Before reading this article, please note that the Length of Stay (LoS) module is still in beta, as we are improving the user interface and experience with a new, more user-friendly design. If you want to use the beta version of LoS, please contact our support team through the Help Center to enable it for your CiiRUS software.

What is Length of Stay (LoS) Pricing?

Length of stay (LoS) pricing is a pricing strategy that accounts for the number of nights reserved and usually decreases the nightly rate for each night added.

Why use LoS Pricing?

Duration Restrictions: If you restrict bookings to only allow for 30 day rentals or 14 day rentals, they fail to appear in search results on the marketplaces for guests looking to stay for dates under that specified time period. When a consumer searches Vrbo for a vacation, they might be looking for any given number of nights lower than the condo association’s minimum length of stay, but they still would be willing to pay a price for a full 14 nights (or close to it). On the other hand, you may be willing to discount a unit if a consumer is willing to stay at a given unit for a longer number of nights.

Turnovers: If a market operates on turnover days, LoS can be used to increase available bookable dates. If the guest is due to arrive on Saturday, they could be given a quote for $1000 a night for a 7-night stay, $1166 for a 6-night stay, $1400 for a 5-night stay, and so on. Typically, these units would only be able to book for turnovers of Saturday to Saturday, therefore, opening up more bookable inventory.

Competition: LoS could be used to increase the competitive pricing of a longer stay. You may want to discount stays of 4 nights by 10% and 5 nights by 15%. You would even be able to exclude discounting based on duration over weekends. In addition, LoS could be used to increase the nightly rate on weekends only.

Please note, currently LoS pricing is only supported for your direct reservations and Vrbo reservations. In phase 2, it'll be supported by Airbnb as well.

Before diving in to how the LoS Module works, there are a few fundamentals that are important to know. LoS is made up of layers that can be applied to a range of dates, and then assigned to a rate set. Within the LoS layer, it can be applied to just the daily rate, floor rate, or both.

What is a layer?

A layer represents the LoS pricing that can be applied to an entire date-range or select dates/days of the week. For example, "1-3 Nights 10% Discount" could be a layer that is created. This can be created using a Booking Window that applies to a whole range of dates, or to LoS where specific dates can be selected.

What is a multiplier?

A multiplier is a number that represents a percentage to either increase or decrease the nightly rate by. For instance, "10%" would increase the rate by 10% per night or "-10%" would decrease the rate by 10% each night. The multiplier is set within the layer to manipulate the pricing.

What is a range?

A range represents the dates that the layer is applied to. For instance, the layer can be applied for the next 7 days ahead to reduce the rates by 10% for the specified dates.

To access the LoS Module, go to:

First, it is important to understand the difference between the "Booking Window" and "LoS."

Booking Window:

With the booking window, it will always assume that the first day of the multiplier starts "today" and each day it will automatically shift the whole range over by one day. For instance, if a new multiplier were to be added today, August 1st, the range will always continue rolling for every day, so tomorrow the start date of the range will be August 2nd. This allows a larger date range to be manipulated at a time, rather than changing the pricing per date-band for future dates.

The booking window only applies to nightly rates and does not apply until the guest selects a range of dates.

LoS:

Unlike the booking window, where the first day of the multiplier is always today, LoS allows a date-range and future dates to be selected. For instance, pricing for three months out could be configured for an entire season. Perhaps, during Christmas season, a duration of 5 nights or 6 nights could be made equivalent to the price of a whole week. We call this type of yield management minimum pricing, and therefore, a LoS layer could be created for Christmas to mark-up the rates for durations of stay less than one week. This allows for a unit to be returned in search results without losing revenue on holiday week.

Essentially, there are 2 steps involved in adding LoS multipliers:

Multiple layers can be applied to a single rate set, assuming they don't overlap. See example:

Specify "Booking Window" from the two options, and then to add a new multiplier to a booking window, click on "Add New."

From the popup window:

For example, to increase the price by 10% for a date(s), simply type "10" into the field. To decrease the price by 5% for a date(s), type "-5" into the field.

To edit a range of dates:

For example, for any bookings arriving between 10-20 days ahead, discount the rate by -10%.

You can choose a rate set to see how the pricing will change with this booking window applied.

Please note, in comparing a rate set, it doesn't associate the layer to the rate set at this time. It's simply to see how it will look once you do assign it.

To compare the multiplier to a rate set, select the rate set from the compare rate dropdown:

The grid will reload where you can see the updated pricing:

Specify "LOS" from the two options, and then to add a new LoS layer, click on "Add New."

From the popup window:

Similar to configuring a multiplier for a booking window, the percentage can be set day-by-day, or by using the date range option.

To add the multiplier to a single set of dates:

For example, to increase the price by 10% for a date(s), simply type "10" into the field.

To decrease the price by 5% for a date(s), type "-5" into the field.

To edit a range, click the "Edit Range" button. This tool allows bulk updates to be made to the LoS layer.

For example, let's say you want to give the guest 5% off if they book for 3-5 days during low season. You can create a layer with this type of discount code using the range.

To do so:

The grid will show the updated pricing for the dates you've applied in the range:

You can choose a rate set to see how the pricing will change with the LoS pricing.

Please note, in comparing a rate set, it doesn't associate the layer to the rate set at this time. It's simply to see how it will look once you do assign it.

To compare the multiplier to a rate set, select the rate set from the compare rate dropdown:

The grid will reload where you can see the updated pricing:

Next, you'll need to actually assign the layers you've created to your rates. If you forget this step, the LoS pricing won't apply.

To do so:

From the Associate Rate Set popup:

One rate-set can have multiple LoS layers assigned based on the duration.

For instance, a 10% off LoS layer could be assigned for any bookings where the duration is from 3 nights to 5 nights. Then, a second 20% off LoS layer could be assigned for any bookings where the duration is from 6 to 10 nights.

The graph shows the LoS layers and ranges that have already been configured for the selected rate-set and it will prevent configuration overlaps:

The rates can also be previewed using the "Show Grid" view:

Un-associate a layer and rate-set:

To remove the layer from the rate-set, click the "Trash" icon. Please note, this does not remove the rate-set or the layer, but simply removes the association between the two.

To edit a layer, click the "Edit" icon from the left-most column in the grid:

To delete a layer, click the "Trash" icon:

To quickly see the LoS layers assigned to a given rate set, click "View LoS by Rate Set" above the table:

To save time, layers that have been applied to a rate set can be exported to one ore more additional rate sets that don't overlap an existing layer on the selected rate-set. For example, if you want to apply the same set of layers to other rate sets, you can do this.

To do so:

From the popup, select the rate sets that you want to copy the layers to. Then click "Export."

A pop-up will appear to show how many layers successfully exported or failed:

To use the LoS Pricing for direct system and website bookings, it must be enabled against the unit.

To enable LoS, go to:

From the "Enable LoS Pricing" column, simply enable the checkbox for the units you want LoS pricing to apply to:

LoS pricing is supported by Vrbo. To enable LoS for the Vrbo listings, go to:

From the grid, scroll over to locate the "Enable LoS Pricing" column. Simply enable the checkbox for the units you want LoS pricing to apply to and then click the "Save" icon.