Using promotion codes
Promotion codes are codes that allow guests to book with a discount if they input them correctly in the system, and they are usually distributed to entice guests to make new reservations at a discount.
You can advertise a promotion code by sharing it with advertisements, to make the ad more effective by promising a price that would not have been available if they were to find your hotel without the ad. Or you can distribute it through your pre-arrival or post-departure email, to increase your repeat customers. You can also use the promise of posting regular promotion codes to grow a following on your social media page or to attract more people to sign up to your newsletter.
Promotion codes on the Booking Engine do not have a limit of times that they can be used. Once a guest has access to a promotion code they can keep using it, as long as the promotion is active on your Booking Engine. Because of this, it is advised to periodically change your promotion codes so that the same guest won't be able to keep booking with the same code. It is best to tie your codes to temporary offers only available for a specific time period and let potential customers know until when they can use the code when giving it to them.
The booking engine is unable to recognise whether someone browsing your booking engine has previously booked a room in your property in the past, therefore it is not possible to set promotion codes that can only be used by guests that did not book a room on your property before.
Create a promotion code
To create a promotion code please follow these steps :
Click on the Setup tab
Click on the Promotion Codes tile
Click Create and enter information in the Details tab
Click Create at the bottom of the page again
Under the Promo Code tab, enter the details of the promotion:
Code - the code guests will enter e.g. WINTERSpecial. No spaces are allowed in promotion codes
Description - enter a description for the promotion code. On the New Booking Engine, this will be visible to your guests
Default rate discount for selected Room Types - select Rate Discount(%) or Rate Discount($) from the drop-down list and enter a numeric value to specify the discount
Available From/To - discounted rates can be sold in this date range
Applicable From/To - guests will be able to stay at the property in this date range
Check the box/es to apply the promotion to specific room rates
Select Rate Discount(%) or Rate Discount($) from the drop-down list and enter a numeric value to specify the discount
Click Save
You can set specific discount for each room rate to override the default discount.
When guests enter the promotion code along with their search criteria in the booking engine, they will be able to view and book the linked rooms at the defined discount.
Please note: you will also have access to the additional tab "Photos" for each promotion code if your booking engine is still set to the old Booking Engine version known as "Modern". You can check your booking engine version in the section Display Preferences under Setup. This feature used to let you add a banner image to a promotion code, but has been discontinued.
Customise how room rates display when a promotion code is applied
Normally, when a guest is browsing your booking engine, after the guest uses a correct promo code, only the room rates using the promo code will be shown for booking. This makes it easier to use the promo code, however, it also makes it harder for the guest to add other rooms to the reservation for which the promo code does not apply, so you might have a preference as to what experience the guest should have.
If you want to display all the room rates in search results along with the linked promotional room rates, you can go to "Setup > Properties" and under the Customisation tab, deselect "Hide public rates when a Promo Code is applied". This option is selected by default.
When "Hide public rates when a Promo Code is applied" is deselected, the booking engine will display the promotional rates with a tag indicating "Promo Applied" and the original price will appear crossed out besides the new price with the promo code active. The promotion rate will not be put first, so the guest will need to scroll to find the rate (or rates) to which the promo applies.
Please note: The original price will only appear crossed out next to the new price if your booking engine is on the newest version. If you are still on "Modern", only the promotion price will display.
The field Add Promo Code on the guest facing booking engine will remain hidden if no promo codes have been set up at all in the extranet. The guest will only see the option to add a promo code if you have at least one active promo code.
Set restrictions such as minimum stays for promotion codes
Sometimes you may wish to create a promotion code that is only valid should a guest stay for a set amount of nights. For example, a discount is only applicable should a guest stay for 2 nights or more (if the guest has the right code). Technically speaking, promotion codes do not have restrictions, however there is a workaround.
Only room rates can have restrictions set. You can create a new room rate that has the restrictions you need for that promotion and then apply the promotion code to that room rate. Should you wish to only display your newly created 2-night minimum rate to guests who have this promotion code, once the room rate is created you can go to the "Promotions" tab within the room rate (from "Setup > Rooms & Rates") and select 'Show only when a linked promotional code is entered'.
For example, if you need the promotion code "LongStaySpecial" to only be applicable for a guest stay of 2 nights or more, you can create a new "Long Stay Special" room rate for your room, then apply a minimum stay of 2 for the whole calendar to the "Long Stay Special" room rate and then apply the promotion code with the right discount to this room rate. Then, since it would be odd for guests that do not have the promotion code to see "Long Stay Special" listed between the other rates at a normal price, you can set it to only show up when the promotion code is entered.
Use promotion codes to provide links to the booking engine that only show one room type at a time
Sometimes you might want to send guests to a view of your booking engine that only shows certain room types. For example you might have a section of your website with all your room types listed, and you want that when a guest clicks on a room type they like in that page, they are sent to the booking engine, but with only that room type showing up in the booking engine. This is especially useful if your property has a large amount of room types or room rates.
To have this type of view, you can make use of the fact that once a guest enters the promotion code, they will only see those room rates associated with that promotion code (as long as "Hide public rates when a Promo Code is applied" is selected, see section "Customise how room rates display when a promotion code is applied").
For each of your room types, you can create a separate promotion code with no associated discount and then link the promotion code to all room rates for that room type. Note that you can also create a promotion code for a group of room types, or create any other kind of group that you would like for each promotion code (for example have a link that only opens all your refundable rates, making the non-refundable invisible).
You can then create a special URL (web address) that links to each promotion code individually. You can take the url of your property from "Setup > Property" under Booking Engine URL and then add at the end: ?promocode=PasteYourPromoCodeHere
For example:
If the URL of your property is https://direct-book.com/properties/examplehotel
You made a promotion code to group your double room and you called it: DoubleRoom
You linked DoubleRoom to all room rates of your double room
You can then create the URL: https://direct-book.com/properties/examplehotel?promocode=DoubleRoom
This link will now open a page that only shows your double room to the guest