We are excited to announce an update to our Pricing Intelligence Engine (PIE). With this release, we are introducing a new occupancy rule and a few small improvements.
New occupancy rule: Combined room type occupancy
Now you can see the following options for the Occupancy Based rule/alert, when creating or editing it:
- Overall Occupancy - This rule will be triggered when overall occupancy at the property reaches a certain number. Rate changes will be applied to all accommodations
- Individual room type occupancy rule - Previously called Room type occupancy. This rule will be triggered when the selected accommodation(s) individual occupancy reaches a certain number. Rate changes will be applied only to the selected accommodation(s)
- NEW option, Combined room type occupancy - This rule will be triggered when the selected accommodation(s) combined occupancy reaches a certain number. Rate changes will be applied only to the selected accommodation(s)
For example, a property has two private suites and two 4-bed dorms. And the manager would like the rates of property to be automatically adjusted for 4-bed dorms, when the rooms are 50% full, even if the private suites are still empty.
![[TEST]Trial - PIE - Rules and Alerts - Google Chrome](https://media.screensteps.com/image_assets/assets/003/333/838/original/889e51c6-976b-4ebb-997a-ead5b8b9306d.png)
In this case, you can create a combined room type occupancy rule. Select 4-bed dorms and set a parameter to increase the rate by X%, when combined occupancy for these room types reaches 50%.
![[TEST]Trial - PIE - Rules and Alerts - Google Chrome](https://media.screensteps.com/image_assets/assets/003/328/786/original/c66721f9-0263-4216-834b-9b758093e5a5.png)
The flow for the new combined room type occupancy rule is the same as for the other occupancy rules. Click here to check further details about Occupancy Based Rules.
The below message will appear if you create a new 'Combined room type occupancy' rule and this rule was applied for dates that already meet the criteria specified.
When saving this rule, you will the warning below:
If you choose:
- 'No' - the rule will not be applied for the dates that meet the criteria
- 'Yes' - the rule will be applied for the dates that meet the criteria and you will see the confirmation message below:
Newly created 'Combined room type occupancy' rule is displayed on the rules and alerts page. You may also disable/enable, edit or delete the rule from this page.
![[TEST]Trial - PIE - Rules and Alerts - Google Chrome](https://media.screensteps.com/image_assets/assets/003/328/798/original/b454324e-cd43-4a39-91e1-427d42daa02e.png)
If you select the option 'require manual activation' for combined occupancy when creating the rule, you can approve or deny the rule from the accommodation details modal as well as from the Rate Manager page as usual.
![[TEST]Trial - PIE - Rules and Alerts - Google Chrome](https://media.screensteps.com/image_assets/assets/003/328/807/original/41c9524a-7ecf-4898-a770-ce8479a8da65.png)
Check the following article to learn What happens once the Occupancy Based Rule is triggered > Section "Once a manual rule is triggered"
Similar to the logs we have for the rest of the PIE rules, each time combined room type occupancy rule has been created, approved, denied, deactivated, activated, reverted, modified, you can check PIE Activity Log for specific details.
Refer below for an example:
![[TEST]Trial - PIE - Activity Log - Google Chrome](https://media.screensteps.com/image_assets/assets/003/328/812/original/f5f181c1-5fc7-438e-be24-c6c04d761750.png)
Linked accommodations as shared inventory cannot be used together in the combined occupancy rule as their occupancy is already interlinked.
When you create a new rule using the 'combined room type occupancy' option and select room types that are linked to each other, you will see the following warning message when you select 'Save':
If you are on the 'Shared Inventory' page and try to link accommodations that are both used in the 'Combined room type occupancy' rule, you will see the following warning message:
Other Improvements
We've made changes to the 'Price Differentials' feature on both Rate Manager and Availability Matrix pages. This change allows you to change prices for all of the room types more efficiently.
Before release: If the current price for a specific room type is 0, the price differentials were being applied.
After release: When a user changes the rate for the base room and then types "Enter", the room type differentials will not be applied for the dates that have a rate of "0".
Hence, the dates for which room type differentials were not applied, will not be highlighted by the system.
Availability Matrix
Further details about this feature you can find here: How to set price differentials in the availability matrix
It is common for users to set a price at "0" for a specific room type to avoid selling this room type for that specific date. Taking this into consideration, we have now changed the system behavior so that the price differentials will not be applied to accommodations with a "0" rate.
Below is an example of the system behavior before the recent change. The highlighted price in red was changed even though the price was zero:
On the example below, the highlighted price in blue (set as zero) didn't change:
Rate Manager
The same fix was applied to the Rate Manager page:
The highlighted price in red was changed even though the price was zero:
The highlighted price in blue (set as zero) didn't change: