Fares allow you to dynamically control the pricing by setting up one or multiple rules, where at least one or all of them have to be met. When these rules are met, the price of your product changes automatically.
In this article you will learn how to create and set up your fares, as well as view a demo of how they work using some examples.
Create New Fare
In your Ventrata dashboard, go to Products > Products.
Select an existing product.
Go to the Fares tab.
Press the + NEW FARE button.
Enter the name.
Select the sources which should support dynamic pricing.
Select a conjunctive operator.
AND - all of the selected rules must be met for the fare to apply
OR - at least one of the selected rules must be met for the fare to apply
Select one or multiple rules.
Occupancy Forecast - how full you expect the tour to be in percentages (%)
📒 NOTE
The forecast is based on weeks, not specific calendar dates. The calculation looks at occupancy data 364 days in the past and projects it forward to the corresponding week of the following year.
Use this option together with the occupancy rule and the 'OR" conjunctive operator, using identical settings. When calendar dates and times were sold out in the previous year, Ventrata automatically applies the corresponding fare for the corresponding week of the following year based on the expected occupancy. As a result, those high-demand slots will be sold at an adjusted, higher fare.
Occupancy - how full the tour is in percentages (%)
Vacancies - the number of remaining places available on the tour
PAX - the total number of tickets sold for the selected tour
Booking Size - the number of tickets sold in the booking
Notice - the length of time between booking date and travel date in minutes, hours or days
Duration - the amount of time the tour lasts for in minutes, hours or days
Select a comparison operator.
> - higher than your value
>= - equal or higher than your value
= - equals your value
!= - does not equal your value
<= - equal or lower than your value
< - lower than your value
Enter a value to complete the rule.
Press the Create Fare button.
Create Fare Groups
Fare groups enable you to combine dynamic pricing with other types of variability, such as seasons or options, allowing you to use different rules across modifiers for greater flexibility.
Grouping fares simplifies their application to modifiers in the General Availability tab, streamlining operations and ensuring a more organised and efficient workflow over time.
On the product level, go to the Fares tab.
Press the + New Fare Group button.
Enter fare group name.
Press the Create Fare Group button.
Press the pen and paper icon
to edit each fare and assign the appropriate fare group.
Press the Update Fare button.
📗 TIP
To learn how fare groups are used in practice, jump here.
Convert to Fare Groups
With the CONVERT TO FARE GROUPS button, you can organise your existing fares into distinct fare groups. These groups will contain the original fares and can be used to update product availability as needed.
⛔️ WARNING
Converting fares into fare groups is irreversible. To revert to your previous fare setup, you will need to manually delete the fare groups created.
Set Fare Rates
On the product level, go to the Rates tab.
Press the MODIFIERS button in the Rates area and select 'Fare'.
You can add other modifiers, such as a specific reseller, to associate the fare with the selected reseller. When combining modifiers, be mindful of other dependencies that may affect how fares are applied. In case of resellers, make sure 'Allow Fares' is enabled on the reseller detail.
📒 NOTE
Typically a modifier, such as Option or Fare (as appropriate), may already be pre-selected under the MODIFIERS button.
When setting up your rates, be sure to set your prices also WITHOUT any modifiers selected. If not, the 'From' price will always display as 0. This affects how the 'From' price is shown in the terminal app, web checkout, sales portals or on OTAs.
Set new prices for each unit of each fare.
Press the SAVE CHANGES button.
Re-arrange Fares
If you have multiple fares, the order in which they are listed in the table directly affects how fares are applied in your checkout widget and affects overall performance.
To optimise performance, it is recommended to list fares in descending order (from HIGH to LOW), following these guidelines:
From more complex to simpler rules
From more complex to simpler rules
Start with fares that have multiple rules and end with those that have none. The more specific the rule, the fewer database queries will be required, the better the performance of your checkout widget.
📒 NOTE
The same applies when using only one rule. Start with a fare with the highest value, and list all others in descending order.
The below example shows the correct and incorrect usage of the occupancy rule:
✅ Price | ❌ Price
1. >= 75% $90 | <= 50% $70
2. >= 50% $80 | <= 76% $80
3. >= 0% $70 | <= 100% $90
From most expensive to cheapest
From most expensive to cheapest
Ventrata takes all the possible fares assigned for the day and returns the cheapest one, adjusting the final fare based on the applicable rule(s).
📘 EXAMPLE
We have two fares: the fare for a larger booking size is at the top and the one for a smaller booking size is below.
This order is also justified by the pricing, as the 4-passenger fare is more expensive and therefore listed first, while the 2-passenger fare is placed lower as it is cheaper.
This setup helps ensure faster performance and accurate fare application.
Set Fare Without Overriding Availability
The 'Fare Only' option on the General Availability tab allows you to set fares or fare groups without tying them to a capacity or modifying resource allocation.
📒 NOTE
Using the 'Fixed' or 'Percentage' option will override the fare availability made using the 'Fare Only' option.
Select Default Fare
By default, fares are set to 'Automatic', meaning they are applied based on the rules created as per above. You have, however, the option to default to a specific rate.
📒 NOTE
Doing so will remove dynamic pricing and all rates will reflect rates set for the selected fare.
On the product level, press the pen and paper icon to edit the product detail.
Scroll down or simply search for 'Fare'.
Select the fare that should be applied by default.
Press the Update Product button to save your changes.
Fares in Practice
1-Rule Fares
In this example, we are using the 'Booking Size' rule, where bookings with 4 or more tickets will get a different rate compared to bookings with 3 or fewer tickets.
We set up our rates to the below values:
| Regular Rate (CZK) | Fare Rate (CZK) |
Adult | 200 | 150 |
Child | 100 | 80 |
Family | 400 | 300 |
Notice how the price changes from 200 to 150 CZK depending on the number of tickets selected in the booking:
Fares with AND Conjunctive Operator
We have added a 1 hour 'Notice' rule to our previous 'Booking Size', therefore the booking now has to satisfy two conditions: the booking size must be 4 or more tickets AND it must be less than 1 hour before travel date (tour start).
Fares with OR Conjunctive Operator
We have changed our conjunctive operator from AND to OR, therefore the booking has to satisfy only one of the conditions: either booking at least 4 tickets OR the booking must be made within 1 hour before travel date.
Notice how pricing changes when only one rule has to be met:
No-Rule Fare
No-rule fares are empty fares that override the application of your fares and applies your normal rates instead. This comes in handy when a one-time event has the potential to draw in more customers and you can forego fares that would otherwise apply.
To create a no rule fare,
Press the + NEW FARE button.
Enter the name.
Press the Create Fare button.
Go to the General Availability tab.
Select the 'Date' modifier.
Switch to 'Fare' in the view settings.
Select a date from the calendar.
Select the 'No rule' fare.
Review the fare update in the General Availability tab.
📗 TIP
When updating availability for a date in a different month, the calendar will automatically return to the current month and reset the view to the default 'Capacity' view after you save your changes. To review your updates, switch back to the 'Fare' view and navigate to the month where the changes were made.
Review the fare update in the manifest.
Fare Groups
We created fares for summer and winter seasons using the Occupancy rule. Each season requires different occupancy rules to reflect the levels of demand - higher in summer and lower in winter at varying degrees.
Our seasons are setup as follows:
Season | From-To |
SUMMER | 1st April - 30th September |
WINTER | 1st October - 31 March |
We then created two fare groups - SUMMER and WINTER. Each fare has a corresponding retail price, offset by the level of occupancy, as shown in the table below.
Fare Group | Fare | Occupancy | Price |
SUMMER | Summer High | > 60% | €55 |
SUMMER | Summer Medium | > 20% | €50 |
SUMMER | Summer Low | >= 0% | €45 |
WINTER | Winter High | > 80% | €50 |
WINTER | Winter Medium | > 40% | €45 |
WINTER | Winter Low | >= 0% | €40 |
In the General Availability tab, we selected the 'Month'-'Weekday' modifiers to set up seasonal pricing. By switching the view from 'Capacity to 'Fare Group', we can see how seasons are assigned. Then, we assigned each month to the corresponding fare group - either SUMMER or WINTER - in the availability detail.
When making a booking, prices automatically adjust to both seasonal demand and occupancy levels. Here are some examples of how the above setup is applied when making a booking:
November (WINTER fare group, no bookings - 0% occupancy): the Winter Low fare is applied, the ticket price is €40.
April (SUMMER fare group, no bookings - 0% occupancy): the Summer Low fare is applied, the ticket price is €45.
June (SUMMER fare group, more than 20% occupancy - 19 out of 25 spots are available: the Summer Medium fare is applied, the ticket price is €50.
