A guest looking at a group's site sees six rate options. Advance saver, flexible, best available, member rate, room only and breakfast included. She cannot tell which two differ only by breakfast and which one she cannot cancel.
She books the cheapest, discovers at cancellation that it was non-refundable, and blames the group rather than her reading.
When a simple structure works
Two rates, flexible and non-refundable, with the difference stated as a price and a cancellation term. Most guests want exactly this and most groups offer considerably more.
When more rates are justified
Corporate rates, member rates and package rates serve genuinely different customers and should be visible to those customers rather than presented to everyone at once.
Name the rates by what they do
Free cancellation until a date, or non-refundable. Names like advance saver describe a marketing intention rather than a term, and guests cannot act on them.
Show the cancellation date, not a rule
A specific date and time by which a booking can be cancelled, on the rate and in the confirmation. Guests can act on a date and cannot act on forty-eight hours before arrival without doing arithmetic.
Show the price difference plainly
The flexible rate costs a stated amount more. Presented that way, many guests choose flexibility and pay more, and the ones who do not have chosen knowingly.
Standardise across the estate
The same rate name meaning the same thing at every property. Groups that let each hotel name its own rates create confusion that costs direct bookings, because a guest comparing two properties in the same portfolio cannot tell whether she is comparing like with like.
Explain what happens on a non-refundable booking
Whether dates can be moved, whether a credit is offered, what happens in genuine emergencies and whether anything is refundable. A stated position, even a firm one, is better than case-by-case discretion.
Explain the deposit and charge timing
When a card is charged, whether it is at booking or arrival and whether a pre-authorisation applies. Guests plan around this and are surprised by an early charge.
Publish what each rate includes
Breakfast, parking, wifi, late checkout and any credit. A rate that appears more expensive often includes things the cheaper one does not.
Say what happens to a rate when plans change
Guests do not want to cancel, they want to move a date, and most groups treat an amendment as a cancellation and a rebook at whatever the new rate is. Publishing whether dates can be changed, what it costs and whether the original rate is honoured turns a lost booking into a retained one at almost no cost.
Answer the comparison question directly
Guests arriving from a comparison site want to know whether booking direct is better and by how much, which is the conversation in how hotels win direct bookings back from OTAs.
Groups and corporate rates have their own terms
They are covered in group and block booking enquiries across hotel brands and corporate rate and business travel enquiries.
Cancellation terms decide bookings everywhere
It is the pattern in cancellation policy questions that decide a booking.
Getting started
Publish two clear rate types with dates and price differences, standardised across the estate, then answer rate questions at any hour. SpideyChat for hotel groups answers from your published pages, our plans are on the pricing page, and the chatbot ROI calculator works through the numbers.