Attract more customers with discount codes

Discount codes are a very powerful way to increase sales to new and existing customers. By offering a limited-time discount, you encourage your customers in several ways. First, everybody loves a good deal and by offering a good deal to new or existing customers, they are more likely to do business with you instead of somebody else. A time-limited discount encourages your customers to make the reservation now instead of waiting, which also helps to drive sales. And finally a discount is a useful tool to increase business during slow periods.

The latest version of WebReserv now offers support for discount codes. You can add discount codes to the system and your customers can apply the discount codes to reservations during the reservation process.

How to add a discount code

 To add a discount code, go to Setup – Discount Codes (http://www.webreserv.com/setupdiscountcodelist.do) and click Add new discount code. You will now have an empty discount code field as shown in the screenshot below.

Code: This is the code that must be entered in the discount code field when making a reservation. A code can be up to 20 characters long and consist of characters or numbers, but no spaces or special characters. Use easy to use codes such as SUMMER08 or FRIEND. If you are advertising through several channels, for example flyers and ads, you can create a different code for each type of ad and use the code to track the responses.

To control when a discount code can be used, enter a valid from date and a valid to date. A reservation must be booked within the valid from and valid to dates for the discount code to be valid.
You must also specify a Reservation From date and a Reservation To date. Use these dates to specify when the reservation must start for the code to be valid.

Finally you must enter either a discount percentage or a discount amount. This is the discount that will be applied to the reservation. The discount will be applied before taxes, if any.

When using a discount percentage, you can also specify a minimum or maximum discount amount. Use can use this feature to give a percentage discount up to a certain level, for example, 10% up to a maximum of $100.00.

When you have entered the discount information simply click Save and continue and you will be taken back to the list of discount codes.

Example:
In this example we want to provide a 10 % discount (up to $200.00) for August reservations, but the reservation must be done before July 15. The values for this discount code become:

How to apply a discount code
WebReserv.com will automatically show a discount code field in the payment section whenever one or more valid discount codes exist for the selected product. If no discount codes are valid, the discount code field will not be shown.

Availability
The discount features is available in all premier WebReserv accounts (Silver and Gold).

For more information or questions, please contact WebReserv.com support.

New “round-up” feature for rate calculation.

A new “round-up” setting enables the reservation system to pick the rate that is higher than, or equal to, the length of the reservation. The round-up is typically used when a rental has one rate up to a specific length of time and a different rate after that time.

Example:

We want to set a rate for $45 for the first 4 hours, and $90 per day after the first 4 hours.

To use the round-up rate, go to Setup - Products  & Reservation Rules and select Reservation  Rules.  In the Rate Calculation Field, select Round Up.

Next we need to enter the rates. Go to Rates – Edit Rates for your rate list. If the time frame (4 hours) is not listed, click on the add times links to create a time frame for 4 hours.

 

Go back to the Rate Setup screen and enter the rates for 4 hours and the daily rate.

You can also use the round-up to provide a discount when reserving more than a certain number of days. Say for example that you want to charge $90 per day for the first 3 days, but if a reservation is 4, 5, 6 or 7 days, you’ll charge a flat rate of $360 (4 day rate). Simply create the time columns for 2 and 3 days and enter your rates as shown below.

New feature - Deposit Information

A new information field, deposit information, has been added to the product setup screens. The deposit information field can be used to specify the deposit rules, for example, whether all or some of the deposit is refundable. The deposit information is automatically shown during the booking processes.

To setup the deposit information go to setup – products – depost/tax calculation.

The screenshot below shows the setup screen for deposit information.

 

The screenshot below shows the deposit information on the booking screen

New feature - Minimum or required days

A new feature on WebReserv.com makes it easy to specify minimum or required days, for example, that a product is required to be reserved for Saturday (or Saturday-Sunday) if it’s reserved on a Friday. This rule is used commonly in the hospitality industry (hotels, motels, bed & breakfasts) as well as RV rentals. To set required days, go to setup – product – reservation rules.

Note that this setting is different from the required days on the rate setup. This setting controls the minimum reservation requirement for a product.  The required days on the rate setup specifies whether a rate is valid for a certain day (or days). For example, if you allow single-day reservations, but provide a discount for Friday-Sunday reservations, the best way to do this is to create a rate list specifically for Friday-Sunday reservations.

The screenshot below shows the setup screen for the required days.

The screenshot below shows a rate calculation using minimum days:

 

New feature: Extra time rate calculation

A new feature on WebReserv.com makes it easy to specify how rates should be calculated for bookings with extra hours or days. For example, a booking for 8 days can be calculated as 8 days using the weekly rate, or as 7 days using the weekly rate plus 1 day using the daily rate.

Previous versions of WebReserv.com always selected the “long” rate. In other words, it would use the weekly rate for an 8 day booking, but with this new feature it’s easy to specify if WebReserv.com should use the weekly or daily rate for the last day.

To verify your short reservation settings, go to Setup – Rates – Rate Calculator. The Rate Calculator provides a complete breakdown of the rate calculation. Click on the thumbnail below to see an example.

New feature: Handling short bookings

With WebReserv.com, it’s always been possible to specify a minimum length on a booking.  Bookings shorter than the specified time would not be allowed. The new short reservation rule makes it possible to allow bookings shorter than the minimum time, but the rate will be calculated as if the booking was for the minimum time.

Note that availability screens always show the actual availability, regardless of how the rate is calculated. For example, if a booking is made for 1 day and the minimum is 3 days, the rate will be calculated for 3 days, but the availability screen will still show the booking for one day.

To verify your short reservation settings, go to Setup – Rates – Rate Calculator. The Rate Calculator provides a complete breakdown of the rate calculation.