RentalReply

SUMMARY

Purpose: To create a professional rate schedule that will allow you to earn maximum income possible during peak rental seasons and to allow you and your guests to instantly calculate online price quotes.

How to Use: Use the RATE FORM to add or edit various seasonal rates that will allow you to maximize your revenues.

Hint #1: Maximizing Seasonal Income - Ask nearby hotels to fax to you their rate cards for the next 12 months. Local hotels set their seasonal rates based on current market condition and historical supply and demand. You can benefit from the experience of hotels by adjusting your rates up or down on the same dates as them.

Hint #2: Share Rates with Friends - Use the submenu import / export links to exchange rate tables with friends and neighbors in the same rental market.

SUBMENU LINKS:

IMPORT (submenu link) - The Import link allows you to upload a complete rate table from a specially formatted computer spreadsheet file.

EXPORT (submenu link) - You can use the Export link to download to your rate tables to a computer a spreadsheet file that you can view, or store, or share with other property owners.

SECTIONS:

CURRENCY EXCHANGE RATE - Foreign guests can use a button on your real-time-booking form to immediately convert your price quote to different popular currencies. The CURRENCY EXCHANGE RATE table allows you to establish the various currency exchange rates. (more…)

RATE FORM - Use the Rate Form to add or edit rental season details. You can name the seasons whatever you like, but typical seasons might be “Peak Season” or “Summer Season” or “Holiday Season.” You can create as many seasons as you like and use any date range that you like.

RATE TABLE - When you save the information from the RATE FORM, it is stored and displayed in the RATE TABLE, in chronological order.

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CURRENCY EXCHANGE RATE

Purpose: The Currency Exchange Rate table allows your guests to click a button to immediately display your rental rate quotes in US Dollars (USD), Canadian Dollars (CAD), British Pounds (GBP), and Euros (EUR).

How to Use:

1) Set Default Currency - When you first create a new rate table, you’ll be required to select the currency for the geographic location of the property to correctly print forms and report tax obligations.

2) To Set Your Currency Exchange Rate, type an exchange rate in each corresponding box then click the “Save” button.   Note that the day’s current exchange rates are shown in parenthesis - but they’re not copied to the text boxes.  You must set your own Currency Exchange Rates, the retrieved dates in parenthesis are shown for your information, only.

Tip:  Be sure to occasionally compare the the exchange rates you’ve typed in the text box to the current recommended exchange rates as shown in parenthesis.

RATE FORM

DELETE (Button) - Click the DELETE button to delete all seasons of an entire rate table.

SAVE AS…(Button) - Will leave the current rate table intact but will copy all the rates and seasons from the current table to a new Rate Table with a new name.

RATE FORM - Use the Rate Form to add or edit rental season details. You can name the seasons whatever you like, but typical seasons might be “Peak Season” or “Summer Season” or “Holiday Season.” You can create as many seasons as you like and use any date range that you like.

After making changes to the season rates, click the button to “Save to Rate List Below”

SEASON TITLE/DESCRIPTION - Season Titles and Descriptions are visible to your guests and prospective guests. You may have any number of seasons, each with different dates, tax rates, and rental rate details. You may use any title and description you like for each season, but most owners use Season Titles similar to these: Regular Season, Low Season, Peak Season, Value Season, Holiday Season.

Some owners use the description to provide details specific to the season, for example,

BEGINS/ENDS DATE - Click the calendar icon to select a date or type the date directly in the textbox. The rates you type in the form will apply to these dates, inclusive.

TAX % - Use the textboxes to type your State Tax, County Tax, and City (or other) tax rates. A “Collection Allowance” is the percentage of the taxes collected that some taxing authorities allow you to keep as payment for collecting the taxes. A collection allowance is typically available only if your tax payments are not past due. VRMW performs all these tax calculations for you instantly and automatically. The calculations below are for illustrative purposes only:

For example, consider a property that has the following tax rates:
7% State Tax with a 2.5% Collection Allowance
6% County Tax with a 2.5% Collection Allowance
No City or other tax.

For a rental with a $1000 rental rate, the taxes would be calculated as follows:
$1000 x 7% State Tax = $70 State Taxes
$1000 x 6% County Tax = $60 County Taxes
The guest would pay $1000 + $70 State Taxes + $60 County Taxes = $1130 Total

However, if the taxing authority allows you to keep a Collection Allowance, it would be calculated as follows:
$70 State Taxes x 2.5% Collection Allowance = $1.75
$60 County Taxes x 2.5% Collection Allowance = $1.50
You would remit $70 - $1.75 = $68.25 in State Taxes
You would remit $60 - $1.50 = $58.50 in County Taxes

RATES - Populating the Rate textboxes is easy when considered a section at a time.

RATE LIST

RATE LIST - The rate list is sorted in chronological order with the oldest seasons listed at the bottom and future seasons listed at the top. New seasons and edited seasons are automatically inserted into the list in chronological order.

Use the date range text boxes to display only a specific range of seasons in the RATE LIST.

DELETE - Click the DELETE button in the left column

EDIT - Click the EDIT button to copy the rate to the form at the top of the page. Make your changes in the form, then click the “Save to Rate List Below” to replace the old rate in the Rate Table.