How to set up automatic discounts for bookings

An automatic discount is one the customer gets without typing anything. The booking form checks the condition and shows the lower price before payment. A coupon is the opposite: it works only for people who have the code.

Start with one goal per discount. "Fill the workshop two weeks ahead" calls for a different tool than "get the second child into the course". A discount without a goal usually ends up lowering the price for customers who would have paid in full anyway.

Coupons still have their place. A code with Maximum uses 50 and Valid until the end of the month suits a newsletter campaign; Buy 1 get 1 free or Free slots suits a bring-a-friend offer for classes. A Maximum discount keeps big orders under control: Percentage 20 % with Maximum discount €20 takes €20 off a €150 booking, not €30. And customers who cancel in time can get a personal code instead of a refund (Starter plan and up), so the money stays in your business.

A quantity discount pays off when an extra place costs you little: a class that runs anyway, a course with free seats, a family booking for several children. It does not pay off for one-to-one work, where each extra place means another hour of your time.

Example: a children's art class at €20 a place. A rule with Percentage 10 %, Minimum quantity 3 and Apply discount to All participants makes three places cost €54 instead of €60. With Only above threshold, only the places above the minimum get the discount, which keeps more of your margin when people book in larger numbers.

Besides percentages there are Fixed amount, Per unit discount, Buy 1, get 1 free and Tiered types. With Require customer confirmation the customer ticks a box with your own label, for example "I am booking for siblings", so the discount is not taken by accident. One session can have a different value through Discount overrides in Events. For customers to book several places at once, turn on Group bookings in Settings → Booking (Starter plan and up).

Create a discount rule with the condition First booking only and turn on Auto-apply. New customers see the lower price straight away, and you don't have to post a code that regulars would also find and use. And a rule can't be passed around the way codes from flyers and social media often are.

Example: 15 % off the first booking of a €50 facial means the new customer pays €42.50. For a fixed amount, set Fixed amount to €5 instead; on a cheap service a round amount is easier to understand than a percentage.

Make sure the first visit is the full service, not a shortened version. The point of the discount is for the customer to come back at the full price, and that only happens if the first visit convinces them.

Use early bird when you need to know in advance whether a session will run, and last minute when you have places left that would otherwise stay empty. Both are set per service in Price by booking time, from the Starter plan, and they also work for holiday rentals.

Example: a weekend yoga workshop for €40. Early bird: when booked at least 336 hours (14 days) before, Lower by 25 %, so early customers pay €30. Last minute: when booked less than 24 hours before, Lower by €8, so the last free mats sell for €32. With Lowest price set to €28, the booking-time change never takes the workshop below €28. Discount rules and coupons are counted from that price afterwards, so they can still go lower.

The thresholds can be 1 hour to 400 days before the start; the price can go down by at most 90 % or up by at most 200 %. Last minute can also be a surcharge for short-notice bookings. The price the customer was shown is kept for 30 minutes, even if a threshold passes while they are booking. The Label for customers, for example "Early bird", is shown next to the price together with the date it applies until.

Discounts are counted in a fixed order, so you can calculate the final price in advance:

1. Price by booking time sets the base price.
2. Automatic discount rules are applied to it. A rule marked Stackable discount can combine with other discounts; otherwise it is applied on its own.
3. A coupon comes last. With Combine with group discount on, it is counted from the price after the group discount; with it off, from the full price.

Example: three early bird places at €30 = €90, minus a 10 % group rule = €81, minus a 10 % coupon with Combine with group discount on = €72.90. If that is too low for you, set a Maximum discount on the coupon or leave the rule non-stackable.

A loyalty reward and a coupon can be used together only if you allow it in Loyalty. A deposit is always counted from the price after discounts.

Compare the same period before and after the change, at least four weeks each, and look at money, not only at the number of bookings.

• In Coupons the Usage column shows how many times each code was used. Give each channel its own code (newsletter, Instagram, a partner) and you see where customers came from.
• In Analytics (Starter plan and up) watch Total revenue, Average value and New vs. returning. A first-booking discount should raise the share of new customers; if Average value falls and new customers don't come, switch the rule off.
• In Reports you see revenue for any dates, so you can line up the weeks of a campaign against the weeks without it. Both pages count bookings by the date they were created, not the date of the appointment – keep that in mind with early bird offers booked weeks ahead.

Give every campaign an end date. A coupon gets Valid until; a rule you switch off by turning off Auto-apply. A discount that never ends becomes your new price.