Discounts

Find in this section an overview of the available discounts: deals, regular rates, and Closed User Group (CUG) rates, along with the key parameters to include in your requests to retrieve them correctly.

Booking.com offers different incentives to property owners to help them market their offerings such as seasonal deals (e.g., Black Friday) or special rates for mobile users, or exclusive offers for authenticated travellers.

As a Demand API partner, you can access these discounts and offer them to your travellers, significantly enhancing their experience by providing exclusive discounts and time-sensitive offers.

Type of discounts

While deals, rates, and CUG rates are all discount mechanisms, each serves a different purpose and has distinct characteristics.

Deals

Deals are publicly available discounts that do not require any restricted membership or authentication.

• Often offer aggressive discounts during specific periods (e.g., seasonal sales).
• Promotional offers aimed at creating urgency for potential travelers.
• Used to drive bookings during off-peak times or to highlight properties with discounts higher than regular rates.

Types of deals

These are the type of deals available in Demand API:

	Secret deals - Exclusive offers visible only to users who meet certain criteria (e.g., booking via a specific platform).	Deal of the day - A daily promotion offering discounts on selected properties.
	Last minute deals - Discounts available for bookings made shortly before the checkin date.	Limited-time deals- Offers valid for a short, predefined period, encouraging quick bookings.(e.g., Black Friday)

Target rates

These are public discounts offered to certain targets meeting the set criteria, such as the booker's location or the platform used for the booking.

These rates are typically used to boost bookings in specific markets or segments.

Types of target rates

	Mobile rates - Discounted rates for users booking accomodation via mobile devices.	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 special, discounted rates that are only available to users who belong to an exclusive group.

• Stable, ongoing price structures offered to a restricted group of authenticated users.

• These groups can include loyalty program members or corporate account users, and require access control.

Currently the main loyalty program group offering CUG rates is Genius.

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 key

• This must be used in the Authorization: Bearer header, along with the affiliate ID included in every 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 retrieve special CUG discounts for Genius membership accounts:

In the user_groups parameter:

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).

Example:

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

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.