Rate Management Overview
Effectively managing the rate structure of the company is an essential part of ensuring competitive and consistent pricing for your customers, and gaining efficiency in the process of pricing a reservation.
Using Rate Management is optional. If the company wants they can build each rate for each trip on an ad hoc basis. However if the company has an On Line Reservation system or Instant Rate Look-up feature it is necessary to utilize Rate Management to facilitate booking of reservations by your customers.
A Rate in Limo Anywhere is any component of the total price and includes:
- Base Rates
- Gratuities
- Surcharges
- Taxes
- Miscellaneous Fees
- Discounts
Rates can be one of three types
- Fixed Rates are those that are set for a given service such as service from point to point, or for a package that includes service for a given number of hours.
- Percentage Rates are those that are applied as a portion of other rates in Limo Anywhere. For example a 20% Gratuity would be a Percentage Rate.
- Multiplier Rates are those that are applied on a per “unit” basis such as “per hour”, “per passenger” or “per mile”.
The Rate Management section of Limo Anywhere is broken into four areas
- System Rate Manager provides for a method to establish and manage the base rate, gratuity, miscellaneous fee, surcharge, discount, and tax fields that will be present in the primary and secondary tabs in the rate construction portions of the Reservation and Settle processes. The default Reservation rate construction tabs are shown here. These are the rate fields that are default in Limo Anywhere.
See the Knowledge Base article Understanding the System Rate Manager for details.
- Fixed Rates & Zones Setup provides a method to establish set rates for a reservations that go from one point to another. These are also commonly referred to as “Flat” rates. A good example of this is a trip that goes from a given point in a city to the airport.
See the Knowledge Base article Fixed Rate & Zones Setup for details.
- Special Promotion Setup provides a method to add a rate or a discount for a limited time tied to a specific Vehicle Type or Service Type, or geographic area (Zip Code). Special Promotions allow a company to more effectively market their product to reduce prices for a limited period of time to stimulate demand, or to introduce new products or services.
See the Knowledge Base article Special Promotion Setup for details.
- Miscellaneous Fees provides a method of adding fees for incremental services that your company may provide. They may be associated with a Rate, a Service Type, an Airport, or a Promo Code. Miscellaneous Fees can be for certain dates or certain times each day. Miscellaneous Fees can be Optional or Mandatory. Some common uses of Miscellaneous Fees are for services such as child seats, luggage handling, meet and greet, off hours pick up, or to recuperate the costs of excessive cleaning or damages.
See the Knowledge Base article Utilizing Miscellaneous Fees for details.