Understanding Vrbo promotions

Attract more guests and fill your calendar by offering targeted discounts. Whether you want to reward early planners or secure last-minute bookings, promotions help your listings stand out in Vrbo search results. You can manage these promotions easily, right from Guesty.

Learn how to set and manage promotions in Guesty.

Limitations

• The currency of the promotion fixed amount discount must match the listing's currency.
• The maximum discount is 75% off the base rate (or the accommodation fare for fixed-rate discounts).

Promotion types

You can create four main types of promotions in Guesty to target different booking behaviors:

• Early-booking: Target travelers who plan ahead. This applies to bookings made at least 60 days before check-in. VRBO recommends a 10% discount.
• Last-minute: Fill upcoming calendar gaps with deals for bookings made within 30 days of check-in. VRBO recommends a 10% discount.
• Mobile-only: Capture the growing market of travelers booking on mobile devices. VRBO recommends a 10% discount.
• Member-only: Target members of the OneKey loyalty program. You can set tiered discounts for Blue, Silver, and Gold members.

Member-only promotion requirements

Member-only promotions target OneKey loyalty program members and must use a percentage discount.

Higher-tier members (Silver, Gold, Platinum) automatically receive lower-tier discounts if they're eligible. You can’t define a lower percentage discount for a higher tier.

Explicitly defined discounts must meet these minimums: Blue (10%), Silver (11%), and Gold (12%). However, if you only define a Blue discount, Silver and Gold inherit that rate even if it is lower than these minimums.

Discount structures

You can apply Early-booking, Last-minute, and Mobile-only discounts using three different logic structures.

• Single discount: Applies a consistent fixed amount or percentage to all nights.
• Day-of-week discount: Applies to specific days (like 10% off Mondays). All days must use the same discount unit. This structure isn't available for Member-only promotions.
• Multi-night discount: Rewards extended stays by discounting a specific "Nth night" (between 2 and 28). 
  • If you check the Recurring checkbox, the discount applies to multiples of that night (e.g., the 3rd, 6th, and 9th nights).
  • The minimum and maximum nights of the promotion can’t be lower than the "discounted night" setting. Guesty validates this automatically.

Setting restrictions

You can control exactly when a promotion applies by setting dates and conditions.

Combining rules

Vrbo separates "Lodging rate discounts" (like weekly or monthly discounts) from "Promotions" (like early-bird). Promotions never stack with each other; Vrbo applies the highest percentage available. However, Lodging rate discounts stack with themselves and can stack with one promotion.

If a new listing discount and a weekly or monthly discount exist for a listing, both discounts apply. Note that Vrbo's new listing discount isn't supported in Guesty. Manage weekly and monthly discounts at the property level, not via the promotions feature.

Discounts apply to the base rate first. 

Only one eligible promotion is applied to the discounted base rate. 

Merchandising

Vrbo uses visual badges and price strikethroughs to market promotions.

• Price strikethrough: Reflects the total discount applied to the stay. This may combine a Lodging Rate discount (such as a Guesty length-of-stay rate) and a Vrbo promotion discount.
• Badges: The specific badge or label shown, such as "Last-minute deal", corresponds to the single, highest-priority promotion active for that search.

Below are the minimum requirements for every type of merchandizing:

Merchandising hierarchy

If multiple promotions apply to a property, Vrbo prioritizes the merchandising in this order:

1. New listing discounts
2. Early-booking or Last-minute promotions
3. Member-only promotions
4. Mobile-only promotions
5. Length-of-stay discounts