Set a reliable base price for every category
The base price is the stable starting point, not the price for every day of the year.Open Pricing → Overview and review the base price of every active category. Use a normal demand date and consider size, capacity, amenities, location, historic sales and guest value. A premium name alone does not justify a premium.
Hotel Nordlicht starts with €94, €139, €179 and €229 across its four categories, then tests whether staff can explain every difference in one clear sentence.
| Category | Base price | Defensible value |
|---|---|---|
| Cozy single room | €94 | Compact single occupancy and clear entry rate |
| Nordlicht double room | €139 | Two guests, more space and double-room standard |
| Panorama studio | €179 | Additional living area and panorama |
| Family loft | €229 | Family capacity, separated areas and longer stays |
Design rate plans as understandable buying choices
Open Pricing → Rate Plans and start with a small number of clear offers. Many small hotels need only a flexible direct rate and a stricter rate with a meaningful benefit. Each requires a guest-friendly name, inclusions, cancellation and payment conditions, categories and price relation.
Check whether the price difference matches the commitment. Hotel Nordlicht uses exact cancellation dates and times plus a clear amount or percentage, consistently across selection, confirmation and booking context.
Approve a rate plan cleanly
- 01State the guest choice
Explain the benefit and commitment in one sentence.
- 02Assign categories
Enable only categories where price and service truly apply.
- 03Make policies concrete
Set deadline, time, amount or percentage and payment timing.
- 04Check price relation
Recalculate the adjustment across at least three stays.
- 05Read the guest view
Understand name, benefit and policy on mobile without internal knowledge.
Build seasonal and weekday rules sparingly
A rule should represent a recurring pattern. One special date does not need permanent logic.Before creating a rule, document reason, period, categories, effect and priority. Hotel Nordlicht starts with at most one seasonal and one weekday rule, tests their interaction, then adds exceptions only when needed.
Use a manual decision for one-off events or short-term situations that do not justify a recurring rule. Record reason, validity and owner, and do not let automation silently overwrite protected manual pricing.
| Observation | Suitable action | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Higher leisure demand every July and August | Seasonal rule | Recurring period with clear effect |
| Friday and Saturday regularly stronger | Weekday rule | Stable pattern across many weeks |
| One-off city festival | Manual decision for specific dates | No permanent pattern |
| Two isolated strong booking days | Observe, no new rule yet | Too little evidence for permanent logic |
| Category inventory is blocked for renovation | Room blocks, not pricing | Issue affects availability, not willingness to pay |
Separate restrictions and special conditions from price
Not every sales decision is a price change. Minimum stay, closed arrival or departure and booking windows change whether a guest can book. Test one case just below and one at the restriction boundary.
Special conditions such as corporate agreements need their own purpose, validity and audience. Do not publish a contract price as a general discount. Show conditions, rate and price together.
Answer before adding any restriction
- Which specific hotel problem does the restriction solve?
- Which dates, categories and rates does it affect?
- Which valuable booking might it exclude?
- How does the guest understand it before choosing?
- When and by whom is it reviewed?
Test every price in preview with complete stays
One nightly price does not prove a multi-night stay is calculated correctly.Open Pricing → Price preview and maintain a fixed test set: low-season weekday, strong summer weekend, month boundary, flexible and stricter rates, two categories and a minimum-stay case. Write down the expected calculation before previewing.
Run the same cases in Booking Engine preview. Internal preview explains the hotel decision; guest preview shows rate, conditions and total. If they differ, fix the responsible source and repeat the same case.
| Case | What it verifies | Passes when |
|---|---|---|
| Low season, Tuesday, 1 night | Base price without unexpected rule | Expected category price appears. |
| Summer Saturday, 2 nights | Season, weekday and multiple nights | Every night and total are explainable. |
| Month boundary, 3 nights | Rule boundaries and date change | No night silently falls outside logic. |
| Flexible versus stricter rate | Price benefit and policy | Guest understands the difference before choosing. |
| Minimum stay 3 nights | Case below and at boundary | 2 nights rejected, 3 offered correctly. |
Use intelligent pricing as a controlled recommendation
Intelligent Pricing does not replace hotel responsibility. STRYK uses explainable statistical methods on available booking, price and demand information and can provide recommendations by category and date. Limited evidence falls back to clearly labelled rules. It is not a revenue guarantee.
Before approval, review base, recommendation, change, category, date and explanation plus limits and manual decisions. Start in observation mode. Consider guarded automation only after data quality, sample, error measures and hotel policy are reliable.
Review before accepting a recommendation
- Category and target date are in the active review horizon.
- Starting and recommended prices are plausible.
- Explanation and evidence are clearly labelled.
- Price limits and hotel strategy are respected.
- No protected manual decision is overwritten.
- Approval or rejection receives a traceable reason.
Run a weekly pricing routine with clear ownership
A regular 30 minutes is more valuable than rare frantic overhauls.Hotel Nordlicht reserves 30 minutes every Tuesday for the next 90 days: occupancy, new bookings, cancellations, unusual dates, manual prices and recommendations. Only justified dates change, followed by three preview cases and a second-person spot check.
Monthly, review structure rather than dates: category differences, rate clarity, restriction gaps, rule validity and expired manual decisions. Change one structural item at a time and document its goal and review date.
