Rates and guests

Rate plans set the nightly rate for each unit type over a season, with a start and end date and a minimum number of nights. A garden suite might have a lower rate in the quiet months and a higher rate with a three-night minimum over the summer retreat season. When a stay is requested, the front desk uses the rate plan in effect for the unit type and dates.

Guests are recorded as parties with a name, email and phone. A party can be a single guest or a group booking several units. Keeping guests as their own records means a returning guest’s earlier stays are in one place, with the units, dates and charges of each.

The retreat manager owns rate plans; the front desk keeps guest records up to date.

• Dated rates. Each rate plan covers one unit type for a defined period, so the rate for any night is clear.
• Minimum stays. The minimum nights on the plan are part of the offer the front desk makes.
• One guest record. Returning guests are found and reused instead of created again.

Load your current and next season’s rate plans by unit type. Agree how special offers and program packages are priced: as separate rate plans, or as a rate on the reservation. Agree how guest records are matched when someone books again with a different email. Prepare examples of a high-season booking below the minimum stay, a returning guest and a group booking several units.

A guest asks for two nights in a forest cabin over a summer weekend. The rate plan for forest cabins that season has a three-night minimum, so the front desk offers three nights at the seasonal rate instead of booking two at the wrong price. The guest has stayed before, so their existing record is used and the new stay joins their history.

• Rate plans in effect — Current nightly rates and minimum stays by unit type.
• Reservation pipeline — Stays by guest and unit.

• Booking to checkout: Where rates and guest records are used.

See pricing and the data model.