The contract rate sheet for travel agencies: what goes on it, what stays off, and how to version it

A contract rate sheet is the dated price annex a hotel sends one travel agency under a contract: room types, board, occupancy, date bands, supplements and child rules. It carries prices, not obligations. Release, cancellation and no-show terms belong in the contract, and every sheet needs a version number, an issue date and an archive.

For example, an agency books three rooms at last season's price in the first week of the new one. The hotel says the sheet was replaced. The agency says it never received a new one. Both are holding a document called the rate sheet, and neither can prove which version is current. After reading this guide you will know exactly which fields a hotel contract rate sheet for a travel agency must carry, which terms stay in the contract, and how to run a version routine so the agency, the reservations desk and the property system all read the same document.

What is a contract rate sheet, and what is it not?#

A contract rate sheet is the dated price annex a hotel sends one travel agency under a signed contract: the prices that agency may quote, for which rooms, boards and dates. It is not the contract, not the public tariff and not the availability calendar.

It carries numbers and pointers, not obligations. What the hotel promises to provide, and what happens when it cannot, lives in the contract body. The sheet is also agency-specific: two agencies with different terms get two sheets, even when the underlying price table behind them is one. It is not the public tariff shown to walk-in guests, and it is not the availability calendar, because a price on the sheet says nothing about whether a room exists on a given night.

Net or gross must be stated on the sheet itself. A net sheet is what the hotel receives after the agency's commission, and that conversion has its own arithmetic and its own common mistake, which we cover in how a hotel converts a gross rate to a net rate after agency commission.

The sheet is not a live document. Once sent, it is a record of what the agency was told; corrections arrive as a new version, never as a quiet edit. Terms such as release period and free sale mean different things to different hotels, so the sheet must define in its own words any such term it uses.

Which fields must every rate sheet carry?#

Every field the reservations desk needs in order to quote a price without calling anyone: exact dates, room types, board, occupancy basis, supplements, child rules, currency, tax treatment and the version.

Start with the validity window. Write exact dates, plus a stated rule for which date governs: the arrival date or each night of the stay. A stay that crosses a season boundary is where price disputes often begin. Room types should be written with the same codes the property system uses, so a quote can be matched to a reservation without translation at the desk.

Board types need to be spelled out in the sheet's own words, saying what breakfast, half board or all inclusive includes at this property. The sheet supplies its own definition of each board type, so no reader has to guess. State the occupancy basis too: per room per night, single or double, and what the hotel charges when one guest uses a double room.

Supplements belong on a separate list: view, floor, connecting room, late checkout, parking, extra bed. State the currency, whether prices are net or gross, and whether taxes and the accommodation tax sit inside the price or on top of it; the tax treatment should be confirmed with an accountant. Finish with the housekeeping fields that prevent arguments later: the agency's name, the hotel's legal name, the version number, the issue date, a named contact for rate questions, and one pointer line to the contract clauses for release, cancellation, no-show and payment.

Release, cancellation and no-show: on the sheet or in the contract?#

In the contract. The sheet should point to the clause rather than restate it, because two documents that both state a release period will eventually state two different ones.

Release period, cancellation windows and no-show charges create obligations and money consequences. They belong in the contract body, where they are negotiated as a package with allotment size and payment terms. The sheet carries a single pointer line, naming the clause. One line is enough to stop a reservations agent from assuming free sale. For the clauses themselves, see release periods and clauses to check in hotel allotment contracts.

Add a precedence clause: if the sheet and the contract disagree, which one wins. The usual arrangement is that the contract prevails except for the price table, but the hotel must decide this and write it down. If the hotel still wants a release period on the sheet for convenience, the wording must be identical to the contract, and the version log must record any change to it.

Allotment size and the mechanics of releasing rooms are contract material; the sheet needs the release period only once the contract has defined it. A no-show charge is a contractual claim, and the sheet should never be the only place it appears.

How do child and extra person rates go on the sheet?#

As an explicit age-band table per room type, with the basis stated for each band, never as a footnote or a percentage of an unnamed rate.

Age bands must be written as numbers, for example 0 to 2, 3 to 6 and 7 to 12, and the sheet must say what happens at the boundary: a child who turns 13 during the stay. State the basis for each band: free, a fixed amount per child per night, or a share of the adult rate, and whether board is included in that figure.

Separate the extra bed from the child. An infant in a cot is not the same product as a child in an extra bed, and the sheet should say which one the price buys. Give the maximum occupancy per room type, so the agency cannot sell a triple into a room that takes two. Put the third adult and the single supplement on separate lines, not as a rule the reader has to derive from the double rate.

Put reductions on the same table as supplements, single use of a double and no-board cases included, so the reader sees both directions in one place. The table below works as a template; the cells are left for the hotel to complete. For the full price table around it, see seasonal prices, supplements and reductions in one rate table.

How should a rate sheet be versioned?#

With three things on every page: a version number, an issue date and a change line. The current version is the only one that may be quoted, and every earlier version stays archived where reservations can reach it.

Use a version label a person can say on the phone, for example the season plus a sequence such as 2026 summer, version 3. The example is illustrative; the point is that it is short and unambiguous. Keep the issue date and the effective date apart: the day the sheet was sent and the day its prices start to apply are rarely the same day.

Write one change line per version: what changed, why, and who approved it. One line is enough; what matters is that it exists and travels with the file. Never edit a sent sheet in place. Supersede it with a new version and a covering note that names the fields that changed. Archive every sent version, and record which agency received which version and on what date.

Decide and state the booking-time rule: a reservation made before the new version's effective date is priced under the version in force when it was made. This is a commercial policy, not a legal rule, so the hotel chooses it and writes it down.

How do you load the sheet into the property system and check it?#

Transcribe once, then prove the transcription by quoting prices back out of the system and comparing them to the sheet, room type by room type and date band by date band.

The sheet is a document; the property system is what the reservations desk actually quotes from. A sheet that was never loaded is a sheet that will be quoted from memory. Double entry is the main risk, so build a check sheet that lists every room type, board and date band, and tick each one after a test quote.

Test the boundaries: the first and last night of each date band, and a stay that crosses from one band into the next. Check the release period and the allotment in the system against the contract, not against the sheet. Check currency handling too: if the sheet is in one currency and the system in another, the sheet must state which rate the hotel converts at. Record who loaded the sheet, who checked it, the date and the version number, so a later dispute has a trail.

This is also where software can remove the manual step. AI Otel's distribution hub is built so that hotels publish contracted rates to travel agencies on their own terms, and every quote shows its working: the hotel's net, each pricing rule that fired and the final price. It is built with seed data, and no agency is connected yet. When the transcription step disappears, the double-entry risk disappears with it.

What do you do when the agency's reading and yours differ?#

Compare the version number first, then the field, then the contract. A mismatch is often a version problem before it is a pricing problem.

Ask for the version number and issue date on the sheet the agency is holding, and for the booking confirmation with its timestamp. Run the three-way check: the sheet version, the price in the property system, and the price on the confirmation. Decide in advance who may honor a misquote and up to what value, because a reservations agent improvising at the desk sets a precedent that outlives the booking.

Answer in writing, name the version and the field, and state the correct price and the date from which it applies. Then fix the cause, not only the booking: an unversioned edit, a missing field, or a sheet that was never loaded into the system. If the disagreement turns into a contractual claim, that is a question for the hotel's legal adviser; the sheet is evidence, not the ruling. The same applies to penalty clauses, covered in penalty clauses in agency and group contracts.

What to do next#

Take the last sheet you sent an agency and check three things on it: a version number with an issue date, a stated occupancy basis, and a pointer line to the release and cancellation clauses. If any of the three is missing, issue a new version this week rather than waiting for the next contract round, send it with a covering note naming what changed, and leave the old file in the archive. The sheet, the contract and the property system then say the same thing, which is the whole point of versioning it. If you want to see how a distribution hub handles this without the manual transcription, request a briefing at https://ai-otel.com/contact.