Deals and discount codes on your website: when to use each one

By GuestChat Team · 2 October 2026

A well-planned discount fills a slow week or wins over the guest who's torn between your website and the booking site. A badly planned one just lowers the price for people who would have booked anyway. In My website, in the Deals step, you have two different tools so you don't mix them up.

First things first: they only affect your website

Deals and codes only apply on your own website. The price on Airbnb and Booking.com doesn't change. That's on purpose: it's a perk for people who book direct.

Automatic deal or code

Automatic deal: it applies on its own to anyone who meets the conditions. Nobody has to do anything.
Discount code: it only applies if the guest types the code. Letters and numbers, and it doesn't matter if they type it in capitals.

A simple rule: a deal is for selling more to anyone; a code is for rewarding someone specific.

What you can set up

When you create one with New deal or New code:

Name, which the guest sees.
Discount: a percentage or a fixed amount.
Which places: all of them or only the ones you choose.
Stays entering from and stays entering until: which stays it's valid for. Leave them empty for no date limit.
Book before: the last day someone can book with it.
Minimum nights: to reward longer stays.
Maximum uses: 0 means no limit.
Active: to pause it without deleting it.

The discount only applies to the nights, never to cleaning or the tourist tax.

Ideas that work

A long week in low season: an automatic deal with minimum nights set to 7 and check-ins limited to the slow months.
Early booking for summer: a deal with a book-before date in spring. It brings in cash and visibility early.
Returning guests: a personal code for people who have already booked direct with you. Never send it through the Airbnb or Booking.com chat: their rules forbid taking bookings off their platform.
A specific apartment that's harder to sell: a deal just for that property.
A code with limited uses for a partnership with a local business.

What to avoid

Deals with no end date. They become your real price and stop being a deal.
Big discounts on dates that sell themselves. Check the calendar first.
One generic code posted everywhere. It ends up on coupon sites and anyone uses it: set maximum uses.
Forgetting the booking site markup, if you use one. With it, your website is already cheaper; the discount is an extra and doesn't need to be big.

How to get the word out

A deal no one sees doesn't work. Mention it in the why-book-direct section, and if it's a code, give it to people who booked direct, for example in your goodbye message. Never through the booking sites' messaging.

Quick list

One low-season deal with minimum nights.
One code for returning guests with maximum uses.
End dates on all of them.
A review at the end of each season: delete whatever wasn't used.