Takeaway
- Properties can use occupancy pricing to set prices for all their rooms depending on the number of guests actually sleeping in them - making them more appealing to different traveller types
- Adding prices for different numbers of guests per room can increase bookings up to 4% and lead to an uplift of up to 3.5% in revenues
- Not having a single-use price for solo travellers can lead to a drop in conversions of up to 3%
Occupancy pricing is one of our foundational pricing solutions for partners in addition to our Base Rate Plan (Fully Flexible and Non-Refundable). This means that these prices are not treated as discounts or promotions, but form a part of the property’s structural pricing strategy on our platform. Not setting up these prices can have a negative impact on the property’s performance.
What is occupancy pricing?
Properties can use occupancy pricing to set prices for all their rooms depending on the number of guests actually sleeping in them. This makes them more appealing to different traveller segments and enables them to reach more potential guests. For example, consider a room that can accommodate a maximum of four adults. Using occupancy pricing, the same room can be offered at a different price for one, two, three and four guests. These different prices are then shown to potential bookers, depending on what they search for.
Encourage your properties to start leveraging occupancy prices today so that they have the best chance of capturing the rising demand from various guest segments on our platform.
Why is it important?
Properties that currently leverage this foundational pricing solution to specify different prices for different numbers of guests per room enjoy the following benefits:
- Appear in more search results. Rooms with occupancy based pricing are visible to more travellers, as different occupancy options match broader search criteria.
- Increase occupancy of more valuable rooms. This pricing strategy opens bigger, more expensive rooms up to more travellers, making them easier to fill while leaving your properties’ more affordable rooms available for additional guests.
- Gain a competitive advantage. Properties are better able to compete with smaller properties in their area by offering lower rates for smaller group sizes.
- Boost their revenue. Our data shows that occupancy based pricing can result in an average revenue increase of 3.5%.
What are the different pricing models and why are they relevant?
Pricing models specify the format in which prices for a particular room can be accepted by our system. Another way of looking at pricing models is the different time periods for which the property specifies prices – per night, per length-of-stay, or as a one-off rule that applies to all nights and all potential stays.
- Default/Standard – Specify a per-night price for the room, for the maximum and minimum possible occupancy (only maximum occupancy required for single rooms)
- Derived prices – Properties can choose to specify a leading occupancy and set-up % or value-based rules to derive prices for all other occupancies for the room while continuing to specify a per-night price for this leading occupancy.
- Occupancy Based Pricing (OBP) – Prices are specified per-night for each possible occupancy of the room. Omitting prices for certain occupancies is also possible.
- Length of Stay pricing (LOS) – Prices are specified per-night, per occupancy and per length-of-stay. This is the most sophisticated (but complex) pricing model we offer.
How to enable occupancy pricing for your properties and how should they use it?
Occupancy pricing is directly available for your properties via the Rates & Availability (R&A) API. How you should use it to specify prices depends on how your properties choose to price their rooms for different occupancies. The table below illustrates the three alternative routes and links to the relevant parts of the API documentation:
How does the property wish to price for different occupancies? | Recommended pricing model | How can properties specify occupancy prices? |
Rule-based [derived from a default/standard price] | Standard | |
Per-night | OBP | |
Per length-of-stay | LOS |
Properties can specify occupancy prices for all their rooms that can accommodate more than two guests. You can use our onboarding tool to migrate properties that wish to use per-night or per-LOS occupancy pricing to the appropriate pricing model (if your system supports it).
We always recommend that connected properties use their channel manager or PMS platform to set up occupancy prices directly. This is because it is less prone to error and enables properties to manage all their rates and prices directly from your interface. Additionally, some of the more sophisticated pricing models, such as OBP and LOS, are not available for partners via the extranet. However, if your customers cannot specify occupancy prices via your platform, they can set up rule-based derived prices via the extranet and continue to send us the ‘default’ price for the leading occupancy via the R&A API. In this case, these occupancy prices will only be available on Tripeden.com.
Here’s a list of helpful resources to help guide your properties to start using occupancy prices: