Booking.com's occupancy-based pricing is configured using the Additional Guest Fee in Sympl. However, you may occasionally find rate discrepancies between your Booking.com and Sympl accounts.
To troubleshoot these issues, read through this document to understand the Maximum Occupancy rate calculation methodology. You will also learn how to correct these issues directly with Booking.com's support team.
Additional Guest Rate Calculation
Sympl's Additional Guest Fee parameter is used to calculate the Maximum Occupancy price points for Booking.com listings using the following formula:
Nightly Rate + Additional Guest Fee * Additional Guests = Max. Occupancy
Here's an example of a standard rate setup in Sympl that utilizes an Additional Guest Fee:
With the parameters set as such, Booking.com's Maximum Occupancy is calculated as follows:
£100 + £20 * 3 = £160
Sympl will relay the amount of £160 as your Maximum Occupancy price, which will then be discounted for bookings with lower occupancies (rather than multiplying an additional guest fee).
Addressing Rate Discrepancies
There are a few common causes for rate discrepancies between your Sympl Additional Guest Fee parameters and Booking.com's calculated Max. Occupancy rates.
You can check to see if your setup has rate differences by comparing your expected Maximum Occupancy rates (using the aforementioned formula) with the rates that appear on your Booking.com Rates & Availabilities calendar.
Issue Issue #1: Max. Occupancy is correct for maximum number of guests, but incorrect for lower occupancies.
If you encounter this discrepancy, it means that Booking.com's per-guest fee is not configured correctly. To address this, you will need to log in to the Booking.com Extranet, then navigate to your inbox to send an email to their support team making the request to fix the per-guest fee. Send them your Additional Guest Fee parameters from Sympl so they can match it correctly.
Here's an example of a suitable message:
Topic: Rates & Availability
Subtopic: Create/adjust rates and prices
Message: I would like to set occupancy-based pricing for this property as follows: Charge additional £50 per person, per night above 1 guest -- up to 5 guests.
Issue Issue #2: The Maximum Occupancy price is given for minimum occupancies.
This issue occurs when Booking.com already has the Additional Guest Fee configured on their end. Removing your Additional Guest Fee in Sympl will correct the issue. After removing the fee, push your rates to Booking.com before checking for discrepancies over again.
Issue Issue #3: Booking.com shows a different number of Maximum / Minimum Guests
There are two possible solutions for this issue, depending on which set of numbers you'd like to use:
Solution #1: Adjust your Maximum Guests & Minimum Guests parameters in Sympl to match Booking.com's numbers, then push your rates.
Solution #2: Ask Booking.com to adjust your backend settings for Maximum / Minimum Guests to match your Sympl parameters. You can draft a message similar to the example above.