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Set up a seasonal price change

Date ranges that move your rates: the multiplier versus a fixed override, why the factor is averaged across the booking, and the three conditions a season has to meet

9 min read

What this page covers

  • Create a season
  • Override or percentage
  • Percentage averaged over the rental
  • How minimum days is measured
  • Overlapping seasons

Introduction

A season is a date range that moves your rates while it lasts — summer up, January down. You set the dates once, then say per vehicle class how much the rate should move, so a campervan can go up 40% over the summer while a small city car stays flat.

Seasons live on the Seasons tile inside a price list. The screen is headed Season and lists what you have already, with columns Name, Start date, End date and Priority. Each season then holds its own small list of prices, one row per vehicle class.

There are two kinds, chosen per class, and they behave completely differently:

Price typeWhat it does
PercentageMultiplies the normal rate. It is a factor, not a percentage — 1.05 means 5% more
OverrideThrows the normal rate away and charges a fixed daily amount instead

You come here when:

  • Peak-season rates are agreed and you need them in before bookings start coming in.
  • A quiet month needs a discount across the fleet.
  • One class — a campervan, a convertible — should cost more in summer while the rest do not move.
  • A price during a holiday period is not what you expected and you are checking whether a season is behind it.

Terms used on these screens

The screen saysIt means
Asset groupThe vehicle class
Price valueEither the multiplier, or the fixed daily rate, depending on Price type
Minimum daysThe shortest rental this season applies to
Highlight (web)Marks the season for display on your website

The Seasons tile has no main-menu entry of its own, so you always come in through the price list.

How to use

Configuration

Nothing to switch on elsewhere. A season only ever adjusts a rate that already exists, so the rates themselves have to be in place first.

Before you start: creating and editing seasons needs the Company admin role; an ordinary Employee account can read them but Save will not work. The price list must already have rates entered for the classes you want to move — a Percentage season multiplies whatever rate the app would otherwise have used, so it has no effect on a class priced at zero. See Set rates and mileage prices for a vehicle class.

Using the Seasons screen

From the main menu, open your settings and administration area, go to the pricing section headed Pricelist overview, double-click your price list, then click Seasons.

1. Create the season. Click New Season:

FieldStarts asWhat it doesWhat it accepts
NameBlankWhat you call it, e.g. Summer 2026Any text up to 200 characters
Start dateBlankFirst day of the seasonA date
End dateBlankLast day of the seasonA date
Minimum days0Shortest rental this season applies to. 0 means all of themWhole days only
Priority0Has no effect on any price. Leave it at 0A number, decimals allowed

Nothing on this screen is checked, so a season with its dates the wrong way round, or overlapping another season, saves without complaint.

2. Say what it does, per vehicle class. Below the dates sits a second list with columns Price type, Price value and Asset group. Click New Season price:

FieldStarts asWhat it does
Highlight (web)OnMarks this class's seasonal price for your website
Price typePercentagePercentage multiplies the rate; Override replaces it
Price value1The multiplier, or the fixed daily rate for Override
Asset groupBlankThe vehicle class this row applies to

The screen states both meanings: "Fill in a percentage factor (e.g. 1.05 for 5%). The percentage factor will multiply the daily rate if the season applies." and "If price type is override, the price value will be a fixed base price per day (excl. VAT)." A new row starts at 1, which is neutral — it changes nothing until you edit it.

Click Save on the row, then Save on the season itself. A class with no row here is not affected by the season at all.

3. Change or remove a season. Use the pencil icon on the row; clicking the row itself does nothing. The bin icon deletes without asking you to confirm, and deleting a season takes its per-class prices with it.

Key details

When a season actually applies

Three things must all be true, and the third is the one that catches people:

ConditionWhat it means
Minimum days is no more than the rental's lengthMeasured against the whole rental, not the days inside the season
The pickup date or the return date falls inside the seasonOnly those two dates are tested
The class has a Price value row on this seasonA season with no row for the class leaves it alone

Because only the pickup and return dates are tested, a season that sits entirely inside a longer rental never applies. A booking running 1 June to 31 July passes straight over a season covering 20 to 30 June: neither end date lands inside it.

A percentage season is averaged over the whole rental

Days inside the season count at its factor, days outside count at 1, and the average is applied to every day of the booking. This is why a season rarely moves a price by the full factor you typed.

A worked example

A compact car at €80.00 a day, booked 28 June to 2 July — four days. Your Summer season runs 1 July to 31 August with Price type Percentage and Price value 1.25, and Minimum days 0.

The return date, 2 July, falls inside the season, so it applies. One of the four days sits inside it. The average is (1.25 × 1 + 1 × 3) ÷ 4 = 1.0625, so the rate becomes €80.00 × 1.0625 = €85.00 a day, €340.00 in total — not the €100.00 a day that 1.25 on its own would suggest.

Change that row to Override with a Price value of 120 and the arithmetic disappears: every day of the booking is charged at €120.00, whatever the normal rate was and however few days fall inside the season.

What to do next

Create the season and its per-class rows in one sitting — a season saved with no rows looks configured but changes nothing. When it is in, test it by searching for dates that straddle the season boundary and dates well inside it, and check the two give different daily rates. If a price still looks wrong, work through Find out how a price was worked out.

Q&A

I set a season to 1.25 but the price only went up a few percent. Why? Because the factor is averaged across the whole booking, not applied to the days inside the season. A four-day rental with one day in the season gets a quarter of a quarter. If you want the full increase on every booking that touches the season, either extend the season's dates or use Override with a fixed daily amount instead.

I typed 25 into Price value for "25% more" and the price went through the roof. Price value on a Percentage row is a multiplier, so 25 means twenty-five times the rate. Open the row with the pencil icon and change it to 1.25. The screen's own note gives the pattern: "e.g. 1.05 for 5%".

My season is set up correctly but a long booking ignores it. Only the pickup date and the return date are tested against the season's dates. A booking that starts before the season and ends after it passes straight over — neither date is inside. Extend the season so that one of the two dates falls within it, or split the booking.

Two of my seasons overlap. Which one wins? Neither, in the way you would expect. Priority on the season screen is not used for this — it has no effect on any price. If both are Percentage seasons, both contribute their days to the average. If either one is an Override, that fixed price takes over and the rest are ignored, and which override that is when two overlap is not something you can control from the screen. Avoid overlapping seasons for the same vehicle class.

A season applies to some classes but not others, and I did not intend that. The season itself carries no classes — each class needs its own row in the lower list. Open the season with the pencil icon and check there is a row with the right Asset group for every class you meant to include. A missing row is silent: the class is simply priced as normal.

Does Minimum days mean days inside the season? No. It is compared against the length of the whole rental. A season with Minimum days set to 7 applies to any booking of seven days or more that touches it, even if only one of those days falls inside the season's dates.

What does Highlight (web) actually change? It marks this class's seasonal price for display on your public website; it makes no difference to what anybody is charged. It starts switched on. If your website does not show seasonal prices, the switch has no visible effect and you can leave it alone.

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