Rate rules

A room has standard prices. A rate rule is a reason to charge something else: a lower rate for local charities, a flat fee for a children’s party, a different price after six o’clock.

Each rule can be priced by the hour or as one flat fee for the whole booking, and can be limited to a room, a kind of hirer, or a time of day. When an invoice is raised, HallPro picks the rule that best matches the booking and shows you which one it used.

The description is worth filling in. It is what appears beside the price when a hirer looks at the rates in the app, and “Charity rate” on its own has been the start of many awkward conversations.

For example: 1st Ashcombe Scouts book the Committee Room on Tuesdays, 18:30 to 20:00. The room is £6 an hour, but a Regular Hirer rule prices it at £4.50 — so the invoice is £6.75, not £9, and the invoice says “Regular hirer rate” against it.

Questions people ask

What happens if two rules could apply?
The more specific one wins — a rule naming both the room and the hirer type beats one naming only the room. The invoice names the rule it used, so you can always see which.

Can we charge a deposit?
Two kinds. Money paid up front towards the hire is set on the booking and comes off the invoice. A refundable damage deposit, returned after the hire, has its own screen under Money: set the usual amount for each kind of hirer there and it is added to their bookings by itself.

An evening booking starts before six. Which rate?
One rate for the whole booking, chosen from when it starts. HallPro does not split a booking into daytime and evening halves — halls that try end up arguing about the boundary, and the invoice becomes hard to explain.