BON is the first booking engine we read directly. It isn't a requirement: for a hotel on any other engine, we use the price Google Hotels shows for its official site. This page says what changes when you're on BON.
What we read from BON
For each stay we check, we ask BON what a guest would be offered: the same one-night stay, the same number of adults, in your hotel's currency. BON answers with your room tree, and we keep what a guest could book:
- Every room type, under the name BON gives it.
- Every rate plan you sell on it, at its final price.
- Whether that price includes taxes, where BON says so.
- Whether the rate is refundable or has free cancellation, where BON says so.
A rate plan BON marks as not bookable is left out. So is a night BON has nothing to sell: with no price of yours to hold the channels against, we don't compare that night.
Read the way a guest sees it
We search BON's booking engine anonymously, as a guest would, with no promotion or special code. Every search we send carries the flag that asks BON to leave it out of your booking-engine statistics.
Why the full room tree matters
An undercut is only worth your time if it's the same thing sold for less. A non-refundable standard room on Booking.com isn't cheaper than your flexible suite; it's a different product.
For a hotel we price through Google, your side of the comparison is whatever Google shows for your official site. Sometimes that's a breakdown by room, sometimes a single price. With BON, your side is every room BON offers for that stay, so any room a seller names can be looked for among yours.
How rooms are matched
We match by room name. Before comparing two names we ignore case, accents, punctuation and word order, and words that describe the rate rather than the room, such as "flexible", "breakfast" or "non-refundable". Two offers count as the same room on the same terms when the names match and nothing else contradicts: not the cancellation terms, not the board, not the guest count, not the tax basis.
When several of your rooms match a seller's, we take the pair with the widest gap. A hotel whose Deluxe is at parity and whose Classic is undercut has a parity problem, and you should hear about the Classic.
When the names don't match
If none of a seller's offers matches one of yours this way, because it names its rooms differently from BON, gives no room at all, or sells them on other terms, we compare the seller's cheapest offer with your price instead. Every undercut in your queue says which it was: the same room on the same terms, or "Cheapest rooms". In the app, an undercut's rooms list the offers the check read, on every channel, and what each was compared as.
Tax basis
If BON says your price includes taxes and a seller's price is quoted without them, or the other way round, we don't compare the two at all. A gap made of tax isn't an undercut.
Your official site on Google, as a channel of its own
With BON connected, the price Google shows for your official site is no longer your price. It becomes one more channel in your queue, called "Official site on Google".
If Google shows your official site below what BON quotes for the same stay, it turns up in your queue like any other undercut. One likely reason is that the price feed to Google hasn't caught up with a change you made. More on that on our Google Hotels page.
When we check
A hotel on BON is checked on the same schedule as any other: every night of the coming week daily and the rest of the month every fourth day, at up to 3 guest counts. If your plan looks further ahead than a month, the nights beyond are checked every twentieth day. A stay with a live undercut is re-read at least every four days.
Each check reads BON first, then Google Hotels for the channels. If BON doesn't answer, we compare nothing for that stay rather than guess your price.
A rate you change in BON is picked up at that stay's next scheduled check. To see it sooner, check the stay yourself from the app.
What we don't take from BON
Some things we don't read from BON or don't ask it for, and we don't guess them:
- Board. We don't read whether a BON rate includes breakfast, so board never rules a match in or out on your side.
- The party a rate is priced for. We ask BON for a number of adults, and take its answer as the price for that party.
- Children. We search for adults only.
- Longer stays. Every check is a one-night stay.
Not on BON?
Then your direct price is the one Google Hotels shows for your official site, and everything else works the same. Nothing to install, and no access to your systems. What we check on each channel is on the Booking.com, Expedia and Google Hotels pages. If you build a booking engine or a channel manager, see StayParity for booking engines.