7 Creative Ways Rezdy Operators Are Using Promo Codes

For most tour operators, discounting feels like a trap. Run a sale and you’re training guests to wait. Don’t run one and watch slow weekdays tick by with half-empty tours.

The operators striking the right balance are not discounting everything. They’re strategically offering specific discounts, at specific times, to specific segments of guests. And because they’re doing it through Rezdy’s promo code settings, they can see exactly what’s working and turn it off the moment it stops.

Here are seven ways Rezdy operators are using promo codes.

1. The Midweek Filler

A Brisbane kayak tour operator spent two seasons telling herself that midweek was just slow. That was probably wrong. Her weekends sold out weeks in advance, which meant customers existed. They just weren’t choosing Tuesdays and Wednesdays.

She tried a midweek-only code: 20% off, only valid for tours departing Monday to Thursday. She sent it to her email list as an insider offer rather than posting it publicly. The first fortnight was patchy. By week four, her midweek sessions were reliably fuller. Not sold out, but not embarrassing either.

She’s kept it running in the quieter months. She hasn’t extended it to weekends, and she doesn’t plan to.

In Rezdy, the setting you want is ‘Can only be redeemed on,’ which lets you tick specific days of the week. Pair it with a percentage discount for any product. Available on Foundation, Accelerate, and Expansion plans.

2. The Loyalty Thank-You

A Cairns dive operator had a hunch that most of his repeat customers weren’t coming back because they’d forgotten about him, not because they’d found somewhere better. He had no way to test that until he started doing something about it.

Two weeks after every trip, a personal-sounding email goes out with a code: 15% off their next booking, valid for 90 days, one use only. Not a newsletter. Not a marketing blast. Just a note that says thanks and offers something back.

The redemption rate isn’t massive. But the customers who do come back tend to book again after that too. He’s not sure if the code is the reason or if it’s just the kind of person who redeems a loyalty offer. Either way, he’s kept it going.

In Rezdy, set the redemption limit to 1 and apply a validity date window. Check the Internal box so the code doesn’t show up publicly. Applied once per order keeps the maths predictable.

3. The Channel Tracker

A Queenstown adventure operator was spending time on Instagram, sending a fortnightly email, and maintaining a referral arrangement with a hotel down the road. She thought the hotel was probably the biggest driver of bookings. She was guessing.

She created three codes with the same 10% discount: one for the email list, one for Instagram, one for the hotel to hand out. At the end of the first month, the email code had been used eleven times. Instagram twice. The hotel not at all.

She kept the hotel arrangement because it cost nothing and occasionally produced a booking. But she stopped spending two hours a week on Instagram content and put that time into the newsletter instead.

In Rezdy, set each code to unlimited redemptions and use the Internal Notes field to log which channel it belongs to. No third-party tools needed. The codes track themselves.

4. The Early Bird

A Melbourne food tour operator opens her Christmas season bookings in August. For the first couple of years she left it at that and waited. Bookings trickled in slowly until October, then rushed in during November when people realised the dates were filling up.

Now she runs an early bird code through August and September only: 12% off any tour departing in December or January. The discount is only available during her slow months, for departures during her peak ones. Customers who plan ahead get rewarded. Her cash flow evens out.

The thing most operators miss here is that there are two separate date settings in Rezdy. The validity date is when the code can be used. The travel date is when the tour actually runs. You can set them independently, which means you can reward August bookings for December departures without touching the price in November when demand is already strong.

Set both date ranges and test the code yourself before you send it anywhere.

5. The Last-Minute Rescue

A Gold Coast whale watching operator runs tours that go out regardless of seat count. A boat with six passengers costs roughly the same to run as a boat with eighteen. For years, those empty seats were just a loss.

He now has a standing rule: if a tour is less than 40% full with 72 hours to go, a rescue code goes live for 48 hours. Twenty-five percent off. It goes to a small segment of his email list: people who explicitly signed up to hear about last-minute availability. They know the deal.

Some weeks the code doesn’t get used. Some weeks it fills four or five seats. The margin on those seats is lower, but they’re seats that would have run empty. It’s not a strategy he’d want to publicise too widely. It works partly because it feels scarce.

In Rezdy, create a short validity date window and apply the discount as a percentage across any product. You’ll need to create a new code each time or adjust the dates on an existing one.

6. The Extras Nudge

This one surprises most operators when they find out it exists.

In Rezdy, you can apply a promo code specifically to extras: the add-ons customers choose at checkout. Equipment hire, meal upgrades, transport packages. The discount hits the extras price only. Your base tour price stays exactly where it is.

A Sydney harbour sailing operator had an onboard lunch option that sat at around 15% uptake for years. She tried lowering the price outright and it barely moved. She tried a code offering $10 off the lunch add-on during winter. Uptake climbed to closer to 35% over those two months. Tour revenue was unchanged. Average booking value went up.

She pulled the code at the end of winter and the uptake dropped back. She’s still deciding whether to run it again or try building the lunch into a package instead. The experiment didn’t give her a clean answer, but it gave her better information than she had before.

In Rezdy, check the Extras checkbox when setting up the code and select a fixed amount for one product. That’s all it takes.

7. The Group Sweetener

A Perth cycling tour operator wanted to encourage group bookings. He tried listing group rates on his website for a while, but it felt like he was publicly advertising that his tours ran thin on solo travellers, which wasn’t the impression he wanted to give.

Instead, he created a code that only activates above a minimum order value: high enough that it only triggers when two or more adults book at full price. He mentions it in conversation and on the booking page as a quiet note: ‘Booking for four or more? Use this code at checkout.’

Solo bookings and couples don’t see a discount. Groups do. Because it’s a code rather than a listed rate, it feels like an offer rather than a policy. He says the conversion rate on group enquiries has improved, though he’s honest that he’s not sure how much of that is the code and how much is just him paying more attention to groups.

In Rezdy, use the Min Amount field when configuring the promo code. Set it to the value of two adults at full price, or whatever threshold makes sense for your tours.

Setting Up Your First Code

All of these live in the same place: Inventory, then Promo Codes, then New Promo Code. Most operators can build a working code in under five minutes once they know which settings to use.

The options that do the most work, the day-of-week restrictions, the separate validity and travel dates, the extras toggle, the minimum order threshold, are all on the same screen. They’re not hidden or advanced. Most operators just haven’t clicked through every field.

Start with one use case from the list above. Build the code, test it yourself, then run it. See what happens before you build out a whole campaign.

If you want the full walkthrough of every setting, the Rezdy support article on promo codes covers it step by step.