Flexible children rates – per-child pricing explained

One of the new pricing options for flexible children rates is per-child pricing. With per-child pricing, you can set different price groups for children staying at your property. 

You can also follow a step-by-step guide to set up various flexible children rates based on your pricing strategy. 

In this article

How does per-child pricing work?

Based on your pricing needs and the types of guests you want to attract, you can set up different rates based on the ages of children in a group. You can also set different rates based on the number of children in a group. For example, the first, second, and third child can all be charged at the same or different rates, depending on your pricing strategy.

Firstly, you’ll have to create age groups. You can set a minimum of one and a maximum of three age groups. For example, you can allow 0–6-year-olds to stay at your property at a reduced rate. Any children 7 or older would be charged at your regular adult rate, unless you created another reduced-rate age group. If you added a second age group—for example, children 7–17 years old—you could add a different reduced price for that group.

You can also limit the number of children within a specific age group that are charged the reduced price. For example, you may only charge the first 0–6-year-old a reduced rate while any additional children in that age group would be charged your regular adult rate.

A separate way to attract guests is by allowing the youngest child to stay for free or at a reduced rate. After the first child, any other guests under 18 would then be charged the adult rate. 

It’s not possible to create overlapping age groups—such as 0–5 and 4–8 years old—but this won’t limit your flexibility in setting a pricing strategy.

Here’s an example. A family with three children—two, three, and nine years old—want to book a stay. Your property offers a rate where the first child between 0–6 can stay for free, but also a rate where the first child between 7 and 17 can stay for a reduced rate. Any additional children in either age group will be charged at the adult rate.

Based on your pricing strategy, two child age groups are needed:

• 0–6 years old
• 7–17 years old

This results in a final pricing and age group set-up that looks like this:

0–6 years old

• The first child per category stays for free
• The second child is charged at an adult rate

7–17 years old

• Since there’s a younger child in the group already staying for free, every child is charged at an adult rate

This is just an example. You can set your own limits for the age groups and reduced rates. 

How do guests find per-child pricing?

When a group including children searches for a property on our platform, they enter the age of the children at the start of the search. If you have per-child pricing set up, the guest will see the most accurate price based on your rates.

For example, for a group with three children—two, three, and nine years old—the per-child pricing would be applied during the search process. Both the two- and three-year-olds would fall in the 0–6 age group, and the nine-year-old would fall in the 7–17 age group.

Based on per-child pricing, the two-year-old would stay for free, while the three- and nine-year-olds would be charged the full adult rate.