“Should I offer a discount?” That's the question that most (if not all!) tour operators have tried asking at least once.
But you hesitate. You’ve been here before. You know that discounting can feel like opening a can of worms.
One price cut leads to another, and before you know it, you’ve trained your customers to never book at full price. Worse, it starts to feel like your tours and experiences are worth less than they really are.
And still, you need bookings.
This is the tricky balance every tour business owner faces. You want to fill seats and stay competitive, but not at the cost of your brand, your margins, or your peace of mind.
Here’s the good news: Discounting is done with intention, it can be a smart tool to drive sales, reward loyal customers, or kickstart momentum in slow periods.
In this article, you’ll learn how to offer discounts that actually help your business rather than hurt it.
You’ll get five clear rules to follow, practical examples, and smarter alternatives when you want to create urgency without cutting your price.
The Problem With Discounting the Wrong Way
Discounts can seem like a quick win. You lower your price, bookings go up, and it feels like the problem is solved. But that short-term boost often comes with long-term damage.
Here’s what usually happens when discounting is done without a clear strategy:
- Attract the wrong kind of customer: Price-sensitive customers tend to be less loyal, more demanding, and more likely to leave lower reviews. They’re not booking because they value your tour. They’re booking because it was cheap.
- Train your audience to wait: Once people know you run regular discounts, they stop booking at full price. Instead, they wait. This creates a cycle where you feel forced to discount again just to get any sales.
- Make your full price look inflated: If you often sell a $100 tour for $75, customers start to believe $75 is the real value. That makes your regular price look overpriced, even when it's not.
- Damage your brand perception: Your tour isn’t a commodity. It’s an experience. When you slash prices too often, you send the message that what you offer isn’t worth paying full price for.
- Limit your profit margins: Tour businesses usually run on tight margins already. Regular discounting can cut into your ability to reinvest in your team, your gear, your guides, and your marketing.
In other words, discounting isn’t the enemy. But discounting without a plan is. If you’re going to use it, you need to do it intentionally.
The 5 Rules of Smart Discounting
If you want to use discounts without hurting your brand, you need rules. Clear ones, that will help you stay in control instead of reacting out of panic or pressure.
Here are five rules to follow every time you consider offering a discount:
1. Set a Clear Goal
Before you change your pricing, get crystal clear on what you’re trying to accomplish.
Ask yourself:
What specific result do I need from this discount? Are you trying to fill last-minute seats that would otherwise go empty? Do you need to boost bookings on slower weekdays? Are you looking to reward repeat customers or re-engage people who haven’t booked in a while?
Each of these goals calls for a different kind of discount. A last-minute seat-filler might work well as a flash offer to your email list. A weekday boost could use a limited-time incentive tied to specific days. Or a repeat booking offer might be best sent privately to past customers as a thank-you.
If you don’t know the outcome you’re aiming for, then your discount becomes a gamble. You risk lowering your price without seeing real results. Worse, you start discounting just to chase bookings, instead of using it as a strategic lever.
So before you launch any offer, define the goal clearly. Your pricing decision should serve that goal and nothing else.
2. Make it Time-Limited and Specific
Urgency is what turns hesitation into action. Without a clear deadline, even the most generous discount can fall flat. When there’s no end date, people put off booking, assuming they can always come back later. And in many cases, later never comes.
To make your offer effective, keep it short, clear, and time-bound. Instead of saying “20% off tours,” say “20% off weekday tours booked before Sunday.”
Rather than “Limited time offer,” try “Save $15 when you book in the next 48 hours.”
The more specific and immediate the window, the more it pushes someone to act now instead of waiting.
This urgency also creates a sense of scarcity. People don’t want to miss out, especially when they know the deal won’t stick around. You can reinforce this by putting a visible countdown timer on your booking page or by noting how many spots are left at the discounted rate.
Just remember, urgency only works when it’s real. Don’t say your deal ends Friday and then extend it for another week. Once people stop believing your deadlines, your offers lose all their power.
3. Target the Right Audience
Not every customer should see every discount. In fact, the more public your offer is, the more it risks weakening your full-price brand. That’s why smart discounting starts with smart targeting.
Focus your offers on people who already know you. These are past customers, email subscribers, or website visitors who’ve shown interest but haven’t booked yet. These audiences are much more likely to respond to a well-timed offer, and you don’t need to convince them of your value from scratch.
Use email marketing to send exclusive deals to loyal customers as a thank-you. Or run retargeting ads that quietly present a discount only to people who visited a specific tour page but didn’t complete a booking.
This way, you’re giving a nudge to people who already had one foot in the door, without advertising that lower price to the general public.
By keeping your discounts private and targeted, you protect the perceived value of your tours. Your full price remains your public price. And the discounts become tools to convert warm leads, not bait for bargain hunters.
4. Avoid Training People to Expect it
Your discounting habits shape your customers' expectations. If you run a sale every single month, people will catch on quickly.
They’ll stop booking at full price and wait for the next discount, because they know it’s coming. Over time, this not only hurts your revenue but also trains your audience to see full price as optional.
That’s why your discounting should be occasional, purposeful, and a little unpredictable.
When offers feel rare and intentional, they carry more weight. Customers are more likely to take action when they’re unsure if the deal will come around again anytime soon.
Tie your offers to meaningful business goals or real-time conditions, like filling last-minute seats, launching a new tour, or testing a slow weekday promotion.
The key is to stay in control. Discounts should feel like strategic moves, not routine habits. When used sparingly and thoughtfully, they create urgency without eroding the value of your brand.
5. Track Your Results
Every discount you run should give you more than just a temporary spike in bookings. It should give you insight. If you’re not measuring how your offer performed, you’re making decisions without the full picture and risking the same mistakes next time.
Start by tracking the basics. How many bookings came in during the discount period? Which channels converted best? Was it email, social media, retargeting ads, or direct traffic?
Pay attention to when people booked and whether the discount was the main driver.
Then, look at the type of customers the discount attracted. Did it bring in high-quality guests who left positive reviews and booked again? Or did it bring in price-focused customers who were harder to please and less likely to return? That distinction matters.
Also, think about the bigger picture. Did the timing of the offer make a difference? Was the messaging clear? Did the audience you targeted respond the way you expected? These are the details that help you understand not just if a discount worked, but why it worked or why it didn’t.
Finally, use what you learn to refine your next offer. You might discover that a small, targeted discount to returning guests performs better than a large public one. Or that tying a promotion to a specific season or event gets stronger results.
Just remember, the more you measure, the more effective your future discounts will be.
Discount Alternatives That Still Drive Action
Discounts aren't your only tool for driving bookings. In fact, there are several ways to create urgency, add value, and motivate people to book without ever touching your base price.
Here are a few proven alternatives:
1. Add Value Instead of Cutting Price
Instead of lowering your rate, include something extra. This could be a free drink, a bonus stop, early access, or a small souvenir. The cost to you is low, but it feels like a win to the customer.
Example: Instead of “$10 off,” try “Book this week and get a free cocktail at our final stop.”
2. Use Time-Based Urgency
People are more likely to take action when they feel a deadline. You can create that urgency without dropping your price by using limited availability, booking windows, or seasonal experiences.
Example: “Only 6 spots left for this weekend” or “Our fall foliage tours run through October.”
3. Offer Early Bird Pricing
This is a smart way to reward people for booking early while protecting your regular rate. Set a small discount or bonus for advance bookings, and make it clear the price goes up later.
Example: “Book 30 days in advance and save $5” or “Early bird tickets available through Friday.”
4. Create Exclusive Offers for Loyal Customers
Reward past customers or email subscribers with private perks. These can be shared through email or text and framed as appreciation rather than a general sale.
Example: “Thanks for touring with us last summer. Here’s an exclusive deal just for our past guests.”
5. Highlight Scarcity and Social Proof
Use real data to show that your tours book up quickly or that spots are limited. Add recent reviews or photos to your booking page so people feel confident booking without waiting for a deal.
Example: “Spots filled up last weekend by Thursday” or “Over 500 five-star reviews.”
The goal is to build momentum and trust without falling into the habit of always cutting your price. These alternatives help you market smarter and protect the value of your brand.
Conclusion
Discounts can be one of the smartest tools in your marketing kit. The problem comes when they’re used out of panic, copied from competitors, or thrown out too often without a clear goal.
So the next time you think about offering a discount, take a moment to reflect. Ask yourself what you’re trying to achieve. Think about whether the discount will actually help you reach that goal. And consider if there might be a better, more strategic way to create urgency or drive bookings.
If your answer is yes and you follow the five rules we talked about, you’ll avoid the common trap that catches so many operators. You’ll bring in new bookings without cutting into your margins.
You’ll create demand without teaching customers to wait for a deal. Most importantly, you’ll stay in control of your pricing and your brand.
Use discounts when it makes sense. But don’t let them run the show.
