In plain words
A rule is a sentence you write once: when a night looks like this, change its price by that much. You build it in the rule builder on the Rules tab, and MAYA runs it for you on every night up to 395 nights ahead, room type by room type. A rule never changes by itself: it does exactly what you set until you change it.
A rule, piece by piece
A rule has four parts, all in the rule builder:
- A name, such as "Busy nights", so you can find it in the change log later.
- Conditions: what a night must look like. A rule has one to nine conditions, one of each kind (eight on Mews, where rooms left to sell isn't offered yet).
- A price change: raise or lower, by a percent or by a fixed amount.
- Room types: the ones it changes, and, if you like, a different set it measures.
Example: Busy nights at The Harbour Inn
When a night is more than 80% full, raise every room type by 10%. In the builder that is the name "Busy nights", one condition (Sellable occupancy (%), Greater than, 80), Increase the rate and 10%. On a Friday with 17 of The Harbour Inn's 20 rooms booked (85%), Standard goes from $150 to $165. With 16 booked, exactly 80%, the rule leaves the night alone, because Greater than means more than.
What a rule can look at
The Metric dropdown in the rule builder lists nine things (eight on Mews), in this order. Each has its own page.
| What a rule can look at | On screen | In plain words |
|---|---|---|
| Sellable occupancy | Sellable occupancy (%) | how full the night is |
| Rooms left to sell | Rooms left to sell | how many rooms the night still has to sell |
| Booking speed | Booking speed (recommended) | how fast the night is booking compared with your own |
| Booked so far vs usual | Booked so far vs usual | how many rooms the night has booked so far compared with what your own similar past nights had at the same point |
| Booking window | Booking window (days to stay) | how many days until the stay |
| Current rate | Current rate | the night's starting price: your property system's rate or a price you typed |
| Pickup count | Pickup count (advanced) | how many (or how much room revenue) the night gained in the last 1 to 30 days |
| Recent bookings | Recent bookings, whole property (advanced) | how many new bookings came in across the whole property on the last few full days |
| Average rate booked | Average rate booked, ADR (advanced) | the average rate of the rooms booked for the night |
is marked (recommended) because it compares each night with your own past, so it keeps up with your seasons by itself. The three marked (advanced) are extra tools: you don't need them for your first rules. Booked so far vs usual is listed once MAYA's checks on your property read it (Booked so far vs usual).
All conditions at once
The builder heads the conditions "Matches when all of the following are true." A rule with two conditions acts only on nights where both are true at once. There is no either/or: for "busy or last-minute", make two rules (What rules cannot do yet). Greater than, Less than, More than, Fewer than, Above and Below are strict, so Greater than 80 means more than 80, not 80 exactly (Greater than means more than). At least, on a recent bookings row, includes the number itself: At least 10 is true at 10.
Two kinds of rule, in plain words
A rule with a or condition reacts to bookings as they arrive: it acts, keeps its change on the price, waits, and can act again on the bookings made since. Every other rule is a : its change is on while the rule is true and comes off when it isn't (with the undo box ticked, as it is on every new rule: The undo box). The How rules behave panel on the Rules tab shows both in three short animations, "A rule adjusts, and cancellations can undo it", "An occupancy rule has no wait" and "A stronger rule's change covers weaker ones". Two kinds of rule has the side-by-side.
After you save it
- A window shows the days the rule will change, and you apply or skip the price adjustments. Either way the rule is on. Read Turning a rule on, Apply or Skip.
- While your property is in simulation, nothing is sent: the change log shows what the rule would have done. Read Simulation mode.
- Every change it makes is written in the change log with the rule's name and why. Read The change log.
- Switch it off and its changes stay as they are, apart from what a price set by hand does to any rule's changes, and unless you then go live from your current rates: Start from your current rates takes every rule's changes off, and Choose by rule and night those of the rules you set to Skip and those on the room types left unticked under a night (Going live). Delete it and its changes are undone. Read Turning a rule off, deleting it, or changing it.
Where to begin
The quickest way in is to build one rule yourself: Build your first rule takes about five minutes. Not sure where to start? Don't worry, we have you covered. On Cloudbeds and ThinkReservations, if your property had about two months of booking history and no rules yet when you connected, MAYA built for you. Unless you removed them on the review, they are on the Rules tab. Read Your starter rules.
Reading path
You don't need every page. The first four are enough to build rules with confidence; the rest are there when a question comes up.
Start here
- What a rule is (this page)
- Build your first rule
- The rule builder, field by field
- Turning a rule on, Apply or Skip
What a rule can look at: Sellable occupancy, Rooms left to sell, Booking speed, Booked so far vs usual, Booking window, Current rate, Pickup count (advanced), Recent bookings (advanced) and Average rate booked, ADR (advanced).
Which room types: Measure one set of room types, change another.
How rules work together: How rules work together and When a price change comes off.
Day to day: Turning a rule off, deleting it, or changing it, Rules that keep adjusting, Trying rules out in the Rate Simulator, The rule playground and Import your rules from PIE.
Fine print, if you want it: After a rule acts, Booking speed in detail, Which past nights your rules compare with and What rules cannot do yet.