Gap nights are a big opportunity to juice revenue. One big thing in vacation rentals is maximizing nights booked and occupancy by up-selling your "gap" or "hole" nights between bookings. Similar to the Offer Discounted Gap Night Template and Trigger, you can do this by getting more bookings, but if you can get a guest who's already booked to add a day to their booking, that's a win/win. You can discount it deeply because there are no additional fixed costs like cleaning fees or utilities, so you get a few extra bucks, and the guest gets to stay an extra day at a 50% discount for the additional night. Learn more by reading our Gap Management support article.
If users want to limit gap night offers to 1 night only, OwnerRez recommends changing the trigger configuration to only arrival; and to subsequently create a second trigger/template combination to match, which only has departure, with a gap night of 1 to 1. Then your guests will only be sent an email if either an arrival and/or departure has only one adjacent night.
Please note: Using this method, the guest may get 2 separate discounted gap night email offers, 1 for the night before arrival, and a separate email for the night after departure.
Email Template & Trigger
First, we'll create an email template, so go to Settings > Templates > Email tab > click the Create Email Template button > select the "Booking" option. Copy and paste the following values into your new email template.
Name:
Offer 50% Discounted Gap Nights to Channel Booking Guest With Contact Information Email Template
From Name:
{MYCOFULL}
From Address:
{MYEMAIL}
To Name:
{CFULL}
To Address:
{CEMAIL}
Subject:
Last Minute Discount Offer for [Booking # {BID}] at {PDISPNAME}
Body:
Hi {CFIRST},
Thanks for booking {PDISPNAME}!
Did you know that the {BADJOPEN} your reservation is still available?
Would you like to add additional nights to your reservation for 50% off? If you are interested, please reply to this email.
Talk to you soon and thanks for choosing {PDISPNAME}!
{MYFIRST}
Email message preview:
To add a trigger, navigate to Settings > Messaging > Triggers > and click + Create Trigger.
Type:
Scheduled Time
Event:
5 days Before Booking has arrived at 9:00 AM
Conditions:
Email Address on File is One of > Has Real Email Address
Arrival or Departure Gap > is Greater Than or Equal to > 1 nights
Arrival Days From Now > is Greater Than 1 days
Action:
Offer 50% Discounted Gap Nights to Channel Booking Guest With Contact Information Email Template
Channel Template & Trigger
To create a channel template, go to Settings > Templates > Channel tab > click the Create Channel Template button > select the "Booking" option. Copy and paste the following values into your new channel template.
Name:
Offer 50% Discounted Gap Nights to Channel Booking Guest With Contact Information Channel Template
Body:
Hi {CFIRST},
Thanks for booking {PDISPNAME}!
Did you know that the {BADJOPEN} your reservation is still available?
Would you like to add additional nights to your reservation for 50% off? If you are interested, please reply to this message.
Talk to you soon and thanks for choosing {PDISPNAME}!
{MYFIRST}
Channel template preview:
To add a trigger, navigate to Settings > Messaging > Triggers > and click + Create Trigger.
Type:
Scheduled Time
Event:
5 days Before Booking has arrived at 9:00 AM
Conditions:
Listing Site is > One Of > Airbnb, Booking.com, Vrbo
Arrival or Departure Gap > is Greater Than or Equal to > 1 nights
Arrival Days From Now > is Greater Than 1 days
Action:
Offer 50% Discounted Gap Nights to Channel Booking Guest With Contact Information Channel Template
SMS Template & Trigger
To create an SMS template, go to Settings > Templates > SMS tab > click the Create SMS Template button > select the "Booking" option. Copy and paste the following values into your new SMS template.
Name:
Offer 50% Discounted Gap Nights to Channel Booking Guest With Contact Information SMS Template
To Phone Number:
{CPHONE}
Body:
Hi {CFIRST}, the {BADJOPEN} your reservation is available at a discounted rate of 50% off! If you are interested, please reply to the email we sent you. Thanks, and we'll talk soon! ☕
SMS template preview:
To add a trigger, navigate to Settings > Messaging > Triggers > and click + Create Trigger.
Type:
Scheduled Time
Event:
5 days Before Booking has arrived at 9:00 AM
Conditions:
Phone Number On File Status is > Yes
Arrival or Departure Gap > is Greater Than or Equal to > 1 nights
Arrival Days From Now > is Greater Than 1 days
Action:
Offer 50% Discounted Gap Nights to Channel Booking Guest With Contact Information SMS Template
Variations
If you want to take a more personalized approach, go to Reports and pull the Availability Gap Report. It shows the gaps and your guests' phone numbers and emails, so you can write personalized email offers or even reach out by phone to upsell your discounted gap nights.
Or you can create a detailed schedule of discounted gap-night offers with different discounts based on how close the booking is: 15% off a week after booking, 25% off 10 days after booking, 30% off 3 weeks before arrival, and 50% off 5 days before arrival. You can create those templates and send them automatically with triggers!