A discount is for the nights you would not otherwise sell. The Easter weekend sells itself. The Tuesday in June does not, and neither does the shoulder week after the school holidays go home, or the site that would be taken for a month if the price made sense. Point a discount at those and it pays for itself. Point it at the weekend and you have handed money to people who were coming anyway.
Here is where each kind of offer in Camper BMS fits.
Everything below is about what you charge your guests. It has nothing to do with what Camper BMS charges you, which is set out on the pricing page.
Filling the mid-week
The plainest use. The powered sites are full Friday and Saturday and half empty the rest of the week, so something comes off Sunday to Thursday for the quiet months.
Run this as a sale rather than a code. A sale has nothing to type. It runs between the dates you give it and applies itself to every booking that qualifies, and guests see the full price struck through with the sale price beside it without you having to tell anyone.
It can cover the powered and unpowered sites and leave the cabins at full rate. It can leave firewood and the pet fee alone, or bring the whole invoice down. And when winter ends you switch it off, and it comes back next year with last year's numbers still attached.
Percentage or flat dollars is a question of what you are selling. Twenty per cent does more work on a cabin week than on two nights unpowered. Twenty dollars does the same work on both.
Rewarding the long stay
Stay six nights, get the seventh free. This is the offer for the guest choosing between a week with you and a week somewhere else, and for the one who might stretch a fortnight into a month if the maths tipped.
Book six get one needs a seven-night stay. Anyone booking shorter still books, at full price.
The night that comes off is the cheapest night of the stay, and that is deliberate. A week with a $60 Tuesday and a $180 Saturday loses the Tuesday. Run the offer across a peak period and it costs you a shoulder night rather than a weekend, and on seasonal or dynamic pricing it gives away whatever your own calendar priced lowest. On a flat-priced stay every night costs the same, so the seventh comes off and the maths matches the advertisement. Either way it is the accommodation that is free. Firewood and the pet fee are still paid for.
The offer can pay out once, or keep paying out on every full week, so a month on book-six-get-the-seventh gets four nights free. The first is a promotion. The second is a standing long-stay rate, and it can run without an end date.
The campaign you want to measure
A code is a sale with a password. The guest has to type it at checkout, so nobody gets it who did not see the ad, the newsletter or the flyer at the visitor centre. That is what makes it measurable. Every booking that used the code is recorded against it, so you can see how many times it was used, what it cost you and how many different people took it up, next to every other offer you have run.
Put a cap on anything that goes out in an email. Fifty redemptions and it stops, however well the email did.
Discounts never stack. A guest gets one, and a code beats a running sale, so if you run both at once make the code the better deal.
The one guest, or the one club
Some offers belong to particular people. The guest whose stay went wrong and you would like back. The fishing club that takes ten sites every March. The rally organiser.
A discount can be tied to a list of email addresses, so a forwarded code is no use to anyone not on it. The make-good can be limited to a single use. The club rate can stay open all season.
When a discount is the wrong tool
If a whole period should simply cost less, change the price. Seasonal pricing does that on the booking page itself. A discount is for an offer that needs a reason attached: an audience, an area, a stay length, a campaign.
The email marketing integrations push your customer list to Klaviyo or ActiveCampaign, which is where a code for a quiet fortnight gets seen. If the dates are full rather than quiet, use the waitlist. And discounts are on the API, so if you would rather generate codes from something you already run, you can.
Common questions
What is the difference between a discount code and a sale?
A sale applies itself to every booking that qualifies. A code only applies when the guest types it at checkout, which makes it traceable to wherever you published it.
Which night does a free-night offer give away?
The cheapest night of the stay. On a flat-priced stay every night costs the same, so it is the night the offer names: the seventh on book six, get the seventh free.
What if a guest books fewer nights than the offer needs?
They still book, at full price. If they typed a code, they are told the offer needs a longer stay.
Can two discounts apply to one booking?
No. A valid code wins, otherwise the sale that saves the guest the most. Never both.
Do discounts come off add-ons and pet fees?
That is up to you for percentage and dollar discounts. A free night is the accommodation only.
Can I cap how many times a code is used?
Yes, in total and per email address.
Can staff apply a discount to a booking they enter?
No. Discounts apply where the guest books. Bookings entered in the admin, and bookings that arrive from a channel, carry no discount.
Run your own offers
Percentage off, a fixed amount off, or a free night on longer stays. Handed out as a code, or applied automatically to everyone.
