In plain words
A demo property is your own copy of Copperwillow Lodge, a made-up lodge with made-up bookings. The calendar, rules, change log and rate simulator are MAYA's real ones, working on those bookings, and new bookings arrive through the day as at a real lodge. Add bookings puts bookings on the nights you pick so you can watch your rules act within seconds, and Reset demo puts it back to how it started. Nothing is sent anywhere, a demo can't go live, and it ends after 14 days.
What a demo property is
We send demos to people on the waitlist. Each person gets a copy of their own, so nothing you change is seen by anyone else. You sign in from the invitation email, as the copy's Hotel Admin.
A sky blue strip across the top of every screen says it is a demo: "Demo property · Made-up bookings. Nothing is sent anywhere." Its ? says the rest, including the day the demo ends. While the bookings are being made (when the demo is new, and after a reset) it reads "Setting up its bookings. This takes a minute or two." instead.
Everything else is MAYA as it is for every property: build and change rules on the Rules tab, open a night on the Calendar, read the Change Log, try a rule in the Rate Simulator, type a price yourself. Like every property, it simulates, so the change log words each change as what would have happened.
What is on it
The lodge is in Mountain time and prices in US dollars. Its name in the property list has a short code after it, which keeps the copies apart.
| Room type | Rooms |
|---|---|
| Queen Room | 12 |
| King Room | 12 |
| Double Queen | 8 |
| King Suite | 6 |
| Family Suite | 4 |
| Cabin | 3 |
That is 45 rooms. Each room type has a floor and a ceiling, and its own rate for every night: higher on Friday and Saturday nights and in high summer and over Christmas and New Year, lower in the quiet weeks of spring and late autumn.
The bookings are made up, for two years back and for the months ahead, so has earlier years to compare with and the calendar has nights already filling. About 8 in 100 bookings are cancelled later. Now and then a group books several rooms in one booking. Three things are placed from the day your demo was made: a weekend that sells out about three weeks ahead, a slow week soon after it, and a festival weekend about seven weeks ahead.
Seven rules are on from the start:
| Rule | What it does |
|---|---|
| Busy weekend nights | On Friday and Saturday nights over 70% booked, raises the price 12% |
| Nearly full | On any night over 85% booked, raises it 20% |
| Last-minute empty rooms | On Sunday to Thursday nights under 3 days away and under 60% booked, cuts it 10% |
| Booking faster than usual | When booking speed over the past week is Faster or more, raises it 10% |
| Slow pace far out | When booking speed over the past 30 days is Slower or less, on nights more than 14 days away and under 60% booked, cuts it 8% |
| Quick pickup | When more than 2 room-nights were booked for a night in the past day, raises it 12% |
| Festival weekend | On the festival's two nights, once over 25% booked, raises it 15% |
Three of them cover only some nights: Busy weekend nights and Last-minute empty rooms some days of the week, and Festival weekend two dates. The "?" after each one's conditions on the Rules tab says which. The lodge was set up that way. A rule you build runs every night, because the rule builder can't limit a rule to days or dates yet (What rules cannot do yet).
Add bookings
Add bookings is on the strip at the top of the dashboard, for a General Manager or Hotel Admin (on a demo, that is you).
- 1
Click Add bookings
A small window opens.
- 2
Pick the nights, the room type and how many rooms
The window opens with a night already filled in: one 7 to 20 nights ahead, in the room type with the most rooms free that night and room below its ceiling, and 4 rooms (fewer if fewer are free). Change any of them. First night is the first night. Nights is how many nights from there, 1 to 14. Room type is one of the six. Rooms is how many, 1 to 20.
- 3
Click Add bookings
Each room is its own booking for those nights, made today at the lodge's own rate. Those nights are then priced again straight away, and the window waits, up to 25 seconds.
When it is done the strip says "Added 4 bookings. Prices are updated." With the Calendar tab open, the calendar opens the first night you added; with the Change Log open, the log reads again. If pricing took longer than the window waited, it says "Added 4 bookings. Prices update in a moment.", and the nights are priced within two minutes.
Four rooms on one night is usually enough for Quick pickup to act on it. Fill a Friday or Saturday past 70% and Busy weekend nights acts, or any night past 85% for Nearly full. No rule takes a price above the room type's ceiling, so a night already at its ceiling (a busy summer Saturday, say) stays where it is.
When it says no, nothing was added:
- "King Room has only 2 free on Sat, Oct 24." or "King Room is full on Sat, Oct 24.": that room type has fewer rooms free on that night. Pick fewer rooms, or another night.
- "Pick nights from tonight to Sun, Nov 7.": the nights must be from tonight to 395 nights ahead.
- "Add up to 14 nights at a time." or "Add up to 20 rooms at a time."
- "The demo is still setting up. Try again in a minute."
- "Too many bookings added just now. Try again in a few minutes.": up to 30 presses in 15 minutes.
Reset demo
Reset demo, beside Add bookings, puts the demo back to how it started. It asks first, under the strip: "Reset the demo? Your rules, the bookings you added, prices you typed and the change log go back to how the demo started. This can't be undone." Click Reset demo again to go ahead, or Cancel.
The strip then says "The demo is resetting. Its bookings are back in a minute or two." and reads "Setting up its bookings." until they are. The rules, floors and ceilings are the seven rules and limits above again, and closed nights are gone, and the bookings are made again with the three events placed from the day of the reset. Your sign-in stays, and so does how the calendar is shown. Up to three resets an hour.
What a demo can't do
- Go live, or send anything. A demo has no property system and nothing leaves MAYA. Go live on the strip is greyed out, and clicking it says "A demo property can't go live." The PMS tab says "A demo property has no property system. Its bookings are made up."
- Have teammates. The Team page says "A demo property can't have teammates." Each colleague can have a demo of their own: email us.
- Take a payment. The Billing page says "This is a demo property. There is nothing to pay."
- Read history for suggestions. On the Rules tab, Get suggestions from my data is greyed out with "Not on a demo property. Its are already in place."
How long it lasts
14 days from the day it was made, unless we extend it. The ? on the strip says the day: "This demo ends on Oct 22." Then the demo is deleted, with its bookings, rules and history. Your sign-in stays, and signing in shows "Your MAYA demo has ended" with Join the waitlist.
If you would like longer, email us before it ends.
Getting MAYA for your own property
Join the waitlist on the strip opens the waitlist on get-maya.com. Your own property starts in simulation too, on your own bookings and your own rules, with nothing sent until you go live (Simulation mode). How to get started has the steps.