SQL Database Roomrate Approaches

Question

I've developed a Hotel Management System some time ago. Difference is, that this system is used by several hotels and property owners who rent their homes in a single database. I can't just add prices to the roomtypes/accommodations as they might differ from one week or the other.

The approach i've used to overcome the issue of fixed stays (weekends, weeks, midweeks) for the mobile homes and the possibility to reserve hotelrooms (no-arrival days, minimum stays etc) is to store prices in a rate-table. Which is as follows:

tablename: Availability
int id
int roomTypeId
decimal rate
dateTime day
bit canArrive
int minimumStay
...

I am wondering, now the database is growing with more hotels and mobilehome's, if this approach is done properly or if there might be better ways instead of storing a rate for each roomtype and each date.

Answer 1

Sure!
It's important to note that, while rates can change daily, they usually don't (otherwise, any ads showing a rate would go rapidly obsolete - they could have been designed months before).

A simple, naive (first-iteration) design is as follows:

Hotel
=========
id -- autoincrement
name -- varchar(50)
contactInformation -- (address, phone, etc)

RoomType
==========
id -- autoincrement
description -- varchar(50)

HotelRoomTypeRate
==================
id -- autoincrement
hotelId -- fk reference to hotel.id
roomTypeId -- fk reference to roomType.id
rate -- decimal
effectiveOn -- date (this is 'business'/calendar day)

HotelRoom
===========
id -- autoincrement
hotelId -- fk reference to hotel.id
roomTypeId -- fk reference to roomType.id
status -- fk reference to status table, for things like 'under construction'

HotelCheckIn
==============
id -- autoincrement
hotelId -- fk reference to hotel.id
customerId -- fk reference to customer.id
hotelRoomId -- fk reference to hotelRoom.id
checkedInOn -- date (again, 'business'/calendar day)

HotelCheckOut
===============
id -- autoincrement
hotelCheckInId -- fk reference to hotelCheckIn.id
checkedOutOn -- date (again, 'business'/calendar day)

You would of course need to tweak this to suit your needs.