Coupon Codes

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Coupon Codes
October 2, 2011, by runnybunny15

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That was me practicing my photo insertion!

Anyway, I want to give employees at my workplace a special discount that is not advertised to the public. Is there a way I can implement a discount via a coupon code instead of having to override the total every time?

12 Responses:

John Amato, October 2, 2011:

Excellent suggestion. There are a couple ways we could implement that. One way might be to have a private list of email addresses and percent discounts that you can maintain (probably in your Account Settings tab), and when one of these email addresses books a stay, Bookerville can calculate the discount for them automatically. That's probably the safer way.

Another approach would be to offer coupon or special offer codes. Again, you'd need to maintain these in a special list in your Account Settings tab, with percent discounts for each code. Then, during the price-out/booking process, Bookerville can provide a box where the guest can enter the code and receive the discount.

The only problem I can foresee with the codes is that once the word gets out, what's stopping everyone from using them to get the discounts? I suppose that would be pretty unlikely, and if you noticed it was being used too much, you could always remove or change the codes.

Thoughts?

runnybunny15, October 5, 2011:

Since there are thousands of folks at my workplace, I'd rather maintain the coupon code than a list of private email addresses. Maybe the coupon code (for employees of "X") can be subject to employment verification - I can check an internal database to see if they are valid users of the coupon code.

I'd like to use another coupon code for family members - and that would be easy to verify

John Amato, October 7, 2011:

Very good runnybunny15, and thanks for the feedback. There have been other requests to have promotional codes, so I think this is something we will implement in the near future.

John

John Amato, October 26, 2011:

For those of you with multiple properties, would you want to have coupon codes defined at the Account level, and therefore applied to all of your properties? Or would you want this to be an option at the individual property level, so that you can have different coupon codes for each property?

shirtsforme, October 26, 2011:

Would it be possible to show a list of the properties and then "check" which properties the coupon would apply. (simular to "copy rates forward"

I might want to market just a 2 bedroom unit, or maybe offer discounts for higher floor units as opposed to lower floor, etc.

John Amato, November 1, 2011:

We've just rolled out a Beta version of the Coupon Code feature. In your Property Setup page, scroll down a bit and on the right side, under Multi-Day Discounts, you'll see a new widget for entering Coupon Codes.

You can enter a future expiration date if you like, and Bookerville will no longer honor the coupon code from that date forward. Leave it blank if you don't want an expiration. You can enter the discount as a flat amount or a percent of net rent.

If any coupon codes are active, Bookerville will present a box for customers to enter it on the public calendar for the property. If they enter an active code, the discount is calculated and applied as a Guest Option.

Please take this feature for a test-drive, and let us know what you think.

Bob - that "copy to other properties" idea is great, so once we have this feature stabilized we'll look into doing that.

Thanks everyone,

John

fpcgeorge, November 2, 2011:

Looks great John, but now we need to setup "conditions." Such as, the discount can only be applied if... you are staying a minimum number of days, your total exceeds or is less than an amount, you are staying on certain dates. Also, the ability to prohibit a code from being used for selected dates (holidays, events,...)

We could definitely use this!

Brandon Jones
oceanwalkindaytona.com

bigbear5star, November 4, 2011:

Hi John, we run quite a few last minute specials and it would be good if we can allow for a "window" of dates the coupon code is good for. For instance, I would like to offer a last minute special for bookings this month. I do not want people to be able to apply our special for bookings in January. I think this would be a more conventional use of the coupon code tool. Thank you,

Kevin Cobb
www.fivestarvacationrental.com

John Amato, November 5, 2011:

Ok, so there's quite a bit more to this than we had anticipated. This is going to be a somewhat involving feature to develop and test, so before we dive in, let's make sure what we set out to do is going to work for everyone.

I think it makes sense to leave the existing "expiration date" field there, which basically gives you the opportunity to have a limited lifespan for a coupon code. This was designed around the idea of running an ad campaign encouraging customers to make purchases while the bookings are on "sale". Something like "Book your stay before November 24th and get 10% off using the code 'NOV-SALE'", or something like that.

We can add two more date fields for each coupon that will define the range of dates that each booking must fall within in order for the coupon code to apply. For example, your promotion could read like this: "Stay with us any time between January 1 and January 31, 2012 and and get 15% off using the coupon code 'JAN2012'". Does that sound like it would provide what you have in mind?

Brandon, we can also add two more fields: Minimum Number of Nights required for the coupon to apply, and also the Minimum Amount the booking total must meet or exceed in order for the coupon to apply. Does it also make sense to have a Maximum Number of Nights required for the coupon to apply? If so, should there also be a Maximum Amount for it to apply? For example, a promotion could read "Stay with us for at least 7 nights and get 10% off with the coupon code of 'XXXXX'".

When the public calendar is presented to the guest, Bookerville will look up any "active" coupon codes you've defined for the property. "Active" here just means that it's not yet expired. If it finds any active codes, then the guest will be presented with a text box to enter a code. Since the guest has not yet chosen any dates, we don't know yet which, if any, coupon codes will apply based on the date range, and for the same reason we don't yet know if the amount or number of nights meets the requirements of any codes. But when they click "Calculate My Stay", then Bookerville can take all that into account and either apply the discounts or not.

Thoughts?

shirtsforme, November 12, 2011:

John
I think you have it.
What we need is flexibility in
1. dates coupon would be valid for use (beginning and endin)
2. dates coupon could be used for booking (beginning and ending)
3. copy coupons forward (like min/max and rate copy forward to other properties.

The input field for all coupons could look like this:
coupon start date( ) coupon end date ( ) Reservations starting ( ) Reservations ending ( )
Ignore Reservations ending date (yes/no)

If you answer yes, any reservation started before ending date would receive discount regardless of end date.
Your advertisement would say "Make a reservation between June 1 and Jun 30 and receive 10% off (a reservation made June 27th for 7 nites would still receive the 10% off for entire reservation.

John Amato, November 21, 2011:

Ok, we have rolled out some updates to the Coupon Codes feature. We've added five new fields:

- Coupon Start Date - lets you specify when the coupon is effective
- Booking Start Date - coupon applies only to bookings made which start on or after this date
- Booking End Date - coupon applies only to bookings made which end on or before this date
- Minimum Nights - coupon applies only to bookings made which have at least this number of nights
- Minimum Amount - coupon applies only to bookings made which meet or exceed this amount in rent

Of course all fields are optional - leave blank (or zero for Min. Nights & Min. Amount) and the coupon will not apply that particular restriction.

Please take this for a spin, and let us know your thoughts.

Cheers,

John

pch, January 2, 2012:

Is there away, say with a wild card or something to make a series of coupons for one time use? For example, I want to issue 100 coupons such as Coupon1, Coupon2, Coupon3, etc. That way they can only be issued and used one time. Any suggestions on how to implement this in your very handy booking program? Thanks. Pam

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