How to create promo codes for your direct bookings

A promo code gives your guests a discount when they book on your booking widget or your Nowistay website. You choose a percentage or a fixed amount, the properties it works on, and if you want, the days it can be used and how many times. It’s a simple way to thank a returning guest, run an open-house offer or reward guests who follow you on social media.

Promo codes only apply to direct bookings. They have no effect on Airbnb, Booking.com or your other channels.

Create a promo code

1. Go to Integrations and click Configure on Direct Booking.
2. In Prices, click Promo codes.
3. Click Add a promo code.
4. Fill in the code and the discount, add the limits you need (all optional), then click Save.

The fields

• Code: 3 to 32 letters, digits, - or _, for example WELCOME10. Guests can type it in lower or upper case. Each code is unique in your account.
• Discount: Percentage (1 to 100) or Fixed amount, taken once per stay. A fixed amount uses the currency of the properties the code works on.
• Valid from and Valid until: the days a guest can book with the code, whatever the dates of the stay. Leave both empty for a code with no date limit. A code valid until 30 November works for a booking made on 30 November, even for a stay in March.
• Max number of bookings: how many bookings can use the code, all properties together.
• Minimum nights: the shortest stay the code works for.
• Minimum amount of nights: the lowest price of the nights (extra-guest fee included, before any discount) for the code to apply.
• Once per guest: an email address can use the code only once. A guest who books with another email address can still use it again.
• All properties: turn it off to choose the Properties the code works on.
• Active: turn it off to pause the code without deleting it.

A fixed amount or a minimum amount needs properties in a single currency. If your properties use different currencies, choose the properties in one currency, or create one code per currency.

How the discount is calculated

The code takes its discount off the price of the nights, extra-guest fee included, after the length-of-stay discount. It never reduces the cleaning fee.

• Percentage taxes are calculated on the price after the code, as they are after a length-of-stay discount. Fixed taxes don’t change.
• A fixed amount is taken once per stay and never goes beyond the price of the nights.
• Split payment: the first payment is a percentage of the total after the code.

Example: 7 nights at €100, a 10% discount from 7 nights and a 10% code:

• Nights: €700
• Length-of-stay discount: -€70, so €630
• Promo code: 10% of €630 = -€63, so €567 for the nights
• Then the cleaning fee and the taxes (percentage taxes on €567)

What your guests see

When a property has a promo code that can be used today, the price summary of the booking widget shows Have a promo code?. The guest types the code and clicks Apply.

The code then appears as its own line in the price summary, with the discount, and the total updates. The guest can remove it with the cross next to it.

If no promo code is active for the property on that day, the field doesn’t appear, so guests aren’t sent looking for a code that doesn’t exist.

When a code doesn’t apply, the guest sees why and the price stays without it:

A code checked again at payment may no longer apply, for example if you paused it or its last use was just taken by another guest. The guest then sees the message, the code is removed and the price without it shows before they pay. They can still book.

After several wrong codes in a short time, the widget stops checking codes for a while (Too many codes tried. Please try again later.). Booking without a code keeps working.

Share a promo link

A link can carry the code: add ?promo= and the code to the address of the page, and the code is already filled in and applied when the guest reaches the price.

• Your booking page: https://traveler.nowistay.com/en/book/<your token>?promo=WELCOME10
• Your Nowistay website: any page address followed by ?promo=WELCOME10, for example https://your-site.com/en?promo=WELCOME10.
• Your own website: the address of the page where the booking widget is, followed by ?promo=WELCOME10. If you pasted the embed code before promo codes existed, copy it again so the widget receives the code.
• The widget for several properties: the code is passed on to the property the guest chooses.

Promo links fit newsletters, social media posts or a message to your past guests.

Follow your promo codes

The Promo codes list shows each code with its discount, its dates, how many bookings used it (Used: 4 / 20 when a maximum is set) and its properties. A badge gives its status: Active, Paused, Scheduled (its first day hasn’t come yet), Expired or No property (the properties it worked on were deleted).

How uses are counted:

• A paid booking counts as one use.
• A guest who is paying holds a use for 35 minutes. If they leave the payment page, the use comes back.
• A booking cancelled with a refund from Nowistay (full or partial) gives its use back. A booking cancelled without a refund keeps it.

On each booking made with a code:

• The Payment section of the booking details shows Promo code with the code and the amount.
• The booking notes and the “new direct booking” email you receive add a line such as “Promo code WELCOME10: -63.00 EUR”.
• The invoice shows the accommodation after the discount.

Changing a code (its discount, dates or limits) applies to new bookings: bookings already made keep their price. A guest who is already on the payment step keeps the price they were shown for 30 minutes. Deleting a code stops it at once; bookings made with it keep their price and the code name.