From static rates to a revenue rocket: Understanding RMS MultiBAR

Smart pricing is your superpower.That was my takeaway after sitting down with Jo Keown, founder and director of Revenue Creatures for our first Grow with RMS Masterclass.

Jo has spent more than 20 years helping hundreds of RV parks, hotels and motels grow their revenue and achieve their business goals.

When demand changes but your rates stay the same, you could be missing opportunities to grow revenue. A busy weekend or a major local event can make your usual rates worth another look.

RMS MultiBAR and Dynamic Pricing help you respond to that demand, without manually updating every rate. You set the price levels and rules; RMS handles the automatic adjustments.

Here’s how to put Jo’s approach to work at your property.

The two capabilities do different jobs:

• MultiBAR lets you set up several price levels for each of your rooms, cabins or sites.
• Dynamic Pricing lets you set rules that then adjust those prices automatically, based on factors such as occupancy and how far in advance a guest books.You choose the prices and the rules. RMS applies them.

You can also use MultiBAR without automation, choosing when to change price levels yourself.

“RMS MultiBAR pricing capability is an incredibly powerful tool for driving revenue growth” Jo Keown - Revenue Creatures

Jo Keown - Revenue Creatures

Many properties use a rate spreadsheet that gets carried over from one season to the next. Over time, those prices can fall out of step with demand.

Jo has seen this across hundreds of businesses: a rate sheet is inherited, reused and sometimes left untouched for years. Reviewing it gives you a chance to ask whether those prices still suit your property.

Before setting up MultiBAR, review what you charge across the year. Consider your occupancy patterns, seasonal demand, local events and competitors’ prices.

The aim is to decide on a suitable starting rate for each room or site type, and where there is room to charge more when demand increases.

BAR stands for Best Available Rate. MultiBAR lets you create multiple Best Available Rate levels, giving you a range of prices to choose from in RMS.

For example, a room’s price levels might look like this:

In this example, BAR 1 is your floor price. Each level above it adds $10 up to BAR 4, when your occupancy is high, say 95% - you can easily adjust your pricing up to BAR MAX for those last few sites or rooms.

You decide how many levels you need and how much the price changes between them. Your prices can also vary by day, dates or season.

A campground might use small increases of a few dollars for an unpowered site. A premium hotel might use larger increases.

The right range depends on your property, your guests and the demand you expect.

Once your price levels are ready, you can manage them manually or alternatively, you can toggle on RMS Dynamic Pricing to automate adjustments.

For example, you might set a rule to move a room from BAR 1 to BAR 2 when occupancy reaches a chosen threshold. Using the example above, that changes the nightly rate from $150 to $160.

Your pricing rules can account for occupancy or how close the booking is to the arrival date. Adjustments can involve a change in BAR level, a dollar amount or a percentage.

You can also plan pricing for known events, such as a concert or festival, when you expect stronger demand.

Rates linked to your BAR - known as derived rates—adjust with it. That means less work updating individual rates.

As Jo explains in our on-demand masterclass:

You're only changing the BAR. You're not having to log in to 20 different rates or tariff types - by changing that BAR, the 20 derived rates from it all change at the same time. Jo Keown - Revenue Creatures

You're only changing the BAR. You're not having to log in to 20 different rates or tariff types - by changing that BAR, the 20 derived rates from it all change at the same time.

Jo Keown - Revenue Creatures

Jo shared examples of the results she has seen using MultiBAR with Dynamic Pricing:

• An extra $23,000 in revenue in two weeks. Jo reports that one RMS client achieved this after starting with conservative price increments of just $2–$3 AUD.
• Faster rate updates. Jo estimates that rebuilding a full year of rates previously took around 20 hours. With the MultiBAR structure already in place, she says that task can take less than a minute.

Automation helps you apply your pricing plan consistently. Regular reviews help you decide whether that plan needs to change.

Jo uses RMS reports to understand booking activity and pricing performance, including:

• Reservations Made: Review bookings and check which rates your team is selling.
• Dynamic Pricing: Review pricing adjustments and their effect across your rates.
• Average Length of Stay: Understand how long guests are staying alongside your booking and revenue results.

You can schedule reports to arrive in your inbox, making it easier to keep track of performance.

As demand changes, review your price levels and rules so they continue to suit your property.

Start with rates that suit your property. Create your price levels in MultiBAR. Then use Dynamic Pricing to automate adjustments according to your rules.

Watch our on-demand revenue growth masterclass with Jo to learn how you can grow your yielding and revenue with RMS.