Promotions and discounts

Modified on Tue, 30 Jan 2024 at 01:03 PM

Promotions and discounts are a great way to attract more guests and boost bookings for your property.

We recommend opting into one or more of our channel promotions to fill your booking availability and increase your visibility. A badge will appear next to property listings which have a discount applied and will be ranked higher in searches.

You can enable specific promotions for Airbnb and Booking.com channels, as well as offer discounts for longer stays of 7 or 28 nights. These promotions have no time limit and will be applied to all upcoming pricing periods, and can be removed at any time. However, please note that discounts do not apply to cleaning fees.

Note that promotions and discounts are applied per property, not per account. Promotions can be stacked and used simultaneously. Also, it is possible to use promotions in conjunction with 7 and 28-day discounted rates on the nightly pricing section.

Current Travelnest promotions for Booking.com and Airbnb channels

Booking.com Genius Partner Programme

Joining this program is a great way to boost the visibility of your property on the Booking.com channel. Partners get exclusive tagging, ranking boosts, and marketing investments from Booking.com. Properties that added Genius get, on average, 20% more bookings each week than those without.

In order to become a member of Genius, your property must meet the following requirements

The property must have rates for at least 6 months.
The property must have available dates on the calendar for at least six months.
You should have received at least three guest reviews.
Your property should have a review score of at least 7.5.

Booking.com Mobile rates

80% of guests search for trips on mobile devices and over half of all bookings on Booking.com are made on mobile. You can now offer an exclusive discount of 10% for users who book on mobile. Properties which added Mobile Rates get, on average, 19% more bookings each week than those without.

Booking.com and Airbnb Early Bird

Encourage early bookings and boost occupancy rates by offering a 10% discount to guests who book their stay three months in advance.

Booking.com Preferred Partner Commission Deal

Make your listing stand out from the crowd by joining the exclusive Booking.com Preferred Partner Programme! Increase the channel commission by 3% and see your page views go up by up to 65%. To be eligible to enable this promotion, you must meet the following criteria.

You’ll need to have a property score of at least 70%.
A score of at least seven is necessary.
You’ll need to be ‘competitive’ to be able to join the programme. We highly recommend you to enable Smart pricing to help you stay competitive.

Booking.com and Airbnb Last Minute

Boost occupancy and fill availability with guests who are looking for last minute stays. Offer 10% off to last minute bookers who book within 7 days of arrival.

Airbnb New Listing

Offer a 20% discount to the first 3 guests who book a stay at your property. Proven to get hosts bookings on new listings 30% faster than usual, this is a great way for new hosts to build up reviews and to make your listing stand out. In order to be eligible, a listing must have 0 bookings. The discount expires for each enrolled listing after the third promotional booking, or 30 days after your promotion opt-in date, whichever happens first.

How to activate and deactivate promotions for Booking.com and Airbnb channels

To offer promotions to guests please follow these steps:

Log in to your Travelnest account, navigate to your Home page, and select the Property for which you would like to choose promotions.

Then, as soon as you select the property, several sections will appear on the right-hand side. Under the 'Pricing and availability' section, you'll find the option 'Promotions'. Click on that to choose your promotions.

In this section, you can learn more about each promotion from Booking.com and Airbnb channels. If you'd like to activate one promotion, tick the box next to it and then click on 'Save changes'. If you no longer wish to apply promotions to your property listing, you can untick the box.

How to apply discounts for longer stays for all channels

To offer discounts to guests please follow these steps:

Choose the property you would like to apply the discounts then under 'Pricing and availability' click 'Pricing and discounts'.

If you have chosen to add your pricing manually, you'll then have to select which month you’d like to apply the discount, then click 'Edit'. In the example below, we’ve chosen May.

In this section, you can view discounts offered for longer stays. To add discounts for 7 or 28 nights, click on the plus or minus buttons, and our platform will automatically save the discounts for you.

Frequently asked questions

1. How can I offer a discount for guests on all channels if I have turned on the Smart Pricing feature?

A: If you have Smart Pricing turned on, you just need to go to the 'Pricing and availability' section, then click 'Pricing and discounts'. Then scroll down, and you'll be able to see the option to apply discounts for your property on all channels.

2. How long will it take for promotions to be activated and deactivated on Booking.com and Airbnb channels?

A: Usually, channels take approximately 48 hours to activate or deactivate a promotion.

3. How will promotions and discounts be deducted from my payment?

A: Promotions are applied to your overall nightly pricing rate before the commission, the following example breaks down how your pricing will be discounted (please note that the following calculations exclude VAT):

If the total booking value is £100, the price the guest will see will be £90. The guest will pay £90 with a Travelnest and booking channel commission deducted (5% + 15% = £18). The amount you will receive is £72 (with VAT deducted if applicable).

Discounts will be reflected in payment invoices in the form of Discount Type, Discount Value, and the subsequent rate received before any other additional adjustments are made; for example, commission and VAT.

4. What is the difference between promotions and discounts?

A: If you offer promotions guests will be able to filter properties applied with specific promotions. For example, if a guest is looking to book a last minute stay they will filter all properties applied with that discount. Note that promotions will apply only for Booking.com and Airbnb channels.

If you offer discounts for longer stays during low season, for example, guests will be able to have that discount if they book your property through any channel.

5. Can I choose more than one promotion?

A: We highly recommend that you choose as many promotions as possible for Booking.com and Airbnb. This will allow guests to find properties with promotions that match their needs. Please bear in mind that you must meet certain criteria for some of the promotions.