Check this article for an example of how the custom conversion rate will be applied to send the rate to the channel and how it will be received when the booking is imported.
How Custom Conversion Rates Work: Sending Rates to OTAs and Receiving Bookings
Let's use a hypothetical scenario:
- Your Cloudbeds PMS default currency is RSD
- Your Booking.com account currency is EUR
- You have set up the distribution currency for Booking.com in Cloudbeds PMS to EUR
- You have set up a custom conversion rate where 1 RSD = 0.0083333334 EUR
1. When sending the custom conversion rate to the OTA
- If your room costs in Cloudbeds PMS 3,840.00 RSD and the custom conversion rate is 1 RSD = 0.0083333334 EUR:
- The room rate will be 3,840.00 RSD = 32.000000256 EUR.
- This means that the price sent to booking.com will be 32 EUR.
Note that we cannot control OTA conversion rates from our side: The OTA will still apply the automatic conversion rate if the guest selects a currency other than your hotel's default currency.
For example, the guest will book not in EUR, but in USD. The channel will convert the rate to $36:
2. When importing the booking after using a custom conversion rate
Still in the same scenario:
- The guest made the booking for 32 EUR in Booking.com but in USD currency;
- Booking.com will convert the booking again from 36 USD to EUR with their conversion rate, and will send 32 EUR to Cloudbeds PMS;
- Cloudbeds PMS will convert the booking rate sent by OTA back to RSD, but apply the automatic conversion rate again;
- After the automatic conversion, the booking will be displayed in Cloudbeds PMS with the Sub Total 3810.96 RSD (that differs from the original room rate of 3,840.00 RSD).
This means that the custom conversion rate only applies to sending updates to the channel, not to importing bookings. When the booking is imported, the system will apply the automatic conversion rate again.
Reasons why Cloudbeds PMS does not apply a custom conversion rate when importing the booking:
- Most OTAs do not allow custom conversion rates and use automatic ones.
- Mostly because the guest will check the conversion rate in other sources while making the booking, and may not be aware of your custom rates;
- While testing whether applying a custom conversion rate would work to import the bookings, it was noticed that if the guest decided to book in a different currency available as an option in the channel—as in the above-mentioned example—there would still be a difference between the original room rate and the room rate imported from the OTA.
- The rates would differ since the channel uses another conversion rate source. Plus, the OTA controls the conversion rate of USD to EUR, not Cloudbeds PMS.
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