Creating & Updating Prices
Price Structure in RTBS
Each Activity in RTBS has a number of Price Types associated with it. Each Price Type is given a Price Schedule which relates to a specific rate for a designated period of time.
This time period relates to the date the booking is for, rather than the date the booking is made, enabling operators to schedule upcoming price changes in advance.
As prices change, only the Price Schedules need to be updated - the Price Types can generally be left alone. The only reason to create new Price Types is when adding a new Activity to RTBS or if you would like to start offering a type of rate (i.e. ‘Family’) that hasn’t previously been available.
Price Schedules & Updating Prices
To see your current rates head to Setup Your Activities → Price Schedules.
Tick the boxes in the top right if you wish to see either Expired or Future Price Schedules.
Each Price Schedule is listed on a row, showing the following information:
The Activity it belongs to;
The Price Type (i.e Adult/Child/Family);
The monetary Rate that the Price Schedule is set for;
The Date Range that the rate is valid for.
To Schedule an Upcoming Price Change
Usually the first step is to amend the To Date of the existing price (by default, these are set far in the future to avoid the risk that a Price Schedule will ever expire by mistake).
To do this, click either the Rate or the Edit icon to access the Price Schedule:
Change the To Date to the last date you want the current price to be valid for.
Click the calendar icon to choose your date, or just type it in. A variety of date formats will be accepted and automatically converted; such as the following:
DD/MM/YYYY
DD-MM-YYYY
YYYY-MM-DD
DD/Mon/YYYY (i.e. 31/Dec/2016)
Click Save Changes to confirm.
Next, you'll need to create a Price Schedule for the new rate.
Creating a New Price Schedule
Click the + symbol to create a new Price Schedule, and then fill in the fields as follows:
- Select the Price Type the rate is valid for.
Enter the new Rate and the date it will be valid from.
For Web Visibility, select any ‘Website Rate’ if you would like it to show on your web booking page, or ‘Not Associated’ to prevent it showing on your website (or if you don’t use RTBS on your website). "Public,Agent,GrabAnActivity" to show on your website and to agents
Ordinarily, the rest of the fields can be left alone - see Advanced Settings below for more information on these options.
Click Save New.
To Date: We strongly recommend leaving the 'To Date' as a distant point in the future to avoid the Price Schedule inadvertently expiring, but if you are confident of the next date the price will change and that new Price Schedules will be set up before this date, you can set it to the last date the rate will be valid. Please note, when a Price Schedule expires the rate disappears from all booking interfaces (so if a subsequent Price Schedule hasn’t been set up, this Price Type will no longer be available).
The new Price Schedule has now been created - you may need to tick ‘Include Future Dated’ for it to show in the list view.
Repeat the above process as required; if changing several prices at one time make sure you familiarise yourself with the Duplicate function described below.
Price Schedules - Advanced Settings
Please see section 'Time of Day Pricing' for information on the options 'Limit Time Valid From' and 'Limit Time Valid To'.
The other options in the Price Schedule allow RTBS live operators to put more specific controls over the visibility of the rate:
Select ‘Gift Voucher Only’ for 'Web Visibility' if the rate is only valid for Gift Voucher purchase, and the rate will be hidden from both your web booking page and from RTBS booking agents.
Alternatively, tick ‘Exclude from Gift Vouchers’ to specifically hide it from your RTBS Gift Voucher purchase page (only relevant if offering RTBS Gift Vouchers on your website).
To have a rate show on your website but not be visible to booking agents, select a ‘Website Rate’ under Web Visibility and then tick ‘Exclude from TMO’ (the TMO is the agent’s interface).
- Finally, to hide it from all interfaces except your internal CRS, tick ‘Operator Only Price’ (Note: This will hide it from booking agents, from your website, and from the Gift Voucher purchase page).
- Price Schedule ID and Description are both optional internal reference fields; if left blank, the system will automatically fill the Price Schedule ID as "From {month/year}".
Duplicate
The ‘Duplicate’ function can be used to save time when creating multiple new Price Schedules with the same start date.
Once the first Price Schedule has been created, click the ‘Duplicate’ icon, and then just select the next Price Type to enter a new rate for, change the Rate as required, and click ‘Save Duplicate’.
Time of Day Pricing
If you would like to limit a rate to only be available at particular times or for a certain period of each day; this can be achieved through the function 'Time of Day Pricing' in the Price Schedule.
Tick 'Limit Time Valid From' to set a start time other than 00:00 for the price to be available from each day.
Tick 'Limit Time Valid To' to set an end time other than 23:59 for the price to be available until each day.
Examples
- If you have an 'Earlybird Special' rate that is only valid for early morning trips, select 'Limit Time Valid To' and set the time for the latest time this price is available (e.g. 9am).
- To add an extra option to the tours that run during the middle of the day, tick both 'Limit Time Valid To' and 'Limit Time Valid From' and set the time period for this option to be available.
For more detailed information and images please see the Chapter -Time of Day Pricing
Price Types
The most commonly used Price Types are ‘Per Person’, or ‘Adult’, ‘Child’ and ‘Family’, but activity operators can use whatever terminology they like, to make the unit names (Price IDs) suit their operational needs.
For example, an operator who runs half-day minibus tours may use any of the following pricing strategies:
Charging a flat fare per seat booked (‘Per Person’);
Offering discounted seats for children (requiring ‘Adult’, ‘Child’, and potentially also ‘Family’ Price Types);
As a flat rate for the vehicle, regardless of how many passengers are travelling (‘Per Vehicle’ or ‘Vehicle Flat Rate’);
As a set minimum amount, with surcharges for additional passengers (‘Min Rate, 1-3 Passengers’ and ‘Each Additional Passenger’).
Passenger Count and Activity Capacity
Please note: This section is only relevant to activity operators who offer live inventory on RTBS (i.e. Bookings are made through RTBS by either booking agents or visitors to your website without them calling first to confirm availability).
When setting up Price Types, it is important for live RTBS operators to consider the capacity of the Activity they are creating the Price Types for and how they will work within this.
Each Price Type is given a ‘Passenger Count’, which determines how many spaces are taken from the tour’s availability for each unit of the Price Type that is booked.
Returning to the above example, if the operator running half-day tours has one bus with 11 seats, the various different pricing options would need to be married up with tour capacity as follows:
Per person: The tour Capacity would be set at 11, and the ‘Per Person’ Price Type would have a Passenger Count of 1 (each unit of ‘Per Person’ takes one space from the 11 available).
Charging Adult/Child/Family rates: Tour Capacity would be 11, the ‘Adult’ and ‘Child’ Price Types would each have a Passenger Count of 1, and the ‘Family’ Price Type would have a Passenger Count of 4 or 5, depending on the total number of people it is valid for.
Flat rate for the vehicle: Tour Capacity would only be set at 1 (as only one vehicle can be booked each day; the number of passengers is irrelevant) and the Passenger Count of the Price Type would also be 1.
Min Rate with Surcharge for Additional Passengers: This option could be configured in a couple of different ways; however, the most common setup would be to have tour capacity set at 1, with the ‘Min Charge’ Price Type having a Passenger Count of 1 to match, so the tour is booked out once the first booking is made. The ‘Each Additional Passenger’ Price Type will have a Passenger Count of 0, and a ‘Max Quantity’ restriction can be placed on it to prevent bookings of more than 8 additional passengers (see section Price Types - Advanced Settings for more information on ‘Max Quantity’).
Creating New Price Types
Go to Setup Your Activities → Price Types.
Click the + button to create a new Price Type and then fill in the fields as follows:
Select the Activity the Price Type will belong to.
Enter a Price ID. This is the text the booking agents and web customers will see on the booking form - e.g. Adult / Child / Family etc.
Enter the Passenger Count for the Price Type (the number of spaces to be taken from trip capacity for each unit booked).
Sort Order can be used to order the price list on the booking form (the lower the Sort Order number, the higher up the list the Price Type will show. Price Types with matching Sort Orders will be ordered alphabetically.
Click Save New to create the Price Type and repeat as appropriate.
Price Types - Advanced Settings
Price Types can be further configured to suit the needs of the Activity Operator as follows:
Short Name - An internal-only reference for the Price Type that may be used in RTBS where space is limited, such as on Custom Manifests.
Description - Text entered here will display below the Price ID on RTBS web booking pages to offer customers a little more information on the Price Type. If the text matches the Price ID, it will be hidden. Please note, the Description text is not displayed to booking agents on the TMO.
Price Code - Ignore this field, unless advised otherwise by RTBS Support.
Price Category - It is good practice to set a relevant Price Category (but not essential). The ‘from’ price advertised on RTBS web booking pages is the lowest rate assigned to a Price Type with the ‘Adult’ category selected.
- Min Quantity - setting a minimum quantity of this price type for a single booking.
Max Quantity - By default, the maximum units a customer can book will always be based on the available capacity for the trip they are booking, divided by the Passenger Count of the Price Type. However - this can be overridden by setting a ‘per booking’ limit for a particular Price Type through this field. This option is most commonly used when an operator has a large maximum capacity, but can only put groups of a certain size together (i.e on tables or in vehicles), so they want to avoid taking live bookings of greater than that amount so their clients aren’t disappointed. We recommend adding text to your booking page to explain the restriction if this field is used, so the groups get in touch directly rather than be dissuaded from booking at all.
- Min Qty is required to book this activity - enforces the number required in the Min Quantity setting.
Operator Only Price - Selecting this means that the Price Type won’t be visible to RTBS booking agents, listed on your RTBS web booking page, or available for Gift Voucher purchase. ‘Operator Only’ Price Types can only be booked by the activity operator themselves, through the CRS. (This option is available in both the Price Type and Price Schedule).