Rates -- Special case rates using a Reservation type

A previous newsletter article covered one way of handling special-case rates (such as grandfathering a rate for a customer or other special situations) by setting up an Attribute for it.  While that is good enough for many cases, sometimes it's better to use a new Reservation Type instead.  Using a separate Reservation type (e.g. instead of the standard "Normal" or "Monthly") will allow greater control of reporting & filtering reservations of that type, as well as allow you to set up a special Color Scheme more easily.  One example where this would work well may be if you have a special rate for people attending a rally (using a "Discount" type isn't recommended because that would stick with the Customer, giving them the discount next time they visit also).

Here are the details:

1. Add a new Reservation Type  -- go to Maintenance / Pick Lists / Reservation Types, check "Allow Editing of fields", and click "Add record".  For more details on Pick Lists, see the Help for that function (press the F1 key while in the function).

2. Set up your Rates for that new type (Maintenance / Park Setup / Rates).  This can be easily done by selecting the normal rate(s) already defined and clicking "Copy Selected Rates".  Then edit the copies as needed (description and price), as well as selecting your new Reservation Type (click the "Resv Types" button in Edit Rate Definition).  This last step is important so the special rates only apply to that Reservation Type.

3. Make sure you Move your new special rates up in the list so they are above the normal rates, otherwise they may not work with Auto-Rates (depending on how strict you were with the Resv Types in the normal rates).

4. If you want to make them a special color, see the previous article on creating a Color Scheme for new reservation types:

http://campgroundmaster.com/news/color-codingreservationtypes.html

Now all you need to do is remember to select that Resv Type for any reservations that need the special rate.