Hotel Room Pricing Assistant
Get a suggested nightly rate from your BAR, current occupancy and days until arrival, with the rule behind each change.
Market Context
What % of rooms are already sold for this date?
Your standard rate for this season.
Ready to price
Enter your occupancy and lead time to get a rule-based suggestion.
How this pricing assistant works
This tool gives a fast pricing suggestion using three inputs you can observe without a full RMS: your base rate (BAR), how full you already are for the date (occupancy), and how close you are to arrival (lead time). The output is a directional recommendation—use it to sanity-check a rate change, not to replace your full revenue strategy.
A simple rule of thumb: if you’re filling fast and close to arrival, consider holding or raising rate. If pickup is slow far out, consider improving value (packages, fences, channels) before discounting.
Best practices (quick checklist)
- Check public comp-set rates: read market context from published prices only, never by swapping rates or plans with competitors.
- Use fences: prefer discounts with conditions (advance purchase, non-refundable) to protect ADR.
- Watch cancellation risk: high occupancy with flexible terms can drop suddenly—monitor net pickup daily.
- Track outcomes: after a rate change, compare pickup and ADR against the prior week for the same arrival dates.
What this tool does not consider
- Local events and compression nights
- Competitor pricing changes
- Minimum length of stay rules and rate fences
- Cancellation and no-show patterns
What is a hotel room pricing assistant?
A hotel room pricing assistant is a rule-based tool that suggests a nightly rate for a future date by adjusting your best available rate (BAR) for occupancy and lead time. It looks at how much demand is already on the books and how much selling time remains, which keeps rate decisions consistent when you have no revenue management system (RMS). The rules and their percentages are this tool's own heuristics, not a published standard, and they are not based on your market data.
Formula
Suggested rate = BAR × multiplier, where multiplier = 1.00 + adjustments
Occupancy above 90% adds 0.20, above 75% adds 0.10, and below 30% subtracts 0.10. One lead-time rule can also apply: +0.05 under 2 days out with occupancy above 70%, −0.05 under 7 days out with occupancy below 50%, or +0.10 more than 60 days out with occupancy above 20%.
Worked example: pricing a $120 BAR
- With the default inputs (BAR $120, occupancy 65%, 14 days until arrival) no rule applies, so the multiplier is 1.00 and the suggestion is $120, labelled "Standard".
- A date that is nearly full: occupancy 92%, 14 days out. The multiplier is 1.20, so the suggestion is $120 × 1.20 = $144 ("Premium").
- Strong early pickup: occupancy 35%, 70 days out. Only the early-pickup rule applies: $120 × 1.10 = $132.
- A soft date close in: occupancy 25%, 5 days out. Both low-demand rules apply: $120 × (1 − 0.10 − 0.05) = $120 × 0.85 = $102 ("Discount").
Across these four scenarios the same room ranges from $102 to $144 on occupancy and lead time alone.
What Premium, Discount and Standard mean
- "Premium" means the multiplier is above 1.00; consider raising BAR or closing your lowest discounted rates for that date.
- "Discount" means demand is soft. A fenced offer (non-refundable, minimum stay, package) can limit ADR loss compared with an open price cut.
- "Standard" means no rule fired; keep BAR and recheck as the date gets closer, because occupancy and lead time both change daily.
- Rules stack additively, so the suggestion never moves more than 30% above or 15% below BAR.
- Publish the result as a total price where the law requires it. In Germany, prices offered to consumers must include VAT and other price components (§ 3 PAngV).
Frequently asked questions
How do I set my best available rate (BAR)?
Start from the public rates similar nearby hotels show for the same dates and room type, then adjust for your location, reviews and amenities. Check that BAR covers your cost per occupied room plus distribution costs such as OTA commission. Use published prices only: exchanging current rates or pricing plans directly with competitors can breach EU competition law.
Should I lower my rate when occupancy is low?
Not automatically. Far from arrival, low occupancy may simply reflect your normal booking window. Close in, a targeted or fenced discount is usually safer than cutting the public rate for everyone.
What is lead time in hotel pricing?
Lead time is the number of days between today (or the booking date) and the arrival date. Different guest segments book at different lead times, so the same occupancy can mean different things at 60 days versus 3 days out.
How do I know if a rate change worked?
Compare pickup (rooms booked) and ADR for the affected dates in the days after the change against the same period before it. Also watch RevPAR, which combines occupancy and ADR into one figure.
Sources