Hotel Private Rate Sets

Owned by Former user (Deleted)
Last updated: Jun 28, 2023 by Kavita Pillai
5 min read

This topic describes uploading hotel private rate sets on the Hotel Private Rate Sets page.

Overview

You can upload up to 5,000 hotel private rates to a hotel private rate set using a comma-separated values (CSV) file that you can create in Microsoft Excel. If hotel search results are set to appear in tabs (as described in Hotel Shopping Display Configuration), the uploaded hotels appear under the Corporate Preferred Hotels tab.

You can define multiple hotel private rate sets. Each set is an uploaded CSV list of hotels with their private rates, codes, restrictions, descriptions, and amenities. A CSV file with actual hotel information, opened in Excel as a worksheet, looks like the following figure (you would scroll the worksheet horizontally to see all columns):

In order to have different hotels and rates for different groups of users, you upload the hotel list, as a CSV file, into a set that can be assigned to one or more groups.

Warning: The uploaded file replaces the existing file — it does not append to it. Therefore, all hotels must be loaded each time you need to change the set.  We recommend that you keep historical versions of the file, so that you can restore a previous version if the new version causes errors or fails. If you are adding new hotels, you must add them to the existing list of hotels to upload them.

Tip: For a description of groups, see Groups Tab for Managing Groups.

Navigating to the Hotel Private Rate Sets Page

To view and change a hotel set, or upload a file to use for a set, follow these steps: 

  1. Click the Services tab..

  2. Click Private Rates. The Private Rates page appears.

  3. Click the Hotel Private Rate Sets link. The Hotel Private Rate Sets page appears with a list of sets.

Tip: You can also add or change hotel private rate sets after choosing a specific group's set first. Click the Add/Edit Hotel Private Rate Sets link on the Rules page for the group (as described in Enabling Travel Rules). The Hotel Private Rate Sets page appears.

Creating a Set for the First Time

Follow these steps the first time you create a hotel private rate set. If your site is based on a template with an existing hotel private rate set, see "Changing an Existing Set" in this topic.

  1. Click the Add A New Hotel Private Rate Set link to add a new set. The Services | Add page appears.

  2. Set Name: Name the hotel private rates set. This name should be easily recognizable in the travel rules dropdown menu, and include the run date.

  3. Click the Download sample hotel private rate template link to download sample hotel private rate template to your computer.

  4. Open the template in Microsoft Excel, and choose Save As to save a new version.

  5. Open the newly saved Excel file. Several hotel rows are included as examples. You can overwrite the information in these rows to specify different hotels, and add new hotel rows as needed after the existing rows. Follow the guidelines in "Entering Hotels in the Spreadsheet" in this topic.

  6. Save the spreadsheet by choosing Save As from Excel's File menu, select CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv) in the "Save as type" dropdown menu, and save the file with an appropriate filename (it should have the ".csv" extension).

  7. Click Choose File to choose the file on your computer.

  8. Click Upload File and Save to upload the file and save it. Any errors in the file are reported, and the file is not stored in the site. You need to correct any errors, and repeat Steps 6-8.

  9. Click Done to finish.

Entering Hotels in the Spreadsheet

Warning: Don't delete any columns or unused fields in the spreadsheet.

The spreadsheet is organized with rows for hotels, and columns (also called "fields") for information, as follows:

  • Column headings highlighted in yellow are required for global distribution system (GDS) properties.

  • Column headings highlighted in orange are required for non-GDS properties.

  • Column headings highlighted in blue are optional for GDS properties and recommended for non-GDS properties. If you are loading any non-GDS properties, you should always populate all of these fields. You may also populate these fields for GDS properties. This information will appear to the user when booking hotels. For GDS properties, information included in any of these fields will overwrite the Northstar database information. 

  • Column headings highlighted in gray are for Deem use only.

  • The remaining column headings are optional. If you populate data in those fields, they will appear to the user on the Hotel Description Details page. 

  • When “-1” is entered into the PREFERENCE_RANKING column, the system will hide the associated property from the hotel search results.



Several hotel rows are included as examples. You can overwrite the information in these rows to specify different hotels, and add new hotel rows as needed after the existing rows. You can include up to 5,000 hotels.

 To see a full description of each field (a.k.a. column heading), Click the Data Field Description tab of the spreadsheet:

Changing an Existing Set

Follow these steps to change a hotel private rate set:

  1. Click the name of the set in the Set Name column of Hotel Private Rate Sets page. The Services | Edit Rate Set page appears.

  2. Click the Download link at the bottom of the page. The previously uploaded file is downloaded to your computer.

  3. Open the file in Microsoft Excel, and choose Save As to save a new version.

  4. Open the newly saved Excel file. The hotel rows you uploaded previously are included. You can overwrite the information in these rows to specify different hotels, and add new hotel rows as needed after the existing rows. Follow the guidelines in "Entering Hotels in the Spreadsheet" in this topic.

  5. Save the spreadsheet by choosing Save As from Excel's File menu, select CSV (Comma delimited) (*.csv) in the "Save as type" dropdown menu, and save the file with an appropriate filename (it should have the ".csv" extension).

  6. Click Choose File to choose the file on your computer.

  7. Click Upload File and Save to upload the file and save it. Any errors in the file are reported, and the file is not stored in the site. You need to correct any errors, and repeat Steps 6-8.

  8. Click Done to finish.

Note: To commit all of your changes, click the changes not applied link at the top of the page. The Commit Changes page appears. Click the Commit button.

After saving the set, you can assign the set to one or more groups. See Enabling Travel Rules for instructions.