Flash sale explained
A flash sale is where you sell your rates at a discounted price for a fixed amount of time.
The reduction will apply to the specific rates or rooms and check in dates you apply it to, but will only show for a fixed period of time to the visitor.
For example: You might want to have a 24 Hour Flash sale to your customer.
📌Note: It's possible to run only one flash sale at any given time.
Benefits of flash sales
Outlined below are the benefits of a flash sale.
Ensuring lead conversion.
Improve brand visibility.
Market items which aren't in demand.
Boost revenue.
Best times to run a flash sale
Outlined below is the best suggested times a flash sale could be run.
Before the holidays.
After the holidays.
Once in a while.
It's advised to not run flash sales often as it can take away what makes them special.
Create a flash sale
Follow the video and steps below to set up a flash sale.
Flash sale sales information or the edit button
Outlined below is how to create the sales information of a flash sale. This is where you set the flash sale code, description, date and time it will begin and end.
Click the Booking Engine tab.
On the right navigation hover over Rates and Packages.
Click Flash Sales.
Click the button + create flash sale.
If the flash sale is already created click the edit button.
Enter the sale name, description and sale code.
Choose the status of the flash sale:
Active.
Suspended.
Deleted.
Choose the type of discount you want your flash sale to have:
Percentage discount.
Fixed monetary discount.
Order index is no longer applicable.
Select the date range that you want the sale to run for.
Sale dates is not related to the dates of stay of the sale, rather when the rules of the flash sale discounts become active or when the flash sale will show on your booking engine.
Select the time you would like the flash sale to start and end at.
This could be 9am for a start time and an end time of 6pm.
It is advised you set a start time you are available just in case you need to review or update a flash sale.
Click save changes.
Flash sale discount button
Outlined below is how to create the discount information of a flash sale. This is where you set the discount amount and also define on what dates the flash sale show be available to purchase.
Click the Booking Engine tab.
On the right navigation hover over Rates and Packages.
Click Flash Sales.
Click on the discount button of the relevant flash sale.
On the left you will see rule one.
Drag the slider or enter an amount to determine the amount of the discount.
To restrict the sale to certain rates, you can use an allow list or a deny list.
Allow list. Explicitly specify the rates by rate code or pattern that you want the discounts to apply on.
Deny list. Specify rates by rate code or pattern that the discounts should never apply on.
As you type rate or room codes, a preview area will refresh showing you all matching rates and rooms as configured on your booking engine account.
This is useful to help ensure you are targeting the sale at the correct rates and rooms.
To have the discounts on the rule apply only on certain dates of stay, select the rule and click one or more dates in the calendar on the right-hand side.
If no dates are selected, the discounts configured in the rule would apply for all dates of stay.
Apply a discount rule for an entire month by clicking on the month title.
Apply a discount rule for a weekday by clicking on the weekday title.
Apply a rule for an individual day by clicking on that date.
Apply a rule for an arbitrary date range by clicking on the first date and holding CTRL while clicking on the second date.
Up to 5 rules can be independently configured per flash sale.
To add a new rule, click the add rule button on the left-hand side.
After your rules are configured, click the save changes button at the bottom of the form to save your changes and return to the flash sale list screen.
Multiple flash sale discounts
It is possible to configure a flash sale to allow up to five discount policies or rules that can be applied on different dates.
Each discount policy or rule can have the dates on which the policy applies independently selected.
To restrict the dates of a particular discount policy as part of the flash sale, follow the steps below.
Click the Booking Engine tab.
On the right navigation hover over Rates and Packages.
Click Flash Sales.
Click on the discount button of the relevant flash sale.
Select that policy from the list on the left-hand-side.
Click the dates on the calendar you would like the sale to run on.
The currently selected dates are displayed on the calendar in different colours associated with the discount policy.
Click save changes.
The new flash sale will appear in your flash sales window with your selected discount details.
📌Note: If no dates are selected for a discount policy within a flash sale, then the policy will apply for all dates of stay.
Good to know about a flash sale
Outlined below are some tips on flash sales.
At present a sell limit is not possible on a flash sale, as the discount is on a rate then the inventory and restrictions are at rate level.
There is no link available for a flash sale. The flash sale will automatically appear on the booking engine to all customers.
Only one flash sale can be run at one time.
If two flash sales are created to run at the same time only one flash sale will work.
You add rules to one flash sale to offer different discount amounts.