The basic pricing logic: BAR and the rate structure

In lesson 7 we introduced the BAR as the public, standard rate, and saw six rate fences (member, package, non-refundable, opaque, mobile-only, corporate) that allow legitimate price differences alongside the parity rule. Now we walk through the full build of this structure: how a hotel’s rate structure stacks up on the BAR, and how a modern system handles dozens of different price points at once for the same room.

Because an 80-room hotel for a given Saturday night doesn’t run one rate — it runs a rate structure. And one of the revenue management discipline’s jobs is to build that structure consistently, in balance, profitably.

The BAR as the anchor rate

The BAR (Best Available Rate) is the hotel’s public, standard rate for a given room category, on a given date. The other price points derive from it:

• Premiums (premium category premium, view premium, size premium)
• Discounts (corporate, member, AAA, AARP, early booking)
• Packaged rates (BAR + breakfast + spa, package rate)
• Restricted rates (non-refundable, advance purchase)
• Channel-specific rates (mobile-only, opaque)

The BAR is the link that connects every price point. If the BAR moves (e.g. from EUR 110 to EUR 125), all the others move automatically with it (the corporate rate, which is BAR −15%, from 93 to 106).

We call this derived pricing. Modern PMSes (Sabeeapp, Opera, Hostware) handle this automatically — the hotel only needs the RM to move the BAR, and the rest follows by formula.

In lessons 35 and 36 (Dynamic pricing) we cover the methodology of moving the BAR in detail. Here we build the structure on top of the BAR.

Category premiums

Hotel Peaqplus City offers three room categories:

• Standard room — 22 m², basic position (street-facing), for 2. This is the BAR base (multiplier: 1.00×).
• Superior room — 28 m², quiet garden-facing side, better complementary amenities (Nespresso, better pillows, a higher-quality bed). Multiplier: 1.15× (15% premium over the Standard).
• Junior Suite — 38 m², living area + bedroom, a panoramic balcony toward the river. Multiplier: 1.55× (55% premium).

For a Saturday night where the Standard BAR is EUR 110:

Category	Multiplier	BAR
Standard	1.00×	EUR 110
Superior	1.15×	EUR 127
Junior Suite	1.55×	EUR 171

The multipliers are stable (they don’t change daily) and reflect the hotel’s position. In a luxury hotel the Junior Suite might be 2.5-3.0×; in a budget hotel only 1.3-1.4×. The hotel’s “pricing personality” is shown by this multiplier structure too.

A curiosity: alongside multipliers, absolute premiums can also be used. E.g. “Superior = BAR + EUR 17”. The multiplier approach is more refined (at a low BAR the premium is proportionally smaller), the absolute premium is more conservative (it preserves the category difference even at a low BAR). The debate between the two philosophies is ongoing in the industry — Hotel Peaqplus City works with multipliers, because its market position changes seasonally.

Rate plans — the rate portfolio

After the BAR and the category premiums come the rate plans — different rate bundles, each targeted at a different guest segment. A modern urban 4-star runs 15-30 rate plans at once.

Hotel Peaqplus City’s rate plan portfolio:

Standard rate plans (built on the BAR)

Rate plan	Cell rule	Example for Saturday night (Standard, BAR 110)	Target segment
BAR (Best Available Rate)	= BAR	EUR 110	Public, standard transient
BAR + Breakfast	BAR + EUR 14	EUR 124	Leisure city visitor
Non-refundable	BAR × 0.82	EUR 90	Price-sensitive transient
Advance Purchase 21	BAR × 0.90	EUR 99	Forward-planning transient (21+ days)
Advance Purchase 45	BAR × 0.85	EUR 94	Early-booking leisure
Last Minute Deal	BAR × 0.75 (only for bookings within 0-3 days)	EUR 83	Late pickup

Loyalty programme rate plans

Rate plan	Cell rule	Example	Target segment
Member rate (registered user)	BAR × 0.90	EUR 99	Direct booker
Loyalty Gold (3+ stays)	BAR × 0.85	EUR 94	Returning guest
Loyalty Platinum (10+ stays)	BAR × 0.80	EUR 88	VIP returning guest

Package rate plans (priced independently of the BAR)

Rate plan	Contents	Price for Saturday night	Target segment
Romantic Weekend	2 nights + breakfast + champagne + late check-out + spa entry	EUR 295 / 2 nights (EUR 148 / night)	Transient occasion (honeymoon, birthday)
Wellness Package	1 night + breakfast + 60-min massage + spa entry	EUR 168	Wellness-interested
Sunday Brunch Package	1 night + brunch + late (16:00) check-out	EUR 135	Sunday city mini-break
Family Stay	1 night + 2 children’s breakfast free + pool access	BAR + EUR 10 = EUR 120	Family transient

Contracted rate plans

Rate plan	Cell rule	Example	Target segment
Corporate Acme	Fixed EUR 88	EUR 88	Acme Ltd.
Corporate BankX	Fixed EUR 92	EUR 92	BankX
Corporate Volume	Fixed EUR 75 (100+ room nights / year)	EUR 75	Large corporate contracts
Government rate	Fixed EUR 70	EUR 70	Government / municipal
Tour Operator	Fixed EUR 65 (allotment)	EUR 65	Domestic travel agencies
Wholesale Hotelbeds	Fixed EUR 58	EUR 58	B2B distribution (Hotelbeds)

Channel-specific

Rate plan	Channel	Example	Target segment
Mobile-only (Booking app)	Booking.com mobile	BAR × 0.90 = EUR 99	Mobile-booking leisure
Opaque (Hotwire)	Hotwire “Hot Rate”	~EUR 65 (varies)	Price-sensitive opaque booker

That’s 21 different rate plans for the same Standard room, for the same Saturday night — the room rates span from the wholesale EUR 58 to the BAR EUR 110, and the packages above that, with service content (Wellness EUR 168, Romantic Weekend EUR 295 / 2 nights). Each is a legitimate price point, and each targets a real market segment.

The full rate structure — three dimensions

If we now stack the rate plans (~21) × categories (3) × dates (365), Hotel Peaqplus City manages about 23,000 price cells at once. This is unmanageable without a modern PMS and Channel Manager.

A single Saturday night’s full price-matrix extract:

Rate plan	Standard	Superior (1.15×)	Junior Suite (1.55×)
BAR	EUR 110	EUR 127	EUR 171
BAR + Breakfast	EUR 124	EUR 141	EUR 185
Non-refundable	EUR 90	EUR 104	EUR 140
Member rate	EUR 99	EUR 114	EUR 154
Romantic Weekend (2 nights)	EUR 295 / 2 nights	EUR 340 / 2 nights	EUR 455 / 2 nights
Corporate Acme	EUR 88	EUR 101	EUR 136
Tour Operator	EUR 65	EUR 75	EUR 100

The 3 categories × 7 rate plans = 21 cells, for just one Saturday night. And to these belong restrictions (MLOS, CTA, CTD), close-out rules, packages.

How a system handles this complexity

In lesson 6 we saw: the PMS (Sabeeapp, Opera) stores the capacity and the bookings, the Channel Manager distributes the rates and availability to the channels. Together the two systems can handle this ~23,000-cell price matrix:

1. The RM only moves the BAR daily (and the multipliers more rarely — once or twice within a season).
2. The other rate plans are computed automatically — non-refundable = BAR × 0.82, corporate Acme = fixed EUR 88, etc.
3. The Channel Manager distributes all 21 rate plans to every channel — Booking, Expedia, web, GDS. One change appears everywhere within 15 minutes.
4. The restrictions (MLOS, CTA, close-out) are also managed centrally — one rule in the system, and it applies on every channel.

The modern RM doesn’t write rates manually anywhere. They strategically move the BAR and the rate-plan rules — the system does the execution.

The strategic role of the rate structure

Why this complex? Because the 21-rate-plan portfolio does fine-grained guest segmentation. Each segment buys at its own price point:

• The price-sensitive direct booker at the member rate (EUR 99), not the BAR.
• The last-minute booker at non-refundable (EUR 90), not the BAR.
• The honeymoon couple on the Romantic Weekend package (EUR 148 / night), not the BAR.
• Acme’s business traveller at the fixed EUR 88, not the BAR.
• The tour operator at EUR 65, not the BAR.

The BAR (EUR 110) speaks to only one segment: the public, standard transient. The other segments buy on their own rate plan, and the hotel realizes a fine-tuned, segment-optimized blended ADR that is a few EUR higher than what it would achieve with a single, uniform BAR.

This isn’t price discrimination in the classic sense — it’s a rate structure that reflects segment-level price elasticity. Each rate plan is a legitimate price point that a specific guest segment either accepts, or leaves for another hotel.

The principles of a good rate structure

Building the rate structure isn’t random — a few principles hold in every hotel:

1. Consistency

A non-refundable rate should always be BAR × 0.82 — never BAR × 0.80 on one date and BAR × 0.84 on another. The guest learns the rate plan’s character, and with it we build loyalty.

2. Hierarchy

The cheapest rate plan should carry the strictest conditions — non-refundable, advance purchase 45 days, no-changes. The most expensive is the flexible-cancellation BAR. The guest gets the rate according to their commitment.

3. Channel balance

No single rate plan should dominate on any channel. If a hotel runs 80% on non-refundable, something is wrong — the BAR is probably too high or the non-refundable discount too deep, and the hotel is drifting into the “discount” position.

4. Seasonal flexibility

In high season the discount rate plans can be switched off (close-out), in low season they activate. The modern RM does this through the Channel Manager at the daily level.

5. Periodic review

Once or twice a year, rethink the rate-plan portfolio — which plan worked (good pickup, good guest value), which didn’t. Introducing new rate plans + retiring old ones is a strategic task.

Key takeaways

• The BAR is the anchor rate — the hotel’s public, standard rate. The other price points derive from it (with category premiums, discounts, packaged).
• A modern urban 4-star runs 15-30 rate plans at once — standard, loyalty, package, contracted, channel-specific. Each targets a segment.
• The 3 dimensions (rate plan × category × date) give a ~23,000-cell price matrix, which the PMS + Channel Manager handle automatically off the BAR movement.
• The rate structure isn’t random — consistency, hierarchy, channel balance, seasonal flexibility, periodic review are the principles.
• The different rate plans aren’t price discrimination, but guest-segment-level price elasticity — each segment buys at its own price point.