The phrase "dynamic pricing" can suggest prices that change by themselves. This guide uses it in a more practical sense: rates that are computed from a structure you define, set with the fleet you actually have in view, and changed by your team under rules you decide. It is the approach behind pricing and revenue in Renticom, summed up in one line: price with the market, decide with your fleet.
Computed rates instead of looked-up rates
A looked-up rate is a number someone typed in advance. A computed rate is resolved at the moment of the request, from the rules that make up your rate structure. Seasonality, duration tiers, vehicle class, driver age and country, and partner rate codes all resolve to one price for that specific quote.
The difference shows when something changes. Change a season once, and every quote after it follows the new structure.
What goes into a rate structure
Seasons, tiers and length of rental belong in one rate structure rather than in separate lists. The elements that resolve to a price are:
- Seasons and periods. Pricing can be set day by day or by period.
- Duration tiers. The length of the rental is part of the structure.
- Vehicle class. Each class is priced within the same structure.
- Driver age and country. Both are inputs to the computed rate.
- Partner rate codes. Codes per broker or agency are part of the same structure.
Because all of these sit together, a question such as "what does this class cost, for this driver, on these dates, through this partner?" has one answer, produced when the request arrives.
A rate decision is also a fleet decision
A rate is not only a position against the market. It also depends on how many cars you can still hand over.
Dropping the rate on a class you have four cars left in is a different decision from dropping it on a class with forty.
In Renticom, pricing sits on the same availability as the planner, so the number of cars actually free for those dates is visible while the rate is being set.
What to look at before changing a rate
Before a rate changes, three views help to frame the decision:
- On-the-books demand against remaining availability. What is already booked for the period, against what is still free.
- Revenue KPIs by station, class and period. How the station, class and period in question are performing.
- What the market is asking, what you are asking. Seen together with what you actually have available.
None of these makes the decision on its own. Together, they put the rate in the context of what you actually have available.
Change rates with rules and approvals, not overwrites
When a rate needs to move, the change is made where the decision applies: by period, by class and by station. It is made with rules and approvals instead of overwrites.
Changing the structure means every quote that follows reflects the change.
Rules and approvals: who may change what
Dynamic does not have to mean unsupervised. Once several people and several stations are involved, the question is not only what the rate should be, but who is allowed to change it.
In Renticom, you decide which roles can change which rates, by how much, and whether a change needs approval before it goes live. A station manager, for example, can change rates only within the limits you set.
For each role, agree:
- Which rates the role may change.
- By how much the role may change them.
- Whether the change needs approval before it goes live.
Those answers are the rules and approvals that decide who may change what.
Does dynamic pricing mean automatic price changes?
Not in the sense used here. In Renticom, rates are computed from the structure you define, and changes to that structure are made by your team under the approval rules you set. The platform shows you the market and your position in it; the decision stays yours.
The distinction matters when you describe your own process. A price that is computed automatically from your structure is not the same as a price that the system decides for you.
A practical starting point
If your rates are not yet organised as one structure, these steps sum up this guide:
- List what your rates depend on today. Seasons and periods, duration tiers, vehicle class, driver age and country, and partner rate codes per broker or agency.
- Decide how rates will change. By period, class and station, with rules and approvals instead of overwrites.
- Keep availability in view. Look at on-the-books demand against remaining availability whenever a rate is set.
- Agree the rules. Which roles change which rates, by how much, and which changes need approval before they go live.
- Review by station, class and period. Use revenue KPIs at the same level at which rates are changed.
To see how rates, availability and approvals come together in the product, read about pricing and revenue.