Booking children’s activities can be tricky, especially when parents would like to enrol multiple children for the same term or block. Sibling discounts are a great way to attract more bookings and make participating easier for families.

In this post, we’ll explore how to set up and manage sibling discounts using Bookwhen, ensuring a smooth and efficient booking process for parents.

Bookwhen Terminology

While Bookwhen primarily uses the term "courses," it's important to note that this can also refer to "block bookings".

Essentially, both terms describe pre-paid packages of class sessions that offer convenience and potential discounts to customers.

Understanding the Needs of Parents 👪

Parents booking activities for their children look for convenience and value. Managing multiple schedules, payments, and discount offers can quickly become overwhelming if the process isn’t streamlined:

Multiple Children, Multiple Bookings

• Parents often need to book multiple children into the same or different block bookings.

• Offering sibling discounts can encourage parents to book more than one child, increasing your overall bookings.

Common Challenges

• Handling different age groups and course levels.

• Ensuring that discount offers are applied correctly and automatically during the booking process.

Step-by-Step Setup with Bookwhen ⚙️

Creating Your Block Booking or Course

• Start by logging into your Bookwhen account. Under scheduling, select "Add a new entry" to create the event.

• Fill in the necessary details, such as title, description, and dates. Before setting up the ticket options, you must add multiple dates/times in the "Dates & Times" tab.

• Ensure you tick the "Course ticket" checkbox when setting up your ticket options. This will group all of the dates and times you added to the entry under one ticket, meaning that when customers add the ticket to the basket, they will be auto-enrolled on each date and time.

Setting Up Sibling Discounts in Bookwhen 👩‍👧‍👦

Bookwhen makes it easy to set up discounts for siblings, ensuring that parents receive the correct price automatically during checkout.

There are two ways you can set up sibling discounts:

1. Setting up a bulk-booking discount rule or code.
2. Setting up a Group ticket within the entry.

Setting up a Discount Rule or Code

• Select "Discounts” from the Bookwhen dashboard, then “Add a new discount set” to create a new discount.

• Set the conditions for the discount, such as requiring that multiple tickets should purchased for siblings to qualify.

• Specify the discount amount or percentage and whether it applies to all event types or just certain courses.

Further Customisation

• When setting up the discount, you can apply it to specific entries, tickets or tags.

• Bookwhen allows you to create multiple discount codes if you want to offer different discounts for different courses or age groups.
  
  

💡 Example: Setting Up a 2-4-1 Discount

Discount rule

• Create a discount set named: "SIBLING50".
• Set the rule that the discount applies when 2 or more tickets are purchased for the same course.
• Specify the tickets or courses the discount applies to, and confirm that it offers 50% off the total price. Alternatively, you may choose a set price discount, as the percentage deduction will apply to the entire booking.

Discount code

• Create a discount code within your discount set named: "241DISCOUNT." Specify the tickets or courses the discount applies to and confirm that it offers 50% off the total price. Alternatively, you can choose a set-price discount, as the percentage deduction will apply to the entire booking.
• Share the code with your customers through your preferred communication channels like email or social media.

Setting up a Group Ticket

• Start by adding a new ticket to your entry and give it a clear name, such as "Sibling Ticket."

• Make it clear how many attendees this ticket covers. For example, if it’s for one additional sibling, you could write, "This ticket covers 2 child attendees."

• Offer a discount for booking siblings together. For example, if a single ticket costs £10, you could price the sibling ticket at £15, providing a £5 discount for booking two siblings at once.

• Tick the "Group Ticket" option, and set the minimum and maximum number of attendees. For example, set both the minimum and maximum to 2 to ensure the ticket can only be used if there are exactly 2 attendees.

Handling Multiple Tickets and Attendees 🎟️

Managing bookings for multiple children in a single transaction is straightforward with Bookwhen:

Multi-Attendee Checkout

• Parents can book multiple children in a single transaction, selecting different courses or time slots as needed.

• The sibling discount will automatically apply if you have opted for a booking rule and the conditions are met. Otherwise, parents will need to either enter their code during checkout or ensure they've selected the correct sibling ticket.

Simplifying the Process

• Use custom booking forms to collect essential information for each child during the booking process.

• Within the “Booking form” tab, select “Yes” under “Will children be attending?” to set whether it's a “Child-only event.”

• Send confirmation and reminder emails (Standard plan & above) with all the necessary details for each course.

Offering sibling discounts is a great way to attract more families to your courses. Bookwhen’s flexible discount and booking management features make handling even the most complex booking scenarios easy and streamlined for parents.

Are you looking for an online booking management software and interested in learning how Bookwhen can help you? Sign up for a free trial, or connect with us via live chat or email 🕺