How dynamic pricing works

Dynamic pricing helps move prices along with demand. It suggests changing the price list of a group of vehicles, or raising or lowering the price for the coming dates, and you decide whether to apply the suggestion. Separately, you can set a percentage on the price for any dates by hand.

The system calculates only from bookings in RentProg and takes nothing from competitors. It changes the price list in a vehicle card only when you have applied a recommendation — or turned on auto-apply.

Who can use it and what is needed

What	Condition
Roles	“Main Administrator” and “Branch manager” — roles
Plan	The company plan includes the “Dynamic pricing” service — RentProg support turns it on
Scope	Each branch is configured separately: an administrator does not see another branch

If the plan does not include the service, the settings block shows the note “Available in a plan with dynamic pricing”. What remains is only what removes the module's effect:

• turn the module off if it was on: in this case the “Enabled” switch works only to turn it off;
• view and cancel active date adjustments;
• roll back what was applied in the last 7 days.

Without the service you cannot turn the module on, create an adjustment, apply a recommendation, or open vehicle settings. If the plan loses the service, the runs stop and open recommendations are closed. Adjustments already created stay in force until their dates.

Price groups

Recommendations are built not for individual vehicles but for price groups: the branch's vehicles grouped by base daily price. A new group starts where the price is more than 15% higher than the previous one. A group is labeled with the price range of its vehicles, for example “3,100–3,500”, with the branch currency symbol.

Groups exist so that similar vehicles are compared: the idle time of an expensive group is not mixed with that of a cheap one.

How to build groups

1. Open the company settings, the “Prices” tab.
2. Find the “Price groups” block and click “Build groups”.
3. After prices in the fleet change, click “Rebuild”: the window shows how many vehicles will change group and how many groups there will be.

If there are no groups, the “Build groups” button is also in the “Dynamic pricing” block and in the “Available in the next few days” widget. A new vehicle with a price joins the group closest in price automatically. If a vehicle's price has drifted from the prices of the other vehicles in its group by more than 15%, the vehicle card shows a suggestion to move it: “Move”, “To a new group”, or “Keep”. You can also choose a vehicle's group manually in the “Price group” field on the prices tab.

A group with fewer than two vehicles

There will be no recommendations for such a group: there is nothing to compare with. The widget marks it “Not enough data”.

Available in the next few days

Groups are visible in two places:

• on the fleet board: the “Next few days” grouping arranges vehicles in the columns “Today”, “Tomorrow”, and “Day after tomorrow”;
• in the home widget “Available in the next few days” (library, “Analytics” section): rows are groups, columns are three days, and a cell shows how many vehicles are free out of all, for example “3 of 5 free”.

A vehicle counts as free on a day if no active booking holds it until the end of that day, taking the buffer between bookings into account. An overdue return, repair, and critical condition make a vehicle busy today; a long-term rental makes it busy for all three days. Inactive and archived vehicles and vehicles in the “Do not rent out” state are not counted.

How to turn it on

1. Open the company settings, the “Prices” tab.
2. At the very bottom, expand the “Dynamic pricing” block.
3. Turn on the “Enabled” switch. If there are no groups yet, click “Build groups”.
4. Fill in the fields as in the table below.
5. Click “Save”.

After you turn it on, the “Dynamic pricing” widget appears on the home page of the person who turned it on. Other administrators can add it from the widget library — see setting up the home page.

Field	What it does	Values
“If a recommendation gets no response”	What happens if you do not respond	“Only show” — the recommendation stays until it expires. “Remind after …” — one reminder. “Apply automatically” — price list changes are applied after the set number of days, adjustments for the coming days right away
“After how many days”	The period for the reminder and for auto-applying price list changes	from 1 to 13 days, 7 by default
“Change step”	By how many percent a recommendation changes the price	3, 5, or 10%, 5% by default
“Lower bound, %”	How far below the reference price the system may lower a price	from −90 to 0%, −20% by default
“Upper bound, %”	How far above the reference price the system may raise a price	from 0 to +200%, +30% by default
“Suggest decreases”, “Suggest increases”	Which directions to suggest	both are on

The reference price is the price you set. It is remembered when you turn the module on and updated when you change a price in the vehicle card yourself; changes made by applying a recommendation and by rollback do not move it. The bounds are counted from it, so the system will not take a price far from your decision even in steps over several weeks. When the module is turned on again, the reference prices are taken afresh.

Auto-apply can stop

Auto-apply works on behalf of the administrator who turned the module on or last switched the mode to “Apply automatically”. If that person stops being an active “Main Administrator” or “Branch manager” of this branch, the mode goes back to “Only show” and administrators get an “Auto-apply stopped” notification. To resume, choose the mode again and save.

Vehicle settings

For each vehicle you can exclude it from the module or limit its daily price.

1. Open the vehicle card, the “Prices” tab.
2. Under the price tables, expand the “Dynamic pricing” block.
3. Turn off “Takes part in dynamic pricing” or set “Min daily price” and “Max daily price”. An empty field means the company bounds apply.
4. Click “Save settings”.

The block is visible only to administrators and only if the plan includes the service. By default a vehicle takes part — partner vehicles too. A vehicle takes part in calculations if it is active, not archived, not taken out of rental (the “Do not rent out” state), and has filled-in daily prices.

A vehicle with “Takes part” turned off does not get into new recommendations or into the vehicle list of a new adjustment, even if “Whole branch” is selected. Adjustments already created do not change.

Date adjustments

An adjustment is a percentage on the daily price for set dates on top of the price list. The price list itself does not change: the usual price stays in the vehicle card and in the fleet list.

How to create an adjustment

1. Open the company settings, the “Prices” tab, the “Dynamic pricing” block.
2. Click “Add adjustment”.
3. In the calendar, pick the first and the last day: the boundaries are included in the period. For one day, click it once.
4. Enter the percentage in the “Adjustment, %” field: from −50 to +100, not zero. 10 means 10% more expensive, −10 means 10% cheaper.
5. Choose which vehicles the adjustment is for: “Whole branch”, “Price groups”, or “Selected vehicles”.
6. Click “Save”.

An adjustment cannot start in the past. The list of vehicles is fixed at creation: vehicles added later will not get the adjustment. A created adjustment cannot be edited; it can only be revoked and a new one created.

The price may go beyond a vehicle's bounds

If with the adjustment the daily price of at least one vehicle goes beyond its “Min daily price” or “Max daily price”, the dialog warns you before saving: “For some vehicles the daily price with this adjustment will go beyond their min or max price”. You can still save — it is your decision. The bounds restrain only what the system suggests.

If several adjustments apply to one day, the percentages are not added up: the one created last is used.

The list of adjustments

Active and upcoming adjustments are visible in the same block: dates, percentage, scope, source, and a “Revoke” button. For groups their labels are shown, for selected vehicles their codes; after three names there is “and … more”. The source is “Manual” or “Recommendation”.

Revoking removes the adjustment for new calculations. Bookings already created with the adjustment keep its price.

What changes in bookings

• The adjustment applies to daily rentals; for hourly rentals, by the start date of each hour.
• Weekly and monthly rentals, bookings with periodic payments, rent-to-own, and extensions do not get the adjustment. The suggested rate in the extension window is also calculated without it.
• The price with the adjustment is calculated in the booking form, in the widget, on websites, and in integrations. The public API gives integrators the adjustments in a separate field — see API token and webhooks.
• The day's price is multiplied by the percentage and rounded: to 10 for amounts from 1000, to 1 for amounts from 10 to 1000, to 0.1 for smaller ones. Days without an adjustment are not rounded and do not change.
• In the new booking form and in the booking card, expand the “Price breakdown” panel: next to the row's price, the adjustment percentage is shown in grey, for example 2280.0 +20 %. The hover hint is “Date adjustment”.
• A manually entered price overrides the adjustment.
• Bookings already created keep their price: neither a new adjustment, nor a revocation, nor excluding a vehicle from the module changes it.

Recommendations

The system itself looks for moments when a price is worth shifting and suggests a specific change with a justification. There are two kinds.

	Price list change	Date adjustment
What it changes	Daily prices of all participating vehicles in the group by the step percentage	The daily price for today, tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow
When it is calculated	Weekly, on Monday	Daily from 7:00 branch time
What it compares	Idle time over the last 60 days with the same period last year	Occupancy for the day with the usual occupancy on the same weekday
Lifetime	14 days without a response	Until the adjustment date

Days are counted in branch time. If the morning run is missed, it runs later the same day.

When a date adjustment is suggested

Each of the next three days is checked separately, for each group:

• raise: at least 85% of the group's vehicles are booked and that is at least 10 percentage points above the usual for that weekday;
• lower: bookings are at least 10 percentage points below the usual and at least two vehicles of the group are free that day.

The usual occupancy is the typical value for the same weekday: the last eight weeks and three similar dates of last year. Only vehicles that are free that day and not covered by any other adjustment get into the adjustment. The percentage equals the step from the settings. The system does not override existing adjustments, including manual ones.

When a price list change is suggested

• lower: the idle share over 60 days is above last year's by at least 10 percentage points on two weekly runs in a row, and occupancy for days 3–7 ahead is not above the usual;
• raise: the mirror image — idle time is below last year's by 10 percentage points or more, and occupancy is not below the usual.

If there is no history from last year, idle time is compared with the median of the branch's other groups. The first recommendation is possible no earlier than the second weekly run after turning the module on. After a change is applied for a group and direction, the count of two runs starts over: the next step comes no earlier than in two weeks, when the effect of the previous one is visible.

Not enough data

There are no recommendations for a group, and the widget says “Not enough data” instead of “Prices are fine”, if:

• the group has fewer than two participating vehicles;
• there is not enough booking history to determine the usual values: at least four similar past dates are needed on which the group had two or more vehicles;
• the branch has only hourly prices: there are no daily groups, so no recommendations are built.

The mark is updated after the next daily check.

What to do with a recommendation

Recommendations are in the “Dynamic pricing” widget on the home page. A card shows the group, the suggestion, the dates, the justification (for example “Idle time over 60 days — 48 %, usually — 33 %”), and an expandable list of vehicles with the old and new price.

1. Open the home page and find the “Dynamic pricing” widget.
2. Expand the vehicles in the card and compare the old and new price.
3. Click “Apply” and confirm, or “Reject”, or “Don’t suggest for this group”.

Button	What happens
“Apply”	For a price list change, vehicle prices change right away. For a date adjustment, an adjustment is created for each day that has not yet passed. Vehicles whose price would go beyond the bounds or would not change are excluded: the message says how many
“Reject”	Closes the recommendation. The same group and direction are not suggested again for 14 days; for an adjustment, the rejected dates are not suggested again
“Don’t suggest for this group”	The group is no longer suggested. To bring it back, use the “Muted groups” block of the settings, the “Bring back” button

If a recommendation is no longer relevant, it closes by itself. Revoking a system adjustment on the “Prices” tab works as rejecting those dates.

If a recommendation gets no response

• “Only show”: price list changes stay for up to 14 days, date adjustments until the date arrives.
• “Remind after …”: after the set number of days, one reminder about a price list change; date adjustments are only shown.
• “Apply automatically”: adjustments for the coming days are applied right away when created, price list changes after the set number of days and only if the last weekly run confirmed the condition. After each auto-apply a notification arrives.

Applied in the last 7 days and rollback

The “Applied in the last 7 days” block is in the widget and in the company settings. Each entry shows how it was applied (“Manually” or “Automatically”) and the date. You can roll back within 7 days with the “Roll back” button.

• A price list change is rolled back row by row: the price returns to the value before applying. Rows changed after applying are skipped — the message “Not everything was rolled back” with the number of skipped rows.
• A date adjustment is revoked entirely.

Rollback and the “Applied in the last 7 days” block work with the “Enabled” switch in any position and without the service in the plan.

The “Dynamic pricing” widget

It is added to the home page from the library, the “Analytics” section; it is visible only to the “Main Administrator” and the “Branch manager”, and only if the plan includes the service. The subtitle is “Price recommendations”. From top to bottom:

1. Cards of open recommendations with the buttons “Apply”, “Reject”, and “Don’t suggest for this group”.
2. The “Applied in the last 7 days” block with the “Roll back” button.
3. If there are no recommendations — “Prices are fine” and the “Next check” time.

Groups without data are listed under the mark “Not enough data”. If the module is off, the widget shows “Dynamic pricing is off” and an “Open settings” link, and the “Applied in the last 7 days” block stays. If there are no groups — “Price groups have not been built yet” and the same link.

Notifications

The “Main Administrator” and the “Branch manager” of the branch receive them. Channels: the bell, push in the mobile app, and the administrator's personal Telegram (if connected and allowed in notification settings). The shared branch chat is not used. The text has no prices; the link leads to the home page.

Reason	When it arrives
“Price recommendations”	On Mondays, if new recommendations appeared
“Price recommendations are waiting”	In reminder mode, when the set number of days has passed
“Applied automatically”	After each auto-apply; the text says how to roll it back
“Auto-apply stopped”	When the administrator on whose behalf auto-apply ran is no longer an active “Main Administrator” or “Branch manager” of this branch