This chapter explains the steps necessary for making changes
in Rate Sets and Rate Groups. Specifically it covers the changes
necessary to go from having all locations sharing a single set of Time and
Miles rental rates to a configuration where individual locations have their own
location specific prices for some Rate Products and share common prices for
other Products. It is recommended that the reader review the basic rules behind Rate Sets and Rate Groups as laid out in Overview - Rate Sets and Rate Groups before proceeding.
I. DEFINITIONS
Rate Set: Time and Mileage rates can have several price determining
factors such as the Class of vehicle, Effective Date and Rental location.
Rates can be set up so that they are more expensive at an airport location (due
to the added overhead) than at a off airport location. This
"geographical" element of a rate is handled by the Rate Set concept
in CARS+. Locations that share a common set of rates do that by means of
having a common Rate Set Code in their Location record. For an example,
if all airport locations share a common set of rate prices, they can all be
assign Rate Set "A", while downtown, remote locations could share
Rate Set "D".
Rate Group: Rate Groups represent larger geographical areas for rates
that are shared by multiple or even all locations. Continuing the example
started above: the WALKUP rate is priced differently between Rate Set
"A" and Rate Set "D" and so it exists in each of those Rate Sets. Yet the national, corporate rate for
IBM is priced the same for both the airport and downtown locations.
Instead of having to set up the identical prices for the IBM rate in both Rate
Set "A" and "D", a single rate record can be set up in a
Rate Group that is shared by all rental locations. Let's assign this Rate
Group the code "S". Under this configuration, Rate Sets
"A" and "D" contain only those Rate Products whose prices
are location sensitive between airport and non-airport locations, while all other
Rate Products that are priced the same for all locations are defined in Rate
Group "S".
Rate Lookup Rules: When looking up the prices for a rate product, the following steps are tried:
II. THE PROBLEM OF RATE CONFIGURATION CHANGES
The most simple rate set up in CARS+ is to define a single Rate Set that is
used by all locations and not bother setting up any Rate Groups. But to change from this kind of set-up to the use of multiple Rate Sets and Rate Groups can be a challenge. That is the purpose of this chapter. To aide in this will be the following illustration:
|
Location Code |
Location Description |
Present Rate Set |
Desired rate Set |
|
LAX |
Los Angeles International Airport |
A |
1 |
|
LAX01 |
LA Downtown |
A |
2 |
|
SNA |
Orange County John Wayne Airport |
A |
1 |
|
ANA01 |
Radison Hotel near Disneyland |
A |
3 |
| BPK01 |
Marriot Hotel near Knotts Berry Farm |
A |
3 |
Currently, all locations share the same rates (Rate Set "A"). In the new desired configuration, the two airports will share rates, the Los Angeles downtown location will have its own rates and the two locations near Orange County amusement parks will share rates. In addition, all five locations will share some corporate rates that are priced the same for all locations.
III. STEPS IN CHANGING THE ABOVE CONFIGURATION
1. Currently, Rate Set A contains all existing rates, both those that will be shared by all locations and those that should be priced by the location groups described above. This Rate Set needs to be redefined as a Rate Group (since it contains prices that will be shared by all locations). This is done in the Edit Rate Groups program. Set the records up as follows:
| OPTION: __ EDIT RATE GROUPS 1 Location LAX 2 Rate Set A 1SAVE 2NEXT 3ERASE 4DELETE 5BACKUP 6 7HELP 8 |
| OPTION: __ EDIT RATE GROUPS 1 Location LAX01 2 Rate Set A 1SAVE 2NEXT 3ERASE 4DELETE 5BACKUP 6 7HELP 8 |
A record must be set up for each of the five locations indicating that they belong to the Rate Group "A".
2. Next, those rates that are to be priced by the new Rate Sets need to be entered into the Edit Rental Rules and Rates program. This can be done by cloning the new records from the existing records with the original Rate Set. This can be done as follows:
a. Pull an existing rate product record up on the Edit Rental Rules and Rates screen.
b. Press F8 to page through all pages of the rate (this loads the whole record into the program).
c. When you return to page 1 drop down to field 1 and replace the previous value with the new Rate Set code, then advance to Page 3 and enter any pricing differences.
d. Press F1 to save the new record.
Repeat this for each new Rate Set and for all rates that are to be priced by location. There is no need to terminate the records that had the original Rate Set Code. Based on the Rate Look-up rules, those records will never be seen now that a record with the same Product Code exists for each of the new Rate Sets.
3. After all location priced rates have been set up under the new Rate Set Codes, go to the Location File (Edit Locations) and change each location's Rate Set to its new value.
| OPTION: __ EDIT LOCATIONS (Page 1 of 7) -----Tax Flags (Y/N)----- 1 Location # LAX 21 Mileage 27 Fuel 2 Location Name 22 Time 28 Drop 3 Address line 1 23 CDW 29 Misc 4 Address line 2 24 PAI 30 FFs 5 Address line 3 25 PEC 31 PFF 6 Phone # 26 CRG 7 8 9 10 Profit Center # 35 Tax code 11 Gold Service Type 36 7 digit Loc 12 Do Fuel Calc? (Y/N) 37 Min. Deposit 13 Holding drawer 38 Valid Rental Loc 14 Auto vehicle select 39 Allow Multi-Lang RA 15 Network Address 40 Allow WAIT RAs 16 Check-in Status 41 Rate Set 1 17 Check-out Fuel 42 Walkup Rate 18 Region 43 Net Rate Set 19 Dispatch Control 44 Auth/Swipe 20 Ready Line Size 45 Use Model Tax Code 1SAVE 2NEXT 3ERASE 4DELETE 5BACKUP 6 7HELP 8NXT PAGE |
IV. ADDITIONAL NOTES ON HOW THE SYSTEM READS RATE GROUPS
A location can belong to more than one Rate Group. For example, the five locations mentioned above could grouped as follows:
|
Group Description |
Member Locations |
Group Set Code |
| All Locations |
LAX, LAX01, SNA, ANA01, BPK01 |
A |
|
Los Angeles County |
LAX, LAX01 |
LA |
|
Off Airport |
LAX01, ANA01, BPK01 |
OA |
|
Orange County |
SNA, ANA01, BPK01 |
OC |
|
Group Set Code |
Rate Product Code |
Daily Rate for a Compact |
| A |
does not exist for this Group |
|
|
LA |
WKENDJOY |
39.95 |
|
OA |
WKENDJOY |
37.95 |
|
OC |
WKENDJOY |
35.95 |
1. First Anaheim's default Rate Set ("3") from the Location record for ANA01 would be used.
2. Assuming the rate product was NOT set up there but is defined with a Rate Group Code, the above read would fail and the system would turn to the Rate Group file. The first Group Code it would find (according to the rules of an alphanumeric sort) would be Rate Group "A". But as stated above, the rate product WKENDJOY was not defined in that Group.
3. Next would come Group Code "LA" but since location ANA01 is not a member of that group, that record would not be used.
4. Then Rate Group "OA" would be tried. Since location ANA01 is a member of the Rate Group OA and the rate WKENDJOY is set up with Rate Set OA, the price of $37.95/day would be found and used.
5. The fact that WKENDJOY also exists in Rate Group "OC" (to which ANA01 is also a member) and at a lower price would never be seen. Once the system finds a rate, it stops looking.
The lesson to be learned here is that when naming Rate Groups keep in mind the rules of an alpha-numeric search. For more on the rules of an alpha-numeric search see the chapter "General Data Entry Instructions". Rate Groups that should be tried first should be given codes early in a alphanumeric sort. Those that are "catch-all" groups that are to be used when all else fails should be given codes at the end of the sort. Based on that, the Rate Group Code for the group that includes all locations really should be named "Z" not "A". That way the restrictive groups for LA and Orange Counties and Off Airport would be tried first and then when all else fails the group for all locations would be tried.