Discounts and rates

Find in this section an overview of the available discount types including deals, regular rates, third-party inventory (TPI) rates, and Closed User Group (CUG) rates, along with guidance on how to correctly retrieve them via the Demand API.

Booking.com enables partners to offer a variety of discount mechanisms designed to improve visibility, drive bookings, and enhance the traveller experience. These incentives include:

• Time-sensitive deals, such as Black Friday and other seasonal promotions

• Targeted rate offers, based on user device or location.

• Exclusive offers, available to logged-in or authenticated users.

• Third-party inventory (TPI) rates, providing competitive pricing from external suppliers.

As an Affiliate Demand API partner, you can surface these rates dynamically, tailoring offers based on context to maximise conversion and user satisfaction.

Discount categories

Booking.com supports several discount mechanisms. Each type has a distinct business purpose and API behaviour:

Deals

Publicly visible discounts designed to generate urgency and increase visibility—no login or special membership required.

Use cases:

• Promote seasonal or limited-time campaigns (e.g., Black Friday).
• Highlight discounted properties during off-peak periods.
• Drive short-term booking spikes.

Available deal types via Demand API:

	Logged in deal (formerly Secret deals) Available only to users who meet specific criteria, such as being authenticated.	Deal of the day A daily rotating promotion for selected properties.
	Last minute deals Offered for bookings close to the check-in date.	Limited-time deals Offers valid for a short, predefined period, encouraging quick bookings.(e.g., Black Friday)

Regular (target) rates

Public rates tailored to specific customer segments, based on attributes like geography or booking platform.

Use cases:

• Encourage mobile bookings.
• Target specific countries or regions.
• Optimise pricing strategy across different markets.

Target rate types:

	Mobile rates - Special rates for bookings made via mobile apps or browsers.	Geo/country rates - Discounts based on the user's location or country of residence.

Closed user group (CUG) rates

Closed user group (CUG) rates are discounted rates offered exclusively to verified or loyalty-based user groups.

Use cases:

• Provide added value to Genius or loyalty programme members.
• Support private sales or corporate programmes.
• Offer consistent long-term pricing to authenticated users.

Important considerations:

• Access control is required (e.g., authentication or tokenisation)
• CUG rates may be combinable with other discounts.
• Prior approval from your Account Manager is required.

Third-party inventory (TPI) rates

Third-party inventory (TPI) rates are sourced from external suppliers (e.g., wholesalers, bedbanks), providing broader inventory and competitive pricing.

Key characteristics:

• Available via Demand API v3.1 (or above)

• Depending on your configuration the TPI rates are:

  • Commissionable (Sell rates) which are part of the "Regular rates" group.
  • or non-commissionable (Net rates), which are CUG rates.

• Useful for supplementing property availability with competitive alternatives.

Discounts in requests

To effectively use discounts via the Demand API, it's essential to understand how to implement them correctly, so travellers can receive the appropriate pricing based on their eligibility.

Endpoints

Use the following accommodation endpoints to access deals and rates information:

Key parameters

The following parameters determine which deals and rates are available:

✅ API authentication

• The API token and affiliate ID must be included in the Authorization: Bearer header, in every API request.
• These identify your partner account and determine which deals and rates are accessible to them.

✅ The booker object - Specifies the conditions under which users can access particular rates.

Use the key parameters in your requests to retrieve discounts on accommodations triggered by the search results.

Retrieving target rates

To retrieve rates offered to specific targets located in a strategic market and/or using a specific platform for bookings:

Include the following information in the booker object:

1. Identify the booker platform. In this case, for mobile rates: "platform": "mobile"

2. Set the booker country, so the right rates are retrieved (for example, "country": "us" for the USA). (Use the common/locations/countries endpoint to return the country codes if needed.)

3. If discounts are attached to a specific time-window, ensure you set the correct checkin and checkout dates.

Example:

{
...
  "booker": {
    "platform": "mobile", 
    "country": "us",
  },
  "checkin": "2025-09-05",
  "checkout": "2025-09-14",
  "extras": ["products"],
...
}

Accessing CUG rates

To access exclusive deals such as logged_in_deal (previously known secret_deals) in V3, specifying "user_groups": ["genius2"] alone is no longer sufficient, even if a logged_in_deal is available for this group.

You should always include the "authenticated" field in the user_groups parameter in your availability and orders/preview requests:

1. Include authenticated to ensure only registered and logged-in travellers get CUG rates.
2. Add the membership tier to apply the discounts (e.g., genius or genius2).

Example:

"booker": {
  "platform": "desk",
  "country": "us",
  "user_groups": [
      "authenticated",
      "genius2"]
  },

Combining discounts

In this example, a combination of deals and CUG rates is applied:

• Target discounts are applied to mobile users located in Spain, during the selected period.
• For the exclusive Genius closed group, the user must be authenticated to receive special rates.

{
...
  "booker": {
    "platform": "mobile",
    "country": "es",
    "user_groups": ["authenticated", "genius"]
  },
  "checkin": "2025-09-05",
  "checkout": "2025-09-14",
  "extras": ["products"],
...
}

Discounts in responses

When you call any of the previously mentioned endpoints, the response will contain the products.deal object, which provides summary information on available discounts.

Example - Search response with discounts

The following example shows a product eligible for a 28% discount, applicable when booking via a mobile device or during a specific promotional period.

The original price is €100, resulting in a discounted price of €72.00.

{
  ...
  "currency": "EUR",
  ...
  "products": [
    ...
    "id": "xxxxxxxx_x_xxxxxxxxx_x_x_x",
    "deal": {
      "discount_percentage": 28,
      "public_price": 100.00,
      "tags": [
        "mobile_rate",
        "limited_time_deal"
      ]
    },
    ...
    "price": {
      "book": 72.00,
    },

"Deal" object parameters

Tags

Each discount is tagged to identify its type.

Important

• Multiple deals may be applied sequentially.
• If deals cannot be combined, only the highest discount is applied.