Every January it is the same: you open the spreadsheet with last year's rates, add a column for 2027, nudge August up a little. Then you type them one by one into the Booking.com extranet, into Airbnb, into the website. The same job three times, and somewhere a number will slip.
Room pricing does not need to be complicated. It needs a sensible order: periods, base rate, variations, restrictions. And one place where you enter them once.
Step 1: split the year into periods
Start from the calendar, not from the rates. For a seaside property the periods look something like this:
- Low: the start and the end of the season, for example April, May and October.
- Mid: June and September.
- High: July and August.
- Peaks: Easter, public holidays, the mid-August week, a local feast or a festival in your area. Check the 2027 dates before you enter them.
How many periods? As many as you can explain. Four or five are enough for most small properties. Fifteen periods is a spreadsheet by another name.
Step 2: one base rate per room type
For each period you set one rate per room type, for the base occupancy, for example two people without breakfast. An example for a property with doubles and family rooms (the numbers are only illustrative):
- Double: €60 low, €80 mid, €110 high, €130 peak.
- Family: €85 low, €110 mid, €150 high, €175 peak.
In the Bookmatrix.com property management system this is one update per period: you pick the dates from and to, the room type and the rate. If you want Saturday dearer, you pick only that weekday and set a different rate for the same range.
Step 3: variations come from the base rate
This is where the spreadsheet starts to hurt. You have a rate with breakfast, a non-refundable rate, a rate for a third person. If each variation is a separate column, every change to the base rate needs four corrections.
The answer is derived rate plans. You set the rule once and the rate works itself out:
- With breakfast: base rate plus an amount, for example +€15.
- Non-refundable: base rate minus a percentage, for example −10%, with its own cancellation policy.
- Per person: if you sell per person, the rate for one or three people comes from the base by an amount or a percentage, and children have their own fee.
When you change the July base rate, all its variations change with it.
Step 4: restrictions per period
The rate is half the decision. The other half is which bookings you accept:
- Minimum stay: for example 3 nights in August, 1 night in May.
- Closed to arrival or departure: if you want changeovers on certain days.
- Stop sell: for dates when you do not sell a plan or a room at all.
Restrictions are set the same way, per date range, and travel to the channels together with the rates.
Step 5: once, on every channel
As soon as you save, the channel manager sends rates and restrictions to Booking.com, Airbnb, Expedia and the booking engine on your website. You open no extranet. If you want a different rate on one channel, for example to cover its commission, you set a separate rate plan for that channel. Otherwise one price list covers them all. For how this works in practice, see why every hotel needs a channel manager.
How to decide the numbers
The software does not tell you the right rate. It does give you the data to decide it:
- Last year's occupancy per period. If June filled early, its rate was low. If September stayed half empty, maybe it was high, or needed a shorter minimum stay.
- When the bookings came. August bookings arriving in February mean there is room to go up.
- Your neighbours. Search the same dates on Booking.com as a guest and see what properties with a similar score and location charge.
- Your costs. Cleaning, electricity, channel commissions. A low-season rate that does not cover them does not help you.
The most common mistakes
- Dates at the end of the season with no rate, sold at the default.
- Variations typed by hand that fall behind when the base rate changes.
- Different rates on the website and the channels without deciding it.
- Mid-season rate changes made on one channel and forgotten on the others.
If you still keep bookings in a notebook, see also the comparison notebook or Bookmatrix.com.
Frequently asked questions
How do I set my room rates?
Split the year into 4 to 5 periods, set one base rate per room type for each period, derive the variations by rules (breakfast, non-refundable) and add a minimum stay at peak times.
Do I need the same rate on every channel?
Not necessarily. You can have one price list for all of them or a separate plan per channel. Check what your contract with each channel says about rate differences.
Can I change rates during the season?
Yes. A change on the calendar reaches every connected channel within seconds. Reservations already made keep their rate.
What about the rates in my spreadsheet?
You send them to us and we set them up in Bookmatrix.com during onboarding, together with your rooms and policies.
Want to set up your 2027 rates together? Send us your spreadsheet and we will build the rates in Bookmatrix.com, together with your channels. Start with a free 14-day trial at bookmatrix.com/demo, or leave your details at bookmatrix.com/form and we will call you on the next working day. Phone: +30 2351 151525.