In plain words
Six checks before you go live: every room type has its own , rates are loaded for about the next 13 months (396 nights), the time zone and currency on the PMS tab are right, anything nobody sleeps in is unticked, blocked rooms are entered as out of service, and floors and ceilings are set. On ThinkReservations, also check the room counts MAYA read from your list of rooms.
On Cloudbeds and ThinkReservations, MAYA changes one thing in your system: one nightly rate per room type, on one rate plan. Everything else stays as you set it. On Mews it changes nothing. So the setup is short. It is about making sure that one rate plan exists and is loaded (on Cloudbeds and ThinkReservations), that MAYA is counting the right rooms, and that MAYA's calendar and yours agree on what day it is.
The checklist
- Every room type you want priced has a rate plan that does not follow another plan and has no public name. That is the plan MAYA writes to.
- That plan has a rate loaded for tonight and the next 395 nights, and further out if you sell further out.
- Your time zone and currency are right. MAYA copies them from Cloudbeds when you connect and checks them again once a day. Check both under Time zone and currency on the PMS tab, and email us if either is wrong.
- Anything nobody sleeps in is unticked under Counts as a room on the PMS tab.
- Rooms you have blocked or taken out of order in Cloudbeds are recorded under Rooms out of service in MAYA.
- Floors and ceilings are set for every room type. Read floors and ceilings.
- There is an active standard rate type whose name contains "Best Available", and it covers every room type you want priced, or you have picked the rate type on the PMS tab. An inactive one is never used. The PMS tab says "MAYA reads and writes:" with the one MAYA uses.
- That rate type has a rate loaded for tonight and the next 395 nights, and further out if you sell further out.
- The units beside each room type on the PMS tab match the rooms you sell. MAYA counts them from your list of rooms in ThinkReservations, leaving out rooms marked as inactive, as not a room, or as not included in occupancy, and the room count you are billed for is checked against them.
- Your time zone and currency are right. MAYA copies them from ThinkReservations once, when you connect. Check both under Time zone and currency on the PMS tab, and email us if either is wrong.
- Anything nobody sleeps in is unticked under Counts as a room on the PMS tab.
- Rooms you have blocked or taken out of order are recorded under Rooms out of service in MAYA.
- Floors and ceilings are set for every room type. Read floors and ceilings.
Nothing is sent to Mews, so there is nothing to set up for sending. Four things still matter for what the calendar shows:
- The time zone and currency we set with you at connect are right. Check both under Time zone and currency on the PMS tab, and email us if either is wrong.
- Anything nobody sleeps in is unticked under Counts as a room on the PMS tab.
- Rooms you have blocked or taken out of order are recorded under Rooms out of service in MAYA.
- Floors and ceilings are set for every room category. With no history import, nothing sets them from your rates. Each category stays at 1.00 and 99,999.99 in your currency until you answer the five questions or email us the numbers. Read floors and ceilings.
A base rate of its own for every room type
MAYA sends each room type's price to one rate plan, its , and never to any other. Rates that follow the base rate move on their own by your system's rules. Packages and named promotional plans are left alone. If a room type has no base rate MAYA can send to, nothing is sent for it. On Cloudbeds the change log says so for that room type once you are live, and says nothing about it before, because nothing is sent in simulation. On ThinkReservations it says so in simulation too. Either way, check your rate plans with the steps below.
For each room type, look at its rate plans in Cloudbeds and ask, in this order:
- Does the plan follow another plan? Cloudbeds calls this derived. If yes, MAYA never writes to it.
- Does the plan have a public name? Packages, promotions and long-stay plans do. If yes, MAYA never writes to it.
- What is left? The one plan that follows nothing and has no public name is the base rate. That is the one MAYA changes.
Once you are live, a room type with only derived plans is reported in the change log as "Cloudbeds won't let MAYA change Deluxe rates because that rate follows another rate plan", with the action "In Cloudbeds, give this room type a base rate of its own that doesn't follow another plan." A room type with only packages is reported as "MAYA can't find a base rate for Deluxe in Cloudbeds". Fix it in Cloudbeds. MAYA re-reads your rate plans and sends the held prices on a later cycle. Before you go live neither message appears, so ask the three questions above for every room type yourself.
ThinkReservations marks each rate type as standard or as following another (derived). MAYA sends to the active standard rate type whose name contains "Best Available", for every room type it covers. One named exactly "Best Available" or "Best Available Rate" comes first. If none is called that, MAYA uses the one active standard rate type that covers the most room types, and if two tie, it picks neither and prices nothing until you pick one on the PMS tab or name one Best Available. A General Manager or Hotel Admin can pick any active standard rate type there instead. Read Seeing and picking the rate type.
Every other active standard rate type with rates of its own (a wedding, group or package rate, say) gets the same change as your main rate on its own rate once you are live, unless you untick it under Also moves with MAYA on the review or the PMS tab. One first found after you go live starts held out until you tick it. A rate type you want to follow your main rate exactly is better set up in ThinkReservations to follow it (derived). Read Your other standard rates.
A room type not covered by that rate type is not priced, and from MAYA's next hourly read of your rate types the change log says "MAYA can't find a base rate for Deluxe in Think Reservations, so its rates can't be changed", with the action "Add a base rate for this room type in Think Reservations." This shows in simulation too, headed "No rate to price from in Think Reservations". Add the room type to the rate type in ThinkReservations, and MAYA prices it from the next read.
MAYA does not read or write Mews rate plans. Nothing to set up.
Read when your property system does not accept a price for every sentence the change log can show.
Rates loaded about 13 months ahead
Your rules price tonight and the next 395 nights, about 13 months, starting from the rate you keep in your system for each night. About once an hour MAYA reads that rate from your plan.
A night whose rate in your system is 0 reads as closed: your rules leave it alone and nothing is sent for it, unless you have typed a price for it in MAYA. So if you close a night by setting it to 0 in your system, also clear any price you typed for it in MAYA. Otherwise MAYA may keep your typed price and send it once you are live.
A night with no rate loaded at all is not priced, and nothing is sent for it, unless you type a price for it in MAYA. Its bookings don't give it one. So before you go live, load a rate on the base rate plan for every night you sell in the next 396. Nights further out are read as they enter the window, one a day.
Time zone and currency
MAYA copies your property's name, time zone and currency from your system when you connect (on Mews, we set them with you). The name is not read again. On Cloudbeds the time zone and currency are checked once a day: MAYA follows a new time zone, and a new currency while you are in simulation; once you are live it keeps the currency it has and our team is alerted. On ThinkReservations they are not read again. The PMS tab shows both, and there is no field in MAYA to change them.
If MAYA could not read the time zone or currency at that moment, it uses universal time (UTC) and US dollars until we change them, or on Cloudbeds until the daily read finds them (a currency only while you are in simulation). That is why you check them on the PMS tab, even when your system has them right. When the time zone there reads UTC, a line under it says so.
The time zone sets what "today" is, which nights are in the 396-night window, and what "past week" means for . If it is wrong, your system may refuse the price for tonight with "Cloudbeds wouldn't take Standard rates for a night that had already begun at the property".
Nothing waits on it while you simulate, because nothing is sent. So before you go live, check the time zone on the PMS tab, and email us if it is wrong. Email us too if you change your time zone or currency in your system later, except a time zone on Cloudbeds, which MAYA follows by itself the next day. Read time, weekends, currency and holidays.
Where to check your time zone and currency
The time zone. Open the PMS tab. Under the request list, Time zone and currency shows the time zone saved for your property by its name, such as "America/Los_Angeles". If it reads "UTC", a line under it says that UTC is what a property gets when its time zone wasn't read from its system, with a link to send us a message. The times in the change log and on the calendar are your browser's clock, not your property's, so they do not tell you.
The currency. The same card shows it by its code and sign: "USD ($)", "EUR (€)" or "GBP (£)", or the code alone for any other currency, such as "CAD". The sentences in the change log use the same sign: $ for US dollars, € for euros and £ for pounds, and the three-letter code in front of the amount for any other, such as "CAD 150.00". The calendar and the Rate Simulator use it too. The change log's bold line shows $ whatever your currency.
Room types and room counts
is rooms booked divided by rooms you can sell that night. MAYA divides by the units of every room type ticked as a room, minus . So two things need to be right: which types count, and how many units each has.
Which types count. Your system lists every bookable thing as a room type, so a meeting room, a car park or a spa slot can appear. Untick Counts as a room for anything nobody sleeps in. It can still be priced. On the review, a room type whose name has a word like Meeting, Conference or Parking is already unticked. Any room type whose name or bookings do not read like a bedroom's (a name like Spa or Tennis Court, or only one-night bookings when your other rooms get longer stays) gets a card asking whether it is a room. Room types added after your first history read arrive ticked, so untick any that are not rooms on the PMS tab. Read room types and rooms out of service.
How many units.
The units come from Cloudbeds on every read, so there is usually nothing to do. A virtual room type (one that sells rooms from another type) counts like any other, with the units Cloudbeds gives it, so your count can read higher than the rooms you have. Unticking it takes out its units, but also leaves out any bookings Cloudbeds records on it. If you sell one, email us before you untick it, and we check which room type its bookings are counted under.
MAYA counts the units of each ThinkReservations room type from your list of rooms, on every read. A room marked there as inactive, as not a room, or as not included in occupancy is left out, so set those on any room you do not sell before you rely on occupancy. The room count you are billed for is checked against these units. Read MAYA with ThinkReservations, start to finish for a worked example.
MAYA counts the units of each room category from your spaces in Mews, on every read. A space switched off in Mews is left out, so switch off any space you do not sell before you rely on occupancy. A space Mews marks out of order still counts: record it under rooms out of service (below). The room count you are billed for is checked against these units. Check them on the PMS tab, and email us if they look wrong. Every category showing the same number is the sign to look for: when Mews lists no spaces at all, MAYA uses the one number we set with you when we connect (100 until then).
Blocked rooms, out-of-order rooms and allotments
MAYA does not read room blocks, out-of-order rooms or allotments from any system. A room you have blocked in your system still counts as sellable in MAYA until you record it under Rooms out of service on the PMS tab: the room type, from and to dates, how many units, and an optional reason. Those units come off the sellable count for those nights only. Nothing is sent to your system for that.
An allotment held for a group without bookings is invisible to MAYA. It neither reduces the sellable count nor counts as bookings. If a block matters to your pricing, record it as .
Try what a block does to a rule. Set 12 rooms, 3 out of service and 8 booked, and see how an occupancy rule reads.
Compare
89%sellable occupancy
8 of 9 sellable rooms (12 rooms, minus 3 out of service).
Your rule firesGreater than 80 holds: 89% is more than 80.
Twelve rooms, three out of service, eight booked: 89% sellable occupancy, so a Greater than 80 rule fires.
An illustration with made-up numbers, not your property.
What never needs touching
MAYA never writes to any of these, so leave them as they are:
- Availability, restrictions, minimum stays, closed to arrival or departure, and close-outs.
- Bookings, guests and payments.
- Taxes and fees. On Cloudbeds and ThinkReservations, MAYA reads and writes the same rate field, so if your is entered with tax included, MAYA's prices are with tax included. On Mews, a starting price taken from a booking includes tax (and can include extras on the booking). A price you type is used as you type it. MAYA does not add or remove tax.
- Room types and property settings.
- Rate plans other than the base rate. Derived plans follow it by your system's own rules. MAYA never creates a rate plan.
Example: The Harbour Inn gets ready on Cloudbeds
Sam opens Cloudbeds. Standard has three plans: "Standard Rate" (follows nothing, no public name), "Non-refundable" (follows Standard Rate at 10% off) and "Bed and Breakfast" (a package). Standard Rate is the base rate. Deluxe has only "Deluxe Non-refundable", which follows a plan Sam deleted last year. Sam gives Deluxe a base rate of its own and loads $200 on it for the next 90 nights.
Sam opens the PMS tab. Time zone and currency reads America/Los_Angeles, US Pacific, and USD ($), the same as Cloudbeds. On the review the Meeting Room is already unticked, and Sam leaves it that way. Two Standard rooms are being repainted from Mon, Oct 5 2026 to Wed, Oct 7 2026, so Sam records 2 units out of service for those nights. Standard's floor is $80 and its ceiling $300. The Harbour Inn is ready to go live.