You can set up conditional and private rates for your hotels by uploading a Rate Rules XML file in Hotel Center. You can create multiple rates for your hotels and exceptions for those rates.
Follow the steps below to add, update, and delete rate rules and verify that they are being applied correctly.
Managing rate rules
Add, update, or delete a new rate rule
To add, update, or delete a rate rule:
- Download the template in XML.
- From your Hotel Center page, click Rate Rules.
- Click Download current rate rules.
- If you are adding rate rules for the first time, click the Upload tab, then in the “XML” section, click Download template.
- Open the file in a text editor.
- To add a new rate rule: Follow the schema to add the new rule details.
- To update a rate rule: Find the existing rate rule and make the desired changes.
- To delete a rate rule: Remove all attributes of the existing rule from the file.
- Upload the updated file.
- After you submit your XML file, Google will test and validate the rules.
- If all rules pass validation, you will see an updated list of your rate rules. Review the changes and verify that they have been set up and uploaded correctly. If needed, you can make corrections to your XML file and click New upload to resubmit.
- If you have previously published rate rules, the tool will alert you if the new rate rule count is less than your published count and whether a previously published rate rule will be deleted.
- If a rule doesn't pass validation, you’ll see an error message with a list of errors, and your rules will not be updated. Click Cancel to update your file and try again. Learn how to fix errors from new or updated rate rules
- Click Publish to confirm your changes.
- Note: Currently it takes up to 90 minutes for rate rules to be published.
For additional guidance, see the developer’s guide.
Google will check your rate rules for both data and application errors. Rates will not appear in your price feed until all related errors are resolved. Learn more about possible XML errors
- Review each new and updated rule for data issues (for example: invalid device type, invalid country code, or invalid XML) or application issues (for example: duplicate rate rule names or invalid rule combinations). Make the necessary changes to your XML file and re-upload.
If you continue to receive errors after fixing and re-uploading, contact Google support for help.
Verifying rate rules
For people to see hotel rates in search results, you must include a rate rule ID in your price feed. The list view displays whether each rule is found in your price feed. Note that changes may take up to 24 hours to be reflected in your price feed.
When checking a hotel itinerary for a given conditional rate, you can verify that the rate rule ID for the rate being previewed is displayed. You can verify rate rules from the Properties tab and the Pricing tab.
To verify rate rules from the Properties tab:
- On the left hand navigation, select Properties.
- Click on a Hotel ID to navigate to the Hotel Details page.
- Within the Preview tool, select your specified itinerary and rate rule ID.
- The displayed prices should automatically refresh to reflect any rate rule pricing.
To verify rate rules from the Pricing tab:
- Repeat steps 1-2 above from the Properties tab.
- Within the Preview tool, select View all prices to navigate to the Price list.
- Click the All Rates tab.