Utilizing Specials

Specials in BrightSide allow you to offer discounts on rental rates easily across various channels, including internal bookings, your website, and online travel agencies (OTAs) like Vrbo, Airbnb, and Booking.com. You can apply specials to all channels or limit them to specific ones. Note that specials only discount rental rates, they do not affect fixed fees like cleaning or pet fees unless those fees are rent-based.

This feature helps boost occupancy, attract price-sensitive guests, and stay competitive in the market, while giving you flexibility to tailor promotions to your business goals, such as driving direct bookings to reduce OTA commissions.

This guide covers how specials work, how to set them up, OTA-specific considerations, and common pitfalls to avoid.

• Channels
• Setting Up a Special
• How Specials Work with OTAs
• Common Mistakes

Understanding Channels

Before creating a special, decide which channels it applies to. Each channel handles specials differently, so consider creating separate specials for each to optimize control and avoid unintended discounts that could erode revenue.

• Internal: These are for manual use by your staff during reservations. They aren’t visible on your website or OTAs and aren’t auto-applied (except when combined with the Websites channel, see below). Use this for personalized negotiations or one-off deals to build guest loyalty without automating discounts.
• Websites: Discounts can apply automatically or via promo codes on your site. If you also select “Internal” for the same special, it auto-applies to internal bookings for consistency. Use this for direct bookings to encourage website traffic and increase profit margins by bypassing OTA fees.
• OTA’s (Vrbo, Airbnb, Booking.com): Specials feed automatically to selected OTAs with limited control. They always apply the best available discount when conditions are met, ignoring promo codes. For details, see the OTA section below. This channel is ideal for broadening reach but requires caution to prevent over-discounting on high-commission platforms.

Setting Up a Special

We recommend separate specials per channel for better management and easier performance tracking over time. However, it is not mandatory, and you may create a single special that is available on more than one channel. To create a new special:

Navigate to: Properties > Specials > +New

Basic Information

• Name: Choose a guest-friendly description (e.g., “10% Off Summer Stays”).
• Applicable Pricing: Typically “Nightly,” but options include Weekly or Monthly.
• Discount Amount: Enter the numerical value.
• Discount Type: Enter whether you want to offer a percentage or a dollar amount off the reservation.
  • Cheapest Night: Percentage off the final night.
  • Last Night: Percentage off the final night.
  • Entire Stay: Percentage off the total stay.
  • Off Stay: Flat dollar amount off the total.
  • Off Night: Flat dollar per night.

Active Channels

Select where the special applies:

• Internal: Manual application by staff.

• Websites: Offers discounts to qualifying reservations on your website automatically or via discount codes. When you select “Websites” as your active channel, the “Online” menu item will be activated where you enter the discount code (if used) and enter other options.
  • Auto-apply by default (unless a promo code is required).
  • Add a discount code (e.g., “SUMMER10”) and description for guest entry.
  • Include a website description for your Specials page (if supported).
  • Exclude from Specials page if needed.
  • Combining with Internal auto-applies to internal bookings.

• OTAs: Select specific ones (Vrbo, Airbnb, Booking.com) if connected. These appear only if your account is integrated.

Allow combination with other specials? Check this to stack with one other qualifying special (the one offering the best additional discount). This can create more attractive deals but use sparingly to protect overall pricing strategy.

Steps to Add a Vrbo Promotion:

• Step #1
  • Choose “Vrbo” as your active channel, this also activates the Vrbo menu item at the top. Note that it turns a darker color when activated.

• Step #2

Click the Vrbo menu item at the top the choose from the following options.

• • Pick a “Vrbo Promotion Type” from the dropdown menu:
    • Built into Rates (this option hides the discount and does not receive a badge)
    • Early Booking
    • Last Minute
    • Mobile Only
    • Member Only*
    • New Listing Discount

Mobile-Only Promotion: Check the ‘Mobile-Only’ box if available for your selected type. This option offers the promotion only to guests using their mobile devices.

*Member Only: When using this promotion type, you must enter the discount value you provide for each OneKey member tier, Blue, Silver, and Gold. The values will override the main discount amount.

NOTE: When you select a promotion type, you may be required to add conditions for it to work. If so, you will get a warning message like in the second screenshot below. To add conditions click on the “General” menu item and scroll down to “Conditions.”

Conditions

Set rules to control eligibility. Keep them simple for reliability.

• Required Nights: Minimum stay length.
• Maximum Nights: Enter the maximum number of nights the guest can stay to receive this discount.
• Minimum Days Booked in Advance: Encourage early bookings.
• Maximum Days Booked in Advance: Encourage last-minute bookings.
• Booking Dates: Specific range for when bookings must be made.
• Stay Dates: Required stay period (e.g., May 1–July 31, 2026). Optional: Max Occupancy % to avoid high-occupancy periods.
  Note: The entire stay must fit within dates; partial overlaps disqualify.
• Exclude Rate Seasons: Block specific rate seasons.
• Exclude Days of the Week: Block specific days of the week.
• Exclude Arrival Days: Block specific days.
• Exclude Specific Units: Avoid certain properties.
• Include Specific Units: Target certain properties.
• Include Bedroom Sizes: Limit to units with certain bedroom counts.

Click Save. To track performance, deactivate old specials and create new ones instead of editing, this allows reporting on what works best and informs future promotions for better ROI.

How Specials Work with OTAs

Although we recommend that you create unique specials for OTA channels, it is not a hard and fast rule. You may create a special that feeds to both your website and OTAs, and is used internally as well. Having said that, keep in mind the following when creating specials for Airbnb, Vrbo, and Booking.com.

OTAs apply specials differently, so create OTA-exclusive ones to avoid surprises and maintain control over your direct channels.

1. They auto-apply the largest discount when conditions match, without promo codes.
2. If multiple specials qualify, they pick or combine (if allowed) for the best deal. Example: A “10% Off June (3+ nights)” and “15% Off Summer” could combine to 25% on OTAs if conditions overlap.
3. No filtering by guest type (e.g., can’t limit to military), reserve targeted discounts for direct channels.
4. Enable per OTA (e.g., Vrbo only) for flexibility.

NOTE: One of the reasons we recommend creating unique specials for OTAs, is that OTAs do not filter who gets the discount. For example, if you want to offer a “10% Military Discount,” OTAs have no way of offering it to military personnel only. They give it to anyone, if it is the best discount available at the time the reservation is made. Since this is the case, reserve the military discount, or one like it, for direct bookings on your website or over the phone, utilizing a promo code.

Common Mistakes & Fixes

Every now and then, someone has a question about how their specials are applying. Here are common mistakes people make when creating specials.

1. Military discounts applying to all OTA bookings:
   • Cause: OTAs ignore promo codes and apply based on conditions only.
   • Fix: Remove OTA channels from code-required specials; use for direct bookings only. This prevents unintended revenue loss on broad platforms.
2. Internal specials auto-applying unexpectedly:
   • Cause: Combined with Websites channel, which enables auto-apply.
   • Fix: Use separate specials per channel. This ensures precise control and avoids automation errors in staff workflows.
3. Special not applying to some units:
   • Cause: Discount drops rate below the unit’s Minimum Nightly Rate (MNR).
   • Fix: Lower the MNR in affected units. This safeguard protects owner pricing preferences while allowing promotions to work as intended.

For more help, contact Support at (865) 233-3778 or request a demo.