You set up an automatic discount in OwnerRez. Last Minute, Early Bird, a weekly rate, something that triggers on its own without the guest typing a code. It works in OwnerRez’s own Request to Book widget. On your own website, the same property on the same dates for the same guest count still shows full price.
Your OwnerRez setup is almost certainly correct. The thing to check is one field on the discount rule itself: its listing site scope.
What’s happening #
In OwnerRez, every discount rule can apply to all listing sites, to everything except the ones you name, or only to a specific list you pick.
If your rule is limited to a specific list, it won’t apply to bookings made directly on your website. When your booking widget asks OwnerRez for a price, it doesn’t identify itself as any particular listing site, so OwnerRez treats the request as outside the list and skips the discount.
This one catches people out, because having “My Website” in the list looks like it covers your own site. It doesn’t today. That’s a gap on our end and we’re working on it. Until it’s closed, the scope setting is what decides.
Rules set to all listing sites, or to everything except certain ones, apply on your site normally.
How to tell this is what you’re looking at #
If some of your automatic discounts show up on your site and others don’t, compare their listing site settings. The ones that work will be set to all listing sites or to an “except” list. The one that doesn’t will be restricted to a named list.
The other tell is a price gap between your site and a channel. If Airbnb or Vrbo sits inside that named list, the discount really is applying there and really isn’t applying on your own site. Guests notice. It usually reaches you as someone mentioning they found a better price elsewhere.
This changes what guests are charged, not only what they see #
Worth being direct about this one. If the discount isn’t applying on the widget, it also isn’t applying at checkout. A guest booking inside your discount window gets quoted the full amount and charged the full amount. The page isn’t showing a wrong number and then quietly taking the discount off at the end.
The fix #
Open the discount rule in OwnerRez and change its listing site setting so it isn’t restricted to a named list.
The safest way to get this right is to copy a rule that already works. If your weekly or length-of-stay discount is applying on your site, look at its listing site setting and match the rule that isn’t working to it.
One of our customers hit exactly this. Their Last Minute rule was restricted to a named list, while their weekly and length-of-stay rules were set to “everywhere except Vrbo.” They moved the Last Minute rule to match, turned it back on, and it applied on their site straight away, in the booking widget and in the OwnerRez inquiry widget.
One thing not to change #
Some of your restricted rules are restricted on purpose, and widening those will cost you money.
Anything tied to a specific channel belongs to that channel. Airbnb’s new listing discount, Vrbo’s mobile promotion, OneKey member promotions. Those get mirrored into OwnerRez for your accounting and mean nothing anywhere else. Putting one on your own site gives away the discount for free.
Internal rules work the same way. If you have something like an owner booking rule that takes 100% off the rent, it’s restricted for a good reason, and widening it would hand every guest on your site a free stay.
So before you change a rule’s scope, read its name and its type. If it’s a plain Last Minute, Early Bird, or length-of-stay discount you meant for your own guests, this article applies. If it’s tied to a sales channel or to owner bookings, leave it where it is.
Still not applying? #
If the rule is already set to all listing sites or to an “except” list and the discount still isn’t showing on your site, that’s something else and we should take a look. Send us the property and the dates you tested, and we’ll do our best to help.