What are yield rules?
Yield rules allow you to control the availability and set selling limits of your rooms and rates across your distribution channels (OTAs) and your direct booking engine. Yield rules can be useful during periods of high demand.
You can create the following yield rules in your Channel Manager and target them to specific room types, rate plans, channels, and dates:
Automatic closure — stop selling certain room types or room rates when availability reaches a set number.
Selling limit — stop selling a rate plan when it has been sold a set number of times.
Availability limit (amount or percentage) – limit the availability of certain room types on selected channels.
Selling limit yield rule
A selling limit yield rule will apply an automatic stop sell when specific room rates have been sold a set number of times, for each applicable date. This may help to eliminate the risk of overselling particular offers.
The selling limit yield rule is set on a rate plan basis. The limit counts the rate plan’s total sales across all linked room types. This is different to the other yield rules (automatic closure and availability limit), which are set on a room type basis.
The selling limit will apply individually to each applicable date set in the yield rule. For example, if you set the yield rule to apply to a room rate from 1 - 7 January, with a selling limit of 2, that means that 2 of those room rates can be sold for each day during 1 - 7 January.
An example of how you could apply a selling limit yield rule:
You have a "Champagne and breakfast package" that includes accommodation, as well as daily breakfast and champagne.
The rate plan is linked to all 10 room types, but you only want to sell a maximum of 5 packages.
You could set the Selling limit to 5 for this rate plan, across all room types and channels.
You could create an ongoing selling limit yield rule, or target it to certain dates only, depending on when your package is available (for example, if it is a Valentine’s Day special only).
Automatic closure yield rule
Set up an automatic closure yield rule to stop selling certain room types or room rates when availability reaches a certain limit. The automatic closure yield rule can be useful when demand is high and availability is low, and you want to close out low-profit-margin room rates.
➕ For example:
If you have a double room type with availability of 15, and are offering a low-profit-margin room rate such as a "Double room, super midweek special".
You could create an Automatic closure yield rule with an availability limit of 5 for this discounted room rate, for all channels.
When 5 of these room rates are booked, an automatic stop sell will be applied to this room rate.
The Automatic closure rule will apply to the availability of a specific room type or room rate, not the total availability of all room types at your property.
Availability limit yield rule
An availability limit yield rule allows you to limit the availability of certain room types on selected channels at any given time. The availability limit can be set as an amount or percentage.
Availability limits for certain channels can help to:
Restrict the number of packages or deals available on specific channels at any given time.
Reduce the risk of overselling rates with the lowest return.
Reducing the risk of overbookings and bulk accommodation purchases.
Once rooms are booked on the channel, availability on the channel will be topped up to the limit, as long as there is still availability from your total availability.
➕ For example:
If you have a “Double room” with an availability of 10.
You could create an Availability limit yield rule with an availability limit of 2, and apply it to the “Double room”, for a certain booking channel. This means that only 2 room types will be sent and bookable on that certain channel at any given time.
Enable yield rules in your channel manager
⚠️ Note:
The automatic closure and availability limit rules are set on a room-type basis.
The selling limit rule is set on a rate-plan basis.
You can activate the Yield Rules via toggle that appears on the Property Settings page.
Create a yield rule
To create a yield rule:
In Channel Manager, click on the Yield rules tab.
Click on the New rule button on the right-hand side of the screen.
Click on the type of yield rule you wish to create from the pop-up window.
Enter the rule name.
Select the room types or rate plans to which you want to apply the rule.
Click on Next.
Enter the threshold value for your rule (this will vary depending on rule type):
For Automatic closure: enter a numeric value that sets when the automatic closure will be applied.
For Selling limit: enter a numeric value that limits how many times the rate plan can be sold.
For Availability limit (amount): enter a numeric value to restrict availability on selected channels.
For Availability limit (percentage): enter a percentage value to restrict availability on selected channels.
Click on Next.
Where applicable, select room types, rate plans and channels to apply the rules.
Click on Next.
Select when to apply the rule:
"Always" means the rule will always be active for all future dates.
"Date range" requires you to select a start date and end date.
You can also select specific days of the week.
Click on Finish to create the yield rule.
Edit a yield rule
To edit a yield rule:
Click on Yield rules. All the rules are listed on this page.
Select the Edit link in front of the rule you want to edit. An edit rule pop-up window appears.
Make your changes in the edit window.
Click on Finish to save and apply the changes.
Delete a yield rule
⚠️ Note: Deleting a yield rule will remove any restrictions that have been applied by the rule. The affected room rates or room types will be re-opened for sale without restrictions.
To delete a yield rule:
Click on Yield rules. All the rules will be listed on this page.
To delete a rule, click on the rule you want to delete and select Delete from the drop-down list. A confirmation pop-up window appears.
Click on Delete to confirm.
The deleted rule will no longer appear under Yield rules and will be deleted permanently.