Your starter rules

Where you see them

On the review, a green box headed "While you were here, we built your first pricing rules" lists each rule with a sentence about what it does. If you picked "My pricing works" and there was nothing of yours to copy, a line under the heading says so. While your property is in simulation, the box ends with two buttons, Keep them and Remove them and start with a clean slate (next section). Once it is live, the box reads "✓ Live: your rules are now managing prices" instead. The box stays on the review after anyone on your team runs Get suggestions from my data, listing the starter rules that are still there: one you deleted or removed drops off the list, and once none are left the box reads "You removed your starter rules." instead.

There is no Go live on the review. You go live from the amber strip at the top of your dashboard. Read Going live.

After that they live on the Rules tab like any rule you build yourself, with a Fired count, an On / Off switch and a Delete button. Every change they make is written in the Change Log tab with the rule's name.

Keep them, or start with a clean slate

While your property is in simulation, the two buttons at the end of the starter rules box take the place of Finish. Both finish the review the way Finish does and take you to your dashboard, where you go live when you are ready. The line under them says so: "Either way you go to your dashboard. You go live from there when you're ready." For someone who can't go live, its second sentence says who can ("A General Manager or Hotel Admin can switch this property to live."), or what going live waits for.

• Keep them leaves the starter rules as they are. They keep running in simulation until a General Manager or Hotel Admin clicks Go live on the dashboard's strip.
• Remove them and start with a clean slate asks once, in the box: "Remove all 5 starter rules?" with Remove and Cancel. Cancel changes nothing. Remove deletes them the way Delete Rule and Undo Its Changes does on the Rules tab, so every change they made goes with them, then finishes the review and opens your dashboard. It reads "Removing…" while it works.

Removing needs a Revenue Manager or higher. Below that you stay on the review and see "Only a Revenue Manager or above can change this." with a Go to my dashboard link. If it fails you see "Your starter rules weren't all removed. Try again." and nothing is finished: press it again, and it removes what is left. If the review could not be marked as finished afterwards, the rules are gone and Finish takes the buttons' place, with the reason under it.

What a clean slate removes

Only the starter rules as MAYA built them:

• A starter rule you edited (its change, conditions, wait, room types or days), or whose undo box you unticked, is yours now and stays. The question says so: "Remove 4 starter rules? You changed Warm-date bump, so it stays."
• A starter rule you renamed stays, and so does any rule you built yourself, even one with a starter rule's name, whether you saved it in the rule builder or with Save This Rule on the Rate Simulator tab.
• A starter rule you only switched off goes, with the changes it made.

When nothing is left to remove (you deleted them on the Rules tab, or edited every one), the review shows Finish instead of the two buttons. On a live property there is no remove here: delete a rule on the Rules tab.

The five rules

These are the starter rules when you did not answer the last question. "Find money I'm leaving on the table" gets the same five, with bigger raises when your nights filled early. "My pricing works" gets them only when nothing of yours could be copied.

Each is a booking speed rule. Booking speed compares how many bookings a night received recently with how many similar past nights had received at the same point before arrival, and reads as one of seven levels from Stalled to Surging. The Conditions column on the Rules tab shows each rule like this:

"At most Much Slower Than Normal" means Much Slower or Stalled. "Slower Than Normal" on its own means exactly that level. "At least Faster Than Normal" means Faster, Much Faster or Surging.

The two cuts act only on a night under 70% booked: its sellable occupancy across the room types the rules measure is less than 70%. A night that filled early takes no new bookings because nothing is left to sell, which reads as slow against similar nights that were still selling, so without this the cuts could land on a sold-out or nearly full night. A rule needs both conditions true at once. Starter rules built before the cuts had this row keep their own conditions: MAYA never adds it to a rule already on your property. To give one the row, read Why did it cut a night that is nearly full?

Slow-date rescue

When a night under 70% booked is booking far behind similar nights (Much Slower Than Normal or Stalled, over the past month), the rule cuts it 15%. It then waits a week, counts only the bookings made in the full days since the newest cut still on the night by itself or a stronger rule, and cuts again if those are still that far behind and the night is still under 70% booked. MAYA asks you once three of its cuts are on the same night.

Slow-date trim

When a night under 70% booked is booking a little behind similar nights (exactly Slower Than Normal, over the past month), the rule trims it 7%. It checks again a week after each trim, counting only the bookings made in the full days since the newest cut still on the night by itself or a stronger rule such as Slow-date rescue, and trims again if those are still behind and the night is still under 70% booked.

Warm-date bump

When a night is booking ahead of similar nights (Faster Than Normal or more, over the past month), the rule raises it 10%. It waits 3 days, then raises again only if the bookings made since the newest raise still on the night, by itself or a stronger rule, are ahead of what a similar night gets in a whole month. If cancellations mean the rule is no longer true, the raise comes back off.

Hot-week surge

When a night's past week runs much faster than similar nights had at the same point (Much Faster Than Normal or more), the rule raises it 25%. It can raise again every 2 days while new bookings keep coming that fast, and MAYA asks you once three of its raises are on the same night.

Sudden-spike catcher

When bookings pour in for a night within a single day (Surging, over the past day), the rule raises it 25%, and can raise again each day while the rush lasts. Your ceiling is the cap, and MAYA asks you once three of its raises are on the same night.

If you picked "My pricing works"

MAYA reads your past year of bookings, night by night, and copies the raises and cuts you made on top of your own rate. Each booking's rate is compared with what the same room type sold for on the same night to its early guests: those who booked a week or more ahead, while the night was under 40% booked. Whatever weekday, weekend and season differences your own rates hold are already in the rate every rule starts from, so comparing within the same night leaves them out and copies only the moves you made as a night filled up or got close.

For each booking, MAYA also counts how full the night already was: the rooms booked for it on earlier days, among bookings still on record, over the rooms of the room types that count as rooms.

It looks for two moves:

• Filling-up raise. Guests who booked once the night was more than a certain share booked paid more than its early guests. MAYA reads the bookings in bands of 10 points (40 to 50% booked, 50 to 60%, and so on, then over 90%). A band counts once it has 8 bookings or more. Working down from the top, the raise starts at the lowest band where guests paid at least 5% more, stopping at the first band that counts and shows less. Its size is what guests paid, in the middle, once the night was past that point. The rule: Sellable occupancy (%) Greater than that step, raise by that percent.
• Last-minute cut (or Last-minute raise). Guests who booked close to the night, while it was still under half booked, paid at least 5% less (or more) than its early guests. MAYA reads bookings made 0 to 2 days ahead and 3 to 6 days ahead separately, each needing 8 bookings or more. The window is 7 days when the 3 to 6 day bookings show the move on their own and the 0 to 2 day bookings agree (or are too few to say). It is 3 days when only the 0 to 2 day bookings show it. The rule: Booking window (days to stay) Less than 7 (or 3) and Sellable occupancy (%) Less than 50, cut (or raise) by that percent.

A move needs at least 20 bookings over at least 10 nights behind it. A raise bigger than 50% or a cut bigger than 40% is left out, because a gap that size is more likely a different rate plan than a move you made. Sizes are rounded to a whole percent. Each rule's sentence on the review says how many of your nights showed it and what guests paid.

These are standard rules, not booking speed rules: each puts one change on the price while its conditions hold and takes it off when they stop. Read How rules work together.

Weekends and weekdays

Each move is read on Friday and Saturday nights and on the other nights. If both show the same move, at the same step or window and within 3 points of each other, one rule covers every night. If they differ, each gets its own rule, and its name ends in "(Fri and Sat)" or "(Sun to Thu)": that rule applies only on those nights. If only one of them shows the move, only that one gets a rule. If neither has enough bookings on its own but all nights together do, one rule covers every night. On the Rules tab, a "?" after such a rule's conditions names its days: "Days: Friday and Saturday nights only."

One raise step only. If you raise in several steps, you get one rule at the point your raises start, sized at the middle of them.

When nothing of yours can be copied

If no move of 5% or more shows up across at least 10 nights, your starter rules are the usual five. The review says so under its heading: "In the past year of your bookings, no raise or cut of 5% or more showed up across at least 10 nights, so there was nothing of yours to copy. These are the usual five starting rules."

If you picked "Find money I'm leaving on the table"

You get the five booking speed rules, with two changes that depend on your past year:

• Bigger raises when your nights filled early. If at least 10 of your nights, and at least 1 in 10 of the nights read, were already 90% booked two weeks or more before arrival, the three raise rules go up a step: Warm-date bump raises 15% instead of 10%, and Hot-week surge and Sudden-spike catcher raise 30% instead of 25%. Their sentence on the review ends by saying how many nights filled that early. The two cuts stay as they are, under 70% booked included.
• Nearly-full raise. If guests who booked once a night was more than 80% booked paid within 2% of what its early guests paid (at least 20 bookings over at least 10 nights), and no filling-up raise shows in your bookings, a sixth rule is added: Sellable occupancy (%) Greater than 80, raise 10%. It is a standard rule like the ones above.

If neither shows up, you get the five as they are.

Answering after they were built

The import often finishes before you reach the last question. When you answer it then, MAYA swaps the starter rules for the ones your answer calls for, if all of these hold:

• the starter rules on your property are exactly the ones the import built: none switched off, deleted or edited, and no other rule added,
• nobody has pressed Get suggestions from my data since the import,
• your property is still in simulation,
• you are a Revenue Manager or higher.

The old ones are removed with every change they made, as Delete would, and the new ones are switched on. The box on the review then shows the new ones. Answering again later swaps again, under the same conditions. Otherwise nothing changes, and your answer is used when anyone presses Get suggestions from my data. Read Getting suggestions later.

How they count

The five booking speed rules count bookings the way every booking speed rule does (What is counted). A booking with several rooms counts once. On Mews each room is its own reservation and counts on its own, unless Count bookings made together as one is on and counts it with others. After a change, a rule counts only the bookings made since the newest change still on the night by itself or a stronger rule, so one burst of bookings raises a night once. Read Counting after a change.

When a raise comes off, and when it does not

Every starter rule has its undo box ticked, so a raise comes off once cancellations mean its rule is no longer true, while a booking speed cut never comes off for cancellations and the occupancy row stops the next cut, not the ones already on the price. A Filling-up raise, Nearly-full raise or Last-minute cut is a standard rule: its change comes off when the rule stops being true. Read When a price change comes off.

The three-times question

Once three of one of the booking speed rules' changes are on the same night, an amber banner appears at the top of the dashboard (the Rules that keep adjusting banner). It is headed with a sentence naming the rule and how many of its changes are on the price, such as ""Slow-date rescue" would have 3 cuts on each of 3 nights." While you are in simulation it says "would have". Once you are live it says "has".

The banner asks you, night by night: keep adjusting, or stop for this night. Until you answer, the rule keeps going. Read Rules that keep adjusting.

Which room types, which days

The starter rules measure and change every room type that counted as a room when they were built, a type still waiting for your answer included. A meeting room or court that was unticked is left out of both. They apply every day of the week, with no date range, except a copied rule whose name ends in "(Fri and Sat)" or "(Sun to Thu)".

While your property is in simulation, ticking a room type as a room (on the review's room count strip, the It's a real room button on an "Is X actually a room?" card, or the PMS tab) adds it to the starter rules, to measure and to change, as if it had counted when they were built. Only the starter rules as MAYA built them get it: a rule you changed, or whose undo box you unticked, keeps the room types you chose, and a rule you built under a starter rule's name is yours. Once you are live, ticking a type adds it to no rule; add it to a rule yourself with Edit.

A room type your system adds later is not added to them unless you tick it in simulation. Build a rule of your own for it.

Room groups make no difference to them. On a property whose room types are in room groups, the starter rules still measure every room type that counts as a room together and change each from its own rate. To build a rule on one group's own bookings, click its group button in the rule builder.

How they rank against your own rules

When a starter rule and a rule of yours are both booking speed or pickup rules true on the same night, the stronger one acts: the bigger change to the price first, so a rule of yours that raises 30% acts before Hot-week surge's 25%. At the same change, speed and pickup count, starter rules come before rules you build, before the number of conditions or the rule's age is looked at. Filling-up raise, Last-minute cut and Nearly-full raise are standard rules, which never compete. Read Which one fires when several match.

Why you may not have starter rules

MAYA builds them once per first import, and only when all of these hold:

• at least 60 past nights on record had a booking (about two months of history),
• the property has no rules at all, not even one switched off (someone built a rule before the import finished, or an earlier import left one),
• at least one room type counts as a room,
• the history import ran at all. Mews has no import yet, so no starter rules.

The rules copied for "My pricing works", and the checks for "Find money", read the past year only: nights from 365 days ago up to yesterday. On a very large property they read its newest nights, up to about 50,000 booked room-nights. Once your property is live, they count only bookings made two or more days before MAYA first tried to send a price to your system, because a later booking may carry MAYA's price rather than yours.

Let Me Drive does not stop them. If you delete them, on the Rules tab or with Remove them and start with a clean slate on the review, the same import does not build them again. Later, Get suggestions from my data offers the rules your answer to the last question calls for (the usual five when there is no answer), each only while no rule of yours covers it: the five, for example, only while there is no booking speed rule. Read Getting suggestions later.

Turning one off, or deleting it

• The On / Off switch on the Rules tab freezes what the rule has done, and Delete removes the rule and every price change it made. You need to be a Revenue Manager or higher for either. Read Turning a rule off, deleting it, or changing it.

When would each one fire?

An illustration with made-up numbers, not your property. Each example assumes at least five similar past nights.