered:

• Many reservations have arrived for specific time periods - the first thing to check here is the price points
• Few / no reservations have arrived for certain time periods - again, check price points. Especially for periods where it can be assumed that these have a certain advance booking time and despite this time the expected pick-up has not arrived.

The pick-up of all reservations and time periods can be viewed via "Reservations".

The next step is to review the prices and adjust them if necessary. This is usually done for the next 4-6 weeks plus the identified periods that have an increased pick up or where the pick-up is unexpectedly absent.

 Tip: If the created sales plans have "derived" dependency, then you only need to adjust your daily price. All other sales plans will adjust automatically.

The Lowest and Highest Rate Plan (i.e. price range) are displayed per day, as well as the "lowest selling price" (=> this is the price displayed on the website with the label "Lowest price" and is determined by the booking flow strategy. 

! Important: Hotels with focus on double room occupancy should activate this for display (top left). Furthermore, the price range always shows the price with the included services (e.g. if breakfast is included in the price). This can also be switched off for display as required.

If the total price range (i.e. All RFCs, ERFCs and MRCs) is to be adjusted upwards or downwards for a day or a period, this can be done directly under "Adjustment".

Simply "click" in the first relevant day, enter the value in percent or number and adjust for the desired period. Here it is also possible to make adjustments only for certain days of the week or individual days. 

 Tip: Always also check your available inventory in the same Rubik under Rates to make sure there are enough price points for the guest within the available price range. If this is not the case, causing larger price jumps that could lead to guests only accessing the cheapest rooms, simply add additional ERFCs with new price points to reduce the price jumps between products.

Low utilization = Smaller price jumps, Higher utilization = Higher price jumps

The daily described workflows can also be edited accordingly for periods (High, Medium and Low vacation periods, etc.). Here also longer periods are considered e.g. the next 6 months. In addition, the following points should be considered. 

Periodically, the prices of the features can be adjusted. This always makes sense when:

1. New features have been added (after renovation or additional rooms have been built)
2. New knowledge about the demand for a particular characteristic is available
3. Certain features have demonstrably different demand at certain times (e.g., rooms with air conditioning in summer versus winter)

In the basic setting, the prices for the characteristics can be adjusted in principle. However, this then simultaneously has an effect on the entire price structure. 

A general change in the price of a feature therefore only makes sense if it is 

a) is new and did not exist before and 

(b) when new knowledge about the demand for a particular characteristic is not temporary but long-term. 

In this case, the changes are made directly under the Room Features section.

In the event of temporary - seasonal - changes in demand, the prices for the characteristics may be changed as follows.

• Go to Sales Plan / Feature Pricing
• Select the sales plan whose characteristic prices are to be adjusted (in general, you should use your daily rate - the other sales plans adjust automatically if this is stored as derived).

Features can be priced per day for a period or individual days.

Especially with regard to the sale of the house via various third party vendors, it is certainly helpful to have an eye on the selling price of the categories. Adjustments need to be made especially if there is no interface to the PMS or the Channel Manager. And even if the prices in GauVendi may not need any adjustment, the category level price (MRFCs) can be used to make the prices manually in the Channel Manager or PMS.

For MRFCs, automated pricing is generally enabled as part of Feature Based Revenue Management, as this takes into account the price points PER room with its room features. For adjustments of the price up or down of individual categories - possibly also only the lowest category to stay competitive in the compset with other hotels - this can be adjusted either with a price point or % up or down - if needed.

Tip: Use GauVendi as a dynamic price management tool to adjust your prices in the third party channels. The prices shown in MRFC correspond to the selling price considering already sold rooms including all their features. From July 2022, the automated pricing logic will take even more into account the prices related to the overall occupancy.

Depending on the technical set up of each house, adjustments need to be made for the third party channels. In any case, sales via third-party channels (primarily OTAs - not contract rates) should be regularly reviewed depending on utilization and demand and adjusted if necessary.

Recommendation: Control the sale of your room categories through the third party channels especially in times of high occupancy to avoid the following problems:

• High utilization generally also means increased demand. In this case, you should primarily focus on your direct sales channels in order to maximize sales (commission costs to third-party channels can clearly be avoided here). 
• Acquire new customers who, due to high demand, also book via their website or telephone or email
• Overbooking of categories is automatically avoided by the function in GauVendi: Automated Length of Stay. With this, especially houses with longer stays (more than 2 nights) have solved the problem that possibly a category is still available, but no room is consistently available for the desired period. 

At the latest from the moment when only a few rooms are available, the OTA channels should be closed. Depending on the technical connection, the following options are recommended

• Reduce inventory to x number of rooms already from the beginning to reduce sales
• Close inventory from +80% at the latest completely via the OTAs, should the utilization be due to increased demand (and not caused by a group or event).

If only want to close or adjust individual room products from availability

Select the appropriate room product within the MRFC grouping and adjust the availability (e.g. minimum stay):

If only individual room products are to be adjusted in price, proceed as follows:

Search for the appropriate room product under either All/ERFC or MRFC

Select the desired product. As long as the product is not activated for "automated pricing", individual features can be adjusted in price for the desired period. 

LTip: It is best to adjust the amount to be deducted or added in the selection under Layout and save it. Example: Layout Bedroom is stored with 80 Euro, the total room product is 100 Euro - but I want to sell the product for 120. Simply increase Bedroom by 20 euros and save it for the desired period. Again, the changes can be selected per day, for a period or only certain days.

For room products where automated pricing is enabled, the price can only be additionally adjusted up or down as a number or %. 

In addition to the price adjustment for features, it is certainly also important that at regular intervals, the product range is reviewed and adjusted to demand. It is particularly helpful here to reflect the telephone reservation inquiries and to adjust corresponding room product combinations. In addition, the general demand for certain room products should also be taken into account (e.g., increased demand for single rooms at certain times). 

When creating further ERFCs, it may therefore also be important, among other things, not only to activate the "automated pricing" function, but also to use the "Link to another ERFC" function in addition. This function makes it possible to ensure price dependencies to similar products and then to delimit these with an additional price point (as a percentage or as a value). Thus, in the example of single rooms, a number of other single rooms can be created at certain price intervals.