When managing your rates in NightsBridge, you may use two tools to adjust pricing for specific dates: Rate Overrides and Discounts. Although both can change your price up or down, they work differently, integrate with channels differently, and follow specific rules when they overlap.
This article explains the difference between the two, how they compare, and how your NightsBridge system decides which rate adjustment takes preference when both are active for the same dates.
1. What is a Rate Override?
A Rate Override is a manual rate change applied to a specific date range for a specific room type and meal plan combination.
Rate Overrides is designed for short, once-off rate updates outside your normal seasonal rates.
Uses and benefits
Key characteristics of Rate Overrides
- It changes the actual base rate (up or down).
- Can only be apply to one date range at a time.
- Cannot have conditions (e.g. no minimum stay rules, no book-by dates).
- It is sent to most extranets as a simple rate update.
- Decreases show on the booking engine but without a discount tag or label.
- Increases simply raise the price
The benefits of Overrides:
- Rate Overrides are useful when you're adjusting your rate by a fixed amount, or when you want to apply a set amount.
Examples:- If you want to lower your rate by R500, or
- you want to charge R2000 instead of R2400.
- Rate overrides pull through to your calendar - unlike rate discounts.
2. What is a Discount?
A Discount is a more flexible way to adjust your rates. Discounts are designed to provide more control and better integration with your connected online channels.
Key characteristics of Discounts
- Can apply to multiple date ranges.
- Can be percentage-based (increase or decrease).
- Can include conditions, such as:
- Minimum nights
- Early Bird or Last-Minute windows
- Booking window rules
- Stay lengths
- Can be assigned to multiple rate sheets or channels.
- Many Discounts can be sent to Booking.com as Promotions.
- Discount types display on the booking engine (Basic, Early Bird, Last Minute, Long Stay).
- Increases (positive percentages) simply raise the base rate and are not advertised as promotions.
The benefits of using Discounts:
- It provides you with an alternative to the "one date range only” limitation of Rate Overrides.
- Discounts allow you to present more marketing-focused offers (e.g. early bird deals).
- It sends your promotions to channels that support them.
- It centralises and simplifies you rate adjustments.
3. Rate Overrides vs Discounts - A quick comparison
| Rate Override | Discount | |
|---|---|---|
| Purpose | Simple once-off rate change | Flexible promotional or rule-based adjustments |
| Adjusts base rate? | Yes | Yes, or applies rules on top of the base rate |
| Can decrease price? | Yes | Yes |
| Can increase price? | Yes | Yes (but not shown as a “promo”) |
| Conditions allowed | No | Yes (min stay, early bird, last minute, etc.) |
| Date ranges | One per override | Many per discount |
| Channel behaviour | Updates base rate | Can send promos to Booking.com; updates base rate elsewhere |
| Booking Engine display | Decrease shows without a tag or label | Decreases show with the discount type tag or label (if supported) |
4. How your NightsBridge system decides which one takes preference
Once you've applied both a Rate Override and a Discount to the same room type and dates, NightsBridge uses a logic rule to choose which one will be sent to channels and displayed on your Booking Engine.
This is where the two tools - Rate Overrides and Discounts - “compete”.
The Core Rules
| Core Rule | Example | Result |
|---|---|---|
| Rule 1: If one goes UP and the other goes DOWN, the rate that goes UP wins. |
| The system will apply the +5% increase. |
| Rule 2: If both go DOWN, the bigger decrease wins. |
| The system chooses the -20%. |
| Rule 3: If both go UP, the bigger increase wins. |
| The system chooses the +20%. |
| 🚩 Important Exception If both a Discount and a Rate Override decrease the rate for the same dates, the Override is ignored. | ||
| Exception: Discounts override Rate Overrides when both are decreasing • The system will always prefer the Discount. • This happens even if the Rate Override has the bigger decrease. |
| You might expect the system to choose -20%. Instead, NightsBridge chooses the Discount (-15%). |
Since Discounts is an upgraded and integrated tool, it will take priority Overrides when both decrease.
5. Channel-Specific Behaviour
Here is a bit of simplified information regarding the channel-specific behaviour.
| Channel | Behaviour |
|---|---|
| Your Booking Engine |
|
| Booking.com |
|
| Other extranets |
|
| Airbnb Standard Integration |
|
📌 Summary
- Rate Overrides is simpler, and updates the base rate.
- Discounts are more flexible and channel-friendly.
- When they overlap, NightsBridge uses rules to pick the correct adjustment.
- The exception:
- A Discount (decrease) will always override a Rate Override (decrease).
If your property uses both tools, it’s important to understand how they interact to avoid unexpected prices on channels and the booking engine.