The Promo Code system allows you to invite your guests to enter a code as they start their booking which will entitle them to some sort of benefit or reward. This could be a free item or perhaps a discount on the value of the booking.
A couple of examples when you may use Promo Codes:
- For marketing or advertising campaigns where you offer an exclusive benefit via that campaign (for example, a newspaper promotion).
- For group bookings where you want to provide a discount for that group even though they will book independently of each other (for example a wedding party). The group organiser passes the code onto individuals and the discount is available to anyone in the wedding party who makes their own booking by entering the code into their booking.
You can set up multiple promo codes, each being assigned to different extras allowing you to provide different benefits or rewards.
Please contact your support team to activate the functionality if it is required.
Once it has been setup then you will see the option in the Extras menu as shown by the red arrow in the image below:
When a promo code or codes have been setup as described later in this document, the customer will be invited to enter a code on your public Booking Screen on your website.
In the examples below, we have set up 2 Promo Codes; 'Mr&Mrs' and 'Breakfastonus'.
If 'Mr&Mrs' is entered, it will provide the customer with a 10% discount on their accommodation, and if 'Breakfastonus' is entered, they will be offered a free breakfast.
Your customers will see the Promo Code option on your booking screen, on the Visitor Details page, as shown in the screenshot below.
The customer enters the breakfastonus promo code to claim their freebie, and presses Validate.
After confirmation of the promo code (the box is highlighted green, with a green tick to the right), the customer will now see their promotion listed in the Booking Details:
If they entered the Mr&Mrs Promo Code, they would not receive a free extra, but a 10% discount on their room total…
Once Promo Codes have been enabled in your account, you will need to set up a promotion record that will manage how it will operate.
Since the promo code will be added to the booking as an extra, you will first need to register the extra in your system so that you can assign that extra to the promo code. The extra will be the discount or the benefit that will be added to the booking.
- Save all the promo extra's under the same Extra category as you can then distinguish between each one (for example, a category called Promotions). This also highlights the discount or reward to the customer.
- If you are offering a free service or product, you will need to set the extra with a $0 cost.
If you make the $0 price valid for specific dates, then the promo code will only add the free service or product when the booking is for the dates that have the $0 price. - You can use different promo codes for the same extra. For example, you could offer the same discount to all your wedding parties but provide different codes to the different parties to personalise the discount to each of them (by using codes like John&Jen, Ken&Barbie, etc)
Once the extra is registered in your system, click on the Promo Code Management option (in the Extras section in the menu), and this will open the following screen:
Explanation of each field is below with an example to follow:
Promo Title – This is what is displayed on your public Booking Screen as the title of the section (for example, Promotion and Discount Codes).
Promo Description - This is not necessary but you can add text here if required.
New Promo Code - This is the code that the customer will need to enter to get the discount or reward.
Extras Code - This is the iBex name for the extra that will be added to the booking as the promotion.
Status - Set to Active to activate the codes.
Prompt - This will be displayed on your public Booking Screen (for example, Please enter any Promotion or Discount Code to receive your discount or reward).
When complete, you should have a screen similar to the example below which would appear on your booking screen as shown below.
After setting up a Promo Code it is recommended that you test it on the public booking screen on your website before providing it to anyone so that you are aware how it is displayed to your customers.
Promotions can be disabled at any time by deactivating them. This is done by clicking the Inactive option in the Status options in the bottom of the Manage Promotions screen.