Ok, so there's quite a bit more to this than we had anticipated. This is going to be a somewhat involving feature to develop and test, so before we dive in, let's make sure what we set out to do is going to work for everyone.
I think it makes sense to leave the existing "expiration date" field there, which basically gives you the opportunity to have a limited lifespan for a coupon code. This was designed around the idea of running an ad campaign encouraging customers to make purchases while the bookings are on "sale". Something like "Book your stay before November 24th and get 10% off using the code 'NOV-SALE'", or something like that.
We can add two more date fields for each coupon that will define the range of dates that each booking must fall within in order for the coupon code to apply. For example, your promotion could read like this: "Stay with us any time between January 1 and January 31, 2012 and and get 15% off using the coupon code 'JAN2012'". Does that sound like it would provide what you have in mind?
Brandon, we can also add two more fields: Minimum Number of Nights required for the coupon to apply, and also the Minimum Amount the booking total must meet or exceed in order for the coupon to apply. Does it also make sense to have a Maximum Number of Nights required for the coupon to apply? If so, should there also be a Maximum Amount for it to apply? For example, a promotion could read "Stay with us for at least 7 nights and get 10% off with the coupon code of 'XXXXX'".
When the public calendar is presented to the guest, Bookerville will look up any "active" coupon codes you've defined for the property. "Active" here just means that it's not yet expired. If it finds any active codes, then the guest will be presented with a text box to enter a code. Since the guest has not yet chosen any dates, we don't know yet which, if any, coupon codes will apply based on the date range, and for the same reason we don't yet know if the amount or number of nights meets the requirements of any codes. But when they click "Calculate My Stay", then Bookerville can take all that into account and either apply the discounts or not.
Thoughts?
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