FastBooking Engine

Consolidate of Fastbooking Menu & Tools

I-                    What we have learnt from Fastbooking- Ms. Margaret Lim.

The definition of IDS, OTA, GDS, Booking Engine

Identify the different functions between of them toward the support to properties

What Fastbooking –booking engine will help the hotel?

II-                  Menu & its functions and applications on:

Description

2.1 Hotel Information: To fulfill hotel information by keying in the basic hotel information like the contact

details and address. These information will appear on the confirmation email that goes to the guest.

2.2 Room Description : To fulfill hotel room categories information with their features.

2.3 Distribution: Extended description on the hotel facilities and features including amenities, services and payment methods. These information are required for the display on Fastbooking.com and the partners.

Rates & Availabilities

2.4 Rate Overview: This is a summary displaying all the rates category created in the system. The details shown are the currency used, if the rates are commissionable to TA, is the Tax included, what sales condition is used, what mode is used for the inventory control. Here only provides you with the information of a price category and you cannot make any configurations or changes from here.

2.5 Sale Terms: By clicking the “Create” button to create the title and the selling terms to client. This provide backup to hotels especially in terms of cancellation, children policy.

2.6 Pricing: In this Pricing menu contented subsidiary tools to support the main tool to set calendar period, contract,.. as they are:  Create,  Calendar Price, Set calendar period, Print Price Access Code, Option, If you want to change selling rate for a specific room category F Pricing F Calendar Price to admen and save but if you are changing the selling priods, then you do it from F  Set Calendar Periods

- Create: to help you to create what Price category to be sold to customer = “Price: Individual” appear on your left hand of the head page. Your duty is to fill up the price information as its policies listed as in the page.

- Calendar Price: Allow you to enter the room rate to sell. You may enter rates for different session in a different row numbers provided in the table and each row number represent the price to sell for one period / season.

- Set calendar period: Allow you to set the validity of the selling price. Set the period from & to, week day, select the contract – enter the row number of the price you wish to sell for the selected period in the “New period” box and save. For example your price in Row 2 in the “Calendar Period” is meant for weekday, and row 3 is for weekend, when you select the Weekday, please enter “2” in the “New Period” box and save and do the same for Weekend.

- Print Price: To show you the selling prices and the period you have set for that particular price category.

- Access Code: All prices / promotion you want to sell via the website to the public need to be created in the system and in order to display this price / promotion on your website when the guest query for availability, system need to recognize one “Key” word and we call this the Access Key. For all public promotion, your access key MUST have the word “PROMO-“follow by the name of your price category. In the Access Code section, you can also create a “Password” for any rates that you are setting for a corporate company or tour operator or any individual (the frequent booking guest who does not have a corporate rate with the hotel). When you create such “Password” for private viewership, you “CANNOT” use the “PROMO-“. You just need to put in the password that you want to assign for the client and create.

- Option: Allow you to create the additional service or item to sell together when the client buys the room. This option can be services like Airport Transfer, Breakfast, Spa Package, Cakes, Flowers and so on. When click the “Create” button, a new box will appear that you need to enter the name of the option that you are creating then click “OK”. Once the option is created, you will need to fill up the information like price, either the rates are per person, per adult or per booking, per day, per stay and also to put in a short description about this option. You may also upload a photo of this option to show. Each price category can have minimum 4 options but if you need more, please let Fastbooking know and we can add the numbers to maximum 24 options per price category.

2.7 Room Availability: This menu contained 3 subsidiary tools as they are: Availabilty, Open/ Close Contract & Print room availability which you can find their function as below:

- Availability: Allow you to control the room inventory by either using “Freesale” or “Allotment” mode.

If you select “Freesale”, that means you can only open the inventory by entering “1” in the calendar or close the inventory by entering “0” in the calendar. You are not able to assign the exact number of rooms to sell per day.

If you choose “Allotment” mode, then you can enter any numbers of rooms to sell per day and NEVER set the “0” manually as this number should happen automatically when the last room is sold. When the number of rooms in the calendar became “0”, our system will trigger an alert email to hotel to inform that a particular price category, that particular rooms type on that date has no more rooms to sell. Hotel will need to decide if you want to add on more rooms to sell or you would like to activate the “Total Stop Sale” function by changing the “0” to “-1”. The difference between the status of “0” and “-1” is, when the system shows “0” in the inventory, system will not be able to sell anymore rooms for that day and that kind of room type but if there are any cancellation of rooms from those confirmed bookings, the rooms will be returned to the inventory and system will start to sell the rooms again.

Once you activated the “Total Stop Sale” (-1), that means even if there are any cancellation of rooms from the confirmed bookings, system will not take back the rooms and it will remain closed and not taking any new bookings. If you want to admen room inventory allotment go toF Availability

-Open/ Close contract:

From & To : to select the availability period for the price Contract: üIndividual,  Room: ü  Pls tick in all rooms or independent room type to set the number of rooms to sell for each day during the selected selling period.

Print room availability: To show you the room inventory chart that you have assign for each day, each month for each price category.

2.8 Promotion : Allow you to add the promotion deal. If you did not create the Access Code correctly using “PROMO-Name of your Promotion”, in this section, you will not be able to find that promotion as system is not able to find the details from Pricing. If you have done the access code correctly, in this section you will see a button “Add A New Promotion”. Once added the promotion, you can now tidy up the Title and Message (Content) of your promotion.  Title frame you can add EX– Hot Deal/ Promotion. At the Message frame you can add: What are including in the Hot deal/ Promotion…and sales terms conditions.

Bookings

2.9 View Bookings: This is critical menu you need more focus on, it requires your 3 times/day login the system to check the confirmation / cancellation bookings. You need more practice on this menu when the system is activated

This allows you to check booking details, you will need more practice on this menu when the system runs. Here captures all the booking details that comes from your hotel website be it Confirmed, Not Confirm and Cancelled booking. From here the hotel can obtained the other half of guest credit card details for all the CC Confirmed bookings. Hotel can also retrieve the guest contact information from here for the CC Not Confirmed record to recover the sales. Please note that we do not charge any commission on the CC Not Confirmed record hence if the hotel is able to recover the sales not using the booking engine, the total booking revenue is yours.

2.10 View Group Bookings: Less focus on this menu because this is used when you want to check on bookings mainly from Corporate or specific access code.

2.11 Resa/History/Cancel: This is not really important as when your hotel goes live, you can cancel the booking from your hotel website hence DO NOT need to login to this section to make any booking cancellation.

Reports

2.12 Statistics Bookings: This menu will show your all the CONFIRMED booking reports. You may view the report either in Detailed or Trends format. From Detailed report, you can see the total booking volume, average rate per night and booking average Lead Time. The lead time allows you to see the booking pattern of your client as how early they make booking to stay in the hotel. You can then plan when should you launch any promotion in order to capture the clients. Trends report display the result in graphical format. Here it displays the breakdown of your booking source, the country that makes booking with your hotel and the breakdown of revenue for each country/region.

2.13 Daily Pickup: You need to focus on “Show report” button to find out your “On the Book” reservations for the current and next two future months. This allows you to plan if you need to launch any tactical promotion to invite bookings for those dates that the booking numbers are low.

2.14 Guest Comments: You can find guest comment in this menu to improve or upgrade your property service. You will only see guest comments if your hotel is participating in Fastbooking.Com and the partners’ programme. If the booking is via Fastbooking.com and it’s partners, after the guest checks out, Fastbooking will send guest a thank you letter with a survey. If the guest responds to the survey, we will keep all the feedback in this section and at the same time also display the same on the hotel page in Fastbooking.com

Export

2.15 Access Keys: It shows you all the Access Codes you have created and can be exported to Excel file

2.16 Bookings: Here it captures all the “Raw Data” of all the bookings be it confirmed, not confirmed or

cancelled. This is the pure database for the hotel and you should download this report once in three months and keep it for the future used. Your marketing department can sort the report based on their

requirement especially if you are planning for any kind of regional promotions as you may filter the guest address and emails from the report.

2.17 Options: It shows you which bookings have bought the options and you may also tabulate the total revenue generated from selling all the options.

My Account

2.18 Payment: This buttons is only used if hotel wish to settle the Fastbooking Commission using a credit card. If you are paying the commission via bank transfer, PLEASE IGNORE THIS BUTTON.

2.19 Password: You can come here to change your current password

Prepared by:Jane, Nguyen Thi Thoi - Director of Sales, Marketing & Business Development     South & Central Vietnam

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Establishing Room Rates

Subjects:

·         Market-based pricing - Market Condition Approach ·         Top-down pricing ·         Rate-cutting ·         Prestige product pricing ·         Cost-based pricing - Rule-of-thumb approach & Bottom-up approach ·         Differential rates Market-based pricing Market Condition Approach The market condition approach is really a marketing approach that allows the local market to determine the rate.  This approach fails to take into account what a strong sales effort may accomplish. This approach can also be termed the “common sense” approach or “price followership”. By adopting this approach a hotel considers what comparable hotels within the same geographic area are charging for similar rooms or products. The philosophy behind this approach is that a hotel can only charge prices which the market will accept, and therefore prices are dictated by the competition. Can hotels determine their rates after directly discussing their rates with each other? Hoteliers cannot meet directly “in collusion” to determine prices. If they were to do so they would be in breach of our Competition Law. 5. (1) […] the following is prohibited, that is to say any agreement between undertakings, any decision by an association of undertakings and any concerted practice between undertakings having the object or effect of preventing, restricting or distorting competition within Malta or any part of Malta and in particular, but without prejudice to the generality of this subarticle, any agreement, decision or practice which: (a) directly or indirectly fixes the purchase or selling price or other trading conditions; Chapter 379, Competition Act, Laws of Malta Top-down pricing This approach is often used by companies entering a new market or trying to identify a gap which is unfilled. This method of pricing will still require an element of cost-based pricing in order to ensure that the prices being charged are realistic and will result in an overall return on investment. Rate-cutting This approach assumes that demand will increase if prices are lowered – but we do know however that rate cutting can be risky and may also lead competitors to cut their rates – a situation which would result in everyone making losses. Prestige product pricing This approach takes that the view that raising the price of a room will make a hotel more exclusive and thus change the nature of the overall product. This method seems to defy the laws of economics, and will work only if the market is not price conscious. Prestige product pricing is more or less a psychological activity. Cost-based pricing Rule-of-thumb Approach This approach sets the rate of a room at Lm 1 for each Lm 1,000 of construction and furnishings cost per room, assuming a 70% occupancy. As an example, let us assume a 200-bedroom hotel cost us Lm5,000,000 to construct and furnish.  Each room therefore cost us Lm25,000 and using this approach the average room rate will be Lm25.00 per room. As Abbott & Lewry point out (page 190) this rule was devised quite some time ago when rates of interest, tax levels and expectations about appropriate rates of return were different. However the main difficulty in adopting this approach is that it does not reflect the fundamental importance of fixed and variable costs in determining a hotel’s profitability. When can this approach be taken? This approach was intended for newly constructed hotels to determine a starting average price. However it can be used for any hotel provided that the hotel operator revalues the property and calculates the rates accordingly. A hotel that was constructed in the seventies at a certain cost will have almost certainly appreciated in value. Is this approach a valuable approach? It is certainly indicative, even if not precise. If, for instance, a group of 4 hotels has a value of Lm 15,000,000 and a stock of 500 rooms, then one can assume with some confidence that the average room rate is closer to Lm 30 per night than Lm 20 or Lm 70 The bottom-up approach This approach was formerly known as the Hubbart formula and was introduced in the United States in the 1950s.  It is known as the bottom-up approach because, contrary what we do in normal accounting practice, we first decide how much profit is required (return on investment) and then determine the expenses for the following period (usually one year). The Hubbart formula can be summed up as: Operating Costs + required return – income ex other departments = average room rate -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Expected number of room nights The steps are best described as follows: 1.       Calculate the total amount invested in the hotel. 2.       Decide on the required annual rate of return on the investment (this may  be a percentage of the amount invested) 3.       Estimate the overhead expenses. 4.       Combine 2 and 3 to find the required gross operating income. 5.       Estimate the probable profits from all other sources (i.e. estaurants, bars etc) 6.       Deduct 5 from 4 to find out how much profit you need to make from room lettings. 7.       Estimate accommodation department’s expenses (include fixedand variable costs based on the occupancy forecasted) 8.       Add 6 and 7 to find out how much you need to make from the rooms. 9.       Estimate the number of room nights you are likely to achieve per annum (based on occupancy forecasted) 10.     Divide 8 by 9 to find out the average room rate you should charge.       Administrative and general 120,000 Advertising    and promotion 75,000 Utilities 50,000 Repairs and  maintenance 95,000 Example A hotel company operates a 150-room hotel.  The capital invested is Lm2,500,000 and the company is expecting a net profit of 10% after paying tax at the rate of 50%. We expect an average occupancy rate of 70%. Department expenses are expected to amount to Lm375,000 and profits from other departments are expected to be in the region of Lm 200,000. These are the overhead expenses: Administrative and general 120,000  Advertising and promotion 75,000  Utilities 50,000  Repairs and maintenance 95,000 Depreciation 205,000 Insurance, licences and local taxes 80,000 Loan Interest 140,000 Step 1 Total Invested in Hotel = Lm 2,500,000  Step 2 10% of Lm 2,500,000 = Lm 250,000 Tax = Lm 250,000 Step 3 Overhead expenses = Lm 765,000 Step 4 The required gross operating income is Lm 500,000 and Lm 765,000 is Lm 1,265,000. Step 5 Profits from other sources are expected to amount to Lm 200,000 Step 6 We need a total room revenue of Lm 1,065,000 Step 7 To this amount we need to add Lm 375,000 which is the departmental cost. Step 8 In total we need to make Lm 1,440,00 from rooms. Step 9 150 rooms x 365 days = 54,750   = 100% room occupancy Therefore = 38,325 = 70% room occupancy Step 10 Average room rate =       Lm 1,440,000 ÷ 38,325 room nights Lm 37.57 The Hubbart formula can be used for varying percentages of occupancy. To do so we would simply need to review Steps 7 to 9. Differential room rates One of the problems with both the rule-of-thumb and bottom-up approaches is that they only produce an average room rate. This would be a sound approach if a hotel had only one room type, but we know that this is not the case. Having determined an average room rate we now need to calculate differential rates. Let us assume we have a 60-bedroom hotel, with an overall average of 65% occupancy and three room types - Type                                               Rms                Occ% Single, single occupancy S                   20                  68% Double, single occupancy D(s)              30                  20% Double, double occupancy D(d)                                  60% Luxe D, single occupancy LD(s)            10                    9% Luxe D, double occupancy LD(d)                                 48% Total                                               60 Average                                                                 65% We must now determine appropriate weightings for the different rates. If, for instance, a Single room has a weight of 1, a double room will have a weight of 1.8, but if occupied by one person a weighting of 1.4. The weightings are purely a matter of judgement. Type                           Rms             Occ%      Average Occupied      Room weight Single, sgle occ S         20                68%              13.6                        1 Double, sgle occ D(s)    30                20%                6                          1.4 Double, dble occ D(d)                       60%              18                          1.8 Luxe D, sgle occ LD(s)  10                  9%              0.9                         1.8 Luxe D, dble occ LD(d)                      48%             4.8                         2.4 Total 60 We now need to calculate the average revenue target per night which is Lm 1,365 (average rate Lm 35 x 60 rooms x 65% occupancy)

The other columns in the spreadsheet above are explained below:

AO x Weight Average occupancies times weight. This produces a combined

weighting which reflects both the ‘value’ of the room and the expected occupancies.

Revenue expected

This divides the nightly revenue expected (Lm 1365) into the proportions shown in the previous column. For the first row (Single) we calculate

Room rate

The room rate is now calculated by dividing the Revenue expected for the particular room type by the number of average occupied rooms. The figure is then rounded up.

Seasonal rates

We may need to take differential rates a step further, because differential rates do not deal with the issue of seasonality. In this example we are considering two seasons: a high season with a weighting of 4 and a low season with a weighting of 3. The difference is now that the AO x Weight column now multiplies the Average Occupied Rooms by Room and Seasonal Weight.

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