Fixed Packages are packages which have a fixed 'sell price' for a specific time frame.
For example, A Valentine package might have dinner for 2, wine and flowers included with a 3 night stay in a Queen Room. The package will cost $450. As the price is 'fixed' at $450, the Rate Plan associated with the Queen Room will be ignored. The amount that will be allocated to the Queen room in this case (and becomes taxable at the 'lodging' tax) would be the total of the Items (let's say we had dinner for 2 at $60; wine at $25; and flowers for $25 = $110) less the 'sell price' of $450. So, in this example, the 'Room Rate' becomes $450 - $110 = $340. Because it's a 3-day stay, the ' Queen Room Rate' becomes $113.33/day ($340/3).
Once a package is set up, then it must be allocated in Agent Relationships to appear on your website or GDS. See Allocating Packages
See below for details on setting up a Dynamic Package.
- Package ID: This will be the 'Rate' that is allocated to a sales channel, - your website, a special Agent, or the GDS systems – once the Package is ready for sale.
- Name: This is the name of the Package as online buyers will see it.
- Type: The 'Fixed' package is priced once, and its price is not calculated from the Room Rate or Items added to it. This is intended for 'easy to make' packages that have no daily or seasonal rate changes. The 'Dynamic' package is intended to be used more tightly with Room Rates - as Room Rates rise, the Package price does as well. As the Room Rate falls, so does the Package price. The Items that comprise the Package may be shown - or not - to the Guest while being booked. Regardless, if Items are added to the Package, rest assured they will be in correct quantities, so that they can be tracked and priced by the Property Management Systems correctly when a Guest buys the package. The 'sell price' of a Package need not be priced on the calculation of the Room + Items, but it can be and BookingCenter provides a feature for viewing what the 'calculated price' of a dynamic package would be.
Live/Not Live: This is how you can 'turn on/turn off' the Package from being shown anywhere.
- Sell: This is the price the Package will be sold at as a Fixed package. The sale price will either include or exclude taxes based on the setting of your Property, as all Rates do.
- Calculated Sell: While building the Package, this filed will show what the 'pieces of the package, added together' would amount to. As you add and remove Items to a Package, click the 'refresh' button at bottom to refresh the 'calculated sell' price. This is not shown anywhere else and is intended to give a package bui8lder the composite price of the pieces.
- Number of Guests: This is the number of guests that can be included in a Package – adults, children, and infants included:
- Closed to Arrival: This setting will make sure that a Package can not be booked to start on the dates specified, with the first date value a Sunday. So, there should always be 7 (one for each day of week) Y's (yes) or N's (no) in this field. If there is no day of the week this rate can be purchased for an arrival, make that day N. For example, if a Package rate is closed for arrival on Fridays and Saturdays, but is available for other days, then the field would look like: NNNNNYY
- Minimum Stay/Maximum Stay: The minimum and maximum number of days that need to be booked to allow the Package to be purchased. For a Fixed package the min and max values must be the same. A Fixed package must have the same value for min and max stays, as the rate is not based on a day-by-day dynamic price, but on a 'fixed' duration and grouping of Rooms and Items.
- Valid From/To: By entering dates, this will show which dates the Package can be booked on. Dates outside of these settings will not be able to be booked.
- Display Items: This setting will show the Guest who books a Package on the BookingCenter Booking Engine ONLY the actual Items that comprise a Package. When booked via the Global Booking Network, the Items are not displayed ever, only the marketing text and images are presented to the buying Guest. The options are to show the Items in email (the email confirmation that guest to a Guest after a booking) web (the web pages of the Booking Engine that show a summary of the Package being bought). The package builder can choose whether or not to show the Items comprising the Package by selecting these options.
- Promote: This value will highlight the Package at the top of a BookingCenter Booking Engine screen in order to promote it above basic Room rates. This has no value outside of the BookingCenter system, ie no effect on its promotion within the GDS systems.
- Short Description: The short description that shows on the BookingCenter Booking Engine that entices Guests to look at – and book - the Package. If the Package will be distributed to Global Booking Networks, then do not place HTML in this field as it will be rejected. Maximum 100 characters is recommended for this field.
- Long Description: The long description that shows on the BookingCenter Booking Engine that entices Guests to look at – and book - the Package. If the Package will be distributed to Global Booking Networks, then do not place HTML in this field as it will be rejected. There is no recommendation for how many characters this field will support, but some GDS systems only support a maximum of 100 characters for the length of any description – long or short. For this reason, if the Package will be distributed to Global Booking Networks, keep all relevant text in the first 100 characters.
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