Hi All,
As I have had some issues with what I expected compared to what actually happens with the custom promotion tool I thought it may be helpful to point out a couple of things to consider. I dated this also because it appears the application of the custom promotion may/has changed over time. Based on multiple supports hands through to tech support and back my experience has been as follows:
1. Weekly discount overrides a custom discount.
2. When weekly rate is applying during a custom promotion the daily rate price is off the calculated average used i.e. the daily rate uses the system generated promotion daily price which is a function of an averaged advertised price over a previous period.
3. When setting up a custom promotion a system caution note implies to watch out for other discounts that may apply in a stacking way. I don't know which ones are stacked but clearly not weekly. - side note some community examples suggest a processing order to stack discounts which no longer seems to be the case but I will stand corrected on that if it applies to other discounts of which I am not aware.
4. Personally I have issues with an advertised price differing from the cart price type experience.
A couple of thoughts on the 'custom promotion' tool. The default figure should not be 18% rather system limited to a maximum something less than your weekly discount rate when applicable to greater than 7 days. This is especially as Airbnb notes '..to get greater exposure...' set custom promotions to a minimum of 7 consecutive days.
Always check the average system calculated price(which can be higher or lower) rather than your own daily rate setting and it's interaction with your weekly setting when you set a custom promotion discount setting.
Perhaps a simple messy suggestion when going to use the 'custom promotion' is to remove other discounts e.g. weekly discount before applying the custom promotion if it is your intention to be clear about a discount rather than get more clicks through what I would consider a questionable click grab technique.
The other tip might be to set up your discounts custom to weekly to monthly that are increasing amounts.
Or if enough hosts agree that Airbnb set the system up so that custom promotions override other discounts so it is easy to apply with consistency as a guest experience.
