Due to Bulgaria’s upcoming transition to the euro, properties in Bulgaria will face a number of important changes that will affect how Booking.com and your Exely system operate.
The key change is that Booking.com will automatically switch the currency of all properties in Bulgaria to euro during the night of November 20–21.
To ensure uninterrupted operation and correct price display after this date, several steps must be completed. Exely is doing everything possible to automate this process, but some actions will require your attention.
What will happen and what you need to know
Automatic creation of euro rate plans in Exely
Between November 13 and 18 (inclusive), Exely will automatically create copies of all your active rate plans in Bulgarian Lev, converting them to Euro.
What will be copied:
All active rate plans with the currency “Bulgarian lev”.
Together with the base rate plan in levs, all its active derived rate plans will be copied (even if they were already in another currency, euro copies will still be created).
Active dynamic rate plans and all rate plans they consist of.
What will NOT be copied:
Rate Mix.
Inactive derived rate plans.
Note. Exely will later provide a tool for manually copying these rate plans, if needed.
The copying process may take from several minutes to several hours. While a specific rate plan is being copied, you will temporarily be unable to edit it (only for a few minutes).
Once copying is completed, you will receive a notification in the Exely extranet.
If you edited rate plans during the copying process, please ensure that the changes were also applied to the rate plan copies in euros.
Prices for extra services that were originally in levs will automatically appear in euro versions as well.
Key characteristics of the new euro rate plans in Exely
Prices in copied rate plans will be converted according to the Bulgarian National Bank exchange rate, with rounding rules preserved. For the rest, they will be identical to the rate plans in levs.
Rate plans in levs and their euro copies are not synchronized. Any changes must be applied separately.
Temporarily, rate plans in levs and euros cannot be deleted — but can be deactivated or edited.
For derived rate plans, please review and adjust extended formulas, if necessary.
Exely Booking Engine display rules:
Rate plans in levs will be displayed until November 20 (inclusive).
Rate plans in euros will be displayed from November 21 onward. You may adjust these dates in the rate plan settings in the “Rate plan display” tab.
Currency switch on Booking.com (night of November 20–21)
During the night from November 20 (23:00 CET) to November 21 (06:00 CET), Booking.com will close sales for your property and switch your property’s currency to euro.
To ensure that correct euro prices are sent to Booking.com, Exely will automatically update mappings in Exely Channel Manager: rate plans in levs will be replaced with euro ones in mappings.
Once Booking.com finishes all operations, updated euro prices will appear in the channel. No manual remapping is required — everything will work automatically on November 21.
Booking modifications for existing bookings will also be sent in euro, even if originally they were made in lev.
Pay attention. It is critically important to set up mappings between euro rate plans in Exely and your PMS, otherwise correct prices will NOT be uploaded to Booking.com.
Your action plan: step-by-step
Before November 20 (inclusive)
1. Configure extra services in Exely. Ensure that services such as early check-in, late check-out, and transfers have prices in euro, otherwise they will not be shown starting November 21.
2. Create euro rate plan copies in your PMS. Create euro versions of your rate plans in your PMS.
Pay attention. Mappings for old rate plans in levs should remain unchanged in Exely, because existing bookings from the Exely Booking Engine rely on them.
3. Set up mappings between Exely and your PMS. From the moment Exely creates euro rate plans until November 20 (inclusive), map the PMS euro rate plans to the euro rate plans created in Exely.
From November 21 onward
1. Automatic transition:
On November 21, after the currency change on Booking.com, Exely will automatically change the mappings for rate plans in Exely Channel Manager to rate plans in euros.
At the same time, rate plans in euros will become active in Exely Booking Engine. Thus, rate plans in euros will be transferred to Booking.com and the Exely Booking Engine.
2. Bookings made earlier in Exely Booking Engine in levs will continue using lev rate plans:
Vouchers and emails will show levs alongside euro.
Payments in the booking engine will still be processed in levs (if configured that way).
3. After the transition, you may gradually convert other connected channels to euro.
Important recommendations and warnings
1. Keep lev rate plans in your PMS until all guests who booked at rate plans in lev have departed — this will prevent overbooking and missing booking modifications.
2. Some PMS can convert currencies instead of creating copies, but this carries the following risks:
Loosing booking modifications: Modifications for old bookings made in Exely Booking Engine in lev will not be delivered to your PMS, if rate plans in the PMS are only in euros.
Issues with bookings delivery: If you decide to convert rate plans in your PMS, you should do it as close as possible to the moment when the currency switch happens on Booking.com (November 20, 23:00 CET). After you convert the currency in the PMS and until Booking.com switches the currency on their side, bookings from Booking.com will not be delivered to the PMS due to the currency mismatch.
PMS compatibility: Not all PMS can correctly accept bookings when the currency is changed. You need to confirm this information with your PMS vendor.
3. To minimize risks and avoid overbooking, we strongly recommend keeping both lev and euro rate plans in the PMS. After all guests that booked at rate plans in Bulgarian lev have checked out, you will be able to fully switch to using rate plans in euros.
4. The Euro currency will be automatically added to all extra services so that they are sold correctly together with the rate plans in euros in Exely Booking Engine.
5. If you do not want to use the automatically created euro copies of rate plans in Exely Booking Engine and for exporting to Booking.com, then after completing all the steps described above, you will need to manually map the required rate plans.
What’s next?
In December, we will release a tool to help quickly create euro copies of:
Rate Mix;
early check-in/late check-out;
transfers;
inactive rate plans in lev.
