How to Create a Seasonal Rate plan

At the end of this article you will be able to; 

• Create a package for your rate plan
• Linking a service to an item for use with the HART Stock feature 
• Create the rate plan
• Add the seasons
• Add levels
• Add additional seasons
• Copy seasons
• Adding a description
• Add to a channel manager
• Adding automated traces
• Adding a confirmation
• Searching for a rate plan

This guide is intended to guide you through how to create a basic seasonal rate plan with and without levels.

HART has the ability to create a rate plan that can;

• Only be visible for agents or companies
• Include an inclusive amount for use with the POS
• Work with different rate matrices
• Have derived rates
• Be a house or a complimentary rate plan
• Include a service charge
• Be a daily rate plan rather than a seasonal one
• Link unique confirmations per rate plan

For more information on the above, you will need to read the relevant guides.

Create the package for your rate plan

Within the rate plan in HART, there are services that are either inclusive or an addition to the accommodation price

For example, within a Dinner, Bed and Breakfast rate plan, you will have the services 'Dinner' and 'Breakfast'.

To add these services to a rate plan a package must first be created. 

To do this navigate to Configuration> Services > Bedrooms.

In the top window, right-click and add an entry to enable you to free-type the Code and name of your package. Press save and the ID will pre-populate.

Next, begin to build up the services you wish to use in your package for your rate plan. By right-clicking and adding an entry, you can choose from the drop-down box the service you wish to add. Pressing save will then by default add an Every Day availability.

Every Day availability means that for every day the room booking is booked the service charge will be calculated.

The availability can be changed by choosing a different day range from the drop-down. As seen below for the service ' Add a bottle of Sparkles' This means this service will only charge for the first night of the guest's stay.

Linking the service 

It is assumed that you have already set up and are using the HART Stock feature. You do not need to worry about this step if you do not use HART stock.

In the bottom left-hand side window add the item you wish to link this service with, and the outlet you wish this to come out of. This will then deduct the item from the stock automatically.

Creating the Rate Plan

Navigate to Sales > Rate Plan > Bedrooms and fill in the information according to your organisational procedure.

• Code: free type a code for the rate plan. This is the code you will need to map to channel managers and the one that links to the HART web booking engine. Note, that you must have more than 2 letters/digits here in the code, otherwise, the rate plan will not save. The code should be no longer than 8 characters and should not contain any special characters.
• Name: free type the name of the rate plan. This is what the team will see when choosing the rate.
• Package: choose from the drop-down the correct package that has the exact services including the availability you need in your rate plan.
• Group: this field is so you can group your rate plans together when using the reservation rate query. For example Golf rates,  Spa rates, and Leisure rates This is useful for the team if you have a range of rate plans as it allows filtering on the rate query screen.

• Stay Min: free type a minimum length of stay, if required for example, enter 2 for 2 nights.
• Max: free type a max length of stay if required, for example, enter 2 for 2 nights.
• Lead: free type a lead time if required, for example, enter 14 for a 14-night lead time. Useful for advanced purchase rates.
• Order: free type the order you wish the rate plan to appear in the rate query for the team on HART PMS. For example, 1 if you wish this to appear below your BAR rates. 

• Segment: choose a segment for the rate plan from the drop-down box, This is used for the appropriate HART reports.
• Subsegment: choose a sub-segment for the rate plan from the drop-down box, This is used for the appropriate HART reports. If configured to link with the segment this subsegment will drop in automatically. See the relevant guide on How to create Segments and Subsegments.

• Category: choose a category for the rate plan from the drop-down box if relevant.
• Type: choose a type from the drop-down, by default, this is set to available to all. This means the rate plan will appear in the rate query for all reservations.

Please see the additional guide if you need this to be only visible to a company or agent.

• Commission: this field is currently for information purposes only. Choose the commission if applicable from the drop-down box.

• Range: this field is set by default to season. If you wish to use daily rates you need to read the relevant guide here.
• Master: this field will show the master rate plan if you are using derived rate plans. Please see the relevant guide here.
• Discount%: this field will show the derived rate discounts or amount. 
• Unit:  this field is for advanced matrix management please see the relevant guide here.
• Revenue: this field is for advanced matrix management please see the relevant guide.  
• Charge: this field is STD by default.  
• Colour: double-click in this field to give your rate plan a colour, this is then visible on the room rack when in rate view. Useful to see the mix of business you have at a glance.

• Active: tick this box to make the rate plan active.
• Discount: tick this box if this is a discounted rate.
• Taxes: tick this box if the rates include VAT. 
• BAR: tick this box if this is your BAR rate, meaning this will appear at the top of the rate query window.
• Fixed: tick this box if you wish the check-in rate to stay the same even if the prices vary throughout the stay.
• Cash: tick this box if you wish to always have the cash box ticked on the room reservations for this rate plan. This will stop things being charged back to the room.

Once you have filled in all the relevant information press save to generate the rate plan ID.

Adding the seasons.

1. Press the edit button on the right-hand side which will bring up the Edit Periods window. In the Add New box, using the drop-down arrow for the calendar, choose your From and To dates.

2. If you tick the Promotion box this will show the rate plan in red in the rate query.

3. Leave the interval as 'As entered'

4. If you wish the rate plan to be a price per person, rather than a price per room tick this box. This is used only if you wish the price to show per person rather than per room.  

5. Press the save button and then exit. 

If you need to edit these dates, press the Edit button again to bring up the Edit Period window, double-click on the date on the left-hand side. This will then drop the dates into the middle Edit window where you can then edit them and save them.

The dates will appear on the left-hand side and the accommodation types will all appear as standard. 

The day range will default to every day but can be changed by choosing a different day range from the drop-down.

From this screen, you can remove any room types you do not wish to be in this rate plan by right-clicking and pressing delete.

The revenue centre will default to the accommodation revenue centre that has been configured in HART.

In the middle window, the services will drop in automatically according to the package setup.

By default the charge and revenue centre will drop in according to the service set-up, but can be adjusted if required here.

The above example shows that we are charging £300 for a Deluxe room regardless of the number of PAX.

out of which;

£33 per person will be for breakfast

£55 per person will be for Dinner

£15.00 per person for Add a bottle of Sparkles.

• The % box can be ticked if the service is to be a percentage rather than an amount of the above room price.
• The P box if ticked means you are charging each servicer per person not per room.
• The + box means the service will be added to the room price rather than deducted.

The example below means:

Breakfast will be charged per person on  every day of the guest's stay, and be added onto the accommodation revenue

Dinner will be charged per person every night of the guest's stay but the revenue will be deducted from the total accommodation revenue.

Add a bottle of Sparkles will be charged on the first night of the guest stay per room and deducted from the accommodation revenue

If you wish to add in 1 and 2 pax prices pressing the Add button here will duplicate the accommodation.

Or you can right-click and add an entry.

The charges and pax can then be added.

To add levels to the rate plan

If you have not already done so please see the guide on 'How to set up Levels'

Once you have created the rate plan as above, build up your rate plan and add the levels to the rate plan under the levels column. You can either right-click and add a new entry for each accommodation type and level or once you have added your first levels  you can press the Add button, add in the level you wish to add and press add

This will then duplicate the accommodation type and Pax and add in the level selection you choose. You can then add your prices in.

Continue to build your rate plan. Once completed press save.

To add children, cots extra beds and baby cots charges

In the bottom window, right-click, add an entry and choose the additional add-on that you wish to add to the rate plan. Including the day range, charge and revenue centre.

To add an inclusive amount please see the relevant guide as this also involves some additional configuration with the outlet section.

Adding additional seasons

If you wish to add a new season follow the steps above using the Edit button. Once you exit out of the Edit period screen you will see the new season appear on the left-hand side and the accommodation drops in once again as default. You can edit this season as you need to either by following the steps above or if the season has only a price change you can copy the previous seasons to the new season and then change the prices.

Copying seasons

Press the Copy button and bring up the Rate Copy window.

1. Tick which parts of the rate season you wish to copy in the top section.

2. Next in the source season window highlight the season you wish to copy, and then in the target season window which season you wish to copy this to. 

3. Press copy and exit. You can then change the new season as required.

To copy a rate plan

If you wish to copy a rate plan, go into the Rate Copy window as above. 

1. Tick the charges you wish to copy in the top section.

2. Free type the new rate code, and name and choose either the same package or a different package. 

3. If you wish to copy the rate plan but add a discount to the accommodation price you can add this in the discount field and tick the amount box if this is an amount rather than a percentage.

4. Then press the copy button.

>Adding a description to your rate plan 

Navigate to the Description tab and free-type description for the rate plan. This is displayed to the team when the rate plan is chosen from the rate query. Here you can put rate-specific terms and conditions, information they should give to the guest, or any specific payment terms.

Adding automated traces

Navigate to the Trace tab and add your trace here. 

• Department: choose the department that the trace is for.
• Days: leave blank for the trace to add to the room on the arrival day

             1 for 1 day after arrival

             -1 for the day before  arrival 

Adding to a channel manager

Please see the relevant guide as this also involves additional configuration.

Adding a confirmation

If you are using HART cloud confirmation, under the Templates tab right-click add an entry and choose the cloud template you wish to link this rate plan to.

Searching for  a rate plan 

There are different ways to search for a rate plan. By using the search function of HART as normal or double-click into the name field to bring up the rate plan wizard and press the search button. 

This will bring up all available rate plans that are available on the date set in the date field. If you untick the available on box then when pressing the search button this will bring up all rate plans.

You can also search in F6 mode to bring up multiple rate plan screens to scroll through. Press F6, then add the search criteria into one of the boxes, ie, all rate plans on package BB, and press F6 to