Handling special-case rates

We often encounter customers that have special-case rates, such as "grandfathered" rates, cash-payment rates, special event rates, etc that they don't know how to set up to work with auto-rates.

Sometimes this can be done using a "Discount" type, but this can cause a problem when it "remembers" that discount and tries to use it the next time when it shouldn't really apply.  Another alternative is by using a special Reservation Type (which also could have some advantages for reporting or filtering reservations), but that could be awkward or confusing in some cases.

We usually recommend setting it up so that you just need to check a "preference" box on the reservation to make it use the special rate.  As an example, lets say you offer a discount on boat slip rentals if they're also renting a room.  Basically, you need to add an attribute/preference field like "Slip w/Room", select that when applicable, and define the lower rate to apply only if that attribute is selected.

Here are the details:

1. Go to Maintenance / Data Field Definitions / Reservation Fields and locate an Attrib_ field that you're not using, and change the Status to "Enabled".  Also modify the "Normal Header" accordingly, e.g. to "Slip w/room" (try to keep it short).  Note that it should be a yes/no kind of attribute field.

2. Go to Maintenance / Program Options / Reservations and select that field for one of the available Quick-select Preferences. This will add a checkbox for it on the New Reservation dialog.  

Note: For any existing reservations that this should apply for, you need to go into Reservation Details for the reservations, then click "Site Preferences", and check the appropriate box.

3. Go into Rates Setup and Edit the special lower rate.  Select the new attribute field in "Applies if reservation field". It will show "True" after the field name when you select it, so leave that selected.

4. Make sure that the lower special rate is *above* the normal rate in the Rates Setup, so it checks that condition first, before defaulting to the normal rate.