Yield - price recommendations
What it is
The Yield (pricing) screen in the website administration. It watches your occupancy and suggests which days to sell at a higher price and which at a lower one.
It is part of the Premium plan.
Why you need it
You can change prices yourself, but you have to think about it every day. Yield watches for you and flags it when dates are filling up differently from usual.
Prices never change by themselves
This is the most important point: a suggestion is always only a recommendation. It is written into your pricing only once you accept it. Nothing changes automatically.
What it looks like
The screen is a calendar for a month. Each day has a color according to the recommendation:
| Recommendation | Occupancy |
|---|---|
| Lower | low, below 40 % |
| Hold | medium, 40-65 % |
| Raise | high, above 65 % |
Each day also has a reason - Weekend, Season, Last minute, Low occupancy and so on.
Above the calendar, the Room type in calendar field lets you switch which room the suggestions apply to.
How to accept a suggestion
You have three ways:
One day: click the day and then click Accept.
Several days at once: click to select days, the system shows you the Price impact and you click Accept selected.
A whole month: the Accept all recommendations button at the top.
Accepted prices are written into your pricing as a seasonal price for that day. You can change them there at any time, or use the Revert button.
You turn down a suggestion you do not like with the Reject button.
What the suggestion is based on
- Occupancy - how many rooms you have sold for that day against your capacity.
- Direction - with high occupancy the price goes up, with low occupancy down.
- Boldness - how far the suggestion may deviate from your price.
These also push the price up: the weekend (Friday and Saturday), public holidays and long weekends, school holidays, and the pace of bookings when dates are filling faster than usual.
Conversely, a near date that has stayed empty pushes the price down.
The full explanation is also on the screen itself, under the How the price is calculated button.
What a suggestion will never do
- It will not go outside the limits you set.
- It will not overwrite a price you entered manually until you accept the suggestion.
- It will not make an expensive room cheaper than a cheaper room. The order of rooms by price is preserved.
Settings
Further down the screen:
- Recommendations - on or off. When off, suggestions are not calculated and the reservations calendar is not tinted.
- Pricing aggressiveness - Conservative (smaller steps), Balanced or Aggressive (reacts more strongly to demand).
- Rooms managed by yield - which room types suggestions are calculated for.
- Min. price and Max. price - limits the suggestion will never go outside of. You save them with the Save limits button.
Set your limits first. Without them a suggestion has a free hand.
Yield in the reservations calendar
When you have recommendations switched on, you also see the color marks in the reservations calendar - see Calendar and blocking. From there you get to yield with one click.
How often it is recalculated
Every day.
Common problems
The item has a padlock. Yield is part of the Premium plan.
The calendar is empty and says "Add rooms first". Yield suggests prices for room types. Until you have some, there is nothing to price.
I do not see any suggestions. Check the Recommendations toggle - it may be off. Also check that the room is among the rooms managed by yield.
The suggestion stays the same and does not change. It has probably hit your minimum or maximum price. The system tells you so with the reason "Capped by minimum price".
I accepted a price and want it back. Use Revert, or overwrite the price directly in Pricing - it was written there as a seasonal price for that day.
The suggestions seem too wild to me. Switch the aggressiveness to Conservative and set stricter price limits.