Important to know:
Direct booking controls only apply to your booking engine.
Set up Direct booking controls when you create or edit a rate plan via the Rooms and rates page > Rate plans tab.
About ‘Direct booking controls’
Control the way you sell your direct booking rates by configuring specific restrictions such as applicable dates and discounts on your rate plans. You can set up the following Direct booking controls for rate plans on your booking engine:
applicable dates
advertised dates
maximum advance booking dates
dynamic discounts
highlight rate plan on direct booking engine
restrict rate to mobile device
restrict rate to a promotion code
Set up Direct booking controls when you create or edit a rate plan via the Rooms and rates page > Rate plans tab.
Applicable dates
Create direct booking rate plans that can only be booked if the customer’s check-in, stay night(s), and check-out date are during the dates you have selected in Applicable dates (also known as “stay dates”).
You can set up multiple date ranges and select certain days of the week, or if necessary, select a date range that you want to exclude.
For example, if you want to create a Valentine’s Day deal, you could use the Applicable dates feature to restrict the use of a discount to only allow your guests to stay at your property on Valentine’s Day (and check-out the next day), or check-in Valentine’s Day and stay the rest of the week, etc.
Advertised dates
Create direct booking rates that can only be booked during certain Advertised dates (also known as “sell dates”).
For example, if you want to create a Valentine’s Day deal, you could configure Advertised dates so that the direct booking rate plan can only be booked from 1 January to 14 February.
When setting up Advertised dates (or “sell dates”), you can set up multiple date ranges and select certain days of the week, or if necessary, select a date range that you want to exclude.
Maximum advance booking dates
Set up Maximum advance booking dates to restrict how far in advance of the check-in/check-out date your direct rate plans can be booked.
You can also set up Maximum advance booking dates for discounted last-minute deals (for example, when setting up a discounted rate plan that can only be booked 2 days before the check-in date).
For example, if you only allow bookings to be made a maximum of 90 days prior to the check-in date, set the Maximum advance booking dates setting to ‘90 days before check-in date’.
Or, if you are setting up a discounted rate for last-minute bookings made 1-2 days prior to the check-in date, set the Maximum advance booking dates setting to ‘2 days before check-in date’.
The Maximum advance booking dates setting is the opposite of the Release period setting, of which is the minimum number of days that guests can book in advance of the check-in date.
Dynamic discounts
Encourage more direct bookings by setting up Dynamic discounts (length of stay discounts, package deals and stay pay deals) for your booking engine.
Highlight rate plan on direct booking engine
The Highlight rate plan on direct booking engine feature lets you display your best rate plans and their inclusions and discounts at the top of your booking engine, helping to attract more direct bookings.
Restrict rate to mobile device
Set up mobile only rate plans for your booking engine by enabling the Restrict rate to mobile device toggle. This is an easy way to make a direct booking promotion available exclusively through mobile devices.
Restrict rate to a promotion code
If you only want to show a rate when a customer enters an assigned promotion code, enable the Restrict rate toggle when editing a Direct booking rate. You can use this setting to create offers for select groups. If the toggle is switched off, the room rate will be visible to all customers on your booking engine.
To turn on this setting, go to Direct booking > Direct booking rates > click on a rate plan to edit it > turn on the Restrict rate toggle.
Before enabling the Restrict rate toggle, remember to create a Promotion code and assign the promotion code to this rate plan.