The rule builder, field by field

Where the builder is

On the Rules tab, click + Add a rule under the list of rules. The form opens below the button. Everything you type stays in it, even if you close it or switch to another tab and back, until the rule is saved or you reload the page (the room type chips start again when you switch property, or change Counts as a room or rooms out of service on the PMS tab). Clicking Edit on a saved rule, or changing a rule from Import from PIE, fills the form with that rule without asking, so an unsaved draft is lost: add it first.

Edit on a rule's row opens the same form filled with that rule as saved, headed "Edit "Busy nights"" in place of + Add a rule. Every field below is filled in, the undo box included, and the button at the bottom reads Save changes, with Cancel editing beside it to empty the form without saving. Switching property or deleting the rule also ends the edit. Read Changing a rule.

On a Cloudbeds property, Import from PIE opens a rule from your PIE screenshot in this form, headed "Change before importing", with Use in the import and Back to the import at the bottom. Read Import your rules from PIE.

Rule name

The Rule name box is required. The placeholder reads "e.g. Weekend surge". There is no length limit. The name appears in the rules list, in every change log sentence the rule writes, and in the banner MAYA shows when a rule keeps adjusting a night, so choose something you will recognise later.

Conditions

The Conditions section is headed "Matches when all of the following are true." That sentence is the whole logic: a rule with two conditions acts only on nights where both are true. There is no either/or. If you want "busy or last-minute", make two rules (What rules cannot do yet).

A rule needs at least one condition and can have nine at most, one of each kind (eight on Mews, where the builder doesn't offer rooms left to sell yet, and eight while MAYA can't read your property's system: Rooms left to sell). The first row is there when the form opens, set to occupancy. + Add condition adds a row that starts on the next kind you have not used, in the order below; a kind in use is greyed out in the other rows' Metric dropdown, and the button disappears once all are in use. Each row has a round red "Remove condition" button, and removing the last row puts a fresh occupancy row in its place. Greater than, Less than, Fewer than, More than, Below and Above are strict: Greater than 80 means more than 80, not 80 exactly (Greater than means more than). At least 10 includes 10, Ahead of usual by at least and Behind usual by at least include the mark, and a booking speed level includes that level.

Some rows have more fields. Each is explained on its page:

• Booking speed: Speed, Measured over (Past week to start) and Then waits (advanced) (1 week to start). Read Where you set it.
• Booked so far vs usual: a % after the Threshold box, a percent of the rooms the rule measures, and under it what that is in rooms of the room types the rule would measure: "about 5 rooms" for 25% of 20, "about 1 room", or "under 1 room". Read The definition.
• Pickup count: Lookback window (3 days to start), Then waits (advanced) (Same as the lookback window to start) and Pickup measures (Room nights (units) to start). Read The fields.
• Recent bookings: Counted over (Last 7 full days to start). Read Recent bookings (advanced).
• Current rate and ADR: your property's currency sign before the Threshold box, and you type the amount.

Threshold must be 0 or more, and an occupancy or booked so far vs usual threshold 100 at most; otherwise your browser stops the save and points at the box. A booking window is rounded to whole days, rooms left and recent bookings to whole rooms or bookings, a current rate or ADR to the cent, and a booked so far vs usual percent to two decimals. A "?" beside the Threshold of a rooms left, recent bookings, current rate, ADR or booked so far vs usual row says what the row counts. Changing a row's Metric puts its Threshold and its extra fields back to their starting values, except Compare and a booking speed row's Then waits (advanced), which keep what you had chosen, so check them after a switch.

The builder offers Booked so far vs usual once MAYA's checks on your property read it: after an update reaches your property, from MAYA's next check that prices your nights there (within minutes of a booking or a rate change, at the latest just after midnight at your property). Until then it isn't in the Metric list, and a rule with it can't be saved: "This condition isn't ready on your property yet." A rule saved with it always opens on its row. Read Booked so far vs usual.

A cut on low pickup with no booking window row gets one filled in for you: when your rule is Decrease the rate with a Pickup count (advanced) row set to Less than and no booking window row, a Booking window (days to stay) Less than 60 row appears, with a "?" titled "Filled in for you" that says why. Change the number or remove the row as you like: it is offered once per rule you build or edit (not while you change a rule from Import from PIE), and saving never adds it back. Read A cut on low pickup, far out.

Rate adjustment

The Rate adjustment section has a dropdown and two boxes.

Direction (required) starts blank on purpose, showing "Choose: increase or decrease the rate…". Pick Increase the rate or Decrease the rate. If you leave it blank, your browser stops the save and points at the dropdown.

Adjust by percent (%) is a number box, empty to start, showing "e.g. 10" until you type. Adjust by fixed amount ($), under it, shows "e.g. 15"; it carries your property's currency symbol, such as Adjust by fixed amount (€), once MAYA has read your currency. A rule has one amount: type a number in one box and the other is greyed out until you clear it. Type the amount as a positive number; the direction supplies the sign. A percent multiplies the price (10% on $150 gives $165) and a fixed amount adds to it ($25 on $150 gives $175). How several rules combine on one night is in Putting the price together, and how to choose the size is in Choosing the amount.

"Is there a limit on how big a raise or cut can be?" A rule can't cut by 100% or more: with Decrease the rate chosen, a percent of 100 or more brings up "A rule can't lower a price by 100% or more." in red under the percent box, and the rule won't save until the number is smaller. Otherwise any amount above 0 saves in either box, up to 999,999.9999. A raise stops at the room type's ceiling and a cut at its floor, and the floor is 1.00 in your property's currency until you set one, so a typo such as 150 for 15 in a cut's fixed amount box can take a price down to it. Set real floors before you use large cuts. Read Floors and ceilings.

Under the amounts is one more checkbox, Take this change back if cancellations remove the bookings that triggered it, ticked to start. Ticked, a change the rule made comes off when the bookings behind it cancel and the rule is no longer true without them. Unticked, cancellations usually leave its changes on. The rules list does not show it: click Edit to see or change it. Read The undo box.

Apply to room types

The Apply to room types field is a row of chips, one per active room type. A selected chip is highlighted. Above the chips a short summary reads "All room types", "K of N room types", "None selected" or, before your room types have loaded, "No room types loaded". If they can't be read, "Couldn't load room types." with Try again sits above the field. The Select all and Clear buttons do what they say.

When the form opens, every room type that counts as a room is selected. A type unticked under Counts as a room on the PMS tab, by you or by MAYA's first import for a name such as Meeting Room or Parking, shows a small "not a room" tag on its chip, and hovering it reads "Meeting Room, not counted as a room (change this in the PMS tab)". It is left out of a new rule unless you click it. A rule can change its price, but never measures it. To keep a rule away from a room type, click its chip so it is no longer highlighted before you save. A rule with no room types is refused with "Select at least one room type."

With one list, the rule changes every selected type and measures the selected types that count as rooms, so a rule on the Meeting Room alone has nothing to measure. Read A rule that measures only non-rooms.

Under the chips, Change prices on different room types splits the field into a Measure list and a Change list, so a rule can watch your standard rooms and price your suites. Read The checkbox and the two lists.

Room groups

On a property whose system puts room types in groups (on ThinkReservations, the Room Group column), a row of group buttons sits above the chips, one per group, such as Garden · 8. The number is how many room types the button picks in that list. A Measure list holds only room types that count as rooms, so there a group counts only those, and a group with none of them has no button. Apply to room types and Change count every room type in the group, "not a room" ones included. Hovering a button reads "8 room types in Garden".

Click a group button to pick every room type in the group, and click it again to clear them. A button whose room types are all picked is highlighted, and one with only some picked has a highlighted outline. The chips are still there, one row per group, with room types in no group last under "Other".

A rule saved with a group button keeps the room types it has, as if you had clicked each one. One added to the group later isn't added: edit the rule and click the group button again. Each room type keeps its own price, so a 10% raise moves each from its own rate. The "?" at the end of the first row of group buttons says the same.

Add Rule, and what happens next

Click Add Rule, and a window shows the days the new rule will change, with Apply price adjustments, Skip price adjustments and Cancel. Nothing is saved until you choose: read Turning a rule on, Apply or Skip. The rule is saved On, the form clears and folds away, and the rule runs from the next pricing run, usually within a minute and at most about five. In simulation the change log shows what it would have done, and nothing is sent. Save changes on a rule you are editing works the same way, except that a new name alone, or a change to a rule that is off, saves at once (Changing a rule). At most 40 rules can be on at once (How many rules you can have).

Messages you can meet

The window that opens after Add Rule or Save changes has messages of its own. Read Turning a rule on, Apply or Skip.

Who can add rules

Revenue Managers, General Managers and Hotel Admins can add, edit, switch and delete rules. A Viewer sees the same form, and Edit fills it so they can read a rule, but their save is refused with "Only a Revenue Manager or above can change this." Read Roles: who can do what.