If you want to manage your property on Booking.com professionally, you need to understand the difference between the Standard Rate and additional rate plans.
This is especially important when using a vacation rental channel manager like DiBooq.
In this article, you’ll learn:
- what the Booking.com Standard Rate is
- how it is synchronized with DiBooq
- how to create additional rate plans on Booking.com
- which booking conditions you set where
- how to unlock additional booking conditions on Booking.com
- what else you should keep in mind as a host
Booking.com Standard Rate explained
The Standard Rate is the central and most important rate for your property on Booking.com.
When you connect DiBooq with Booking.com, only this Standard Rate is fully synchronized.
That means:
All global booking conditions you set in DiBooq vacation rental software are automatically sent to Booking.com.
These include:
- (seasonal) minimum stay
- maximum stay
- arrival days
- departure days
- preparation time
- lead time
- booking window
👉 Important:
The Standard Rate is synchronized with DiBooq via XML.
You should not manually change this rate in the Booking.com Extranet.
The Standard Rate serves as the basis for all other rate plans.
What is a Booking.com rate plan?
A rate plan is an additional pricing variation of your Standard Rate.
You use it to:
- offer different cancellation policies
- grant discounts for longer stays
- set different minimum stays
- implement different pricing strategies
Guests can then choose between multiple price options, for example a lower price with a non-refundable rate.
Note: Due to a Booking.com system limitation related to XML connections, no booking conditions can be transmitted for additional rate plans besides the Standard Rate.
Minimum stay, closed to arrivals, or closed to departures must therefore be managed directly in the Booking.com Extranet by the host for these additional rate plans.
Important before creating additional rates
If you already created rate plans before connecting DiBooq, please proceed as follows:
- Please delete all existing rate plans except for the Standard Rate.
- You will then see only the Standard Rate in your Booking.com Extranet.
- Now connect to the DiBooq Channel Manager.
- After that, create your additional rates again.
- You can now define, for example, seasonal booking conditions for additional rate plans in Booking.com.
You can recognize whether your additional rate plans are set up correctly by the label “Not XML”.
Already connected and didn’t delete the additional rate plans beforehand? No problem. You can also delete the additional rate plans after connecting DiBooq and then create them again.
Recommended rate structure for Booking.com
1. Standard Rate
Free cancellation up to 14 days or up to 21 days before arrival.
2. Flexible Rate
Free cancellation between 1 and 3 days before arrival.
Recommendation: 10% surcharge on the Standard Rate.
3. Non-refundable Rate
No free cancellation.
Recommendation: 10% discount compared to the Standard Rate.
This rate gives you maximum planning reliability.
4. Weekly Rate
Recommendation: 15% discount for stays of 7 nights or more.
And free cancellation up to 14 days or up to 21 days before arrival.
5. Monthly Rate
Recommendation: 30% discount for stays of 28 nights or more.
And free cancellation up to 14 days or up to 21 days before arrival.
Example of a solid setting for Booking.com rate plans
Create a Booking.com rate plan: step by step
Here’s how to create a new rate plan:
- Log in at admin.booking.com.
- Go to Rates & Availability → Rate plans.
This is how you access the rate plans in the Booking.com Extranet. - Click Add new rate plan.
- Select the desired plan.
- Define the cancellation policy and pricing strategy.
- Activate the rate.
Which booking conditions can you set where?
In DiBooq, you control the following for the Standard Rate:
- minimum stay
- maximum stay
- arrival days
- departure days
- preparation time
- lead time
- booking window
In additional rate plans, you can manage certain booking conditions individually in the Booking.com Extranet:
- minimum length of stay
- minimum lead time
Other settings must first be enabled by Booking.com Support.
Example of how to seasonally adjust booking conditions for rate plans
Unlock advanced booking conditions
The following settings are not automatically active for additional rates on Booking.com:
- maximum length of stay
- minimum stay from arrival
- maximum stay from arrival
- no arrivals
- no departures
- maximum advance booking window
For the Standard Rate, you control everything centrally in DiBooq.
For additional rates, you must explicitly have these options activated by Booking.com.
Contact Booking.com to unlock booking conditions
- Log in to the Extranet.
- Open your inbox.
- Select See contact options.
- Choose Rates & Availability.
- Send your request.
Template for your Booking.com support request
Dear Booking.com Partner Support Team,
I would like to ask you to enable additional booking conditions within an existing rate plan for my property.
Property: [Name of your property]
Property ID: [Your ID]
Affected rate plan(s): [Name of the rate plan(s)]
Please enable the following booking conditions:
- maximum length of stay
- minimum stay from arrival
- maximum stay from arrival
- no arrivals
- no departures
- maximum advance booking window
This activation is necessary so that I can implement my pricing strategy flexibly and manage my availability according to market demand.
Thank you very much for your support.
Mit freundlichen Grüßen
[Dein Name]
When a new property is connected to Booking.com via DiBooq, the property’s availability across Booking.com rate plans is automatically reset. This behavior is Booking.com’s default as soon as a new XML connection is activated.
