Promotions & Promo Codes

Promotions - Discounts given to all customers making a reservation for this package.  Normally created to celebrate a national holiday or special time of year.  No code is required to take advantage of the discounted pricing

Promo Codes - Discounts given only to customers who have a valid code.  Promo codes can also be used for celebrating national holidays but are more often used for general discounts and marketing efforts for longer periods of time.

While both of the above special pricing options can be a great way to promote your business and special events, we recommend that you not go too overboard as to identify your brand as a discount heavy business.  Many of today's online consumers are quite savvy at identifying businesses who use these types of marketing tactics and will happily wait until the next discount before making another reservation (or even their first reservation).  To combat this and arm you with the tools for effective discounting programs we have built a variety of options into the special pricing section that will make your marketing initiatives a success.  Below is a screen shot of a promotion that we'll use as an example.

Promotion Name

The name entered here will be displayed to the online customer when they have successfully applied it to the reservation so make sure that it is accurate and appropriate for public display.

Promo Code

The promo code can be anything that you would like it to be but as a general rule of thumb it is best to choose a creative name that describes the offer's benefits.  For example, 50OFF would imply an 50% discount and SUMMER25 has some seasonality attached to it to enforce a limited time availability concept.  While both of the examples above are in all caps, promo codes in RKd are not case sensitive.

Additionally, the promo code entry field will only display in the online booking modal when you have promotions enabled for that specific package.  That said, it is important to disable promotions on the package when you do not have any active promotions.  This way online customers won't go looking for promo codes that wont work or when there are none to be found.

Amount Type

Percent - Pretty straight forward.  The number entered will represent the percentage discount applied to the reservation and is the most common type of promotion used.

Dollar Amount - While also not very complicated, dollar amount discounts are used far less often due to a limited used case.  For example, the dollar amount of the discount generally has to be pretty small to ensure that the discount amount does not exceed the total balance due of the reservation.

Valid From and Valid To

These date range fields are used in conjunction with the next setting of “Date Range Type” and indicate the first and last dates that the promotion is valid on.  In the case of promotions, both fields are always required and promotions can not be set to run indefinitely (but they can be set for a very long time if desired).  Our recommendation is to make your promotions “for a limited time only” as often as possible and run a new promotion once the last one has expired.  This will ensure that your marketing efforts are kept fresh and you will able to run reports on the ROI for different promotion types and messaging.

These fields are also a great tool for setting up multiple promotions over the course of the year in one admin set up session and you don't have to scramble to set them up when your marketing campaign kicks into gear.

Date Range Type

Reservation Date - Promotions created using the Reservation Date option will allow discounts to be applied when the date of the reservation falls within the “Valid from / Valid to” date range.  Online customers will be able to make reservations using this promotion or promo code before the start of the date range (but not after) so long as the date of the reservation is within the range.

Created Date - Promotions created using the Created Date option will allow discounts to be applied to reservations when today's date falls within the “Valid from / Valid to” date range.  Online customers will be able to apply the promotions discount into the future, outside of the chosen date range so long as the day the reservation is made is within the range.

Minimum Group Size

Minimum Group Size is an optional setting for when you want to only provide the promotional discount to groups above a certain size.  This is a great option when your goal is to encourage larger groups sizes to take advantage of the promotion.

Apply to Ranged Groups

In many cases (but not all), larger ranged groups already have discounted pricing due to the size of the group kind of like a bulk discount.  Because of this you may not want to further discount those larger reservations and this is your opportunity to either allow or not allow those discounts to apply.

Require Code?

This one is pretty self explanatory and determines whether or not this promotion requires the input of a promo code or not.

Allowed Customer Types

Similar to the “Apply to Ranged Groups” option above, Customer Types are usually already discounted from standard, “full retail” pricing.  This section allows you to choose which Customer Types (when applicable) will be discounted when using the promo code or promotion. In many cases, venues choose not to apply discounts to already discounted Customer Types.