Knowledgebase
Online Bookings: What other Rate Plan Strategies can you employ to increase your on-line bookings?
Posted by Ryan Timms on 23 May 2010 09:39 PM

What other Rate Plan Strategies can you employ to increase your on-line bookings?



There are essential four major rate strategies that can be employed for participation on the GDS and Pegasus channels. These include:

1. Rack and Promotion only
2. Discount Rates for AAA, AARP, Government, Military, and Corporate
3. Net Rate/Merchant Model
4. Negotiated and consortia rates

Please find a summary for each below:

Rack and Promotion only
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All BookingCenter properties on the GDS and Pegasus channels have these two rate plans listed. In most cases the actual rate will be the same for both Rack and Promo. The reason BookingCenter will send two rate plans with the same rate is because certain sites will only list properties that listed a ‘Promo’ rate.


Discount Rates for AAA, AARP, Government, Military, and Corporate
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BookingCenter allows your property to sell discounted rates to specific markets. The five major discount rate plans include AAA, AARP, Government, Military, and Corporate. It is often required that properties offer a discount for these rate plans. Many major travel websites participate in these programs and should help sell your inventory.

The five major discount rate plans we find work most successfully with many of our customers include AAA, AARP, government (GOVT), military (MILT), and corporate (CORP). It is standard that your property would offer a 5% to 15% discount off of your rack rates for these plans. Since many major travel websites (ODD/Pegasus) and travel agents (GDS) participate in these programs, they will help sell your rooms.

If you so choose, you can implement this just on weekdays. As a result, you only have to utilize this program when occupancy levels are low, such as mid-week or during your low seasons. You have complete control and to start, perhaps only want to discount a small percentage (5%) or dollar value ($5). In these tough economic times, we feel this can only help increase your bottom line and occupancy levels.

To participate in these promo rates (AAA, AARP, Government, Military, and Corporate), please contact us let us them know which ‘promo’ rate program(s) you wish to participate in (for example, all five, or just AAA and AARP).


Net Rate/Merchant Model
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Participation in the NetRate or Merchant Model program will guarantee preferred placement of your property on some of the major Internet Travel websites. Not only will you get preferred placement, but your property will also be positioned with additional information, included additional marketing information and exterior/ room type images.

NetRate programs are agreements between a particular travel website (i.e. Orbitz, Expedia Net Rate, Priceline) and a property. Often times, these travel websites require deep discounts on your rack rates (~25%), but will provide preferred placement and access to additional information on your property. Almost all the major travel websites have NetRate programs. BookingCenter does allow you to manage this program through our software. 


The five major NetRate programs are from the following travel sites:

• Expedia / Hotels.com / Travelocity (if participate in Expedia's merchant program)
• Orbitz

• Booking.com

• AirBnB

• Priceline
• Hotwire
• Lodging.com

Some other participating NetRate sites include:

• Site59
• Travelweb
• TravelHero
• TravelToday
• HotelLocators
• JumpStart
• Galileo Web


Negotiated and consortia rates
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The travel industry is full of corporations and travel agencies who only book at properties that provide direct, negotiated rates. An example of a negotiated rate would be an IBM rate. This means that IBM employees (or an IBM related Travel Agent) can book directly at a property that participated in an IBM negotiated rate. BookingCenter allows you to create and manage Negotiated and Consortia Rates directly through the software.

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