A Long Stay discount encourages guests to book for an extended period - often 3+ nights a week, or even longer. By offering a reduced nightly rate, you benefit from fewer check-ins/outs, steadier occupancy, and increased operational efficiency. This article will guide you through creating a Long Stay discount.
This article specifically covers adding a discount to your rates. If you would like to use the Rate Discount tool to temporarily increase your rates, please see our tutorial on How to increase your rates using the Rate Discounts feature.
Go to Rate Discounts
Add a Long Stay Discount
- Click on the 'Add' button
Set up the primary information
- The Type of Discount will default to 'Basic' - use the drop-down menu to select 'Long Stay'.
- The discount will default to active - this is where you can deactivate the discount without deleting it.
- Use the free-type field to add a minimum stay for the discount.
- The Apply setting will default to '% Decrease' - since you're applying a discount, no change is needed.
- Use the free-type field to enter the percentage discount you want to apply.
- Use the free-type field to name your Long Stay Discount.
Even once you have a Long Stay discount in place, a guest would still be able to book shorter stay lengths on your RACK Rates.
- To see the Long Stay discount, the guest would need to search for a stay meeting the minimum nights required or longer.
The longest minimum-stay promotion accepted by Booking.com is 7 nights.
- If the Long Stay discount you create has a minimum night stay of more than 7 nights, the discount won't be available on Booking.com.
Set the applicable dates
- Click on the date widget at 'Valid From' and select the start date.
- Click on the date widget at 'Valid Until' and select the end date.
- Select the specific days within the applicable dates, that you want the discount to be applied to, by ticking each applicable day.
Adding an additional date range
You're able to add additional date ranges to offer the same discount across multiple date ranges.
- Click on the '+Add a new date' button.
- Your system will provide another set of date widgets.
Use the date widgets to set the 'Valid From' and 'Valid Until' dates.
Additional date ranges can be added as required.
Set the price pointing
The price pointing feature will automatically round or point your discounted rate accordingly.
Detailed information on the concept of price pointing is covered within our article, What is Price Pointing?
Discounts without price pointing
Discounts are calculated at a percentage off the base rate.
If you don't apply price pointing the discounted rate may appear as an irregular amount, even though the discount itself is correctly applied.
Rounding
- Click on the drop-down menu and
- Select a rounding
Pointing
- Click on the drop-down menu and
- Select a price point.
Once your price pointing is set, the rate on your Booking Engine will automatically adjust once discounted.
Choose the room types and meal plans
By default, your system will be set to apply the discount to all room types and meal plans. This can be changed to fit your needs.
To individually select from your room types and meal plans:
- Click the toggle to turn if off.
- Tick each of the room types you would like the discount to be applied to.
Choose how the discount is distributed
Discounts can be distributed by Rate Sheet or by Channel.
Distribute by Rate Sheet
- 'Rate Sheet' will be selected by default.
- Review your list of rate sheets and tick those that the discount should be applied to.
Channels linked to the selected rate sheet will receive the applied Discount.
- Channels that can identify the update as a discount will display it as such on their platform.
- Channels that do not provide this feature may receive the discount but display it as just an updated base rate.
This Rate CAN'T display yet on the following channels:
- Expedia
- HRS
- Agoda
- Hotelbeds
- Hostelworld
- Airbnb
- Mr and Mrs Smith
- I-Escape
- Jumia
- Travelport
Distribute by Channel
- Select 'Channels'.
- Review your channel list and tick those channels that the discount should be applied to.
Channels selected will receive the applied Discount.
- Channels that can identify the update from NightsBridge as a discount will display it as such on their platform.
- Channels that do not support this feature may receive the discount, but display it as just an updated base rate.
This Rate CAN'T display yet on the following channels:
- Expedia
- HRS
- Agoda
- Hotelbeds
- Hostelworld
- Airbnb
- Mr and Mrs Smith
- I-Escape
- Jumia
- Travelport
Distributing by channel provides the option to discount a rate on your Own Web site only.
Publish your Setup
- Click 'Exit' to return to the Setup menu.
- Click on the 'Publish' button to distribute your Basic Discount.
- A confirmation message will display.
View your discount online
- Open your Booking Engine and search for your discount
It will be applied according to the information your selected in Setup.
Remember that your search on your Booking Engine will need to match the conditions of the discount you created for it to display.
A Long Stay Discount Rate is different to a Long Stay Special. It discounts the daily rate over a minimum number of nights, whereas the Long Stay Special is a fixed rate for a fixed time period.
Rate discounts are only for online bookings. They do not apply to manual calendar bookings.
Open Rate Discount in setup.
Click on "Add" in order to create your new special.
Make sure that you've selected "Basic" as the type of discount.
To apply a Long Stay you will need to add a Minimum Stay
You'll need to add the minimum length of stay required for the Long Stay discount to "kick-in".
Even though you have a minimum stay in place, the guest will still be able to book for one night on your Rack Rate. To qualify for the Basic Deal, the guest will need to stay the minimum amount of nights required.
Add a percentage (%) change in the rate.
You can adjust your rates according to a percentage (%) decrease.
Please ensure that you know the base rate is so that you end up with the desired rate. Therefore, the rate adjustment will be done according to the rates that you've got in your rate sheet for that period. This means that if your rates are R100 for the period and the adjustment is a 10% decrease in the rates, the new price will be (R100 - R10) = R90.
Add a Discount Name as you want it to appear on your Booking Form.
The rate name will give you and your guests a way to easily identify the discount with a short description.
Use a name that gives the guest an indication what type of discount they're getting. Do not use codes or words that are meaningless to the guest.
Add the discount name and set the dates the discount is valid for.
This section will allow you to add the dates on which this discount will apply. Therefore, if the discount will only apply for a long weekend, the "Valid From" will be the first night and the "Valid Until" will be the last night of the long weekend.
You're also able to add more periods in which the discount will be valid for. This means that you can apply the Rate Discount for multiple periods and not just one.
Would this discount apply to a specific rate sheet or channel?
If you would like to only apply the discount to a specific rate sheet such as the RACK or an STO, you're able to select this here. This would only be relevant if you've setup multiple rate sheets for different channels/agents.
You're able to apply the discount to one or multiple rate sheets at a time.
Alternatively, you could also choose to distribute this discount to a specific channel such as your own website or to an OTA like Booking.com. You're also able to apply the discount to more than one channel at a time.
Only sites that you have connected through NightsBridge will show in this list and so if the channel you're looking for is not in the list, it's not connected to your NightsBridge.
Keep the following in mind that certain channels like Booking.com, Expedia, Agoda, etc. require that you provide them with the "best available price" or rate parity. Therefore, if you only give the discount to one of the channels and not the competing site, they will be unhappy.
The maximum minimum stay allowed on Booking.com for promotions is 7 nights. If you load a long stay discount of more than 7 nights, the discount won't be available on Booking.com.
Does the Rate Discount apply to any specific room types/meal plans?
If you only want your discount to apply to a specific room type or meal plan, you're able to set this up using this section.
You would first need to click on the slider to turn off the setting that applies the discount to all room types/meal plans. Once you've done that, then you can tick the boxes to choose which room types and meal plans the discount will apply to.
When you're happy with your selection, save and publish your setup.
Once you're finished with setting your preferences, you will then need to save and then publish the setup.