Getting suggestions later

The button

On the Rules tab, beside the Pricing Rules heading, sits Get suggestions from my data (with a handshake symbol in front of it). Pressing it opens a small panel headed "Here's exactly what happens". The panel says MAYA re-reads your booking history and compares it against your current rules and price guardrails, that nothing changes by itself, and that you approve or reject each suggestion individually. Two buttons: the one beginning "Sounds good" starts the read, and Never mind closes the panel.

While the read runs, the button turns into a pulsing dot with the line "Reading your history…". MAYA is reading your bookings again and counting. The tab checks on the read every few seconds while you are looking at it, so you can leave it open: when the read ends, the button changes by itself. A tab in the background checks again as soon as you come back to it. If the read keeps running into errors and an automatic alert about it has reached our team, the line "This is taking longer than it should. We've been told." shows beside the dot until the read moves on again.

If the read found something to offer, the button is now a link reading "3 suggestions ready →" that opens the review. The number counts every card waiting for your answer. If there was nothing to offer, the plain button is back. After a reload, the blue banner at the top of the dashboard also opens the review with its Review → link.

When a read stops before it finishes, the plain button comes back with a line beside it that says so, and the line stays until a new read starts. A read tries again by itself the way the history import does, so the line can say "Your last read paused. We've been told, and it tries again by itself around 3:40 PM." Once it has stopped for good it says "Your last read stopped. We've been told.", or "Your last read stopped. Email us and we'll restart it." when nothing reached us. "Your last read stopped because your property system is no longer connected." means the connection went away: reconnect, then press the button again.

Who can press it, and when

• A Revenue Manager, General Manager or Hotel Admin. Anyone else sees "You need Revenue Manager access or higher to run this."
• A property with a subscription in good standing. Otherwise: "This property's subscription is not active, so MAYA has paused work on it."
• A property with a connected system. Otherwise the message begins "Connect your property system first".
• Five runs per 15 minutes per property. Past that, a message asks you to let the last read finish before starting another. Only a press that starts a read counts: one refused for any of the reasons here, one that joins a read already running (two presses at once start one read, and count once), or one that gets "Couldn't start the read. Try again." does not. Read Messages explained.
• One read at a time. If a read is already running (yours, a colleague's, or the first import), pressing the button joins it rather than starting another. If that read is the first import, it finishes as a first import, with no suggestion cards. Press the button again once it is complete.

If a read can't be started, you see "Couldn't start the read. Try again." and nothing is running.

Mews has no history import yet, so on a Mews property the button is greyed out, with the note "Not available for Mews yet. MAYA can't read its booking history." beside it. On a demo property it is greyed out too, with "Not on a demo property. Its starter rules are already in place." (The demo property). Email us if you would like suggestions for a Mews property. Read The history import.

What the read does

It is the same history import that ran when you connected, in a different mode. MAYA reads your property setup, your current bookings and your past years again, then compares what it finds with what you have. Nothing is written without a card you accept:

• Closures are proposed on cards, never recorded on their own. New instances of a season you confirmed earlier are proposed too.
• A duplicate room type with no bookings is proposed, not hidden.
• Cards about rates that look like typos, stays with no rate and stays that point at deleted room types can come back, because each read is a fresh look.
• Room types are never unticked as rooms by a re-read. A type whose name or bookings look unlike a bedroom gets an "Is X actually a room?" card instead.
• Your existing rules and limits are left exactly as they are.

On Cloudbeds and ThinkReservations, the read also keeps which past bookings came from one group or block, and once it finishes, booking speed counts such a group as one booking. It keeps the time each past booking was made too, and once it finishes, separate bookings made together count as one booking if Count bookings made together as one is on. It starts off: a Cloudbeds or ThinkReservations property that turns it on after joining MAYA needs this read once before it starts. Read Cloudbeds or ThinkReservations.

The review reopens with anything from the list above on its first screen, and the suggestion cards on its second. Read Checking what MAYA found.

The four kinds of card

"Add a rule: "Slow-date rescue"?"

Which rules are offered follows your answer to the last of the five questions, as the starter rules do. Read Your starter rules.

• No answer. The five booking speed starter rules, offered only when your property has no booking speed rule at all. A booking speed rule that is switched off counts as one, so pausing the starter rules for the season does not bring five fresh copies. When you have none, all five are offered, one card each, with the rule's own sentence and a line saying nothing currently watches for nights falling behind (or ahead of) their normal pace.
• "My pricing works". The rules copied from your own rates over the past year, such as "Filling-up raise" and "Last-minute cut". On a property that is live, only bookings made two or more days before MAYA first tried to send a price count, so MAYA's own price changes are never copied back as yours. A Filling-up raise is offered only when no rule of yours has a Sellable occupancy (%) Greater than condition, and a Last-minute cut or raise only when none has a Booking window (days to stay) Less than condition. Switched-off rules count. The card's first line reads "Your own rates already made this move, and no rule of yours makes it yet.", followed by the rule's sentence saying what your bookings showed. When nothing of yours can be copied, you get the five booking speed cards instead, as with no answer.
• "Find money I'm leaving on the table". The five booking speed rules, with the bigger raises when your nights filled early, offered only when you have no booking speed rule. And "Nearly-full raise" when your rates stayed flat on nearly full nights, offered only when no rule of yours has a Sellable occupancy (%) Greater than condition. Its first line reads "Nothing raises your nearly full nights yet."

Buttons: Add this rule and No thanks. Add this rule first opens the window with the days the rule will change: Apply price adjustments or Skip price adjustments (Turn it on when no price would change), or Cancel to leave the card as it is. If the window cannot open, the card says "The window didn't open. Try again." and nothing is saved. Read Turning a rule on, Apply or Skip. An added rule is on and applies every day with no date range, except a copied rule whose name ends in "(Fri and Sat)" or "(Sun to Thu)", which applies only on those nights. It measures and changes every active room type that counts as a room. A type you have unticked, such as a Meeting Room, is left out, and so is one nobody has answered for whose name is plainly not a bedroom (a parking bay, a boardroom). It needs at least 60 past nights with a booking, like the starter rules. Read Your starter rules.

"Remove "Quick pickup"?"

Offered for a pickup count rule that is switched on when a booking speed rule that is also switched on covers everything it does: the same room types or more, in both the measured and the changed sets, the same days, and the same dates or wider. The card explains that the pickup rule reacts to a fixed booking count, that your booking speed rules already cover the same nights by comparing with your own similar past nights, and that keeping both would stack two price changes on the same bookings.

Three buttons:

• Remove it deletes the rule and undoes every price change it made.
• Turn it off, keep it switches it off. The changes it made stay, and you can switch it back on from the Rules tab.
• Leave it running changes nothing.

"Tune "Busy nights"?"

Offered for a rule that is switched on, has an occupancy condition set to Greater than, and has no booking speed or pickup condition, when its threshold sits more than 10 points away from what your own history supports. A booking window condition in the same rule does not stop the card. MAYA compares your threshold with how full your own past nights got. It finds two levels: one that most of your nights stay under, and one that only your busiest nights pass. If your threshold is more than 10 points from the nearer of the two, the card says your rule fires above X% occupancy but your history suggests Y% is where nights become scarce, and offers to move the trigger from X% to Y%.

Buttons: Make that change and Leave it as is. Make that change is an edit of that one number, and the rule keeps its name, its other settings and its fire count. On a rule that is on, the window with the days opens first, with Save changes as its one button when no price would change (if it cannot open, the card says "The window didn't open. Try again." and nothing is saved). With Apply price adjustments, from the next run the rule applies only to nights above the new number, so nights between the old and new numbers lose its change (or gain it, if the number went down). With Skip price adjustments, the days the window showed keep their prices until the rule stops being true on a day and then becomes true again, and every other night works as with Apply. On a rule that is off, the new number is saved at once. Read Change a rule.

Never tuned: a rule whose occupancy condition uses Less than, a rule with no occupancy condition (a booking window rule on its own, say), any rule with a booking speed or pickup condition, and a rule named "Filling-up raise" (with or without "(Fri and Sat)" or "(Sun to Thu)") or "Nearly-full raise". Those two names are the ones the rules built from your own bookings for the last question carry, and their threshold came from those bookings. Rename one and it can be tuned like any other rule. A rule that pairs Greater than with a booking window condition can be tuned, and the card moves only its occupancy threshold, never the booking window.

"Set a floor for "Standard"?" and "Set a ceiling for "Suite"?"

Offered for a room type whose floor or ceiling is still at MAYA's default, when there is a number to offer: your answer from the five questions, or enough history (30 nights for a floor, 200 for a ceiling). Room types whose name or bookings look unlike a bedroom never get one, even after you confirm they are rooms. Nor does a type you have unticked as a room, or one nobody has answered for whose name is plainly not a bedroom.

The defaults are 1.00 for a floor and 99,999.99 for a ceiling, in your property's currency. Only a ceiling of exactly 99,999.99 counts as the default. A ceiling you set yourself, above or below it, never gets a card, so a ceiling of 99,999 stays as you set it.

A card is also held back when its number would not fit. There is no ceiling card when the ceiling would be at or under the room type's floor. There is no floor card when the floor would be at or above the ceiling (or, while the ceiling is still the default, at or above the room type's normal top rate). If it is your own floor answer that does not fit, the number from your history is not offered instead.

The card gives the reason and a suggested amount in an editable box. Press Set it to 80 to accept it, or type your own number and the button follows. No thanks keeps the default. Read Floors and ceilings for where the numbers come from and how to set a limit when no card comes.

After the cards

Answered cards are counted as "N items already handled" and are not shown again on this read. A later read may ask about typos, stays with no rate or deleted room types again, and will offer the rules your answer calls for again while no rule of yours covers them. Press Finish or close the page. Read Checking what MAYA found.