Best Available Rate Explained: A Hotelier’s Guide to BAR

Picture this. A guest is planning a weekend escape and spots your hotel on a booking site for $190 a night. Then they click through to your website and find the same room for $175 with a flexible cancellation policy. Better still, they see options for upgrades like spa treatments or late check-out.

That’s your Best Available Rate (BAR) doing its job: offering real value to the guest while keeping the booking in your hands.

What is the Best Available Rate in hotels?

BAR (Best Available Rate), sometimes called a Best Rate Guarantee (BRG), is your most competitive public rate.

Here are the characteristics of a BAR rate:

Public and transparent

BAR is publicly available on your website’s booking engine and bookable without codes or memberships. With a price comparison widget, you can even show how your BAR outperforms OTA rates, building trust and driving direct bookings.

A benchmark for other rates

Think of BAR as your pricing anchor. It sets a consistent baseline for your other rate strategies, such as discounts, non-refundable rates, packages, or special promotions, ensuring everything stays aligned.

Built for flexibility

BAR is traditionally a fully flexible rate, cancelable within your policy and payable on arrival. However, some hotels now offer flexible and non-refundable BAR options, giving guests a choice between flexibility and savings.

Dynamic and demand-based

BAR is not static. With the right tools, it updates automatically based on demand, season, or room availability. That way, you’re always offering the right rate at the right time, maximizing revenue without manual effort.

How hotels determine their Best Available Rate

The BAR is set by analyzing operational costs, anticipated demand, competitor rates, and desired profit margins. It helps hoteliers balance profitability with market competitiveness.

Hotels look at the following factors to determine how they set their BAR:

• Operational costs and minimum rate threshold
  Hotels calculate a minimum rate based on the fixed and variable costs required to service each room, including labor, utilities, amenities, and distribution fees. They ensure the BAR never falls below this threshold, as doing so would mean operating at a loss for every room sold.
• Distribution channel costs
  Hotels adjust BAR based on how much each booking costs to acquire. OTAs and GDSs charge commission, which cuts into profit. The higher the cost, the higher the rate needs to be. A commission-free booking engine helps keep BAR competitive by reducing these costs and increasing direct revenue.
• Market demand and occupancy rates
  Hotels monitor current occupancy trends and adjust rates to reflect anticipated demand and booking pace.
• Competitor pricing and benchmarking
  Regular benchmarking helps hotels stay aligned with local market rates to attract price-sensitive travelers.
• Seasonality and special events
  High-demand periods like holidays or local events often trigger BAR increases to capitalize on increased traffic.
• Historical booking data
  Past performance informs future pricing. Hotels use historical data like booking patterns, lead times, and rate sensitivity to fine-tune their BAR and forecast demand more accurately.

Role of Revenue Management Systems in setting BAR

A revenue management system (RMS) is built to automate BAR adjustments using data-driven insights, saving hoteliers time and improving pricing accuracy.

But hotel pricing is evolving. The latest trend is AI-powered, predictive pricing—and that’s where RoomRaccoon’s RaccoonRev Plus stands out. Acting as a smart co-pilot, it delivers real-time BAR suggestions based on competitor pricing, booking trends, weather forecasts, and historical data.

The result? Smarter rates, stronger RevPAR, and no need for a full-scale RMS.

BAR Rate example

Let’s say you manage a boutique hotel offering standard and premium rooms. You sell both with flexible and non-refundable options.

Your Best Available Rate (BAR) is the price of a standard room booked directly, for two people, with no special restrictions. Every other rate variation is based on this benchmark.

Example Breakdown:
You set a starting BAR of $120 for your standard room. From this:

• The standard non-refundable rate could be 10% cheaper → $108
• The premium flexible rate might be 20% more → $144
• The premium non-refundable rate could be in between → $132

Now, let’s say it’s a high-demand weekend and your pricing software predicts a spike in bookings. You decide to raise the BAR by $15.

Your new BAR is $135, and all other rates adjust accordingly:

• Standard non-refundable → $121.50
• Premium flexible → $162
• Premium non-refundable → $148.50

This structure keeps pricing logical and adaptable to boost occupancy and RevPAR.

Benefits of guests booking your Best Available Rate

1. Maximized revenue through demand-based pricing

By adjusting rates based on real-time market signals, hotels capture more value during peak demand and maintain competitiveness in slower periods.

2. Improved occupancy rates

A flexible BAR strategy allows hotels to respond quickly to booking trends, helping fill rooms without relying solely on discounts or promotions.

3. Enhanced customer satisfaction and loyalty

Transparent, consistent pricing builds trust with guests, especially when paired with value-added perks like breakfast or flexible terms.

5 Common misconceptions about the Best Available Rate for hotels

We’re busting some BAR myths. Here are the most common misconceptions and what hoteliers should know instead.

Myth 1: “BAR is always your lowest possible rate”

BAR is typically the lowest public rate. But cheaper options exist. Non-refundable deals, corporate rates, or member discounts often come in lower, but with restrictions.

Myth 2: “BAR is always refundable.”

Not quite. While BAR traditionally means flexible, many properties now offer both BAR-Flex and BAR-Non-Refundable. Same room, same base rate—just different cancellation terms.

Myth 3: “BAR doesn’t change.”

It should, and it does. BAR is meant to be dynamic, not static. With pricing tools like Rev Plus, you can monitor market shifts and competitor rates in real time, adjusting your BAR to match demand. Set it once and forget it? That’s leaving money on the table.

Myth 4: “BAR is the same as the rack rate.”

Not even close. Rack rate is the highest published rate, mostly a formality today. BAR is your actual, demand-driven rate. It reflects market conditions and is almost always lower. Think of BAR as the price you expect to sell at.

Myth 5: “BAR includes breakfast and extras.”

Usually not. BAR is room-only. Extras like breakfast or parking are added through packages, which build on your BAR. If guests want more value, they’ll need to book beyond the base rate.

Conclusion

BAR is one of the most important rates in your pricing strategy, but if it’s static, it quickly loses value. To stay competitive, your BAR needs to flex with demand, ensuring it remains your best rate without cutting into profitability.