The five questions

Where they are

The questions come after you press Hold My Hand. Each one is a card. Across the top you see "A few quick questions · 1 of 5 · all optional" and a Skip the rest → link. Under the cards sits the import's progress bar, because your history is being read while you answer.

Every card has a Skip this question link. A money card shows a Continue button once you have typed a number above zero. Press it, or press Enter in the box. While an answer saves, the button reads "Saving…".

Answering takes a Revenue Manager or above on the property. Below that, a card saves nothing and shows "Only a Revenue Manager or above can answer these questions." under it. Skip this question and Skip the rest → still move on. Roles has who can do what.

Money amounts show your property's currency: "$" for US dollars, otherwise the currency code and a space, for example "EUR ". Whatever you type is rounded to two decimal places. A floor or ceiling of 100,000,000 or more is refused with "That amount is too big to save. Keep it under $100,000,000." Nothing is saved and the card stays.

Question 1: your property's name

The card asks "Did we get your property's name right?" and shows the name MAYA read from your property system. Leave it and press Looks right, or type a better one.

A name you type wins. It renames the property everywhere in MAYA, and a later read of your system never puts the old name back. Spaces at either end are dropped. A name can be up to 120 characters; a longer one is refused with "Keep the name under 120 characters." and nothing is saved.

If another property on MAYA already uses that name, the card says the name is already taken and suggests adding your city or neighbourhood.

Question 2: what a room turnover costs

"Ballpark: what does it cost you to turn over a room?" Cleaning, laundry, utilities and supplies for one night's stay, as a rough number. The placeholder suggests 35.

This number does one thing: it sets where the next question starts. It is saved with your answers and nothing else reads it. It is not a floor, and it never reaches a price.

Question 3: the floor ladder

The card reads "Picture a Tuesday in your slowest month. You're at 10% occupancy." and offers a rate: would you take this much for a room tonight, from someone walking in off the street? Two buttons: I'd take $50 (the amount changes) and Too low.

The first offer is a little above your turnover cost ($40 if you skipped that question), and each Too low raises it by at least 25%, rounded up to the next $5. After two Too low presses a reminder appears: a night like this would otherwise earn nothing, so anything above your turnover cost is profit.

To name the number yourself, use the box under the buttons, "Or type your floor", which is there from the start. Type the amount and press Use this floor or Enter. The button works once the amount is above zero.

What the answer does: it becomes the floor of every active room type that counts as a room, straight away. A floor is the lowest price MAYA will publish for that room type. The same number is written again once the import's first results are in, so room types the import adds get it too. A type you have unticked as a room (a parking bay, a meeting room, a court), and one nobody has answered for whose name is plainly not a bedroom, keeps the floor it has: the question asks about rooms, and MAYA does not send a price for such a type unless one of your rules changes it or you type a price for one of its nights.

A room type whose ceiling is already under your answer keeps its own floor, because a floor can't be above the ceiling. Every other room type takes your answer, and the card stays up and names each room type that did not, for example: "Your floor of $200 wasn't saved for Deluxe King: its ceiling is $150, and a floor can't be above the ceiling." Type a lower floor, or skip the question to leave it that way.

When you answer again and a ceiling answer is already saved, a floor at or above it is refused with "Your floor price needs to be below your ceiling price of $300." (your ceiling in place of $300). Nothing is saved and the card stays.

A floor of $1 or less is refused with "Your floor price needs to be more than $1.", because a floor of $1 means no floor at all. Nothing is saved and the card stays.

If you skip this question, the import works each room type's floor out from its own rates instead: about 40% of what it usually sells for. It does that only for a room type with at least 30 nights of history. A room type with less, or one whose name or bookings look unlike a bedroom, stays at $1.00. To give it a floor, answer this question, or type one in its Floor box on the review.

Question 4: the most you would charge

The card opens "Now the fun one" and asks you to imagine the biggest concert of the year next door, with every room in town gone. What is the most you would charge for a night? The card also asks you to bear in mind the highest you have ever actually sold a room for, as a reference point. It does not show that number. The placeholder suggests 450.

What the answer does: it becomes the ceiling of each room type whose highest rate read so far is at or below your number. A ceiling is the highest price MAYA will publish for that room type. A room type whose rates read so far go above your number keeps its ceiling as it was.

"Read so far" matters, because you answer while the import is still reading. The check uses only the rates read by the moment you save, and a room type with no rates read yet gets your ceiling.

If the first results arrive after you answer, your saved answer is written again then, onto the room types that fit by that point. It never takes a ceiling off. So a Suite whose higher rates sit in an older year can keep your ceiling and be held under what it really sells for.

Once the progress bar reads "Import complete", check the Guardrails column on the Rate Simulator tab. If a ceiling pins a room type down, raise it in its Ceiling box on the review.

Answer with a number above your floor. A ceiling at or under the floor you gave is refused with "Your ceiling price needs to be above your floor price of $80." (your floor in place of $80). Nothing is saved and the card stays, so type a higher number or skip the question.

A room type whose own floor is above your answer keeps its ceiling, because a ceiling can't be below the floor. Every other room type that fits takes your answer, and the card stays up and names each room type that did not, for example: "Your ceiling of $150 wasn't saved for Suite: its floor is $180, and a ceiling can't be below the floor." Type a higher number, or skip the question to leave it that way.

Question 5: what your starting rules do

The last card asks "Last one: what should your starting rules do?", with two choices:

• My pricing works, automate it ("Copy the raises and cuts I already make, so I don't have to touch it every day."). Your starter rules copy the moves your own rates made in the past year: a raise once a night is filling up, a cut (or raise) for last-minute bookings on emptier nights, sized like yours. If nothing of yours can be copied, you get the usual five booking speed rules, and the review says why.
• Find money I'm leaving on the table ("Look in my own bookings for nights I could have priced higher."). You get the five booking speed rules, with bigger raises if many of your nights were already 90% booked two weeks out, and a raise for nights more than 80% booked if your rates stayed flat on them.

Skip it and you get the five booking speed rules as they are. Your starter rules has each set, what in your bookings it reads and the exact limits.

The import often builds the starter rules before you reach this card. Answering then swaps them for the ones your answer calls for, as long as nobody has changed them, the property is still in simulation and you are a Revenue Manager or higher. Otherwise your answer is used by Get suggestions from my data, which offers the same rules as cards. Read Getting suggestions later.

Saving it does one more thing: it writes your saved floor and ceiling answers to your room types again, as if you had answered those questions again. Your floor goes back on every active room type that counts as a room, and your ceiling on every such room type whose rates fit under it. The first time through, that repeats what questions 3 and 4 wrote.

Skipping, finishing and answering again

• Skip this question moves to the next card and saves nothing for that one.
• Skip the rest → ends the questions from any card.
• After the last card, or after Skip the rest →, MAYA opens the review if the first results are in and there is something to look at. Otherwise it opens the progress page, which moves you on by itself.

You can reopen the questions any time after your property is connected at maya-rms.com/onboarding/questions. The cards do not show your earlier answers (the name card shows the property's current name). A new answer replaces the old one.

Saving the floor card, the ceiling card or the last card writes both your saved answers again: your floor onto every active room type that counts as a room, and your ceiling onto every such room type whose rates fit under it, over whatever limits they had. Types unticked as rooms are left alone. A room type that cannot take them (its ceiling under the floor, or its floor over the ceiling) keeps the floor and ceiling it had. The floor card names such a room type for your floor, and the ceiling card for your ceiling. When a card writes your other saved answer again, a room type that cannot take that one is not named again.

If a save fails you see "Couldn't save that" with an invitation to try again. Your earlier answers are unaffected. If your answer was saved but one room type's save failed, the card names it, for example "Your floor wasn't saved for Deluxe King. Try again in a moment."